Bush v. Gore: The Endless Election (2015)

the following is a CNN special report Bush versus Gore the closest race in modern political history nobody really knew what was going to happen I just see my life kind of flashing an election night like no other I was operating in an environment of volcanic tales bulletin Florida pulled back into the undecided column this phrase in my head kept repeating itself too close to call launching a war for the White House the campaign chairman comes in and says to you you better get people scrambling for a recount and that was the holy [ __ ] moment we were going to hold Florida unless they sent in federal troops 36 days of political combat at the highest levels one of the worst 36 days of my life it was awful in the end the Supreme Court had the last word if you were a screenwriter they'd fire you for this story so could it happen again there's no question it could happen to get Bush v Gore the endless election it's after 3:00 in the morning on November 8 2000 the War Memorial in Nashville Tennessee Vice President Al Gore is inside getting ready to publicly concede the presidential election to George W Bush it was total chaos as we're trying to get into the war memorial pouring rain the vice president and Ann Lee Berman's family and that whole group had gone in The Secret Service the police everybody was at it and I got on the phone with Bill Daley and he said what's up Mike and I said Billy we haven't lost this thing's going to be an automatic recanvass I said this thing is too close to call I just saved my life kind of flashing it's got me Thanks gotta break it out in a sweat thinking oh my god what do we do here that's when he contacted David Morehouse everything was was ringing at once and vibrating told him grab the vice president get him into a holding room with Joe Lieberman do not let anyone go out just everybody freeze Michael Feldman was trying to get a hold of me Feldman said uh you know you need that you need to stop the vice president from conceding he cannot go out on stage you've got to bring him to hold the vice president's walking really fast so it takes me a little bit to catch up with them and I caught up with him we were walking on a long hallway the end of the hallways some stairs that lead to the outside where the stages I just stood in front of the stairs and said mr. vice president we have to go to hold and he said this better be good before Election Day ever started the two thousand votes was too close to call our polling was showing that it was a dead heat that it was basically within the margin of error for news anchors election night is the Superbowl we're electing the most powerful person in the world and this election looked like one for the record books any journalists were the name what you wanted the great story and this was agreed to it election night for any presidential contest is not routine no it's not because it's too important to historic but as the evening wore on it was clear this this this one is different this one is different this is a CNN election mm special presentation ever long for those nights when that you've heard about when people waited late to find out who their leader was pull up a chair this may be it we started routinely with the polls closing and we watch the clock this is how our electoral map looks at 7:34 Eastern Time governor Bush far ahead of Vice President Gore predictable results in the state's first to close their polls then earth-shattering news lads and altogether according to Senator John excuse me one second on the social interrupt you Mike you know I wouldn't do this if it weren't big Florida goes for Al Gore now folks the equation changes then it happens like that it's in a year Florida for Gore boom ladies and gentlemen let's pause right here because this could be decisive could be decisive in the election 25 decisive electoral votes votes that could deliver the presidency for Al Gore at the governor's mansion in Austin there was pure anguish there was this Paul it was very quiet and when I asked President Bush 41 how he was doing and is it not so good right now what were you guys thinking about the network projection said them well I think the feeling from the beginning from our people who were crunching the numbers was but the networks were wrong Karen Hughes wasn't the only one unconvinced I don't believe it's in some of these states that they've call like Florida because I just don't believe that I don't believe it got enough evidence to be able to call the state that state's gonna flip I really feel I would I do remember seeing myself Wow I hope they're right with this basically it was listen don't question the decision decision desk Florida belongs to Gore but I think Bill and you're the you're the maven on this one that generally networks do not call unless they have a pretty high degree of assurance correct that is correct we have a pretty high degree of assurance that Florida and Pennsylvania have gone for Al Gore then two minutes later all hell breaks loose stand by stand by CNN right now is moving our earlier declaration of Florida back to the too close to call column ah beads of sweat start popping out of my forehead 25 very big electoral votes in the home state of the governor's brother Jeb Bush are hanging in the balance thus no longer is a victory for Vice President Gore we're moving it back only a to close little early oh yes and I could actually feel sweat as I realize that this was wrong we had to correct it and so did every other network within minutes NBC News is now taking Florida out of vice president Gore's column and putting it back in the too close to call column bulletins Florida pulled back into the undecided column computer and data problem we pulled it back until we can examine the data and see where we are this knock-down drag-out battle drags on into the night and turn the lights down the party just got wilder we don't just have egg in our face we've got omelet over our suits the number of sort to go back and forth yeah you know we couldn't trust any of them and I finally ran out of ways to explain to the audience what was going on the chaos factor just went through the roof there's always chaos now we reach the abnormal now we reach a land where we've never been basically the projections are made by exit polling data and also actual vote counts from model precincts but those numbers were off and they were shared by all the networks this model had worked in the past it clearly not only did not work that night but it sputtered and sputtered and sputtered the models didn't work because Florida was a mess confusing ballots left voters unsure about whom they had actually voted for local election officials misreported vote counts and exit poll samples were just not accurate in your ear are they trying to be calm even though they're freaking out yes they're trying to be calm but it's it's that's a failure I was trying to be as transparent as possible the system is breaking down around me at that point I know what I was thinking we've got to find out now where we go next okay I flew in computers Tom this is the answer get it right coming up al places the call and we don't hear it over a bunch at one point I believe I said something like you don't have to be so snippety about it in the early morning hours on November 8th while thousands gather outside in nashville joe lieberman and his wife Hadassah are in their hotel room waiting to hear if he will be the nation's next vice president somebody had sent a arrangement of flowers to our room and and coming into the room she expressed herself expletive deleted and basically sort of knocked the flowers off the table everyone is frustrated and then shortly after 2:00 a.m. it gets worse Bush wins Florida goes bush the presidency is bush that's it the home state of Governor Jeb Bush is going to be a much happier Thanksgiving for the Bush family ABC News is now going to project that Florida goes to mr. Bush to stop and absorb that for a second we've got the TV on all of a sudden whichever network or watching you know I think it was CNN and it was Bernard Shaw I think broke in and said George Bush governor of Texas will become the 43rd president of the United States actually get a shore and say it right now and I said I've got to go to see al what Lieberman didn't know was that Gore had already decided to concede he placed the call he just said governor you know on put up a fight or whatever he said I forget the exact words but conceded is very short call I think governor Bush just thanked him there was no love lost between either one of these guys they didn't like each other period and so it was probably a 10 second call at most and that was it at the time he conceded Jeb Bush was still over there on his computer and he's like I don't know where there's what they're seeing I don't know what numbers are seeing I think it's still too close so were you guys kind of surprised that sounds like Jeb was that Jeb was surprised when it when Vice President Gore called to concede Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida at the time trying to deliver the state for his big brother he wasn't the only one matching his head at Gore's concession I numbers were going back and forth at headquarters Michael hooli gorzon numbers wizard kept doing the math with no idea that Gore's motorcade was already on the way for his concession speech how is it that you guys in the boiler room were not told they were going to concede I don't know I think they believed in network news when Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather said that George Bush had one they thought it was game over there was a furious scramble to find somebody in the motorcade maybe a minute after we left the hotel my White House pager went off it was a call from Michael hooli I think my words were you know where are you guys and he said we're at the War Memorial and I asked why I was obviously incredulous and he said we're about to concede I said for what we haven't lost something was fishy and it smelled all the way to Austin where team George W Bush nervously waited Jeb Bush looking like his life is passing before his eyes because he's the good brother whose state is going to let down as a brother George and in George and Laura Bush looking pretty like kind of shell-shocked a little bit finally after 3 a.m. a second call to Bush from Gore who was still hunkered down backstage at the war memorial the phone rang again and I heard governor Bush in the story incredulous voice saying you're retracting your concession and you know I mean there's no precedent for anything like that then at another point turned into the conversation he said I don't care what your little brother says the networks are all saying now it's too close to call and therefore I've gotta withdraw my concession I mean held his brother was the governor but you know he was like my brother and I was like hey you know and I don't know forget his facial expression why hey so he hung up the floor and everybody cheers and then somebody says wow you're cold Jeb Bush his little brother so else's I didn't call him his little brother he called his little brother as the bush team squirmed in Austin it fell to Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley to deliver an unprecedented message that Gore had withdrawn his concession it was 4:00 a.m. and guar said may you do it is that I'm not gonna do it I forget about it and I'm gonna go out there a TV at 2:30 he said no you do it so I thought oh my god I gotta go out there to a billion people worldwide watching this in the middle of the late in the US to try to figure out who is the president eight this race is simply too close to call and until the results the recount is concluded and the results of Florida Florida become official our campaign continues next taking the fight to the streets of Florida I wasn't a big fan of outdoors and the prospect of evening the score was an enticing prospect at the governor's mansion in Austin it was the morning after me hours of sleep did you get last night you got three and a half actually the one thing that keeps every operative every person work so campaign going is the knowledge that it's over on Election Day you know that this thing has an end but the election of 2000 didn't end it just moved to Florida where 25 electoral votes would determine the presidency we were going to take lieberman's plane and Ron Klain was going to lead the charge and we had a bunch of lawyers get briefed on on the whole thing and they were going to go off to Florida that night in the middle of night I remember telling my wife as I left early that morning to get on the plane that I'd be home by Friday I was pretty sure I'd be home by Friday good idea yep in Austin team Bush needed a leader a heavy hitter the choice was obvious we have asked former United States Secretary of State James Baker to travel to Florida on our behalf he said well Joe how long do you think we ought to pack for and I said uh two or three days we're going to the Sunshine State by two o'clock that afternoon I was on an airplane to Florida with Joe all ball he has one bag and we get in the plane very small plane fly off to Tallahassee and he says okay brief me after about 45 minutes he leans back in the seat and he says we're headed to the Supreme Court I was absolutely blown away our Supreme Court of the United States I said you're kidding me and without baton and I taking a breath he said it's the only way this can end punching heavy weight for the Democrats was former Secretary of State Warren Christopher we're proceeding in accordance with the constitution of law and will continue to do so both statesmen both diplomats but hardly alike you never met anybody who had more respect from Christopher but he was an old-fashioned by-the-book lawyer Jim Baker was that plus a down in the pit political hand-to-hand combat fighter look when I heard that Jim Baker is going to be involved for the other side I thought this guy comes armed on both sides I mean oh he carries two holsters and he's got other hidden weapons Baker and Christopher had only one face-to-face meeting at the governor's in in Tallahassee where it became very clear they were fighting different Wars secretary Christopher laid out a number of ideas about how the uncertainty in Florida might be resolved and secretary Baker listened politely but simply said I have really I have no idea what you're talking about there's no dispute here governor Bush won the election Secretary of State Katherine Harris is going to certify that and the only thing we're here to discuss is the terms and conditions under which Vice President Gore is going to concede there was never any thought or suggestion that we could come to a conclusion because somebody had to win if somebody had to lose but I had it just came in and we're very sort of like what we won like we're preserved or sighted because that's what I believed and by the way that's what happened Baker knew to win he needed to get out of Florida's courts if we didn't find a way to get into the federal courts we were dead meat because the Florida Supreme Court was dominated by Democrats Baker had to make his case to conservatives who wanted to leave it at the state level you want to be ideologically pure do you want to win they said we want to win I said well then don't be criticizing our going to federal court because if we stay with the Florida Supreme Court we're going to lose there was no doubt about it that and if you look at their opinions and the way they screwed us with those opinions if we would have lost the gore team says the game was rigged against them after all Republicans controlled the Statehouse and George Bush's brother Jeb was the governor we thought it would be close never in my wildest dreams that I ever imagined it would be this close if you own the system which the governor at the time Bush owned you generally will win they didn't do anything criminal or anything that appropriate but as I said I think if the Democrats had control the governorship and basically control the state no no doubt in my mind those calls were made for the Democrat Jeb was sort of the wizard right behind the governor the state yeah and there was a there was chaos as a result of election in his state he was going to come back and try to get control of this thing he's a winning a rock and a hard spot I mean obviously he wants his brother to win but he can show no favoritism in his role as governor of the state and we weren't asking him I don't believe that he pulled levers or maybe he didn't have to maybe it was just understood no major law firm in Florida would work for Al Gore even Democratic even Democratic oriented law firms because everyone was afraid of antagonizing the Bush family antagonizing the governor and losing important state business did you have any evidence that they had been called by no evidence to anyone said anything to anybody oh stuff didn't have to be said right it was just all obvious turned up that the name of the governor of the state of Florida was the same name as the name of the person we were running against you know and so nothing had to be said and I'm not saying that Governor Bush did anything wrong I don't believe he did I want to be clear about that but it wasn't a fair process it wasn't a neutral process it was a process that was rigged against us what was rigged uh kind of everything so we could start with the fact that the person who was in charge of making sure of directing the counties to do what Florida law required which was a recanvass reit abolition of their votes in every County was George Bush's campaign Sheriff Florida Katherine Harris up next the war that wouldn't end I hereby declare governor george w bush the winner katherine thought that george bush had won and we were going to fight him tooth and nail house-to-house hand-to-hand and we were going to hold floor unless they sent in federal troops in the 2000 election more than 100 million ballots were cast in 50 states but the race would come down to a few hundred votes and the authority of one woman is exciting to see the process working destined for infamy am I going to enjoy watching that Tennessee robot cry when he hears the results yes does that make me partisan I don't think so Katherine Harris was the Republican Florida's Secretary of State in charge of the recount and she was also the state campaign co-chair for George W Bush what we asked her for was that she would be an honest broker and what was her response well thank you but you walked out of there and you're like we'll forget this you know of course she was trying to win for George Bush that's what she was doing but she was using her power as Secretary of State as the state's election administration official to try to produce that result and that was wrong my sense is she was trying to do the best job she could she'd been thrust into this sort of involuntarily it was a great big role thank you very much appreciated there was nobody she call up and say so I've got a presidential recount here what do i do as Secretary of State he was very nervous she was quite yeah and and my recollection is this max2 Stepanovich was her adviser and he was a solid person a well-respected Tallahassee lobbyist with ties to Jeb Bush and a long history in Republican politics maxed upon ovitch became Katherine Harris's brain I explained to her you don't have any friends it's the same we're not gonna have any friends whatsoever and that we're going to be loathed by the media for the rest of our lives and through the lives of our grandchildren that's not what's important here today we're going to elect oppress the United States forget all the rest of stuff as Americans watch the partisans Duke it out daily on live TV behind the scenes Mac was plotting the Republican path to victory I call it senior staff together and I said we're not going to break any laws but I want you to forget about the antennas loss we're going to bring this election in Burrell and II and we were going to fight them tooth and nail house to house hand to hand and we were going to hold Florida unless they sent in federal troops he knew exactly what he had to do stop recounting boats and preserve bushes election-night lead no matter how small we actually believe the result was right that's the Georgia Bush has won this election and it is our job to make it so and we're going to rapidly as possible close off any option any path that could be followed that produces any result other than that one people are going to watch this be appalled oh my god the corrupt bastards they they stole the election no we won the election no you didn't said the Democrats citing a long list of complaints in Broward County hanging and dimpled Chad's that let voter intent unclear in Duvall confusing instructions to voters and in Palm Beach the now notorious butterfly ballot how would you describe what happened to Al Gore in Florida he got screwed by a bad ballot in Palm Beach that the Democratic leadership in that county signed off on the butterfly ballot had punch holes for Al Gore an ultraconservative Pat Buchanan located dangerously close to each other just asking for mistakes I can tell you that the people came out of the voting booth in the hundreds knowing realizing that they had punched Pat Buchanan's number thinking who was Al Gore had the butterfly ballot not happened Al Gore would've been president I'd state no doubt in my mind period a big glitch that after election day left gore scrambling to fix the unfixable they had a real argument to make about that ballot but only before the election they didn't have it afterwards the Democrats signed off on it the Republicans signed off on it was designed by a democratic elections director in Palm Beach County he had very few options to fundamentally change the outcome after that so how and how hard to fight questions that would dog and divide the Democrats when you're in a fight the first person who stops fighting always loses you as days of uncertainty turned into weeks the bitterness spread even outside the vice president's house never they're praying and and chanting get out of Cheney's house so they were trying to build the image that we were the ones who were not following the law behind the gates the gore family strained to project normalcy and as his team huddled inside it soon became clear that not everyone was in a take-no-prisoners move and somebody came over to me and said senator you're you're a young man with a great future and so is Al Gore and I just urge you to look at the decisions we have to make in that light and yes or lose yeah and I was shocked I must say by that reaction image was key during the recount and each man stayed true to form Bush different from Gore significantly because what Bush did was to pass the responsibility and authority to me they were going through the charade of having a transition and then bah-bah-bah Cheney was out there meeting with people and probably picking the cabinet Gore meanwhile managed every detail of the fight and the gore campaign you had gore at the Naval Observatory he was more of a micromanager machines can sometimes miss read or failed to detect the way ballots are cast one of the biggest choices Gore had to make which votes to recount the final decision just four out of Florida's 67 counties why those four why not just statewide recount those were four counties where we had concrete evidence of errors inaccuracies and mistakes on Election Day secondly the clock was ticking and we knew that the time we had to get these things counted was limited one more thing about the counties the Democrats chose they were heavily Democratic I think the biggest mistake they made during the whole thing was to ask for a recount in four Democratic counties that gave us the high ground they had a good slogan count every vote how can that be fair just to ask for a recount in your County our legal strategy was predicated on four counties believing that if we went back and recounted those four counties we would make up the difference was that a mistake very much a mistake the Florida courts let the recount continue for three crazy weeks as the tension became surreal the gore campaign refused to accept the vote count on Election Day the delays have been largely the product of lawsuits filed by Republicans or erroneous legal opinions from the Secretary of State when the clock ran out on November 26 Secretary of State Katherine Harris grandly announced the results we needed the nation to see that as far as we were concerned it was over George Bush at one move on and so it was important that there be some drama and there was plenty of drama in accordance with the laws of the state of Florida I hereby declare Governor George W Bush the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes for the President of the United States good evening the margin 537 votes secretary Cheney and I are honored and humbled to have won the state of Florida which gives us the needed electoral votes to win the election and Lieberman fired back this evening the secretary of state of Florida has decided to certify what by any reasonable standard is an incomplete and inaccurate count of the votes cast in the state of Florida part of why I went out clearly was to say to the public this ain't over yet you know it ain't over till it's over and it wasn't over just half time the Democrats went to the friendly state Supreme Court and won big the Circuit Court shall order a manual recount of all undervotes not only did the court denied in Florida but it also ordered a new statewide recount of disputed ballots advantage Gore did you believe at that point at all that you might win yes yes yes why cuz we had more votes we just needed to get them counted vice president's residence on Friday night was a party everybody was thrilled about the victory in the Florida Supreme Court because we felt that it was the preface to a victory overall because it would give us the recount we wanted but there was no joy in bush ville excruciating just excruciating I just remember thinking it just like being on a treadmill me we never knew from day to day whether we were going to win or whether we were going to lose we lose a case one day we'd win one the next day as Baker had predicted from day one he would have to look to another court for the final outcome he wanted we felt that we had sound constitutional arguments in our favor I think it was probably the biggest disappointment that I've had in my lifetime in terms of what the supreme court has done the election that should have ended the same day it began is still dragging on one month later I think 31 days into this we've learned to think that anything is possible it's like Groundhog Day I just remember thinking this is never going to end after the Florida Supreme Court allowed the recount to continue the Democrats could smell success but Republicans pushed past the Florida Supreme Court to an even higher authority the US Supreme Court has agreed to put a stay on the recount in Florida on December 9th in a stunning decision the United States Supreme Court ruled five to four to stop the count I'm eating lunch in a sports bar when the television flashed across the screen at the United States Supreme Court had issued an order stopping the vote count my first reaction is that had to be a mistake can't be true what's true advantage Bush and so the final showdown was set between two Super Lawyers Democrat David Boies for Gore who was desperate to restart the counting citizen's right to vote it certainly felt momentous we knew the stakes were very high all we heard today and Republican Ted Olson who went to work immediately to keep the count frozen I found literally a broom closet on the floor beneath where everybody was working where I could close the door and think and right after just 36 hours to prep Olson and boys climb the marble steps each ascending into a legal stratosphere no one could have scripted the time pressures here the the fact that the presidency of the United States was at stake the fact that this was a political battle a media battle an illegal battle all taking place so-called perfect storm all taking place in a very short period of time for ninety minutes the two men went at it we'll hear argument now in number oh oh 949 George W Bush and Richard Cheney versus Albert Gore fourteen Bush Olson argued that the Florida Court had changed the rules in the middle of the game by allowing a statewide recount if one reads it the way the Florida Supreme Court did at the entire process is tilted on its head you can't have rules that say they must be counted ballots must be counted this way before the election and then count them differently after the election for team Gore David Boies countered the High Court had no business intervening in the first place that is something that has to be decided in the initial instance by the Florida Supreme Court interpreting Florida law the real issue is which court ought to be making that decision historically it was always the state Supreme Court historically the United States Supreme Court had never intervened in a presidential election but this time it would they have reached a decision that word is imminent don't leave CNN the judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida is reversed by a five to four vote the Supreme Court decided the recount would not continue it was over and Bush had one news that would soon reach Republican headquarters in Tallahassee we got a heads-up call about ten minutes beforehand it said the opinions coming watch your fax machine fax machine fax machine I got a call from Austin from Governor Bush and I answered the call and I said congratulations mr. president-elect we gathered everybody together to the next president night see everybody fought really hard they had had done an incredible job was an incredible setting I and precisely the outcome we had hoped for you're still emotional I'm still emotional that sure you know it's just moments of pure of pure joy or devastation if you worked for Al Gore I got on the phone with Vice President Gore and started to read him parts of it we got to the part where the court essentially ordered that the recount wouldn't go forward and that was you know the moment when it was really over what did you say I said a series of four-letter words and I'm not going to repeat it here because my mom watches CNN 15 years later Democrats are still second-guessing Nick Baltic had been on the ground in Florida for Al Gore if you work in an election like that and it ends up getting decided by one vote in Supreme Court you constantly have to say yourself what could I have done should Democrats have been more aggressive I think the Republicans came to a gun fight with a gun and we came with a knife did Gore's initial concession set him up as a sore loser do you regret telling Gore to concede in the first place I don't at the point that we recommended that it was over there was no other option as long as Florida was with Bush should Democrats have made more use of President Bill Clinton who was kept on the sidelines by the gore campaign we did not utilize him to his full effectiveness no question anybody else goes through the did used Bill Clinton did you do that's all [ __ ] Al Gore had won the national popular vote by more than half a million but he lost the two most important votes the one in the electoral college and the one at the Supreme Court case closed but even now the dispute lives on because nobody can prove for sure how voters intended to vote I think more people went to the polls intending to vote for Al Gore for president than George Bush in Florida yes well I thought George Bush had one even Republican operative max tapana vich agrees I believe the people who went to the polls that day and voted elected George Bush I believe the people who went to the polls that day and intended to vote probably elected Al Gore most elections are screwed up the presidency of eight states is rarely at risk based upon that George Walker Bush do solemnly On January 20th George W Bush was sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States and the 2000 election entered the record books as the closest and most controversial race in modern political history so to this day you think you won I think was fundamentally a tie I think if we had kept counting it would have been very interesting and maybe you would have won they'll never know

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Views: 742,264

Rating: 4.7470694 out of 5

Keywords: Al Gore (US Vice President), George W. Bush (US President)

Id: qcz6NSyxrfQ

Length: 42min 19sec (2539 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2015