While Hillary Clinton ultimately made the safe (boring?) choice of Tim Kaine’s swing state appeal and Spanish skills, an email leaked by Julian Assange and his minions show that Apple CEO Tim Cook was on the vice presidential shortlist along with Bill and Melinda Gates and others.
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Podesta email dump shows 39 VP Candidates listed as “food groups.”
For all the good that may come from WikiLeaks, let’s not for a moment fail to remember that the information it’s releasing has been stolen and their is little to no way to guarantee that it has not been altered before release to the public.
I’m not suggesting that this is the case with an email from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, but it certainly explains why I”m all but forced to use the word alleged throughout this piece.
The leaked email allegedly shows that Podesta was grouping potential vice presidential running mates by their appeal to voters that Clinton would have required winning a general election before Donald Trump’s implosion and battle with inner demons that by definition already got under his notoriously thin skin.
Thankfully, for Clinton, the bottom of the list included Sen. Bernie Sanders whose movement gave the Democrat nominee unexpected fits before her party’s convention.
The list didn’t offer a tremendous amount of surprises outside of the fact that a number of those that appeared included a handful of people with not experience in politics. But given Trump’s lack of experience and success with his base for just this very reason, it makes sense that Clinton would consider those outside the establishment including the richest man on the planet, Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda.
In addition to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Mary Barra the CEO of General Motors also made the list.
Additional comments about Apple’s Tim Cook
The email in question is purported to show a “first cut of people to consider for VP.”
“Cheryl, Robby, Jake, Huma, Jennifer and I also did a first cut of people to consider for VP. I have organized names in rough food groups,” Podesta wrote in his email to Clinton referring to other members of the campaign staff.
Cook has hosted a fund raiser for Clinton but in the interests of Apple also did the same for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
When considering Cook, a Clinton campaign staffer said that any meeting was “one we should proceed cautiously.”
Speaking about approaching Cook about a fundraiser the same staffer wrote that Cook is “supportive but new to this so I think we shouldn’t come on too strong.”
It’s worth pointing out that Michael Bloomberg was also considered and in addition to his wealth would also have offered a fair bit of crossover appeal while adding another voice to the campaign that is not particularly easy to listen to for many.
Apple was reached by multiple news sources but has declined to comment as of this writing.
The full list of potential running mates alleged in the email are below:
- Javier Becerra
- Julian Castro
- Eric Garcetti
- Tom Perez
- Ken Salazar
- Tammy Baldwin
- Kirsten Gillibrand
- Amy Klobuchar
- Claire McKaskill
- Jeanne Shaheen
- Debbie Stabenow
- Elizabeth Warren
- Michael Bennet
- Sherrod Brown
- Martin Heinreich
- Tim Kaine
- Terry McAuliffe
- Chris Murphy
- Tom Vilsack
- Steve Benjamin
- Corey Booker
- Andrew Gillum
- Eric Holder
- Deval Patrick
- Kasim Reed
- Anthony Foxx
- John Allen
- Bill McCraven
- Mike Mullen
- Mary Barra
- Michael Bloomberg
- Ursula Burns
- Tim Cook
- Bill Gates
- Melinda Gates
- Muhtar Kent
- Judith Rodin
- Howard Schultz
- Bernie Sanders
