Rahm Emanuel is headed to CNN. The news network announced Thursday its hiring of the career Democrat as a senior political and global affairs commentator.
The former White House Chief of Staff and Chicago mayor most recently served as the Biden administration’s ambassador to Japan. As mayor from 2011-2019, Emanuel focused on educational gains, quality of life and the city’s economic competitiveness on the global stage. And as Obama’s top advisor and first chief of staff, Emanuel is credited with securing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
CNN touted the hire Thursday by citing Emanuel’s over three decades in Democratic politics, saying he will bring “his extensive knowledge of American politics and international affairs to CNN’s on-air programming.”
Prior to his time in the Obama White House, Emanuel represented Illinois’s fifth congressional district in the House of Representatives for six years from 2003-2009. During his congressional tenure, he served as the chairman of the House of Democratic Caucus and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Prior to that, he was a top advisor for President Bill Clinton.
Emanuel’s CNN hiring came amid larger strategic shifts and newsroom shakeups at the network post-election, which saw 200 staffers laid off — approximately 6% of the company — and a wider pivot toward digital under CEO Mark Thompson.
Thompson said at the time of the restructuring that the network also expected to fill 100 new jobs in the first half of 2025.
“The changes we’re announcing today are part of an ongoing response by this great news organization to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news,” Thompson shared in a Jan. 23 memo to staff.
Of a forthcoming streaming service under Thompson, he added: “It’s early days, but we’ve already established that there’s immense demand for it not just in America but across much of the world … [It will] develop a new way for digital subscribers at home and abroad to stream news programming from us on any device they choose.”
How Emanuel’s hiring fits into this strategic shift remains to be seen.
