Emanuel says a large majority shields a speaker from being held hostage
In an NPR interview published Nov. 4, 2026, Rahm Emanuel told host Ailsa Chang that Democrats who took control of both chambers of Congress should use the new majority to pass lobbying and ethics reform, raise the minimum wage, restrict and repeal many tariffs, and restore some of the healthcare cuts made to Medicaid and the ACA exchange. Emanuel, who served as Chicago’s mayor, a congressional representative and chief of staff to President Obama, called the result a repudiation of the Republicans rather than a vindication of Democrats, and said the party’s task was to turn an electoral coalition into a governing coalition.
Chang framed the stakes of the interview as the “blue tsunami” that swept Democrats into control of both chambers, which she said would give the party new power to check President Trump for the last two years of his term. Emanuel said voters had given Democrats a “second look” they had not received in the past, a phrase he used with NPR co-host Scott Detrow during the network’s election night coverage. “This was a repudiation of the Republicans, not a vindication of us,” he said. “Our goal and mission now is to make it a governing coalition, and that means delivering change.”
The ethics package Emanuel described would cover all three branches of government. It would ban stock trading, ban participation in prediction markets, require mandatory retirement or term limits, require a mandatory blind trust, and apply what he called the Kushner rule, barring officials from taking foreign investments and money while in government and for two years afterward.
On the economic agenda, Emanuel said “while prices are up, what hasn’t gone up? The minimum wage in 20 years.” He proposed raising the minimum wage, restricting and repealing many tariffs, and restoring some of the healthcare cuts made to Medicaid and on the ACA exchange “so people get healthcare in America.”
On oversight hearings, Emanuel was categorical. “I’m all for the hearings. Follow the money,” he said. But he added that “the hearings are not the end in themselves. They’re a means towards lobbying and ethics reform,” and that a majority that stops at hearings would have “fallen short.” Chang noted that incoming House oversight chair Robert Garcia posted “lawyer up” on social media the night before, and Emanuel said he was for that.
Emanuel argued the party has a choice about how to use its first session. “If you do impeachment, the coalition that elected you are going to say, eh, it’s just more of the same,” he said. “You do an ethics bill, they’re going to say, that’s a change I voted for.” He told Democrats to think about the Kansas senator, about Nancy Lacore in the Charleston, South Carolina, district that flipped, and about Sean McCann, who just won by 300 votes in western Michigan. Asked whether Democrats should try to impeach President Trump a third time, Emanuel declined to endorse it and pointed again to lobbying and ethics reform.
Emanuel pointed to the party’s own recent history as the model. Recalling the 2006 House effort to make Nancy Pelosi speaker and take the majority, he said he had worked with Senator Obama, John McCain, Russ Feingold, Marty Meehan and Chris Shays on the last major lobbying and ethics reform, passed 20 years ago. He argued the new majority should use its term the same way, noting that after the 2006 result, “President Obama gets elected.”
On the party’s internal divisions, Emanuel said he believed Hakeem Jeffries could bridge the fault lines if he became House speaker, though he noted the count was still running. His reasoning was arithmetic: “he has a significant majority where no one element can hold him hostage,” he said, adding that recent Republican speakers had been “held hostage by three members.” He also invoked a line he attributed to Mo Udall — “what’s the difference between a cactus and a caucus? In a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.”
Emanuel also defended his own record of criticism of progressive politics, including issues that center on identity, and said he had been critical “because in our successful efforts, we have worked to find things like economic security, education, things that bring people together.” He said “identity politics actually divide people and break them off rather than finding unifying economic values and social values that unite,” and that if Democrats do identity politics, “the other side gets to do identity politics,” calling that approach bad for the country. He said the success of Presidents Obama and Clinton “wasn’t figuring out how to divide the country, but it was actually how to unite the country.”
On accountability for the economy, Emanuel said voters would hold the president responsible if conditions do not improve. Asked how much risk there is that voters punish Democrats in 2028 if the economy does not turn around, he said “in that case, they mainly hold the president, historically,” and that the party’s job was “to deliver change with speed.” His summary of the approach: “the first eight letters of progressive is progress, not perfection.”
Chang also raised Emanuel’s own political future, noting there was “no secret” that he was personally exploring a run for president in 2028 and asking whether the election results pushed his decision one way or the other. Emanuel said no, and when Chang pressed for his decision, he replied: “To get off this interview.”
What the interview did not settle was what happens if the new majority cannot deliver. Emanuel named a short agenda — ethics reform, the minimum wage, tariffs and health coverage — while insisting the first session’s work should not stop at hearings, and returned to the members he told Democrats to think about: the Kansas senator, Nancy Lacore in the Charleston, South Carolina, district that flipped, and Sean McCann, who just won by 300 votes in western Michigan.