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Morning News

The Florida Vote: Deadlines Bearing Down Today for Gore, Bush Lawyers; Both Campaigns Proceed With Transition Planning

Aired November 28, 2000 - 10:01 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The law called for the presidential election to be held the first Tuesday of November. But because of the complexities of the law, the race remains undecided on this the fourth Tuesday of the month.

Less than an hour ago, former Secretary of State James Baker introduced an expanded legal team for the Bush campaign. The lawyers' first statements focused on dispelling what they call "myths" about the Gore campaign.

As the days tick by, the deadlines bear down. Lawyers for the Gore and Bush campaigns have until 4:00 p.m. Eastern to file briefs on manual recounts and whether they should be invalidated.

The vice president is taking his case to the American people, meanwhile, even though the verdict may already be in. Checking the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, which shows the majority of Americans believe that Gore should now concede. Both legal teams have until 5:00 Eastern today to submit briefs to the Florida Supreme Court on the controversial butterfly ballot.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A two-day assignment is now entering its fourth week for the co-anchor you normally see sitting in this seat. CNN's Bill Hemmer is in Tallahassee and joins us with the latest from the Florida capital.

Hi, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Kyra. A lot of folks treating us quite well in Tallahassee.

Again, it is now Week 3, Day 21 since Americans went to the polls to select their next president. As Daryn just mentioned, again, the Bush legal team was marched out about 30 minutes ago here in Tallahassee. This now to contest the filing yesterday of the Gore campaign. They talked again about shooting down several what they call "myths" in the current fight.

Here's James Baker again from a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES BAKER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Regrettably, the Gore campaign has now filed a lawsuit contesting the certified election results here in Florida. Their aim, of course, is to overturn the outcome of the election after 19 or 20 days of counts and recounts and more recounts. America has never had a presidential election decided by a contest of the election outcome in the court. This is an extraordinary procedure and we are entering new, uncertain and controversial territory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Again, James Baker introducing his legal team. A team of four were standing there, three of which are new names in this current fight. And they talked about shooting down several myths, including Miami-Dade, the undervotes, they say, which count up to 10,000, according to the Gore campaign. They say that's not a surprise. Out of 600,000 votes cast in Miami-Dade County, only 10,000 were undervotes, meaning that, they say, no one voted for president, which comprised about 1.6 percent of all the votes cast in that part of Florida.

Also, the allegation about a mob mentality and mob intimidation. They say that's strictly not the case; the canvassing board in Miami- Dade voted as an issue of time and not intimidation. They also talked about the butterfly ballot, saying it was designed by Democrats, approved by Democrats, and therefore that was a non-issue. Again, the Bush team charting out its legal strategy here in Tallahassee today.

And about two hours ago, we talked about us getting knee-deep again in the law again today. And here's what we're watching thus far in Tallahassee. First of all, the state supreme court behind me. There's a 5:00 deadline for briefs to be filed about that butterfly ballot that came up here yesterday out of Palm Beach. Keep track of that one.

Circuit court across the street, we expect possibly new developments today. Again, it was filed yesterday and the judge gave the Gore campaign a day or two to get back to him on the witness list and evidence in that case. Following that, the Bush team has about four days to respond.

Two other bits of news here now: 1:00 local time here in Tallahassee, a special meeting will take place regarding the potential for a special session called in the state legislature. It is believed by many here in Tallahassee that the state house and senate does have the authority to go ahead and appoint the electors for the state of Florida. We'll watch that.

And 12:00 noon, behind me on the streets and the steps outside the state supreme court here, Jesse Jackson with a candlelight and prayer vigil. Again, 12:00 noon Eastern time, which is about, by my watch, about two hours from now.

We'll track it all, including attorneys from both sides coming up to talk about the latest legal wrangling.

So, Kyra and Daryn, I hope you continue to follow that legal bouncing ball. We'll try and make it as clear as we can throughout the day here.

PHILLIPS: You've been doing a great job sorting it out, Bill. Thanks. We'll check in with you later -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And we heard from James Baker in Tallahassee. Let's go to Bush headquarters, the Bush camp. And that's where our Tony Clark is standing by in Austin, Texas.

Tony, good morning once again.

TONY CLARK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

You know, just moments ago, the governor left the governor's mansion. At his side in the car, Andy Card, his chief of staff. They had met at the mansion for about an hour this morning, we believe to be talking about transition, because that's the main topic of conversation here in Austin, is what a Bush administration would be like if it ends up that he is the next president of the United States. Andy card the person that Bush has named as his chief of staff; running mate Dick Cheney the head of the transition team. He is in Washington.

And Dick Cheney told us yesterday that they have to go ahead with their transition planning even though the General Services Administration is not releasing federal funds for the transition, not allowing them in the office space in Washington.

Andy Card talked to the Clinton administration's John Podesta last night, expected to talk to him again over the next few days to try to make those preparations should Gov. Bush become the next president of the United States.

Andy Card was saying this morning that there is essentially a fine line that this campaign has to walk. They don't want to appear to be too presumptuous. But on the other hand, they also have to be very prepared. Should they become the next administration, they have to be prepared to move on Day 1.

We believe that the governor and Andy Card are heading over to the state capitol where they will continue to work on transition and also to confer with James Baker and the lawyers in Florida on the legal battle there. And then we expect them, you know, to usually come back around midday or so, at least that's been the governor's game plan for the last several days, back at the mansion around noon, 1:00, something like that -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Tony, interesting take by the Bush camp in dealing with the freeze on the transition funds, just to go out and get their own money. How exactly would they go about raising those funds? Where do you go? And what kind of limits would there be on raising funds for that purpose, do you know?

CLARK: Well, you know, the Bush campaign has shown over the past several months, in fact since it began, that it is very adept at raising money. You know, there was an e-mail that went out, oh, when the recount in Florida started where they were raising funds to pay for the recount and legal battle. So what they're doing now is turning to donors who can donate they say up to about $5,000 apiece, just individuals. They're not looking for any corporate donations, any political action committee donations, raising money. They say that they may set up their own office space since they can't get into the 90,000 square feet of office space that's set aside, at what used to be a Secret Service office in Washington.

And so they're going about this now because they say they have to do it now. It's not the first time that this has happened. The Clinton administration, the first Clinton administration, did that back in 1992, and the Bush administration just following suit -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Tony Clark in Austin, Texas, thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now for the sake of fairness, we're going to go over to Patty Davis, who's live in Washington for more on the Gore camp -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, Gore is at his official residence here in Washington. This is where he made his public plea last night for patience as this court battle goes on, trying to look as presidential as he could with flags behind him. He rejected Republican charges that all the Democrats want is recount after recount. And Mr. Gore said there hasn't even been one full count to his satisfaction yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRES. AL GORE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If the people do not, in the end, choose me, so be it. The outcome will have been fair and the people will have spoken. If they choose me, so be it. I would then commit, and do commit, to bringing this country together. But whatever the outcome, let the people have their say, and let us listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Now, Gore's legal team, his army of lawyers, is this morning filing a motion to expedite the activities in Leon County Circuit Court, get the court to go ahead and count those ballots as fast as possible in Palm Beach County, as well as Miami-Dade County.

The campaign's reaction to former Secretary of State James Baker's comments criticizing Vice President Al Gore for continuing on here is that the election needs to be certified for the person who actually won. And Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Vice President Al Gore, saying what everyone will find out is, when the count is all done, that it is Al Gore who will be the winner -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Patty, I'm curious. If Al Gore is not the winner and he is not named the president of the United States, has he talked about what he would do afterwards?

DAVIS: That's a good question. I think that's something that Al Gore is even thinking about himself right now. He has not -- he will not even entertain any questions along those lines because he wants to put all of -- everything that he's got and keep the public on track that he's going to win this election. That's the bottom line for him. So he's at least not saying publicly what his next move might be. There's been some suggestions that if he does have to concede this election, that perhaps he would be the front-runner for the Democrats in 2004.

So it will be interesting, if he ends up not winning, what he'll actually do.

PHILLIPS: All right, so that leads to my next question. Is he working on a transition team? Has he talked about anybody specifically?

DAVIS: He absolutely is working on a transition team. He has been meeting here. A couple days ago he had Roy Neel, who is leading that for him, as well as Bill Daley, Alexis Herman, who is President Clinton's labor secretary. They're all here discussing exactly what -- who would fill the spots, how the transition would work. So he's moving ahead as if he is going to win this election. No talk of concession at this point. It is talk of transition -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Patty Davis, thank you very much -- Daryn.

KAGAN: This legal fight also moves on to the U.S. Supreme Court, to a surprise of many people.

Covering that with the latest, here's our Bob Franken in Washington, D.C.

Bob, good morning.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course we're watching -- good morning -- we're watching every single aspect of this. And so today, we're watching the entrance where the lawyers for the two sides will deliver their briefs. They're due by 4:00 this afternoon. Don't be surprised if they get there much earlier.

One of the questions they're going to have to ask is, in effect, what will be the impact of a ruling here? The Supreme Court, of course, acting on an expedited basis and there's so many possibilities, but really it boils down to this: If the Bush campaign wins in Florida, the Supreme Court could very easily either rule for George W. Bush or it could declare the case moot, or, of course, could rule for the Gore campaign. And that would create quite a confusing situation, but it would probably be resolved in favor of Bush, and most people believe that the election would be over. But if there's some sort of split decision, it could just add to the confusion.

So bottom line here is that the Supreme Court, which is normally, Daryn, called the nation's "court of last resort," may not be the court of last resort. They may not even hold a hearing, however. And of course they could end up the week putting the final declaration on this election.

KAGAN: Bob Franken in the nation's capital. Bob, thank you very much. Good to see you.

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