Apple CEO Tim Cook was one of Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential candidates
Hillary Clinton apparently at least briefly considered picking an out gay man as her running mate this election: none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook.
An email stolen by Wikileaks reveals that Cook was one of a few unexpected people included in an early list of potential candidates, alongside Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Clinton campaign chair John Podesta sent the email to the presidential candidate on March 17th 2016, calling it a “first cut of people to consider for VP,” organized “in rough food groups.”
Cook was grouped together with Schultz and Gates. The same section also includes Melinda Gates, the Microsoft founder’s wife, and former New York mayor and businessman Michael Bloomberg.
Major US political figures included Elizabeth Warren, Eric Holder, Julian Castro, and Clinton’s eventual running mate Tim Kaine.
Bernie Sanders was included at the bottom of the list, in a section on his own.
Cook has been a vocal supporter of LGBT rights since he came out in 2014, and the Human Rights Campaign honoured him for his work last year.
Last month he was joined by Pharrell Williams in an appearance on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, as they drove together to Apple’s latest launch event, which unveiled the iPhone 7.
