ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has formally announced the departure of his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, praising him as “extraordinarily well-qualified” for his new challenge — a run for mayor of Chicago.

Emanuel stood next to Obama as the president gave him a high-profile send-off in the East Room Friday. Obama called him “an incomparable leader of our staff, and one who we are going to miss very much.”

The setting was a measure of the president’s esteem for his exiting chief of staff. He called it a “bittersweet moment,” adding that “we could not have accomplished what we accomplished without Rahm’s leadership.”

Emanuel’s replacement, at least for the interim, is Obama senior adviser Pete Rouse, who also stood at Obama’s side at the East Room.