WikiLeaks breach shows John Podesta’s veep list for Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s campaign team considered naming Bill Gates or Melinda Gates as her nominee for vice president — two of nearly 40 names on the initial long-list submitted by campaign chief John Podesta, according to hacked emails released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday.

Mr. Podesta broke the names down by what he called “food groups” — which appears to be his euphemism for the various demographic coalitions that make up Democrats’ electoral machine: Five Hispanic men, seven white men, seven black men, three former high-ranking military officers, nine rich people and seven white women senators.

Sen. Bernard Sanders made the list at the very bottom, in his own category.

The list was dated March 17, or soon after Mrs. Clinton won a slate of primaries that included Ohio and Florida, helping seal Mr. Sanders’ eventual failure to capture the nomination.

Sen. Tim Kaine, Mrs. Clinton’s eventual pick for running mate, was on the initial list in a category along with a handful of other white men, including close Clinton friend Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Also making the list was former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., whose controversial tenure at the Justice Department would have made for a rough-and-tumble campaign. He was found in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents about the botched gun-running operations he oversaw.

Here’s the whole list:

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