We learned one of Trump’s alternate vice president picks thanks to a series of hacked documents. The hackers acquired internal communications from the Trump campaign detailing research on potential running mates and claimed to have even more. Below, we’ll look at who could have been Trump’s vice president pick instead of Vance and the situation behind the stolen data.
Who was Trump’s alternate pick for VP?
According to Politico, an anonymous source provided internal communications that indicate Trump was considering Florida Senator Marco Rubio as a potential vice presidential candidate.
In addition to documents referencing Rubio, the source released a 271-page research dossier on JD Vance. Politico also stated that the source had a “variety of documents from legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions” that have yet to be released.
The Trump campaign acknowledged that its internal communications has been hacked. In the statement, spokesman Steven Cheung claimed that “foreign sources hostile to the United States” were behind the operation. Cheung pointed to a Microsoft report that claimed Iranian hackers sent a phishing email to a high-ranking presidential campaign official. Whether or not that was the way this information was obtained is unknown.
Politico’s source kept its origin a secret. When asked, it said, “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”
Whether or not Iran is behind this hack, the nation is upping its disinformation campaigns against the US this election season. The same Microsoft report detailed several operations, including an effort to launch covert news sites targeting US voter groups on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum.
Unfortunately, anti-American efforts will continue to attack any available target in the lead-up to the election. Be vigilant against phishing and hacking attacks, and vet your news sources. Otherwise, you may find yourself in the same conundrum that the Trump campaign faces now.
