Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel berated a Politico reporter for outing the mayor's family plan to visit Cuba over Christmas, scolding him in a tense exchange: "I really don't appreciate that."
At the end of a nearly hour-long discussion during Politico's Playbook Breakfast event in Illinois, senior White House reporter Mike Allen asked Emanuel to recount a backstage conversation between the two.
"We were saying backstage that you want to come back as an Emanuel child," Allen begins. "You take your young people on fascinating trips around the world, headed these holidays to Cuba. Why?"
Emanuel seems to hesitate for a moment, before coldly responding:
"Well, first of all, thanks for telling everybody what I'm going to do with my family," Emanuel says. "You had a private conversation with me and now you decide to make that public. I really don't appreciate that, for one, I really don't."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that wasn't known," a taken-aback Allen replies.
"No, you asked me what are you going to do this year, so I'm expressing to you now publicly my displeasure," Emanuel counters. "My family's trips are my family."
Emanuel then explains why he and his wife, Amy Rule, take their children on yearly vacations that are strictly "family time."
"It's something my parents did with me, because I think it's not only great family time, but most importantly — and it's a great family time because they don't have to share me as a mayor but they get to have me totally, 100 percent as their father," he said.
"But more importantly, they get to be exposed to other cultures, other parts of the world, and one of the things that we want is for our children to know that the world has people of different faiths, different backgrounds, with different ways of living and coping with similar situations. Our kids have seen other parts of the world."
The mayor then took a final jab at Allen.
"And yes, this year, if my wife doesn't kill me now because of what you just did, we will take our kids to Cuba to be exposed to that culture the same way they've been to India and the same way that they have been to Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Chile and Vietnam and Laos," he says.
"I can't wait — can you give me your cell number, because I'd like you to listen to Amy," he adds.
"I apologize for that," Allen repeats, to which Emanuel responds: "I don't know if you know, it's not going to work."
According to Politico, Allen fired his own zinger at the mayor, writing in an email:
"Politico's Jake Sherman said it best,
on Twitter: 'Of course Rahm — a public figure since 90 — knew he wasn't going to go to Cuba for Christmas w/o people knowing. Mayor of 3rd largest city!'"
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