Leaked emails show Ursula Burns on VP shortlist
A stolen email released by WikiLeaks shows that Xerox Corp. CEO Ursula Burns was on Hillary Clinton's shortlist for vice president.
The list, compiled by campaign manager John Podesta in March 2016, included 36 names on what was described as "a first cut of people worth considering."
It featured a diverse array of politicians and business leaders, including Burns, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
It's not clear whether the Clinton campaign ever reached out to any of these candidates or whether Burns would have considered a political run.
Burns, 58, began her career at Xerox in 1980, working her way up from an intern to the top spot when she was named CEO in 2009. She was the first African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. In 2014, Forbes Magazine rated her the 22nd most powerful woman in the world.
A Xerox spokesman decline to comment on the report.
Other names on the alleged VP list include Senators Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In July, Clinton tabbed Virginia senator Tim Kaine to be her running mate. His was among the names on Podesta's March email.
The Wikileaks website released its ninth batch of emails on Sunday, more results from the apparent hack of Podesta's personal email account. Clinton aides have accused the Russians of engineering the cyber theft in an effort to help Trump's campaign.
Some Clinton aides have also questioned whether the emails are authentic.
"You can't assume they're all accurate," Kaine said on CBS's Face the Nation. "Anybody who was going to try to cyber-attack and then try to destabilize an election, you can’t trust that they’re going to maintain scrupulous honesty about the content of what they’re dumping out for the world to see."
Donald Trump said at a rally last week that the emails "make more clear than ever, just how much is at stake in November and how unattractive and dishonest our country has become."
SLAHMAN@Gannett.com
Archive: In Photos — Ursula Burns' rise from summer intern to CEO at Xerox
