Leaked Email: Clinton Considered Ex-Penn President for VP

In June, Hillary Clinton selected Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate. But, according to an email released recently by WikiLeaks, there were plenty of other names under consideration — and one had a Philadelphia flavor to it.

On the short list, according to an email apparently from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, was former Penn president Judith Rodin. Podesta organized the list in “rough food groups,” and Rodin’s name was in the group that included Michael Bloomberg, Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, GM CEO Mary Barra, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. (The Clinton campaign has not confirmed that any of the leaked emails, which have been dribbling out throughout October, are authentic.)

Rodin was long-rumored to be entering into politics when she was president of Penn. She even joked about it at a speech before the annual banquet of The Daily Pennsylvanian, in response to a column in 2003 suggesting that she be the Democratic running mate on the ticket or run for U.S. Senate. (“I’m headed to New Hampshire,” she joked.) Since leaving Penn, Rodin has been president of the Rockefeller Foundation — an organization that has given millions to the Clinton Foundation.

Politico reported last year a consulting firm attempted to get Rodin a post on the President’s Global Development Council. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, called it “a troubling example of Teneo and the Clinton Foundation seeking State Department help for a Teneo client and Clinton Foundation supporter.”

Rodin announced in June she would step down as Rockefeller Foundation president once her successor was named. Her office did not immediately return a request for comment on the consideration of her as vice president. She does not show up in any other emails hacked from Podesta.