Shamelessly re-posted from ARSTechnica
Antivirus mogul John McAfee makes his bid to run for president official
Security firm founder will be “founding a new party yet to be announced.”
On Tuesday, John McAfee, best known for founding the eponymous software firm McAfee Security (to which is he no longer affiliated), filed paperwork (PDF) with the Federal Election Commission announcing his intent to run for the office of President of the United States.
In an interview with Wired which was posted earlier today, McAfee said that he was “still in a quandary about whether to run myself or find someone else for my party.”“My advisors are pressing me to run,” the self-described “eccentric millionaire” told the magazine.
It seems as though the unnamed advisors won out by the end of the day.
In his filing, McAfee stated “I am founding a new party yet to be announced.” Ars contacted McAfee for clarification, who directed us to send questions to his campaign manager, Drew Thompson. “I believe you will get little information until our platform is fully outlined,” McAfee told us. Thompson has not yet responded to Ars’ request for comment.
However, in his interview with Wired this morning, McAfee cited government’s technological illiteracy as a primary motivation in his decision to run for the US’ highest elected office.
Just three years ago, McAfee was arrested in Guatemala for allegedly “entering the country illegally” after authorities in Belize wanted to question him in their investigation of a murder case. (The police in Belize told reporters that McAfee was not a suspect.) McAfee then showed up months later in Portland, OR, where he said he was working on a graphic novel with a local artist.
The new presidential candidate listed an Alabama address on his FEC filing.
Shamelessly re-posted from WIRED
You Know What This Presidential Race Needs? John McAfee
Click to Open Overlay GalleryIf you didn’t think the 2016 election season could get any more batshit crazy than it already is, now, John McAfee—the self-described “eccentric millionaire,” who founded the anti-virus software company McAfee, and who once played Russian roulette with a loaded gun while WIRED writer Joshua Davis stood by—says he is considering joining the 2016 presidential race. But first, he says he’s hoping to persuade someone who is “smarter and more charismatic” than he is to run with his backing.
“I personally am still in a quandary about whether to run myself or find someone else for my party,” McAfee tells WIRED. “My advisors are pressing me to run.”
McAfee, who won’t name his advisors or his prospects for stand-ins, says he’s been mulling a run for some time at the urging of his online followers. “I have many thousands of emails saying please run for President,” he says. “It’s not something I would just choose to do on my own.”
But McAfee says he does believe the government is broken, largely because its leaders don’t understand technology as well as, well, he does. He points to the recent hacks of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and Homeland Security as proof.
“Things like this cannot happen or should not happen,” he says. “It’s clear that the leadership of our country is illiterate on the fundamental technology that supports everything in life for us now, that is cyber science, our smartphones, our military hardware, our communications.”
McAfee argues that the fact that the government is urging tech companies like Apple to create so-called “backdoors” into their systems that would allow the government to collect information on users is another sign that public servants just don’t get it. “That means allowing hackers easy access to anybody’s data,” he says.
The prospect of a President John McAfee may sound absurd to you. If it doesn’t, please recall that McAfee was once arrested in Guatemala after fleeing Belize, where he was wanted for questioning by local police for the murder of his neighbor. No charges were brought against him in the murder case, but McAfee’s backstory is still a tad colorful for politics, even in the age of Trump.
Yet the privacy arguments he’s making aren’t altogether unlike the ones that Apple and other tech companies have been lobbying for in Congress.
Like Lawrence Lessig, the Harvard professor who is running for president to push an agenda for campaign finance reform, McAfee seems far more concerned with having his voice heard on one particular issue than with taking a seat in the Oval Office.
Which may explain why McAfee is seeking a stand-in for his presidential run. He also said he didn’t want to discuss other elements of his platform until he, er, knows whether he or someone else is going to be candidate. That announcement should come within the next 48 hours, according to McAfee. As for whether Donald Trump’s surprising popularity had anything to do with his presidential ambitions, McAfee said, “I have great respect for the man but he has nothing to do with my decision to run.”
