Rahm Emanuel says “you're out” at age 75
Former Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel points toward the exit door at Center for American Progress, 21 Jan. 2026 (A. Kotok)
Speaking at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. yesterday, former Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel called for a mandatory retirement age of 75 across all three branches of government. And TechNewsLit was there to photo the event.
The age-75 limit is part of Emanuel's anticorruption proposals that he says should apply to the president, vice-president, members of Congress, and judiciary. “Thank you for your service,” said Emanuel, “up and out” at age 75. Both the New York Times and Politico Playbook this morning led with the mandatory retirement age in their reports of his talk at the D.C. think tank.
Emanuel talked about the need for reform during the Q&A part of the program, in response ot a question from Neera Tanden, president and CEO of Center for American Progress, or CAP. He said cleaning up the corruption in Washington needs to be a top goal of a new Democratic president, whether its gifts to Supreme Court judges, insider trading by members of Congress, or self-dealing in the White House. To this photographer, he sounded like a candidate for president.
In prepared remarks, Emanuel discussed education reform citing his experiences as mayor of Chicago, but also various statewide efforts. In Chicago, said Emanuel, he tried to make a high school diploma more of a checkpoint in personal growth than an end in itself. To receive a diploma, said Emanuel, students needed to show evidence of education or training beyond high school, such as an apprenticeship, training program, or college acceptance.
A gallery of photos from Emanuel's talk at CAP are now in the TechNewsLit collection on Smugumug. We expect other images to be available shortly in the TechNewsLit portfolio at the Alamy photo agency.
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