Rahm Emanuel Berates Politico’s Mike Allen For Revealing His Cuba Travel Plans (VIDEO)

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel dressed down Politico’s Mike Allen Wednesday for revealing the Emanuel family’s holiday travel plans at a Playbook event, asking for the White House correspondent’s cell number and refusing his apology on stage.

The situation immediately became tense after Allen asked, “We were saying backstage you want to come back as an Emanuel child, take your young people on fascinating trips around the world, headed these holidays to Cuba. Why?”

“Well, first of all, thanks for telling everybody what I’m going to do with my family,” Emanuel tensely responded. “You just had a private conservation with me and now you decided to make that public. I really don’t appreciate that.”

The mayor continued: “I’m expressing to you now, publicly, my displeasure. My family’s trips are my family’s.”

Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, did answer Allen’s question, saying he and his wife Amy make an effort each year with their holiday travel plans to expose their children to other cultures.

“And yes, this year, if my wife doesn’t kill me because of what you just did, we will take our kids to Cuba to expose our kids to that culture,” he said. Emanuel finished by asking Allen for his cell number “because I’d like you to listen to Amy.”

Allen tried to apologize, but Emanuel cut him off. “I don’t know if you know this, but it’s not going to work.”

The exchange took place during a Politico’s Playbook Breakfast series event Wednesday morning in Chicago. The event was slated to be a discussion about Illinois politics and “news of the day” with Emanuel.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, Allen hadn’t commented on the exchange, but was retweeting political journalists defending him on Twitter.

It’s been a rough week for Allen, who earlier apologized after an email of him offering Chelsea Clinton a “no risk” interview surfaced.

Watch the full exchange:

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: