joining us now in his first interview
since election day is someone
who knows all about waiting for results
of a disputed election former vice
president and 2000 democratic
presidential nominee
al gore vice president gore thank you
for spending some time with us good to
see you
thank you for inviting me lester good to
be here uh
a lot of us uh who were veterans of
covering that 2000 race have thought
about you
in the last two days and wondered how
you're processing all this
i know the the circumstance is not
exactly identical but give us your
thoughts about what we're watching
and from the perspective of your race 20
years ago
well first of all this is a completely
different election from the one
20 years ago joe biden has multiple
pathways
to secure his victory of course i'm for
him and i'm hoping that will be the case
very soon
but the most important principle that i
defended 20 years ago
that joe biden and many others are
defending
tonight is let's count every
legally cast vote and obey the will
of the american people you know i looked
at the people
standing in line to vote in the middle
of a pandemic some of them
waiting in line 10 11 hours in some
cases and
the determination of the american people
in spite of the
what they were facing to have the
largest turnout
in the entire history of our country
uh they're they're heroes and they're
redeeming the promise of america
mr vice president it's savannah guthrie
and before i ask you a question i wanted
to give a disclaimer my husband my now
husband worked for you 20 years ago
and uh has continued to work for you
over the years so i just want our
viewers to know that but
let me ask you what you thought of the
president's presentation today
in the briefing room you know we just
had a discussion with hugh hewitt about
it and i guess the question is
whether you think it is fair grounds for
him to say
look i think there might be vote fraud i
think there might be
an issue with the integrity of the
election in your mind is it legitimate
for him to
make those allegations right now
no and not without providing any
evidence
uh i was disappointed in his statement
but you know we're now the the election
is over with
the the campaign is over with all that
remains is to count the votes
i was thinking as the president was
speaking
in the white house of the advice mark
twain once gave
to a group of young voters he said do
right you'll gratify some and astonish
the rest
if donald trump does face a situation
where the votes are all counted and he
turns out
not to be successful i would urge him to
do the right thing and yes it would
astonish
a lot of people but it would be good for
our country and i'm not being joking
about this
we are in some ways divided and we
absolutely face the need to try to come
together
in his statement earlier today joe biden
emphasized
that imperative look we face uh
the the covet 19 pandemic we have got to
get on with solving the climate crisis
we've got to lift the economy in a
sustainable way to get the
things moving again and that requires
pulling people together i'm very happy
that
joe biden and kamala harris are really
focused on that task
oh sorry go ahead i was wondering how
important is imagery in all this you
talked about you know
joe biden's been out a couple of times
two three times now i believe since
uh since this election and giving this
aura of leadership and being in in
charge right now do you
look at that and think about you know
how you handled your circumstances and
things you wish you had done or things
you would advise him to do
oh i don't think he needs any uh advice
from me
lester i think he's been terrific uh and
i think back during the last part of
this campaign
you take the speech that he gave at
gettysburg the speech that he gave
uh in warm springs georgia and and and
several others
this is really world-class
leadership from joe biden i know i'm a
partisan and you can
discount that if you want but i'm
genuinely impressed with his
focus with his messaging to the entire
country he says over and over again that
he's running as a proud democrat
but he will be an american president and
i think the way he's been
handling this short period since the
election on tuesday
is in keeping with with that vision of
what he wants to be as
president and of course by contrast uh
donald trump has come out and without
any evidence whatsoever
allege that because he's losing it must
be fraudulent
i wish he wouldn't do that uh but i will
say this to
those who share my uh political views
the time for
you know criticizing donald trump as if
the campaign was still underway
that's passed now we need to find a way
and i surely hope the president will
find it in
his capability to join in this process
i don't know if he will but i hope that
he will find a way
to fall in behind those of us who are
trying to bring the country together
mr vice president you don't often talk
about what happened in 2000 it's
it's not something you do a lot of
interviews about your
former running mate joe lieberman wrote
an article talking about that moment
when the the united states supreme court
came back and decided that the recount
was over
and joe lieberman said at that time i
said to al gore
we should go forward we still have legal
recourse there's more to do here
and you said no for the good of the
country
we got to end it we got to end it right
now can you
talk about that moment what your
thinking was
and uh how difficult a moment that was
for you
20 years ago well first of all
i don't remember there being any good
legal legal recourse
left the the governor of the state in
question
where the ballots were not being counted
and recounted
had had uh an interest in this uh
there is no intermediate step between
a final supreme court decision and
violent revolution
and uh the supreme court interprets the
laws
they issued an opinion uh and to to
to run the risk of violence in the
streets uh without
any change in the outcome uh seemed to
me
to be not in the best interests of of
the country
i i've heard the uh say that if he
doesn't
uh win uh there may be this that and the
other
nobody should be inciting violence that
is
that's dishonoring the mandate of the
american people
to make this choice you know the the
foundation of our country
is the principle that all just power is
derived from the consent of the
government
these elections are the way that we give
that consent and there's something
majestic
about listening to the will of the
american people
and then respecting the will of the
american people
when their decision is fairly tabulated
and announced
we're on the verge of that moment and i
would urge
all americans including especially those
who might be tempted to follow the
direction
that donald trump pointed in and the
white house earlier today
to reject that approach and focus on
what's most important and that is the
best interest
of the united states of america and well
that would leave it there vice president
al gore good to see you thank you for
taking some time with us tonight
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