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Gore Lashes Out at White House While Denying Any Plans to Run
Aired August 07, 2003 - 14:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, Al Gore speaks out. The former vice president lashed out at the Bush administration in a speech in New York today. We have a live report from CNN's Maria Hinojosa who is at the speech and is now back at the bureau. Hello, Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Well there was a lot of speculation about the Gore speech today. After almost a full year on hiatus from public and politics, the former vice president was back in the spotlight.
The role he chose today was to come on strong against the Bush presidency. The theme of his speech, that President Bush has misled the American people with a series of, quote, "false impression, strategic miscalculation, serious misjudgments and historic mistakes that put the nation in harm's way."
He began with Iraq, then the economy, and finally the environment. American's values, Gore said, are at risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president ought to reign in John Ashcroft and stop the gross of civil rights that have twice been documented by the inspector general of this Justice Department itself.
(APPLAUSE)
And while he's at it, he needs to rein in Donald Rumsfeld and get rid of that Total Information Awareness Program that's right out of George Orwell's "1984."
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: But despite his scathing attack on President Bush, Al Gore said he was not in the running. He had this to say about the Democrats who are in the race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORE: And as for honor and integrity, let me say this: we know what that phrase was all about. But hear me well, not as a candidate for any office, but as an American citizen who loves my country.
For eight years the Clinton-Gore administration gave this nation honest budget numbers, an economic plan with integrity that rescued the nation from debt and stagnation, honest advocacy for the environment, real compassion for the poor, a strengthening of our military as recently proven and a foreign policy whose purposes were elevated, candidly presented and courageously pursued in the face of scorched earth tactics by the opposition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now what the former vice president had to say about the candidates was that he said, I admire their effort and skill that they are putting into the campaigns. I'm not going to join them, but later in the political cycle I will endorse one of them.
Now, the former vice president was asked -- actually asked a political Internet group to sponsor his speech. MoveOn.org say they have a million and a half members who engage in dialogue and activism. Gore's advisers say he is taken by their use of the Internet for politics.
What have they done? Well in one case they say they raised $225,000 in just five hours to pay for ads for a project they call Misleader.org, which is an attempt to call for an independent commission to President Bush on what he knew and didn't know about Iraq.
So that's what his advisers have to say -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Maria, you almost have the sense listening to all that he was announcing a candidacy -- maybe for governor of California, who knows. But nevertheless, he saved kind of the punchline for the very end, didn't he?
HINOJOSA: That's right. You know he gave this long speech and it really did sound like a stump speech in a lot of cases. And it was only literally in the last paragraph where he said, I'm not running.
But there were still people there, Miles, who said we have hope that he's going to change their mind. One person said Jerry Springer changed his mind, Arnold Schwarzenegger changed his mind. Who knows? Maybe Al Gore will change his mind and run.
But that was not the message that Gore was giving today, at least.
O'BRIEN: All right. Maria Hinojosa. Springer and Schwarzenegger and Gore. Not too often you put those three together in the same sentence. We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired August 7, 2003 - 14:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, Al Gore speaks out. The former vice president lashed out at the Bush administration in a speech in New York today. We have a live report from CNN's Maria Hinojosa who is at the speech and is now back at the bureau. Hello, Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Well there was a lot of speculation about the Gore speech today. After almost a full year on hiatus from public and politics, the former vice president was back in the spotlight.
The role he chose today was to come on strong against the Bush presidency. The theme of his speech, that President Bush has misled the American people with a series of, quote, "false impression, strategic miscalculation, serious misjudgments and historic mistakes that put the nation in harm's way."
He began with Iraq, then the economy, and finally the environment. American's values, Gore said, are at risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president ought to reign in John Ashcroft and stop the gross of civil rights that have twice been documented by the inspector general of this Justice Department itself.
(APPLAUSE)
And while he's at it, he needs to rein in Donald Rumsfeld and get rid of that Total Information Awareness Program that's right out of George Orwell's "1984."
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: But despite his scathing attack on President Bush, Al Gore said he was not in the running. He had this to say about the Democrats who are in the race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORE: And as for honor and integrity, let me say this: we know what that phrase was all about. But hear me well, not as a candidate for any office, but as an American citizen who loves my country.
For eight years the Clinton-Gore administration gave this nation honest budget numbers, an economic plan with integrity that rescued the nation from debt and stagnation, honest advocacy for the environment, real compassion for the poor, a strengthening of our military as recently proven and a foreign policy whose purposes were elevated, candidly presented and courageously pursued in the face of scorched earth tactics by the opposition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HINOJOSA: Now what the former vice president had to say about the candidates was that he said, I admire their effort and skill that they are putting into the campaigns. I'm not going to join them, but later in the political cycle I will endorse one of them.
Now, the former vice president was asked -- actually asked a political Internet group to sponsor his speech. MoveOn.org say they have a million and a half members who engage in dialogue and activism. Gore's advisers say he is taken by their use of the Internet for politics.
What have they done? Well in one case they say they raised $225,000 in just five hours to pay for ads for a project they call Misleader.org, which is an attempt to call for an independent commission to President Bush on what he knew and didn't know about Iraq.
So that's what his advisers have to say -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Maria, you almost have the sense listening to all that he was announcing a candidacy -- maybe for governor of California, who knows. But nevertheless, he saved kind of the punchline for the very end, didn't he?
HINOJOSA: That's right. You know he gave this long speech and it really did sound like a stump speech in a lot of cases. And it was only literally in the last paragraph where he said, I'm not running.
But there were still people there, Miles, who said we have hope that he's going to change their mind. One person said Jerry Springer changed his mind, Arnold Schwarzenegger changed his mind. Who knows? Maybe Al Gore will change his mind and run.
But that was not the message that Gore was giving today, at least.
O'BRIEN: All right. Maria Hinojosa. Springer and Schwarzenegger and Gore. Not too often you put those three together in the same sentence. We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Run>
