Former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was looking for a way to shift President Obama’s friend and senior advisor Valerie Jarrett out of the White House. The best way to do it? Guide her into Obama’s former Senate seat.
According to a new book by Obama’s former campaign chief David Axelrod, Emanuel encouraged Jarrett to seek the president’s former Senate seat in Illinois.
The New York Daily News has published content from the book after obtaining an advanced copy.
“‘I don’t want to manage the president’s best friend,” Emanuel said, according to Axelrod.
The fact that Emanuel famously clashed with Jarrett in the office is not new, as author Jonathan Alter reported that in an earlier book.
“He wasn’t sure that he wanted a competing power base that was closer to the president and first lady than he was,” Alter explained about Emanuel in 2010.
As Alter explained it, both the president and First Lady Michelle Obama wanted Jarrett to stay at the White House.
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