Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel can still count Hillary Clinton among his dwindling supporters -- but just barely.
Emanuel's critics allege he tried to cover up damning video of a 2014 incident in which a Chicago cop shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times as the teen walked away.
During a Sunday interview on "Meet The Press," host Chuck Todd asked the Democratic presidential candidate if she felt the embattled mayor still had "credibility" among Chicago's black community in the wake of the video's release.
Clinton said she was "outraged" by what happened to McDonald and noted that she was quick to call for a Department of Justice probe into the city's police department after it was released. Clinton went on to voice tepid support for Emanuel, who was once a top aide in her husband's administration and said that Chicago's policing problems are not unique.
"We've got to do a lot more to deal with the systemic racism and the problems that policing has demonstrated," Clinton said. "Mayor Emanuel has said that he is committed to complete and total reform, and I think he should be held to that standard."
When Todd pressed her again about Emanuel's credibility, Clinton said "that's going to be up to him and up to the people of Chicago to prove."
Clinton's Sunday remarks were more measured than they were in December, when she told a Bloomberg reporter she was "confident that he's going to do everything he can to get to the bottom of these issues and take whatever measures are necessary to remedy them."
Todd posed a similar question last week to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, who answered with decidedly more enthusiasm than Clinton.
Support for Emanuel taken a nosedive since the release of the McDonald video in November. Since then, three other videos showing police shootings of young black men and teens have been released. In all four instances, the city's law department or police fought to keep the videos under wraps.
Emanuel was once a "darling" of the Democratic party whose tough tactics were known to yield big results and big donations; now, members of his own party in Illinois are hatching legislation to oust him as mayor.
Clinton's rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) last month distanced himself from Emanuel as well, telling an audience in Chicago, "If the question is, do I want or need Rahm Emanuel's support for president -- with all due respect to the mayor, no, I don't."
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