WikiLeaks threatens Tim Kaine, DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile: "We have a surprise in store"

WikLeaks hints at another big email dump

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published October 21, 2016 5:24PM (EDT)

Democratic U.S. vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine walks onstage to accept the nomination on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (Reuters)
Democratic U.S. vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine walks onstage to accept the nomination on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (Reuters)

WikiLeaks sent out an ominous tweet on Thursday teasing the impending release of embarrassing information about Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile.

We have a suprise [sic] in store for @TimKaine and @DonnaBrazile,” the tweet ominously promised.

When asked about the tweet at a rally in Durham, North Carolina, Kaine ignored the question.

Kaine has been a recent critic of WikiLeaks, which recently hacked the email of his running mate's campaign chairman, John Podesta. During an interview with CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Kaine hinted that Russia, which the U.S. has said is behind the hacked emails, would see reprisals for their attempted interference in an American election, and questioned the authenticity of the documents themselves.

“When a foreign nation tries to destabilize an American election — which is what Donald Trump encouraged back in late July [when] he said, ‘Hey, Russia, go see if you can cyber hack and find things that will help me win’ — but when a foreign government tries to do this there has to be a consequence,” Kaine declared.  “There will be time for figuring what that consequence is. But you can’t let it go unchallenged because if you do you just could encourage more of it.”

He also claimed that an email indicating he had been tapped for the vice presidency months before his official announcement was forged. “You can’t assume that they’re all accurate,” he claimed. “One of the emails that came up this week referred to me. It was completely inaccurate. And I don’t know whether it was inaccurate because the sender didn’t know what he or she was talking about it or it had been doctored.”

Since the Russian email hacking of the DNC emails was made public in July, there has been widespread criticism of that nation’s attempt to sway the outcome of this presidential election. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has also been heavily criticized for exhibiting aligned interests with Vladimir Putin since obtaining asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Elections 2016 Sen. Tim Kaine Tim Kaine Wikileaks