Rahm Emanuel on Trump, the left, and what's right for America

On a sunny afternoon in Chicago along the Riverwalk he helped expand, former mayor Rahm Emanuel was beaming about the city he led for eight years. All along this riverwalk, one mile, you have people from all parts of the city. And guess what? All parts of the country and all parts of the world. What is it about Chicago that tells us a little bit about you? Oh, well, its grit, its toughness. It's no-nonsense. And you're tough. Yeah, I am tough. When I believe something's right, you're going to get it done.

That toughness extends to interviews, where Emanuel is known for pushing back on reporters and on the left, including Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist. This year, Sanders and his allies have been factors in primary after primary. They think they're pushing you aside and your allies inside the Democratic Party. This is not some just academic debate. Arguably the most prominent democratic socialist in the country, Senator Bernie Sanders, recently said this on CBS. People are sick and tired of the Rahm Emanuel's and the Democratic establishment. You've taken Senator Sanders on. You wrote a Wall Street Journalop-ed. It's not me pulling something out of thin air, saying Bernie Bros could spoil the midterms. Yeah, well, here's what I would say to you. Yeah, I'm about flipping red districts to blue. I'm not about taking blue districts and making them midnight blue. You want to see a raise in the minimum wage? Winning over Democratic districts is not the way to get it there. I've covered these democratic socialist candidates. A lot of their voters feel members of the Democratic establishment, longtime Democratic leaders, just don't get the pain they're in. How do you show them the passion, the commitment to their own grievances. You don't think I bring any passion to what I do?

I'm not saying you don't bring passion. Emmanuel is passionate about keeping the left at bay. If a democratic socialist calls you on the phone and says, I want you to come campaign. Help me win over centrist voters. What do you say? Well, first of all, it's a hypothetical. And let me break the news to you. The calls haven't come in. The calls haven't come in. And everybody knows the numbers. So I don't see that happening. Look, there's fundamental differences, and I'm comfortable with that. So you don't want them to use the Democratic Party-- I don't think they should because I think they're a separate party. That's one. Two, I don't believe in defunding the police. I don't believe in open borders.

Over a long career-- mayor, congressman, ambassador, and top aide for two presidents, including chief of staff in the Obama White House-- Emanuel has been a key and combative moderate in showdowns over healthcare and the economy. These days, he wants Democrats to focus less on taking on capitalism and more on matters like lowering costs, and on President Donald Trump. If they win the Senate, they win the House, do you believe Democrats should impeach President Trump next year? You've said he has corruption across the board. You've called his business deals dirty money. Yeah. Worse than Castro, one of your phrases. Yeah. So I say he would make an alderman in Chicago blush for the kind of corruption he's doing. They're just out there taking money left and right. The President of the United States is $4 billion richer. And you're $4 trillion poorer. And I think that this is a travesty of his constitutional responsibilities, let alone the responsibilities what he's done. He wants a ballroom. You're going to get the bill. He wants his $450 million Qatari plane. You get $4.50 a gallon. He's building an arch, and your family can't afford a meal at the Golden Arches. So that, to me, is the indictment to make.

Emanuel is also offering Democrats his own path on an issue roiling them-- Israel. Speaking in Tel Aviv last month, he was sharply critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for a peace deal that features, quote, "Palestinian dignity and Israeli security." You cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing. You have a right to fight. You must instead find a new, sustainable path to peace, to security, and prosperity.

As Emanuel, who is Jewish, engages in this fierce debate, he is deeply troubled by the anti-Semitism that has emerged alongside it. You don't have to agree with the Israeli government to be concerned with the rise of anti-Semitism in America, and more than the anti-Semitism, which always existed, the way it's being manifested with violence and killing. And for all of us, regardless of our positions, whether it's expressions of anti-Muslim attitudes, as some members of Congress have done, or whether it's encouraging or creating an environment that's conducive to anti-Semitism, or not calling out anti-Semitism when you should call it out, so that, in fact, it doesn't become violent.

For Emanuel, this moment rouses memories of relatives who perished in Russian pogroms and the Holocaust. In our family room, there was a wall. In the center of the wall was my grandmother's little pushka, her little purse, framed. And above it in the frame was Grandma and Auntie Ida and Auntie Giddie's passports. That's what brought them to this country in 1914. And on either side of that was a picture of relatives of Mom and Dad who never made it to America. It was my parents reminder to us daily that you are the fortunate few. You're not to be frivolous with this. And you have a responsibility to make other people's lives better. My faith is important to me. It's a moral, guiding principle for me. And I think the bigger challenge isn't my faith. And, again, if it's a problem for you, you need to work on that, not me. The faith we need to work on is the fact that Americans have lost faith in America. That's our joint mission. If you're an American, that's what we have to work on together. This is a Spin Free-- Spin Free. --Tour.

Working through a presidential campaign might be next. Earlier this summer, he was in New Hampshire on a bike tour. You have a small footprint, just you and your friends taking a bike trip across New Hampshire, stopping at coffee shops. You've been an ambassador, a congressman, a mayor, a White House Chief of Staff. This is a little different. A little bit more low key. Yeah. That's OK. You meet people where they are.

At 66, Rahm Emanuel says his fight, now and in the future, is bigger than him and his party. You put in this riverwalk expansion? Yeah. Seems like a perfect place to announce your presidential campaign. We could do it right here on Sunday Morning, but it ain't going to happen. OK? [CHUCKLING] I'm at a point in my life where I'm going to leave it all on the field. I think this is a great country. I am the son and the grandson of an immigrant. I think being an American is winning the lottery ticket of life. And I look at a country that I know, that I love, and the passion that has lost its nerve, has basically raised the white flag. And I'm not about that. And so, given that this is a great country, given everything that I have-- sure, could I hang up the jersey? That's not what I'm about.