UPDATED 02:21 EDT / OCTOBER 19 2016

NEWS

Bill Gates, Tim Cook targeted by Clinton campaign as potential running mates

A WikiLeaks email dump has revealed that two of tech’s biggest names, CEO of Apple Inc. Tim Cook and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, were part of list made-up of 39 people viewed as potential running mates for Hillary Clinton.

The list was compiled by Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta. Podesta had arranged the list into what he called “rough food groups”, according to WikiLeaks, with each group representing such categories as race, gender, military leaders and also business leaders. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stood alone at the bottom of the list.

The email, sent March 17, included the lines, “Let me know if there are people you would like to see added or removed before we begin the process.” In the next paragraph he ends the email by saying, “I have organized names in rough food groups.”

Also included in the business group was Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola, Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks and Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox. Bill Gates’ wife, businesswomen and philanthropist Melinda Gates, was also on the list.

In the past Cook had donated to both the Republicans and Democrats, although earlier this year, in spite of not showing support for Donald Trump, Cook hosted a fundraiser for conservative House Speaker Paul Ryan. In no place did the email suggest who were the front-runners for Vice President.

As for Gates’ political leanings, he said in an interview earlier this year with The State News that in the past he had worked well with all administrations and would continue to “approach any new administration with a positive, open mind.” He did, however, hint a closer tie with Clinton over Trump, giving the reason that Clinton had “more experience on global health.”

The Clinton campaign has yet to comment on the veracity of the emails.

Photo credit: Gisela Giardino via Flickr

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU