WASHINGTON, D.C. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- During Rahm Emanuel's senate confirmation hearing for his nomination to serve as ambassador to Japan, the former Chicago mayor was given time to speak about perhaps the lowest tenure in office.
It was seven years ago that Jason Van Dyke, a Chicago police officer murdered 17- year-old Laquan McDonald, a case that garnered attention nationwide. McDonald was shot 16 times.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard from former Mayor Rahm
Emanuel about his handling of it. He was widely criticized for keeping the video of the shooting a secret. A court ordered for him to make it public.
"There's not a day or a week that has not gone by in the last seven years I haven't thought about this and thought about the what ifs and the changes
and what could have been," Emanuel said before the committee.
"He had all the promise ahead of him and a police officer took his life-killed him. I said then I'm the mayor and I'm responsible an accountable for fixing this, so this never happens again."
There are a number of members of Congress and Chicago activists who want the Senate to reject Emmanuel's nomination as ambassador to Japan.
However, one of his supporters is Mcdonald's great uncle, Rev. Martin Hunter, who wrote to the committee on Emanuel’s behalf, arguing that he had “inherited a deeply flawed system” on police investigations that tied his hands, according to the Associated Press.
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