By , ,
Published December 23, 2015
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel may have had "dreams" of being the Mayor of Chicago, but that's all they are, dreams, according to the White House.
On Monday night, Emanuel did an extensive interview with Charlie Rose when he was asked about his aspirations outside of the White House, perhaps on the Hill as Speaker of the House or something else.
Emanuel told Rose that his days of wanting to be Speaker are over, but that there is one position he's always been interested in....Mayor of Chicago.
Emanuel told Rose that if Mayor Daley doesn't run for office, *he* would like to seek the city's top job. But, Emanuel made it clear that he will work for and support Mayor Daley if he were to seek reelection. "That's always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives," Emanuel told Rose.
Emanuel went on to say that he misses being in touch with constituents and meeting and greeting people. But also told Rose, he loves his job right now. "I find great passion in it because I work for a great president with a breadth of issues that has -- if you're in public policy at a period of time in history that's important, one day I'll go back to elected office and say I've enjoyed it, I enjoyed that process."
For his part, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton played down the political aspirations of the Chief of Staff. "It's just an ambition -- when I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. Gibbs probably wants to ride in the Tour de France. That doesn't mean we're all leaving the White House," Burton told reporters on Air Force One.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mayor-emanuel-maybe-not