Rahm Emanuel Throws Down With Glenn Youngkin In Heated Spat Over Trump’s ‘Crony Capitalism’

Former Chicago mayor and potential 2028 Democratic Party presidential candidate, Rahm Emanuel, debated former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) this week at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills.

Emanuel and Youngkin, two leading moderates in their respective parties, sparred over the future of the Democratic Party and Emanuel’s scathing indictment of the corruption he sees coming from the Trump administration.

“What’s going to happen in November is going to come as a big shock to you. People don’t like corruption. They don’t like the White House looking like eBay. And you have sold – if it ain’t nailed down — you’ve sold everything. And they don’t like a set of politics that goes from the rule of law to the rule of one man. And they’re going to reject crony capitalism that is now the rule of what’s happening at the White House. And you’re going to get your comeuppance, and you can say all you want about socialism. I can tell you right now that’s not where the Democratic Party is. It’s about building the middle class,” Emanuel argued at one point during the discussion.

Youngkin hit back, “The most popular leaders in the Democratic Party today are avowed socialists.”

“And the most popular leader in the Republican Party has sold everything that’s not nailed down. Take that ballroom and take everything that is going on with his kids, with what’s Secretary of Commerce’s kids, and with [Steve] Witkoff’s kids. They are making money in this government. And you went into public service to serve good, and I compliment you,” Emanuel insisted.

“And so did you, and so did, and now you are sitting here defending a party that wants to have socialism,” Youngkin hit back as Emanuel continued.

The moderator jumped in and said, “But you are deflecting… Look, I live in New York City, the Socialist Republic of New York City. Thank you very much for that. You know, we’ve seen it. You talked about Mikie Sherrill, the candidate to replace Mikie Sherrill in Congress, very much in the Zohran Mamdani and AOC mold. That seems to be where–”

Emanuel jumped back in, “Mikie Sherrill ran in a five-person field, and there was the mayor of Newark, the mayor of Jersey City, the president of the teachers union. She won the nomination, and another person, the congressman. 50% of the electorate in the new Democratic primary, where you had multiple choices, were the two most conservative members.”

“That was also true in Virginia and northern Virginia to replace Jerry Connelly. Of 11 candidates, one got 59%—the most conservative member. So I actually reject. And if you looked at the Manhattan Institute, your paper wrote about this. Manhattan does a poll of Democratic primary voters. Literally 50% describe themselves as moderate. I know where the noise is, but I also know where voters are, and it’s not the same,” he concluded.

“So of I can. First of all, I just… one thing that I believe is that the challenge we have in politics today is you can’t have a discussion without someone being unable to wait until it’s their turn. And so just wait until I finish, and I will respect your time, and you can respect mine, because that’s the way we should treat each other as Americans and as folks that do respect the service that you’ve had,” Youngkin replied, adding:

So I firmly believe that what is happening today in the Democratic Party, and I’ve watched it happen up close in Virginia, is an effort to present as a moderate because that’s what Americans want.

They want practical, common-sense solutions that make sense in their lives. And yet, what we saw in Virginia was someone who presented themselves that way and then turned around immediately. Literally enacted policy decisions that she had said on the road she would not do. And that’s why she is the lowest rated from a favorability standpoint—governor in modern Virginia history. Because she told people that she had no interest in redistricting.

She told people that she was going to work to bring costs down and make things more affordable. And the first actions she took were the exact opposite. And that is the issue today.

Which is, I firmly believe that the challenges that we see with favorability in the Democratic Party, and as we said earlier, there are challenges in the Republican Party as well, but that challenge in the Democratic Party, I firmly believe, is rooted in the fact that it is a party that is moving strongly to the socialist side of things, is presenting itself as moderate, and there are no moderates in the Democratic Party today who are winning. It’s just that simple. Oh, by the way, they may win at a ballot box, but when they start leading and serving, they are demonstrating something very different.

The moderator then asked Emanuel to respond.

“Let me just say this on redistricting. This all started in Texas,” Emanuel said as Youngkin interjected, “It’s not true.”

“Well, let me—I respected the respect part, didn’t I?” Emanuel insisted.

“I’m going to bite my tongue. My wife would have yelled at me by now, so I will,” Youngkin said.

Emanuel quipped back, “Well, let me do it for her, okay? Okay. She’s not here, so let me handle that for you. Okay, yeah. In fact, let’s start with our pillow talk. I’m not too happy about this marriage anyway.” He continued:

Why don’t we keep getting back to the bench? That may say a lot about the two of us. So number one, redistricting has been started here in a way, and I’m watching China. They’re working on research. We’re working on redistricting. We’re working on ballrooms, and they’re working on bullet trains. This is a—you can sit there and say this. Do we have challenges in our party? I’ve been there before you were there.

“Now, be quiet. Be quiet,” Emanuel continued as Youngkin insisted, “I was doing something else.”

“Governor, I did respect you. Okay, I respected your minutes, and I didn’t interrupt. I’m asking for equal time here,” Emanuel insisted, adding:

Okay. Number two, that I understand your desire. What you want to say about socialism, et cetera, you got one mayor and that is it. It doesn’t define a party. Many more senators, many more congressmen, many more governors, who have actually—your colleagues that you used to work with—who are actually doing sensible policies, growing their economies, and et cetera. You will not defend, because I know you as a character person. You believe in actually the free market.

That is not what’s going on in this country. What’s going on is we’re using a type of crony capitalism and corruption to define a political system that is true on both the tariffs. It is true on how contracts are laid in the Pentagon.

It is through how they have been rewarding, penalizing, and it’s hampering the economy. Now, I happen to think we have a challenge in our party, and the real challenges aren’t ideological. When you look at the last 25 years, the challenges for both parties is the establishment versus the anti-establishment and it’s less ideological.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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