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An interesting email from Hilary Clinton’s campaign chairperson John Podesta has cropped up on WikiLeaks (via The Verge). The site that specializes in analyzing and publishing otherwise confidential documents revealed that the campaign was considering a list of almost forty individuals for vice presidency.
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Among the names, separated by “food groups”, are some technological leaders. Co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and his philanthropist wife Melinda Gates were both listed as potential candidates. It’s also worth noting that Apple CEO Tim Cook was on there as well.
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Here’s the email in full:
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From:[email protected]
\nTo: [email protected]
\nDate: 2016-03-17 17:21
\nSubject:\n
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Ok, I can breathe again! Congrats on a fabulous night.
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I am feeling like it’s possible to get back to the longer term again.
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Cheryl and I met with Jim Hamilton on Friday to discuss lawyers who can help do the research and vetting that I outlined in the VP vet memo we discussed. We also met with Marc Elias to get his input on firms that have already provided substantial volunteer lawyer assistance and to get prepared to execute non-disclosure agreements with anyone we involve in the process.
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We put together the attached notional teams of “report writers” (confidential profiles/public record vet) and “vettors” (deep-dive/oppo-book), and want to run it by you before we execute on the list. Let me know if there are people you would like to see added or removed before we begin the process.
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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.
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Javier Becerra
\nJulian Castro
\nEric Garcetti
\nTom Perez
\nKen Salazar\n
Tammy Baldwin
\nKirsten Gillibrand
\nAmy Klobuchar
\nClaire McKaskill
\nJeanne Shaheen
\nDebbie Stabenow
\nElizabeth Warren\n
Michael Bennet
\nSherrod Brown
\nMartin Heinreich
\nTim Kaine
\nTerry McAuliffe
\nChris Murphy
\nTom Vilsack\n
Steve Benjamin
\nCorey Booker
\nAndrew Gillum
\nEric Holder
\nDeval Patrick
\nKasim Reed
\nAnthony Foxx\n
John Allen
\nBill McCraven
\nMike Mullen\n
Mary Barra
\nMichael Bloomberg
\nUrsula Burns
\nTim Cook
\nBill Gates
\nMelinda Gates
\nMuhtar Kent
\nJudith Rodin
\nHoward Schultz\n
Bernie Sanders
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Obviously, the email is out of date as of now being written in March 2016. As of July, Clinton chose Tim Kaine (who was on the list too) to be her running mate. However, it’s fascinating that Bill Gates would have been considered vice president material to stand next to Hilary Clinton.
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What do you think about the email’s potential candidates? Do you believe Bill Gates would have made a good vice president? We want to hear your thoughts so leave a comment in the section below.
\n\nFurther reading: Bill Gates, Election 2016, Hilary Clinton, Microsoft, President, Tim Cook, Vice President
