The Clinton campaign considered three former four-star officers to serve as her running mate, according to emails illegally obtained from campaign chairman John Podesta and released by WikiLeaks this week.
Retired Marine Gen. John Allen, Adm. Bill McRaven and Adm. Mike Mullen all made the early list to be considered for vice president in a March 17 email from Podesta to Hillary Clinton.
Allen previously commanded U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan and, once out of uniform, he served as the first special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter the Islamic State. Allen forcefully spoke in support of Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in August, saying that she had the backing of many of those who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We trust her judgment. We believe in her vision for a united America,” he said. “With her as our commander in chief, America will continue to lead in this volatile world.”
McRaven, misspelled in the email as “McCraven,” is a Navy SEAL and a former head of U.S. Special Operations Command who retired in 2014 and became the chancellor of the University of Texas. In July, he was named as a member of Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s Defense Innovation Board, which was created to focus on driving technological and behavioral innovation at the Pentagon.
As a three-star, McRaven oversaw the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan while he was head of Joint Special Operations Command.
Mullen, a former chief of naval operations, served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff from 2007-11 and is present in the famous photo showing President Obama and Clinton during the bin Laden raid.
Their names were among 39 that Podesta submitted to Clinton, which Podesta said he organized in “rough food groups.”
