Thanks to a reader who posted this link about Bernie Sanders’ denunciation of Rahm Emanuel, in the days leading up to the Illinois primary. (I don’t thank him, however, for implying that my failure to post it was an effort to protect Hillary; I don’t actually read every newspaper in the U.S. and had not seen this story until this morning.)

 

Bernie Sanders, whose campaign in Illinois has been fueled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s biggest critics, is using the unpopular mayor’s support for Hillary Clinton to cut into her home state lead as he stumps in Chicago and Champaign-Urbana in the final weekend before Tuesday’s primary vote.

 

Pounding on the Emanuel and Clinton connections is a major part of Sanders’ strategy. It can be seen in his paid advertising in the Chicago market in the campaign’s closing days and in my exclusive interview with him Friday night before he rallied before several thousand supporters at Argo Community High School in southwest suburban Summit.

 

“I think he’s been a terrible mayor,” Sanders told me.

 

A few minutes later, at the rally, the crowd roared when Sanders said, “I want to thank Rahm Emanuel for not endorsing me. I don’t want to be endorsed by a mayor who is shutting down school after school and firing teachers.”

 

Emanuel has been absent from Clinton’s presidential bid for months, politically toxic to her because of the police shootings, his closing of Chicago public schools and his own mega fundraising from the very corporate interests Sanders deplores.

 

Nice to learn that Rahm Emanuel has become “toxic” to presidential candidates, since he has been toxic to Chicago’s public school teachers and students for the past four and a half years.