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Breaking News

Gore Office Sealed Where White Powder Discovered

Aired August 27, 2002 - 15:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news again out of Nashville Tennessee, from the office of former Vice President Al Gore.
We had told you about an aide to Al Gore opening up a letter in the office, a white, powdery substance falling to the floor, and calling the HazMat team onto the scene. We were told the office was quarantined.

And we've got a little bit more bit of details here for you.

The office manager, Mary Patterson, we are told, is the one that was going through mail in Al Gore's office, opened up this letter, noticed this substance, contacted her office mate, Robert McLarty. He said to immediately wash her hands, close the doors, put the letter down, and indeed, that's exactly what they did. They turned off the AC to try and keep this -- to avoid this from circulating.

It's on the 7th floor of the Lowes Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. That's where Al Gore's office is.

This happened at about 12:15 Central Time, 1:15 Eastern Time.

Al Gore was notified. There has been no response from Mr. Gore.

Now, those two employees are in the office. The office has been completely sealed. The HazMat team is on the scene, trying to figure out if, indeed, this substance could be that of the anthrax substance.

Once again, we are following this breaking news story out of Nashville, Tennessee. We'll bring you more information as soon as we have it.

Now back to TALKBACK LIVE and Leon Harris.

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