537 Votes (2020) - full transcript

In 2016 we faced an attack

of a new kind.

The Russians hacked democracy.

The Russian interference

only worked

because America was

a vulnerable target.

In the alleged collusion...

These allegations are just

absolutely preposterous.

Of course Russians preferred

Trump because Trump said

that he preferred Russians.

- Mr. Speaker, the president

of the United States.

- Oh, yeah!

- My fellow Americans,

we are fortunate to be alive

at this moment in history.

- Whoo!

- Never before has our nation

enjoyed so much prosperity,

the fastest economic growth

in more than 30 years

and over 20 million new jobs,

the first back-to-back

surpluses in 42 years...

- You've got mail.

- And next month,

America will achieve

the longest period

of economic growth

in our entire history.

- From the record-breaking

stock market

to the best job market

in a generation,

the U.S. economy

continues to defy

even the optimist's

expectations.

Al Gore and his advisers

are hoping

that focusing

on the booming economy

will put his campaign

on firm ground.

- He's the most qualified

person in my lifetime

to seek this job.

- You're pitted

against Al Gore now.

You used to be way ahead of him,

and now it's neck and neck.

Does that mean that the more

people see you, Governor,

the less they like you?

- The stage is set

for Bill Clinton

to hand off the baton to Al Gore

and lead that roaring economy

into the 21st century.

- I know my own imperfections.

Sometimes

people say I'm too serious,

that I talk too much substance

and policy.

- I was apprehended

in Kennebunkport, Maine,

for a DUI.

- You're now

in the final stretch

of this race for president,

what could be the closest

contest in 40 years.

- Whoever wins Florida

wins the presidency.

- Critical will be Florida's

12% Hispanic population.

- I think wherever

the Hispanic vote goes,

that is where the state

of Florida will go.

- This state is going

to be crucial

in the election of 2000.

- Miami, which had been,

famously,

a cultural wasteland

in the '70s and '80s,

began to emerge

as a hot, happening place.

South Beach began to emerge

as a place

for beautiful models

and people who wanted

to hang out

with beautiful models.

But Miami would be

a pleasant backwater

if it were not

for the Cubans who came here.

The Cubans provide, really,

the heartbeat of the city.

- There's two Cubas.

There's the island,

and then there's the peninsula

of South Florida.

- The '90s was when the Cubans

really coalesced their power

in South Florida.

- Coming into 2000,

of its 2.3 million residents,

Cubans were the majority

minority group

that outnumbered Anglos

by 200,000 votes

and even Black residents

by 220,000 votes.

- At one point,

every single lever of power

in Miami

is controlled

by a Cuban American.

- Think about that for a minute.

A major American city

and the entire city council

of most cities

were Cuban Americans.

And every single mayor

was a Cuban American.

That's nuts.

- And I'll tell you,

it's a pleasure to stand

on this stage today

and see all of the communities

and all of the faces

that make Miami

one of the greatest cities

in the entire world.

Here,

as in the Hispanic community,

words like "familia,"

"comunidad," "educación,"

"patria," y "Dios"

are not just palabras.

They're values and virtues

that guide everyday life.

And there's nobody

who understands

the meaning of those words more

than my friend Alex Penelas.

- Miami-Dade County mayor

Alex Penelas

is "People" magazine's choice

for sexiest politician.

- In his nine years in politics,

he has become adept

at responding

to what voters want.

The child of immigrants

works hard,

plays by the rules,

and ends up at the top

of the political ladder.

- Alex Penelas

was the boy mayor.

- Never lacking

for self-confidence,

Alex Penelas has propelled

himself to the center

of South Florida's

political stage.

- Alex Penelas was one of

the most exciting politicians

in the history of Miami.

- He was hanging

with Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

I thought he was kind of cool.

- I'm young,

and I think that's exactly

what the people

of this community wanted.

- One of the incredible things

that Alex pulled off

is, he realized how to be

a Democrat and how to live

in the traditional

Cuban American world.

And he could navigate

both of those simultaneously,

and nobody had ever

done that before.

- I, Alex Penelas...

- At just 34, Penelas has

been elected to the new job

of executive mayor

of Dade County.

- Alex Penelas

was the great Cuban hope.

This was the tipping point

at which Cuban Americans

became the dominant

political force in Miami.

- With 2 million constituents,

he is Florida's second-most

powerful politician

after the governor

and, some say,

the most influential Hispanic

politician in America.

- He was more dynamic

and had more promise

than Marco Rubio ever could've.

And as "People" magazine

pointed out,

he was also far better-looking.

- There was a lot

of momentum behind him,

and there started

to become this chatter.

I could really see him

as a cabinet secretary.

I could see him

as a U.S. senator.

- And much like a farmer...

- There were mentions

that Penelas was going

to possibly be Al Gore's

running mate in 2000.

- Alex had all the promise

in the world.

You know,

the sky was the limit for him.

- What can change that?

- And from the ocean waters

off the coast

of Florida tonight,

a real-life Thanksgiving story

to tell you about.

About 6:40 this morning,

a five-year-old child

came ashore

on a small inner tube.

- His mother, stepfather,

and other refugees drowned

trying to reach the U.S.

illegally.

- In Miami, family members

knew relatives

were making the crossing.

They had heard a boat capsized,

and they feared all were dead.

- When Elián González

is found Thanksgiving 1999

bobbing offshore...

This extraordinary image

of a five-year-old child

found by the two fisherman.

This child survived

this horrific tragedy.

- Cubans are very Catholic.

Story of Saint Lazarus,

story of the Virgin Mary,

and the story of somebody

being lost at sea,

la Virgen de la Caridad,

as Cubans call her,

which is the story of the guy

who doesn't think he's gonna

survive in the ocean,

and he looks up and he prays

to the Virgin of Charity...

And says,

"Please spare my life."

And that's the story

that Cubans saw

with Elián González.

- Everything became

very biblical,

very mythological.

Nothing to do with the actual

reality of the situation.

- Elián González in Miami today,

the five-year-old at the center

of an international tug-of-war.

On one side,

his father in communist Cuba

today demanding

his son be returned home.

- For most Americans,

when there's one willing

parent who is competent

of looking after the child,

it's a no-brainer.

- Every non-Cuban person

in the United States

thought Elián González

should be returned to Cuba.

- On the other side,

his extended family in Miami,

relatives

he had never met before,

exiles who came here

in search of freedom

saying Elián now belongs

in the United States.

- Every Cuban in Miami

thought that he should stay

with his relatives here in Miami

because that was

his mother's intent.

And she died trying to do that,

so let's honor her intent.

- If Elián González

was from Long Island,

then he should be returned

to his father, but he wasn't.

- This is strictly

a pissing contest.

Who's gonna get

the brownie points?

Is it gonna be Fidel,

God forbid,

or is it gonna be

the crazy people in this town?

It hasn't got anything to do

with this poor

little six-year-old kid.

He's like the wishbone

at Thanksgiving.

We got Fidel and his

crazy people on the one side

pulling one leg

in one direction,

and we got the crazy people

in this town

pulling on the other.

- The disparity

in public opinion

yielded some brutal satire

on shows like

"Saturday Night Live,"

"The Daily Show."

The Cuban Boy!"

- All I'll say about Elián is,

thank God he's Cuban.

'Cause if he was Haitian,

you would've never heard

about his ass.

Mm-mm.

If Elián González

was Elián Lemumbo from Haiti,

they'd have pushed

that little rubber tube

right back in the water.

"Sorry, fella. All full.

Good luck."

- Cuba demands return

of six-year-old refugee.

Yankees refuse to let him out

of the contract.

- A visibly angry

President Fidel Castro

accused the United States

government

of kidnapping

five-year-old Elián González

and demanded his return

within 72 hours.

- He says particularly

offensive to the Cuban people,

Elián's trip to Disney World

and then Universal Studios.

- Elián showed

some lingering signs

of his Thanksgiving ordeal

and rescue at sea

when he went on the

It's A Small World water ride.

- He was a little bit frightened

at one time with the boat,

and he asked the question,

"Is this boat going to sink?"

- Family spokesman

Armando Gutierrez

says Elián eventually relaxed,

and afterwards he gave the boy

a coin to toss in the water.

- Armando Gutierrez

showed up on the scene.

He said,

"Oh, I saw this on the news,

"the child in the sea,

"and I knew right away

this was a situation

that begged

for my intervention."

Armando Gutierrez

is a kingmaker.

You could think of him maybe

as part Karl Rove,

part Lee Atwater

with a kind of Desi Arnaz

sense of humor.

- They don't even want

to discuss it with Elián.

This is typical, you know,

propaganda,

the Cuban government

diverting attention

from a serious disaster.

- His main job was advising

judicial candidates,

which really meant

that he would scare

other judicial candidates.

- In Florida,

judges have to run for office,

so there's this whole

electoral industry

around judicial campaigns.

- He played all these games

where he would move one guy

from one seat to another seat,

pit people against each other.

And to him, judicial races

were a chessboard.

And nobody else wanted to do 'em

because they're boring,

kind of crap races.

But Armando made a niche

out of it,

and he made a lot of money

off of it

and he was very successful

at it.

- For example,

if he had a client

and somebody else

wanted to get into the race,

he would go to that person

and say,

"I happen to know you've said

or done these things,

so I suggest that you stay out

of this race."

And guess what. It worked.

- The shakedowns.

- He...

Armando Gutierrez was a very

congenial shakedown artist.

- When asked once

by the "Miami Herald"

what type of shady tactics

he may or may not have used,

Armando Gutierrez volunteered,

"I don't extort anyone."

- He was known to be one

of those black operatives.

- Nobody seized

the Elián opportunity

better than Armando Gutierrez.

In that moment,

he became the gatekeeper.

- Everybody ready?

Okay, everybody ready? - Yeah.

- This morning, another turn

in the case of Elián González.

A judge has ordered

the six-year-old boy

to stay in the U.S.

until at least March.

- The Miami family members,

they went into family court

and said, "We want the legal

right to have this child."

And Judge Rodriguez

ruled in their favor.

- In a sweeping decision,

family court judge

Rosa Rodriguez ordered

that the little Cuban boy

remain in his Miami home.

- The status quo shall be

preserved until such time

as a full hearing

on the verified petition

for temporary custody

and other relief is held.

- What nobody knew

was that Armando Gutierrez

had been the campaign adviser

to Rosa Rodriguez.

- Judge Rosa Rodriguez

of family court in Miami

is defending herself

over questions

about a former

campaign consultant.

When she ran for election

as judge in 1998,

this man was a key

paid campaign adviser:

Armando Gutierrez.

But now he's acting as spokesman

for the boy's Miami relatives.

- And of course,

Armando Gutierrez

was busy, you know, schmearing

the judges all over town.

Finally, they had the first

court hearing that came up

which turned out to be

really shady.

He seems to have his hand

in every judge's pocket.

- I haven't called her,

I haven't sent her a telegram,

and I haven't sent her

any smoke signals.

- Once again, it just

didn't pass the smell test.

- Tonight Attorney General

Janet Reno is making it clear

it is federal immigration case

and laws that will decide

all of this.

The immigration service says

he should be returned.

- The temporary legal custody

awarded his uncle

by a Miami judge

will not be recognized

by the Justice Department

because,

the attorney general says,

"That question remains one

of federal, not state law."

- Enter Janet Reno,

not just a Florida native

but a Miami native.

She spent 15 years

as the lead prosecutor

here in Miami-Dade County,

so she wasn't gonna let

some state elected judge

preside over this case

when she knew how the game

was played down here.

- What is at issue is a father

who wants his son home

and grandparents

who want their grandson home.

And these are bonds

that should be honored.

- Janet Reno spoke softly,

but she carried a big stick.

- In Washington, the only sound

was the metallic click

of a magazine sliding

into Janet Reno's Glock

as she slipped into

her periwinkle blue

ass-kicking tunic.

- America's most talked-about

six-year-old,

the boy on the cover of "TIME,"

offered a wave

to photographers this morning

as he was taken to school.

- Elián stopped being

a five- or six-year-old boy

very quickly and became

a symbol for American freedom

and liberty.

- Up to 40 news crews a day

from as far away as Italy

recording every moment.

- From his first thumbs-up

at the hospital...

- Yeah.

- To the parade

for the crowd last night...

The adults around him

have coached and coaxed

and never let him forget

the photographers.

- Even more bizarre,

the boy's bigger-than-life

celebrity status,

complete strangers waiting hours

to see or touch the child

they call a miracle.

- They stay glued to the radio,

absorbing every ounce

of information about Elián.

- A fascination fueled

by an aggressive campaign

led by family spokesperson

Armando Gutierrez

helping to keep 200,000

Spanish radio listeners...

- The fate of Elián González...

- And an even bigger English

audience tuned in daily.

- Cuban talk radio

in South Florida

in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s

was the most powerful

mobilizing force

anywhere in America.

- The radio here

gets politicians out

onto the streets, he said.

It mobilizes public opinion.

- Cuban American radio was,

in Miami, very similar

to what Fox News has been

nationally for Republicans.

- If you had a dime for each

time Cuban radio announcers

used the words "communist"

or "Fidel Castro"

in their newscasts,

you'd probably be on your way

to retirement by now.

- One of the things

that the Republican Party

figured out in Florida

and especially in Miami

was that you could weaponize

the Cuba issue,

and the way to weaponize

that issue

was to use the C-word,

"communists."

- Cuban radio stations

encourage violence

against moderate exiles,

those who want a dialogue

with Castro.

- There were Cuban Americans

who didn't want this kid

to stay here,

who thought he should go back.

They were too afraid

to speak out.

- In public, it was one thing.

In private,

it was totally different.

- They knew that

there would be repercussions.

Sometimes the repercussions

could be violent.

- Frankly,

the Cuban American community

has never shown itself

to have acted violently

under any circumstances.

- The bomb went off

at Miami International Airport

shortly before 11:30.

- The bomb exploded

shortly after midnight.

- Between 1965 through the '90s,

there were over 150 bombings

where some people lost

their businesses

or lost their limbs

or even their lives.

- The FBI says Miami has had

more terrorist activity

over the past three decades

than any other U.S. city.

- Bombings and death threats

and vandalism.

- Some believe the blast

has done irreparable damage

to the image

of Miami's Cuban Americans.

- Miami behaves

like a banana republic,

that the rights and the laws

are being violated

in order to support

the machinery

of extreme right-wing elements

in the Cuban American community.

- There were 800,000

Cuban Americans

living in Miami at the time,

but a minority of mostly

hard-liner extremists

very much dictated

the conversation.

- You've got this small

but vocal and hysterical

group of people fanned on,

always fanned on

by the Spanish-language

radio stations in this town

and these crazy people,

irresponsible people

that get on there

and whip them up

and encourage them

to do these things.

- Unfortunately,

Elián González did become

a proxy argument

for other things.

He was used

for political purposes.

- They're following orders

either from Clinton's lawyer

or Fidel,

and they need to answer

to the community

and to the world.

- There was this endless parade

of politicians

who came for a photo op

with this kid.

- It's mostly the Republicans.

They're the ones who are most

vehemently anti-immigration,

and yet now because they think

they can make some

political brownie points,

they're grandstanding

on this bullcrap.

- Incredible, the way

they were using the kid.

People coming from Washington.

That's pandering

of the worst kind.

- But to create this hysteria

over one immigration case...

That's all this is.

How many immigration hearings

are there

every year in this country?

How many thousands?

How many desperate children

come here,

including kids from China

and other comunista countries?

Anybody protesting about that?

- No.

- Every Republican politician

was there

sucking ass yesterday.

They couldn't get there

fast enough

to exploit this and jump

on the goddamn bandwagon.

- It was sad to see, really.

- One of the reasons

that Washington is listening

so carefully

to South Florida today

is because

of the solid vote bloc

that the Cuban Americans

can give.

In the last election,

President Clinton got

about 40% of the Cuban vote.

If a Democratic president

can get

over 35% of the Cuban vote

in a close race,

that will guarantee him

the state of Florida.

- At last night's Republican

presidential debate,

all the candidates demand that

Elián be allowed to stay here

and his father allowed

to join him if he wishes.

- The man ought to be brought

to the United States,

given a whiff of freedom

so he can see

how wonderful our country is.

- The election-year politics

surrounding

the Elián González case

got a little more intense today.

- Even the vice president

has split

with his own administration,

saying the court must decide

and sounding very much like

the Republicans.

- This child's mother died

in an effort

to get her child freedom.

- That puts Gore in opposition

to President Clinton

but in line

with South Florida's big bloc

of Cuban expatriate voters.

- Vice President Al Gore

visited a pharmacy

in Connecticut yesterday,

where he was getting some Advil.

Apparently, he hurt is back

flip-flopping

on this Elián issue.

I don't know.

Just back and forth.

Aah!

- Al Gore should use

his influence today

to give Elián a ray of hope

by insisting

that the administration

of which he is a part

uses its legal authority

to keep Elián

in the United States

while his best interests

are determined.

- I did not think at the time

that this thing would become

so big that it would influence

the politics of

the United States of America.

- President Clinton

has said repeatedly

he wants to avoid

playing politics

with the life

of a six-year-old boy.

- Maybe it's just because

I'm not running for anything,

but I just somehow wish

that whatever is best

for this child could be done.

- But Gore is running

for something,

and he faces an uphill fight

in Florida,

especially

if federal authorities

forcibly return Elián to Cuba.

- It wasn't until we started

to see that rift developing

between Al Gore and Bill Clinton

that we started to say,

"Oh, shit."

- Earlier today on

the federal courthouse steps,

mayors from 21 cities

mounted their protest,

the most controversial remarks

from Miami-Dade County mayor

Alex Penelas.

- In a press conference,

the mayor of Miami stepped up

to his sound machine.

- If their continued provocation

in the form

of unjustified threats

to revoke the boy's parole

leads to civil unrest

and violence,

we are holding the federal

government responsible

and specifically Janet Reno

and the president

of the United States.

- You don't want

to provoke Janet Reno.

She'll break free

from her moorings

and drop Elián

in Havana personally.

- First of all,

you never incite violence.

Even if you think you're right,

you don't incite or you

don't talk about violence.

- We will not lend

our respective resources,

whether they be in the form

of police officers

or any other resources,

to assist the federal government

in any way, shape, or form.

- Well,

I like the mayor very much,

but I still believe

in the rule of law here.

We all have to.

Whatever the law is,

whatever the decision

is ultimately made,

the rest of us ought to obey it.

- There was an explosion

in Miami.

- The Cuban community,

in many ways

led by Alex Penelas,

rose up and they said,

"No way this kid is going back."

There were demonstrations

in the streets.

There were people marching.

It was sort of like

"Les Misérables" Miami-style.

- And this small band

of malcontents,

of militant assholes who

insist on getting their way

and anybody in Dade County

that dares

to say anything opposite

is crucified, vilified,

"comunista, maricón, ,"

those are the people

that run all of South Florida.

4 million people

whose lives and fate

and everyday life

is determined...

And quality of their life...

By a few thousand

selfish imbeciles

who have no concern

for anybody else.

Nice going, Mayor Penis

and all you other

pandering assholes, you.

- There are a lot

of people here today

who are expressing

very deep emotions.

- You phony.

His name should be changed

from Penis to Pinga.

That's what I'm gonna start

calling him

Mayor Pinga Pequeño.

- Means "a man

with a small member."

- People have demonstrated

appropriately.

- Reporting from Florida

International University

in Miami, Ted Koppel.

- I remember Ted Koppel

comes to town.

Everybody's gonna be watching

"Nightline"

to see what happened

with the Elián saga,

and there was their nemesis,

Janet Reno.

- I want to work this out

so force is not used

so that we do it in a way

that is fair to all concerned.

- And then there was gonna be

Alex Penelas,

who people wondered

which way he was gonna go.

- And it was there that

Ted Koppel called out Penelas.

- Do you want to say

to the attorney general

to her face...

What you said

when she was not present,

namely, if there was violence,

it would be on her head

and on the president's head?

- And guess what.

Alex Penelas really didn't.

- Ted, I think we are all

responsible for our actions,

each and every one of us.

So there's no doubt that...

And getting back to the issue

of the polls,

every time I see a poll

that talks about...

To have his appellate rights

protected.

- Mr. Mayor, I've allowed you

to go on for a long time here

in the hope that you would

ultimately answer my question,

but you haven't yet.

- Ted, what I'd like

to tell the attorney general

is that we all are responsible

for our actions.

- What does that mean?

You're the mayor, right?

But if federal marshals

were to come down here,

they can count

on the local police

to back them up

and support them.

Is that correct? - Absolutely.

Public officials will be here

to maintain the order.

Absolutely. - Very good, sir.

- Congratulations.

You played yourself.

- Holy shit.

- It's Reno time!

Damn!

- Mayor Penelas,

you may very well regret now

what you said last week,

but I just... I want you to know

you left a lot of us feeling

incredibly disenfranchised

from this community, and it's

gonna be very, very difficult

to ever forgive you for that.

- He was really a Shakespearean

figure in that moment.

He was Macbeth.

- It is a tale told by an idiot,

full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing.

- "What do I do?

How do I get myself

out of this situation?"

- After four months

of negotiation,

it has come down

to the attorney general

flying down to Florida

in the late afternoon,

personally negotiating

with the boy's relatives.

But after three hours,

the attorney general left

without a resolution.

- A defiant Lazaro González

made it clear

he was not going to turn over

Elián to his father.

His great-uncle Lazaro told

Attorney General Janet Reno

that the boy could be removed

only by force.

- Elián González is being held

unlawfully in Miami

against his father's wishes.

- I want to be clear

that if we are compelled

to enforce our order,

we intend to do so

in a reasonable, measured way.

- Reno has already put

into action a peaceful plan

for the transfer of Elián

based largely on this trial run.

- No one was seriously hurt,

but outside the house

for some of those

who had been holding vigil

day and night,

the emotional wounds were deep.

- Is that democracy?

No, that's Castro tactics!

You have turned Miami

into Havana!

- I would like to take a moment

to talk to the exiled

Cuban community in Miami

who are so upset over the

recent government action there

and extend this heartfelt

message to them:

shut the hell up.

- It's supposed

to be nonviolent.

I just called the police

three times.

- I'm burning this flag

like Clinton did.

- It was a circus.

I just saw you throw a rock.

Reno is shit.

- Reno is motherfucker.

- All right, Miss Reno!

So you ready? - Ready!

- Go, Blue!

- Go, Blue!

- That's it!

Let's move, move, move,

move, move!

Give us the kids now!

- Hand over the children!

Happy Easter.

Hand over the children!

- Get your ass off the road!

- It was a very bad situation

post-raid

in the Cuban American community.

Emotions were inflamed.

Mayor Penelas hoped

to inflame those emotions.

- I think, you know,

despite this horrible episode,

what's happened here

is unforgivable.

- And to the mayor of Miami,

what's-his-name,

you say you're ashamed of your

new home, the United States?

I'll tell you what.

I'll buy the raft.

- When Elián was finally

returned to Cuba

and to his father,

hell was gonna freeze over

among exile hard-liners

before they forgot this betrayal

by Clinton-Gore.

- There was a lot of tension

between Bill Clinton's

Cuba policy

and the exile community

in Miami,

and Al Gore, having been

the vice president,

inherited all of those tensions.

- There was going to be

a price to be paid.

The Gore-Bush election

was an opportunity

for el voto castigo,

the revenge vote.

- It's a punishment vote.

Remember to vote

and punish these people.

- El voto castigo,

they called it,

the punishment vote.

Whom will Cuban American

voters punish?

Al Gore and the Democrats.

- I will fight

for your loved ones,

for your community,

for the future of Florida

and the United States.

- George Bush,

the luckiest politician

in the history of America,

was handed this

delicious plate of voters...

- Compliments of what happened

to Elián González

and, suddenly,

Armando Gutierrez,

who had to choose

not only a judge,

like he was used to doing.

Now he was allowed to choose

the next president

of the United States.

This is the guy you vote

for to punish, castigo,

el voto castigo.

Talk about fortune.

- It's the top political job

in South Florida,

and Alex Penelas is determined

to hang on to it.

- There was an effort to fund

his reelection campaign

from Florida Democrats

and national Democrats,

and I certainly was helping

to raise part of the money.

- Penelas, who's collected

four times as much money

as his main opponent,

could spend $3/4 million

on TV and other advertising

by the end of the campaign.

- This was his last election

as mayor,

and he was looking

to run for governor

or senator afterwards.

If he became an incumbent mayor,

then there was no reason

where he couldn't spend

some political capital

and help Gore

on the national campaign.

- It wasn't until 1:30

in the morning

that Alex Penelas

could claim reelection

in the first round of balloting.

- I'm happy to tell you

that we've won,

ladies and gentlemen.

- There was now the critical

two months of election,

from Labor Day to Election Day,

to help Vice President Gore

gain as much

of that Cuban percentage back.

- From Alex Penelas, you're

always gonna get leadership,

even the most difficult

of situations.

Whether the hurricanes

or any other crisis,

you're always gonna get

leadership from Alex Penelas.

- A few weeks

before the election,

Alex Penelas was supposed

to calm down

the declaration

of el voto castigo

by appearing with Hialeah mayor

Raúl Martinez

to bolster Hispanic support

for the Gore campaign.

- They asked me

to stand with Alex

at La Carreta in Hialeah.

It was gonna be

some national event

where all the Hispanic

nationally would be supportive,

and of course, you know,

they wanted

to get the media there.

I said, "Okay, I'll be there

at 11:00 in the morning,

and I'll just be there

as a second banana to Alex."

- So Gore just had

to convince Cuban Americans

that he was truly on their side

on the Elián argument

and he disagreed

with Bill Clinton,

and the only thing he really

needed to make that happen

was to have Alex Penelas,

the mayor of Miami-Dade County,

the most important county

for Cuban Americans

in the country,

to stand at his side

and back him on that.

- Vice President Gore flew in

to hopefully collect

on what he thought

was Mr. Penelas' word

and accept Mayor Penelas'

endorsement.

- Got there.

By 10:30, 10:45,

Alex wasn't there,

and we decided that we're gonna

do a press conference there,

which we did.

Alex never showed up.

- We were told

that Mayor Penelas

was going to be going to Spain.

- They probably thought he was

gonna be in the country.

They probably expected that.

- Hard to campaign for Al Gore

when you're in Spain.

- I said, "Wait a minute.

"Planes for Spain don't leave

until 6:00 at night.

This is 11:00 in the morning."

- Al Gore wakes up one day

and says,

"What happened to Alex Penelas?"

He's gone.

He folded like a cheap suit.

- Mr. Penelas decided

to leave Vice President Gore

literally standing at the altar.

- I was annoyed and pissed,

because you don't do that.

- I went to rallies.

I heard other people speak

about Gore.

But dónde está Alex Penelas?

He was nowhere to be seen.

- Dónde está Alex Penelas?

- When the going gets tough,

Alex gets going.

- No Republican has won

the presidency without Florida

since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

- Florida was key.

I mean,

if we didn't win Florida,

we wouldn't have won

the election.

- Thanks for coming.

This is a huge crowd,

which leads me to be able to say

Florida is gonna be

Bush-Cheney country.

- Didn't hurt

to have your brother

as the governor of Florida.

- On the stop today,

Bush rallied the crowds

with Florida's governor,

his brother Jeb.

The younger Bush has led

a huge "get out the vote"

effort here,

and advisers believe

Florida is the state

that will propel them

to victory.

- A person that can get things

done in Washington, D.C.,

that will eliminate

the cynicism of the past

and bring a new era

for this country:

my brother George W. Bush,

the next president

of the United States.

- The candidate

poured it on thick,

especially on Cuban voters,

whose ears tune in to talk

of Elián and Fidel Castro.

- We will keep the pressure

on Fidel Castro

until the people are free.

- South Florida

was so important.

Both candidates made

multiple stops here

the day before the election.

- South Beach center stage

for a late-night

rock-and-roll rally

that Al Gore hopes will ignite

last-minute Florida voters.

- "If you want to win,

vote for Gore and Lieberman."

That was Stevie Wonder's lyric.

- The entire 2000 presidential

campaign for Al Gore

culminates on the sands

of Miami Beach,

the last rally of the campaign

putting an exclamation point

on the importance of

Miami-Dade in this election.

- I think this may be

the most important election

of my generation.

- I didn't see Alex Penelas

at that rally, by the way.

- But will it make a difference?

- Florida was it.

Everyone on both campaigns

knew it was coming down

to Florida.

- Good evening, and welcome

to what promises to be

a long and exciting night.

- This being billed,

as the polls close

before the election,

as the closest election

in a generation.

- What happens tonight will set

the nation's next agenda

for the 21st century.

There are many who believe

that this election is not just

about the next four years,

but it may well decide

the direction of our country

for the next generation.

- I was in charge

of election night in Austin,

and we had a party-like

atmosphere.

As the returns were coming in,

there was great joy.

- Bush picks up

his first state in the South,

Gore gets his first win

in New England,

but no call yet in what both

campaigns say may be the key

Florida.

That race, the heat from it

is hot enough

to peel house paint.

At 6:50,

I am sitting

in the Fort Lauderdale Airport

to get on Southwest Airlines'

flight to Nashville.

- Our John King is with the

Gore campaign in Nashville.

- The polls were gonna close

in ten minutes.

- The presidential race

is crackling

like a hickory fire here.

- All eyes on Florida

at this hour, Tim.

Both campaigns made

an enormous investment there.

- By the time we landed

in Tampa,

they declared Florida for Gore,

and we're celebrating.

- Let's take a look back.

We have not heard one word

tonight about Ralph Nader.

Mike, excuse me one second.

I'm so sorry to interrupt you.

Florida goes for Al Gore.

- Al Gore wins

the state of Florida,

giving him the first big state

momentum of the evening.

- You can bet that Governor Bush

will be madder

than a rained-on rooster

that his brother, the governor,

wasn't able to carry

this state for him.

- That is a very, very, very

important state for Al Gore,

and now the pressure

is on George W. Bush.

- If Gore had lost Florida,

you might be saying sayonara

to his hopes.

- All of a sudden,

there were reports:

"Well, there's issues.

There are problems."

- Passengers

are getting off flights,

emerging from their

airborne information vacuums

only to learn that Bush

now appears to have the edge.

- When we landed in Nashville,

now they're not so sure

that we won in Florida.

- The Bush campaign

is now contesting

the projected victory

for Al Gore

in the state of Florida.

- In the Austin hotel

where Governor Bush

is watching the results

with his family,

there is a strong sense

that the race in Florida

is not over.

- Florida, for example,

I'm gonna wait till

they count all the votes.

And I think America

ought to wait

before they count

all the votes too.

- What the networks give us,

the networks taketh away.

NBC News is now taking Florida

out of Vice President Gore's

column and putting it back

in the "too close to call"

column.

- Florida is back in play.

- Florida is back

in the toss-up category.

- Hoo, what a night.

- It's too close to call.

- It was either gonna be a tie

or maybe a little advantage

to Gore.

Fox News changed the argument.

- Fox News now projects

George W. Bush the winner

in Florida

and thus, it appears,

the winner of the presidency

of the United States.

- It was actually

George Bush's cousin

who made the call at Fox News.

The other stations started

to call it for Bush.

- In a time of peace

and prosperity like this,

it's possible for the country...

- Stop. Stop.

- To have such a division

as they do...

- Doris, Doris, Doris, Doris.

George Bush

is the president-elect

of the United States.

He has won the state of Florida.

- ABC News is now going

to project

that Florida goes to Mr. Bush.

- George Bush will become

the 43rd president

of the United States.

- Sip it, savor it, cup it,

photostat it,

underline it in red,

press it into a book,

put it in the album,

hang it on the wall:

George Bush

is the next president

of the United States.

- This is the scene

in Austin, Texas, tonight.

It's been a long,

suspenseful evening.

- Gore has, in fact,

called president-elect Bush.

No word on what was said

in that conversation

but that it was very direct.

- Boom,

he goes out and concedes

an election that he has won.

- Gore didn't want

to hold up the nation.

He's a Boy Scout in that regard.

- Al Gore appeared

to be conceding.

- There was no documentary

evidence that he has lost.

- Why the hell

would you concede?

What do you have to lose?

Just stay quiet.

- We're told Gore

is on his way here.

Again, we were told that

about 10, 15 minutes ago.

We haven't seen him yet,

but that is supposed to be soon.

- Vice President Gore's

motorcade

is bound for the War Memorial,

where he plans to admit defeat

and say a few comforting words

to his supporters.

- I was one of the people

to call up the vice president

and I'm screaming in the phone,

saying, "You can't concede!

"There's still outstanding votes

"that we still haven't counted.

I don't care what

the TV stations are saying."

- The margin in Florida is now

said to be a mere 600 votes.

- Something screwy's going on

in Florida.

We know large amounts

of precincts

are not showing up on the

secretary of state's website.

- This is clearly no time

for the vice president

to make a public

concession speech.

- The votes hadn't

been counted yet.

The votes hadn't

been counted yet.

- Sir, sir, sir, it's urgent.

- What is it, David?

- Daley needs to speak to you.

He just needs five minutes.

- Look, I just spoke to Bush.

He's waiting for me

to give this speech.

- Mr. Vice President.

- I'm not gonna

keep him waiting.

- Please, Mr. Vice President.

There's a problem

with the numbers in Florida.

- The crowd has gotten

extremely quiet

as journalists are discussing

why the vice president

has not come out

and made the concession speech

that they all expected him

to make.

- And then he took it back.

- The vice president

has re-called the governor

and retracted his concession.

- And I thought, "Oh,

this is gonna be a shit show.

This is gonna be

a total shit show."

- The race is not yet over.

- "The circumstances

have changed.

"I need

to withdraw my concession

until the situation is clear,"

Gore says

in what quickly becomes

a tense call.

Bush is said to be indignant.

- I thought it was

an interesting comment he made,

and I felt like

I was fully prepared

to go out and give a speech

and... thanking my supporters.

- Sources close

to Gore recall Bush

saying his brother Jeb

assured him he'd won.

Gore responds,

"Your little brother does not

have the last word on this."

- The Associated Press believes

that the uncounted votes

in Broward

and Palm Beach Counties

could allow a change

of the lead...

- Oh, my word.

- In the Florida vote.

- Hello, 911?

Cardiac arrest unit, please.

- Broward and Palm Beach

are the uncounted votes.

What if this goes the other way?

Well, it's only 3:17.

We're here. - Right.

- Cameras are hot.

- Folks, it's 3:30 in

the morning here in the East,

but the excitement level

has just risen once again.

- Let's go home.

- We're thinking

we're gonna send you

some of our cold pizza.

Would that make you feel better?

No.

Tim gets his board out.

Uh...

Good grief.

- For those of you

who went to bed or started...

Went off to brush your teeth

and come back and say,

"Hello, what's this,

Dan Rather?"

Well, I gotta tell you, folks.

I don't know.

I don't know anybody

who does know.

- TV 3 control.

Okay, I want you

to pull back Florida

and I want you to say

it is equally probable

that either candidate can win

in Florida.

- All right,

we're officially saying

that Florida

is too close to call.

- We are going to take Florida

back into the

"too close to call" column.

- That means he is short

of the 270 electoral votes

that he needs to win.

- Florida secretary of state

says the margin in Florida...

Get this, folks, and hold on

to the bedstead or something...

629 votes.

We could be going

to Recount City.

- Just an hour or so ago,

the TV networks called

this race for Governor Bush.

It now appears...

It now appears

that their call was premature.

Under Florida state law,

this triggers

an automatic recount.

Our campaign continues.

Recount! Recount! Recount!

Recount! Recount!

Recount! Recount!

Recount! Recount! Recount!

- Once again,

we're talking about Florida.

Controversy surrounding the vote

raises a myriad of issues

about our democracy.

And while there is

much disagreement

about how to proceed from here,

nearly everyone seems to agree

on one thing, and that is

holy.

- This morning, we frankly

still don't have a winner.

If you are just waking up

and just tuning in,

you should know that after

a long night of swing votes,

the presidential race is frankly

still too close to call.

- What's the problem

with the election?

Voter fraud, Electoral College?

- The white man?

- All along, we thought

there was a possibility

that George W. Bush

might win the popular vote

but Al Gore could win

the electoral vote.

As of right now, Al Gore

has won the popular vote.

- Out of something like

97 million votes cast,

we're looking at a difference

of 213,000 votes.

- But it is

the Electoral College

that matters there.

George W. Bush could still win.

- They both are still short

of the needed 270

because of the state of Florida.

- All that matters is Florida

because mathematically,

it takes Florida's 25 votes

to put either man

into the White House.

- In my mind, Gore would've won.

I mean, he won the popular vote.

- Right, Chris.

By the popular vote,

the majority of the people

are saying, "We want Al Gore

to be our next president."

But the Electoral College,

which is run by the white man,

is saying, "We don't care

what you niggas want."

- Almost 6 million votes

in Florida.

987 separate the two candidates.

- And so as a result,

the state of Florida,

by law, has gone

to an automatic recount.

- You know, Florida

has always been a troublemaker,

all year.

Hurricanes, Elián González,

Alonzo Mourning's kidney,

'NSYNC, booty bass...

All that shit's from Florida.

- Let's be clear, again,

whoever wins in Florida

wins the White House.

- So what do you think

the answer is?

- I think the answer

is fuck Florida.

Chris, look.

It's right down there

at the bottom.

All you gotta do, lop it off.

- Why can't we just

cut this state adrift

and let it crash into Cuba?

- South America, take it away!

- Across Florida and the nation,

this cliff-hanger vote, to many,

like a sporting event.

At 9:00 a.m., Bush's lead

stands at 941 votes.

By 11:23 a.m., 799 votes.

Then back up to 830 votes.

But by 12:30 p.m.,

Bush's lead slips again

to 795 votes.

2:30 p.m., Bush's lead

down further to 787 votes.

By 4:25 p.m.,

Bush's lead plunges to 341

with only five more counties

left to report.

- In a state as populous

and diverse as Florida,

we were scratching our heads

to think that it could even

be that close.

- Now to the woman

who's in the crosshairs,

in the spotlight.

- Katherine Harris

is about to learn

what real pressure is all about.

- She's the secretary

of state, Katherine Harris.

- The Gore campaign

has already compared her

to a Soviet commissar.

- Tonight the question of

who will be the next president

is right on her desk.

- Katherine Harris was

the chair of the Bush campaign

and she was

the secretary of state.

- Harris was the state cochair

of George Bush's

presidential campaign.

Today Governor Jeb Bush said

she is doing a good job.

- I think she's doing

the right thing.

- Two Democratic legislators

told ABC News they now think

she is trying to hand

the election to George Bush.

- Is there some concern

in the Bush camp

that putting it in her hands,

a Republican,

the cochairperson of the Bush

campaign in Florida,

will tarnish the results?

- Your Governor Bush's

co-campaign chair in Florida!

Seems to me you can be accused

of political cronyism!

- Do I know who has officially

won the election?

Yes.

Am I going to announce it? No.

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.

- So here you have the woman

who is responsible

for counting the ballots,

who's like this with Jeb Bush.

- It's rather third world-like.

- In a clear sign

Democrats nor Republicans

trust the other,

both parties are sending in

former secretaries of state

to oversee the recount:

Warren Christopher

for the Democrats,

James Baker for the Republicans.

- Warren Christopher

sat us all down and said,

"This is the world's greatest

democracy.

"We have a dispute about who is

to be its next president.

"We will conduct ourselves,

on our side of the ledger,

as if this is the world's

greatest democracy."

- I don't see any threat

to our Constitution.

Indeed, what we're doing

is a constitutional process.

There's no

constitutional crisis.

We're proceeding in accordance

with the Constitution and laws

and will continue to do so.

- Warren Christopher,

who was virtually petrified

by that time,

came down here thinking

this was some kind of

high-minded

constitutional debate.

He didn't understand

Florida politics.

I'm not sure he understood

politics at all.

- Is politics

about uniting people?

- Politics is about winning.

- Roger Stone has always been

a shadow figure

in the Republican Party

nationally.

He's always been known

to be the fellow you would

want to call if it's something

you didn't want anyone in

your campaign to get close to.

- The assistant for Jim Baker

called me and she said,

"Mr. Baker would like you

to go to Florida

"and help on the recount.

How soon can you leave?"

- Beyond the closeness

of the vote in Florida,

there are also questions

about irregularities

at polling places

and alleged problems

with the ballots themselves.

- So I packed my bags

and I headed first

for Palm Beach County.

- In West Palm Beach,

voters were protesting

what they say

was a confusing ballot

and they want to vote again.

Al Gore's name appeared

on the left,

Pat Buchanan's slightly above

on the right.

Some say when they went

to select Gore,

they mistakenly punched

Buchanan.

- 19,000 ballots were tossed out

because they contained

a double punch.

- Hundreds of voters

take to the streets,

where election officials

have tossed out

those 19,000 ballots

punched twice

cast by voters

like Robert Hurst.

- I cast a vote for Gore,

but at the same time,

I must've punched

the Buchanan column as well.

- Only an idiot would vote

for Pat Buchanan by mistake.

- Butterfly ballots.

- Right.

- And the little old ladies

who voted by error

for Pat Buchanan,

it was the worst horror

since the Holocaust,

and it was terrible.

- It's kind of caveat emptor.

I guess it is buyer beware.

- Are you suggesting

they did not intend to vote

for Pat Buchanan?

- Pat Buchanan suggested

they didn't intend to vote

for Pat Buchanan.

- If the two candidates they

pushed were Buchanan and Gore,

almost certainly, those are

Al Gore's votes and not mine.

- You know America's gone

through a wormhole

when Pat Buchanan is the voice

of fairness and reason.

I'm sorry, it just...

We are living in a freak zone.

- There was more than enough

legal and political talent

to see Palm Beach through.

So I called Baker and I said,

"You know, everything here

seems to be under control."

And he said, "Good.

"I want you to go down

to Miami-Dade.

Things down there

are really screwed up."

- If there was gonna be

shenanigans and mischief,

it was likely

to be in Miami-Dade,

so it made sense to go

where it's likely to be stolen.

- He had this iconic moment,

did Tim Russert, on NBC

when he said it all comes down

to Florida, Florida, Florida.

He might as well have said

it all comes down

to Miami, Miami, Miami.

- All right,

here is a quick summary

of today's major developments.

George W. Bush now leading

Al Gore by just 290 votes.

This number will inevitably

change before it's all over.

Which way,

we simply do not know.

- A confident

and determined Al Gore

making extremely clear

he is not close

to conceding this election.

- When people cast votes,

the votes should be counted.

And there are more than enough

uncounted votes

to decide the outcome

of this election.

There are thousands of them,

and the margin

is in the hundreds.

If you ignore the votes,

you ignore democracy itself.

- One of the central issues

of Al Gore's contest

of the Florida election

involves thousands of ballots

in Miami-Dade

and Palm Beach Counties

that showed no vote

for president

in either the election night

machine count

or the automatic recount.

Election professionals call

these ballots undervotes.

- Miami-Dade County,

ground zero

in the Gore campaign's search

for discarded votes.

More than 5% of the ballots

here, say Democrats,

are in the drawer marked

"No vote

for president... rejected."

Election officials call that

an undervote.

- That's what's in the parlance

called an undervote,

but it's a vote.

- At issue, about 10,750 ballots

that were counted by machines

without votes being recorded

for either candidate.

- It makes absolutely no sense

that 10,000 people

would go to the polls

during a presidential election

and not vote for a president.

- People do not stand in line

for seven hours

to vote

for their city commissioner.

- Voters who choose not

to cast a vote for president

have that right,

and no one else has the right

to make their choice

for them.

- We found a flaw

in the machine design

that cost hundreds of votes

to Al Gore.

- Dade County had an antiquated

IBM punch card voting system...

Which IBM will tell you

if you vote at the end

of the day

and the machines

aren't cleared out,

it will only show the dimple

because the card cannot punch

all the way through

because the chads,

as they're called,

are filling up the machine.

- The so-called pregnant

or dimpled ballots...

Do they show voters' intent

to select Gore,

as Democrats claim,

or are they simply

an indentation on the ballot

from an indecisive voter,

as Republicans claim?

- And that's why

you had dimpled chads

and hanging chads

and pregnant chads.

- The tiny bits of paper

that could pick the president.

So much fuss over chad.

- Now to the land

of the hanging chad.

- I had to go

to the doctor today.

You know why?

I have a hanging chad.

- The question of what to do

with these ballots that are...

- Pregnant or dimpled.

- Dimpled chads.

- Dimples, hanging chads.

- Oh, yes, there's a right

to vote in this country.

There's not a right to indent,

and that's what a lot

of people did.

- The race comes down

to the chads.

- A large majority

of the undervotes

came from underserviced

counties.

They don't have the machines.

They don't have the personnel.

They don't clear out the chads.

Gore won these precincts.

Poor voters vote

on poor voting machines.

Rich voters vote

on state-of-the-art

voting machines.

Welcome to America.

- As the national debate

over the vote count goes on,

the late-night comedians say,

"Count us in."

- I wanna have an impromptu

and candid conversation

totally off the cuff.

Just give my guys a second

to set up the teleprompter.

- Okay, all right.

Everything's set,

Mr. Vice President.

- This has been

an extraordinary eight days

for the American people.

There is a simple reason

that Florida law

and the law in many other states

calls for a careful check

by real people

of the machine results

in elections like this one.

- Governor Bush,

why have you consistently

refused to meet with me

so we can end

this political infighting?

- 'Cause.

- The reason?

Machines can sometimes misread

or fail to detect

the ways ballots are cast.

And when there are

serious doubts,

checking the machine count

with a careful hand count

is accepted far and wide

as the best way

to know the true intentions

of the voters.

- Why can't we have

all the counties in Florida

conduct a hand count so the

will of the people is heard?

- 'Cause.

- Oh, come on, George.

- Democrats wanted

to count the votes,

and Republicans did not.

We should both call

on all our supporters

to prepare themselves

to close ranks as Americans

and unite the country

behind the winner

as soon as this process

is completed.

- As the machines

are still counting votes

in Florida today,

the Gore campaign ups the ante,

demanding hand counts.

- The issue was getting

the votes counted.

The initial thing

was to make sure

that the canvassing board

would agree to recount.

- The Miami-Dade

Canvassing Board was the focus

because they had more

than 10,000 undervotes.

- Miami is unique in that

we don't have an elected

secretary of election.

When something happens

in a recount situation,

we actually have in place

before election time

a three-judge panel.

Now, we call it

a three-judge panel,

but they're not all judges.

- Lawrence King, David Leahy,

and Myriam Lehr.

Leahy was the supervisor

of elections,

and the other two

were county judges.

- David Leahy reported

to Mayor Penelas,

and the canvassing board

was working on the 18th floor

of Government Center,

which Mayor Penelas controlled.

- And they're in charge

of setting the standards,

setting the rules.

- We don't have standards

for looking at what is a vote

or what is not an un...

Or not a vote.

- They kind of make up the

rules as they go a little bit.

- Three somewhat obscure

Miami officials

suddenly had immense power.

- While Florida's other counties

started their recount

almost immediately,

in Miami-Dade County,

something strange was going on.

- Quite frankly, based on what

I heard, I don't feel prepared

to really give

an intelligent answer.

- The votes were not

being recounted.

- Somebody faxed to me

an editorial

that was in the Havana newspaper

about the election in Florida,

and the headline was

"Banana Republic."

Now, when the Cubans

start making fun

of our election process...

- Elián went the wrong place.

- Elián went... that's right.

- It's day 10 trillion in

the Florida election debacle.

I say we give it one more week.

Then we give ourselves back

to England.

- But now, under pressure

from the Gore campaign,

Miami-Dade County

has reversed course.

- This afternoon,

the canvassing board

voted unanimously to go ahead

and hold this hand count.

- I'll vote yes in concurrence

with the recount of all ballots

in Dade County by hand...

- This is a huge victory

for the Gore campaign.

- In Miami-Dade County,

election workers are preparing

for the monumental task

of counting every ballot

by hand.

- The seals cracked on

the ballot trays in Miami-Dade

as, this morning, this county

joins Broward and Palm Beach

in this huge undertaking.

Look, everybody, it's...

Vice President Al Gore,

everybody.

- I just want to say

how excited I am to be here.

Conan, it's like

that Gloria Gaynor song

"I Will Survive"

when she sings,

"I will survive"...

- Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I got that. Yeah.

- And then in that second

verse when she sings,

"Every vote in Dade County

must be counted."

- Sir, that's not in the song.

- It's in the live version.

- No, it's not.

- George W. Bush filed

the first lawsuit.

- The fate of the presidency

hangs in the balance today

before Florida's Supreme Court.

This afternoon, attorneys

for George W. Bush will argue

the hand recounts going on

in three heavily Democratic

counties should be stopped.

Lawyers for Al Gore will try

to persuade the justices

to let the hand counts continue

and to include them

in Florida's final tally.

- I just assumed

that by November 20th,

the election would be over with,

but I guess not.

- With his presidential hopes

on hold,

George W. Bush went back

to the Texas capital today,

turning a day at the office

into a photo op,

his troops

aggressively challenging

Vice President Gore's

in and out of court.

To thoroughly discredit

the ballot-counting process

as flawed and corrupted.

What they don't say is that

they also fear that a recount

could give the edge

to Vice President Al Gore.

- While Democrats are sitting

around trying to figure out

how to do the right thing,

Republicans are figuring out

how to win.

- It was a three-pronged effort,

what I call a stool.

And the three legs that we saw

was the courts,

the recount,

and then the street.

- We'll bring more.

We'll bring more.

- Camped out in a motor home

in the middle

of the media staging area,

you would think

they would want to talk

about their mission.

- It's a Bush operation.

- It's a Bush operation?

- Yeah.

- What goes on

inside this trailer?

- Oh, I can't talk to you

right now.

- In all, an army

of 75 operatives came to Miami

to shape public opinion.

- I would have a motor home

and use it as a staging area

and also as a place for us

to work out of.

- You had to show

a physical presence.

You had to show grassroots

support for your point of view.

- If you want

to sway public opinion,

then you have to take it

to the people.

We have freedom of speech too!

And we're watching you!

You're not gonna steal

this election!

We were fighting for victory,

and we weren't going

to be outmaneuvered.

- This was ground zero,

and the whole election

would end up hinging

on what happened in Miami-Dade.

- We wanted to take this

to farce

because it was so farcical.

- We had T-shirts printed.

Every couple days,

we had different slogans:

"Don't be had by a chad."

"Who let the chads out?"

And I had one of those shirts

made with a banana on it

saying that Florida

is a banana republic.

- I didn't know who came up

with the Sore-Loserman logo

and sign, but it was brilliant.

- I came up with the slogan

of "Sore-Loserman,"

which is a take

on "Gore-Lieberman."

By doing that,

it also created enthusiasm,

and people were coming down

for the spectacle

and the theater.

- And the Republicans

used Cuban talk radio

to mobilize their foot soldiers

to Government Center

in downtown Miami.

- Spanish-language radio

in Miami-Dade

is enormously powerful

and very effective

and extremely efficient

at reaching precisely

the people you want to reach.

- There was something still

that was burning

inside the souls

of so many Cuban Americans.

- 'Cause it was pretty powerless

when Elián was taken away.

They felt

they had been betrayed.

Now we can get something.

Now we can stomp our feet

and stop Al Gore

from becoming president.

- My wife, who is a fluent

Spanish speaker, did a tour

of the Spanish-language

radio stations,

and they were likening

the situation in Miami-Dade

to the situation in Havana.

This is a takeover

like when Fidel took over.

- And in the same way that

Elián González had been stolen

and sent back to Cuba,

the election was being stolen

and a call

for many Cuban Americans

to go to defend the ballots

in the way they couldn't

defend Elián González.

- The messaging,

first and foremost,

is, Bush won.

The messaging is that Democrats

are trying to overturn

a national election,

and one very popular message

from the Cuban community

was, you know, this was a coup.

- It's overheated rhetoric.

It worked extremely well.

- Bush for president!

Bush number one!

- The talk in Miami at the time

was that somehow,

the Gore faction were going

to steal the election.

- If I'm about

to steal an election,

the first thing I'm gonna do

is say,

"They are going to steal."

- We'd like America to know

how the presidential election

is being stolen

at this time

in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

- It started

to become apparent...

Even someone like myself,

who voted for Bush

and wanted Bush to win

in part because of Elián...

Something strange was going on,

and it wasn't necessarily

the message

that we were being given

that somehow the Democrats

were the ones

who were doing the coup.

It was the other way around.

If you say Bush won,

then everybody's gonna say,

"Oh, Bush won,

and these guys are trying

to steal the election."

See, it's all about

what you call it.

And, man, Republicans

are so good at that.

They're just better

at manipulating the situation

to put themselves in a place

where they're seen

as the winners and the victims

at the same time.

- All Americans want a fair

and accurate

count of the votes in Florida.

And I believe if there is

a fair and accurate count

of the votes in Florida,

we will prevail.

- Gore underestimated

the Bush campaign.

He fought in the courts

and he fought

in the recount center,

but he actually told his people

to stand down

and not turn out in the streets.

He did it to his peril.

- I was advised

that Reverend Jackson said,

"We're gonna take

to the streets."

and Vice President Gore said,

"If you take to the streets,

there's potential for violence.

Please don't do that."

- We were sure that we were

gonna be met with street brawls

outside the recount centers

and that we were probably

gonna be overrun,

and it never came to that.

- This kind of thoughtful,

conscientious liberalism,

they're just completely

played up for the other side.

- Good to see you.

- It is good to see you,

my friend.

- They turned out to be wusses.

They got their ass beaten

by the Republicans.

- The recount in Florida

was a street brawl

for the presidency

of the United States.

- And for more now on what's

happening today in Florida,

we're gonna go back

to our Bill Hemmer,

who's still in Tallahassee.

Hi, Bill. - Hey, guys.

It's starting to rain.

Bummer.

- The question of what to do

with these ballots

that are dimpled or pregnant

will take center stage

in the courtroom right

behind me later this morning.

A judge is going to be asked

by the Democratic Party

to order elections officials

to make those ballots count.

- Late into the night,

the court worked.

A crush grew outside...

Tired, cold,

anticipating an answer.

Four hours after sundown,

it came.

- The court holds

that amended certifications

from the county

canvassing boards

must be accepted by the

Election Canvassing Commission

through 5:00 p.m.

on November 26th

if the secretary

of state's office is open

for the special purpose

of receiving

amended certifications.

- So the recounts will count.

It's a victory

for the Democrats.

- In Miami-Dade,

the biggest problem now:

meeting that five-day deadline.

With a break for Thanksgiving,

they had planned on finishing

ten days from now.

- I think that Thanksgiving's

gonna be disrupted

for a lot of very dedicated

public servants,

but we all know

how important this is,

we all know the stakes,

and we all want it done right.

- The Bush campaign fears

it could result in a victory

for Democrat Al Gore.

- I firmly believe

that the will of the people

should prevail,

and I am gratified that the

court's decision will allow us

to honor that simple

constitutional principle.

- In Dade County,

the undercount,

ballots with holes not

completely punched through,

will be examined individually

by the county's

canvassing board.

- The rules were changing

minute by minute.

- You don't know

what you're doing.

You count his votes.

You count her votes over there.

Excuse me, did you count...

If you're not sure

if a person meant to vote

for what they did,

you put it in the milk.

- Republican fears

and Democratic hopes

ride on these ballots,

an estimated 10,700 set aside,

not counted because the

machines couldn't read them.

- This has caused

some consternation

among the Bush camp.

- We had a meeting

in the trailer,

and they were telling us

what was about to unfold

if Gore got ahead,

that it would change the dynamic

of not only the recount

but also the PR effort.

- I was working

out of a trailer.

I was using a walkie-talkie

that worked not terribly well

to keep in touch

with my contacts inside.

All we wanted in Miami-Dade

was for the count to be over.

- I said, "Well, why don't we

do what Democrats would do?

Why don't we do

some civil disobedience?"

- I was on the 18th floor

working on the recount,

and the next thing you know,

the elevator doors open.

And then they started chanting.

- Stop the count!

Stop the fraud!

Stop the count! Stop the fraud!

Stop the count! Stop the fraud!

- Can I have everybody's

attention?

There's a full protest

out in the lobby,

and I think it could escalate

out of control.

Let us in! Let us in!

- Republican demonstrators

stormed the hallways

and demanded access

to the recount room.

Let us in!

- They were shouting

and yelling.

Let us see the ballots!

Let us see the ballots!

- And then they started

pounding the glass.

The world is watching!

The world is watching!

The world is watching!

- And that's when we said,

"What the fuck is this?"

- This whole thing turned

into un arroz con mango,

which is Cuban slang

for clusterfuck.

Voter fraud!

Voter fraud! Voter fraud!

- Who are these people,

and what are they doing?

Let us in! Let us in! Let us in!

- And in the middle of this,

I go up to this very thick

window and I said...

Hi, I'm a lawyer

with the recount.

I need a sample ballot, please.

- I got a report from my contact

that a Democratic official

and an unidentified man

were trying to take

a sheaf of ballots...

- And it's marked, by the way,

"Official Democratic Party

Training Ballot."

It's a sample ballot.

- Into an anteroom to the side

that had no windows

in which

there were no observers.

- And there was this one

Republican woman,

and she looks at me, and in

a loud voice, she says...

- He stole a ballot!

- "He stole a ballot!"

- Stealing a ballot!

- I'm a lawyer.

- You can't take that!

- The mob turns right on me.

- Republicans accuse Joe Geller,

the chairman

of the Democratic Party,

of stealing a ballot

as a chase ensues.

- He's being confronted

by these kind of thuggish guys.

- It was pretty... pretty scary.

People were yelling

and screaming

and actually physically pushing

and jumping right into me.

- Where is all the Republicans?

- I just thought really that

I was gonna get knocked down

and stomped and that maybe

that would be the end of me.

Thief! Thief! Thief! Thief!

- Those were the pictures

that were being played

all over the nation as Miami

being a banana republic.

Let us in! Let us in! Let us in!

- The people inside

were terrified.

The world is watching!

The world is watching!

The world is watching!

- Given Miami's history,

where taking the wrong side

of a political issue

might cost you your limb

or your life,

they were right to be scared.

- I called Alex Penelas

and I said,

"Alex, I am on my way,

and you and I

have to stop this."

And he said, "No, don't come.

I'm not gonna get involved."

- Penelas certainly had a moment

where he could've walked in

and said,

"We're doing what's right."

- He could've called

the police department.

They would've moved

those people out.

He just... he just melted.

- It's unclear what the actions

of Alex Penelas,

who was then the county mayor...

Couldn't really figure out

where he was.

- Again, where was the mayor?

- The invisible Alex Penelas,

who just seemed

to come and then go.

- Around that time,

Alex Penelas was in Tallahassee,

and according to reports,

he was caucusing.

He was meeting with Republicans.

Republicans, mind you.

- Al Cardenas was the chairman

of the Florida Republican Party.

Alex Penelas' people

were talking with him,

and there was speculation

that Alex was meeting

with Mario Diaz-Balart, then

a very powerful state lawmaker

who in fact had a big hand

in drawing

congressional districts

and was going to be drawing

them for the 2002 election,

that they would carve out

a congressional district

for Alex Penelas, a Democrat.

- I...

I don't... I don't...

Very interesting.

I don't...

I don't...

Trying to be

after-the-fact accurate here.

I don't... I don't remember that.

- If that's true, you know,

to say it's unfortunate

and disappointing

would be polite.

It is just so disheartening

to hear that.

- After he lunched

at the Governor's Club

in Tallahassee

with a Republican lawmaker

and met with others

instrumental in drawing

a congressional district

Penelas might win,

suddenly, the

Miami-Dade Canvassing Board,

one of whom works for Penelas,

voted to stop

the manual recount.

- This is a key moment,

and I want you to listen here.

What has just happened is,

the canvassing board

in Miami-Dade County

has decided

to stop the hand recount.

- My vote is that we not proceed

and that we allow

the certification

that we did on November 8th

after the second

automated recount

be the certification submitted

to the secretary of state.

- The board finally decided

they did not have the time

to count all of the ballots

before

the Florida Supreme Court's

5:00 p.m. Sunday deadline.

- They had plenty of time

to count.

They absolutely

had plenty of time to count.

- I do not believe

that there is time to carry out

a complete, full manual recount.

- The idea that they didn't

have enough time

to count 10,750 undervote

ballots in four days,

that's horseshit.

- And with that, they declared

their work done... again.

Done.

- The canvassing board

has flip-flopped

at least three times

that I can count.

First, they decided

not to do a recount.

Then they decided

that they would do

a full recount

of 680,000 ballots.

Then they were gonna

limit it to 10,000.

And now they've decided

to call it off completely.

Now Dade County looks like

a complete mess,

and deservedly, it is the

laughingstock of the country.

- The canvassing, the recount,

was stopped midstream.

Can you think of something

more undemocratic than that?

- The most clear-cut,

obvious decision,

which very simply

is count all the votes,

they reversed it.

- The video that I saw

on the television today,

I thought was pretty shocking.

I mean, a crowd of people

going in there,

storming that room,

trying to take it over,

and forcing that board

to change its rules.

I mean, we haven't seen

that kind of an angry crowd

since Elián González

was rescued from Miami.

Is that what passes

for democracy in Miami?

- A dangerous dimension to

this campaign was introduced

where you had really

the threat of violence

in a lot of ways

scaring away many of those

who believe that the process

should be able to work.

- These demonstrations were

clearly designed to intimidate

and to prevent a simple count

of votes from going forward.

- From their perspective,

I can understand

where they thought that we

might've been intimidated

and our vote was based

on that intimidation.

The fact is that it wasn't.

- And as for Mr. Leahy,

let's just get the record

straight.

He belongs

in the Cowards Hall of Fame.

- I simply made my decision

based on the fact

that we could not certify

in time.

- We got the message across,

and the recount was stopped.

- I think justice won.

I think the American people won.

- At the time,

it appeared spontaneous:

angry residents denied the right

to see their votes recounted.

Let us see the ballots!

- But the reality is,

it was an orchestrated

Republican protest.

- The press is in!

The press is in!

- Sir.

- Let us in!

- Sir, you need to...

- Let us in! Let us...

- This was not an ad-hoc,

impromptu kind of operation.

- It looks like chickenshit.

It looks like a bunch of people

who dress well and, you know,

shower twice a day

flipped democracy.

- And most were not even

from here.

- Are you local? Are you...

- You gotta ask my guide.

- Her guide, a Republican

public relations officer,

cut that conversation short.

- You know,

there was a suggestion made

by the Republicans, by the way,

that those were

"local Cuban American activists

who were upset

by the situation."

Nobody was in guayaberas.

Nobody had an accent.

They were dressed in tweeds,

and they all had square heads.

- In Miami-Dade, the majority

of people who took part,

yes, were seasoned

political operatives.

- The mob that the GOP sent

to stop that count in Miami

was billed at the time

as a spontaneous

grassroots uprising,

one that just happened

to be made up

of no one at all from Miami,

all Republican

national operatives,

including at least a half dozen

who, according to IRS records,

received payment

for their services

from the Bush-Cheney

recount committee.

- We did such a great job

that the campaign in Austin

actually thought

we had lost our minds

and that we were doing something

that was not well thought-out,

but when we told them that,

of course,

it was all well-thought out

and preplanned,

they were satisfied, obviously,

with the result.

- It was run with care

and with shrewdness

and evil intent.

And it worked.

- It became known as the famous

Brooks Brothers Riot.

Because Republicans are,

generally speaking,

better dressed than Democrats.

- Roger Stone has claimed

that he was in the motor home,

the Winnebago...

- Telling them

to coordinate and encourage

the Brooks Brothers Riot.

Is that accurate?

- No, it is not.

Roger Stone is full of shit.

Had he shown up,

he would've been thrown out.

No, the Winnebago,

he was not in.

The Winnebago, I rented.

And he was not part

of the Bush effort.

I had not seen Roger Stone

down in the recount,

although I've heard

he's taking credit

for things that he hasn't done,

true to Roger Stone.

- Please give me

a fuckin' break.

Don't use that.

- The idea

that you would take pride

in being an operative

who stopped an election

reveals that

for the Republicans,

elections are nothing more

than a dirty trick

to hold on to power.

- One man's dirty trick

is another man's

civic participation.

- That Bush operation trailer

has moved on.

- The Brooks Brothers Riot

is a travesty.

The fact that

there was not enough police

to prevent that from happening

and that Alex Penelas

did not prevent violence

from ending American votes

from being counted

it is to this day

a searing travesty.

- I'm proud of what we did.

It was necessary

that it be done.

And but for perhaps

a little of what we did,

maybe the outcome

would've been different.

- Certainly heard some

Democrats whispering yesterday

about wondering if

there were political pressure

brought to bear on those three

canvassing board members.

- We learned later

that Judge King and Judge Lehr,

two of the three members

of the canvassing board,

had been clients

of Armando Gutierrez.

- Judge Myriam Lehr

and Judge Lawrence King,

2/3 of the Dade County

canvassing board,

were clients

of Armando Gutierrez.

- I didn't know that.

- Wow. That's fucked up.

That kind of bullshit,

local politics,

happens all the time,

but it's rare

that it has a national impact

and an international impact.

- Do you feel comfortable saying

Armando would never have called

Judge Lehr and Judge King

and intervened?

- You kidding me?

Yeah, I wouldn't say that.

- You wouldn't say what?

- That Armando would not

pick up the phone and call

or show up at their house.

You kidding me?

- No, no, no,

he was talking to them.

- I'm sorry?

- There's no doubt

he was talking to them.

- Why isn't there a doubt?

- Because if you know

Armando Gutierrez,

you know he was talking to them.

- It's South Florida.

Anything is possible.

- The judges deny

they were pressured by anyone,

and Armando Gutierrez said that

he had not spoken to anybody

on the canvassing board

and that he had actually been

out of town on a trip

with his son, named Chad.

- Another fixed election

in a town

that's famous

for fixed elections.

You know, it used to be

Chicago was the most corrupt

city in America.

Then it was New York,

the mobsters and all the other

and Tammany Hall.

And now

Miami's number one, baby!

- Oh!

- We may not be the best,

but we're the goddamn crookedest

on the face of the Earth.

- This morning, Al Gore

was in a lighthearted mood

as he helped to load food

for Thanksgiving dinners

for needy families

in the Washington area.

- We don't have to count

these boxes, do we?

- No, no,

they're already counted.

They're already counted.

- We don't have

to recount them, do we?

- That was before the recount

in Miami-Dade was halted.

- This decision by the

Miami-Dade Canvassing Board

could be the last big blow

for the Gore campaign.

- Now, this is one

of the motherlode areas

for potential Gore votes

that hadn't been counted

the first couple times around.

- With just 930 votes separating

the two candidates statewide,

the Gore camp loses 157 votes

gained here so far

and the potential

for hundreds more.

- Republicans have done

everything they can

to delay the hand count

to run out the clock.

- Democrats turn to the Third

District Court of Appeals,

filing an emergency petition

asking the court

to force the

Miami-Dade Canvassing Board

to hand-count its votes.

The Court of Appeals says no,

but Democrats vow to go

to the Supreme Court.

- After weeks of setbacks,

Al Gore wins a battle

in his bid for the presidency.

The Florida Supreme Court

justices ordered officials

in all of Florida's 67 counties

to hand-count ballots

that did not register a vote

for the president.

- In addition, the circuit

court shall enter orders

ensuring the inclusion of

the additional 215 legal votes

for Vice President Gore

in Palm Beach County

and the 168 additional legal

votes from Miami-Dade County.

- Now the margin is 154,

according to the

Florida State Supreme Court.

- Florida's supreme court

comes back and says,

"Everybody recounts everywhere."

And then we're up there right

in the middle of doing it,

and the Republican comes

tearing down the hall

and says, "The Supreme Court

just halted the recount."

- We have to stop?

Even in the middle

of the machines?

Okay.

- Granting George W. Bush's

request,

the United States Supreme Court

jumped into the battle

for the White House today,

ordering an abrupt halt

to a hand recount

of thousands of ballots

in Florida.

- This is an ABC News

special report.

"A Nation Waits."

Now reporting, Peter Jennings.

- Good evening, everybody.

I'll make it quick and simple

to beginning.

The Supreme Court

of the United States

has reversed the decision

of the Florida Supreme Court

five justices to four.

- I read the Supreme Court

opinion and said,

"We're fucked."

- How many ballots

have you counted?

- Ion Sancho oversaw the recount

of the Miami-Dade undervotes.

Close to halfway through

before the stay stopped them,

Sancho was disappointed.

- Because we were discovering

valid votes

cast in the presidential race

that citizens of

the United States of America,

who made a good faith effort

to go down and case those votes,

expect to have

their votes counted.

- The Supreme Court says,

"We're not gonna let

the count continue."

And suddenly,

George Bush became the

president of the United States.

- The final margin

in the state of Florida:

five votes to four votes.

- I won fair and square.

That's right, state of Florida.

Read my mouth.

I am the president

of the United States.

- And by the way, Florida,

do us a favor.

Stay out of the next election,

okay?

Just... we don't need it.

- Interesting fun fact

about the election:

Al Gore got more votes

nationally,

so that's kind of funny.

And...

Kind of funny.

I bet Al Gore will get

a big kick out of that

when he hears it.

- The election was lost

in many different places,

but it was stolen in Miami.

- This was a game of gotcha.

I've been telling you

since the 8th of November

they stole it fair and square.

They stole it a half a dozen

different ways at least

because the fix was in.

- The Republicans wanted

to pull off the perfect crime.

You needed the right people

to be in the right places

to do so.

From Armando Gutierrez

to Roger Stone

to Katherine Harris to Jeb Bush

all the way up

to a Supreme Court justice

appointed

by George W. Bush's father,

it was a royal flush.

- You know, it's one thing

to bullshit people

because you're

a great bullshitter

and you've got a good message.

- I know the human being

and fish

and coexist peacefully.

- It's another thing

to literally scheme your way

into getting a result

that is not perhaps

the proper result.

And that's what happened

during that election.

- And tonight, for the sake

of our unity as a people

and the strength

of our democracy,

I offer my concession.

- After endless court battles,

the Florida vote

has been certified

by Florida secretary of state

Katherine Harris,

giving the state and the

presidency to George W. Bush

by a total of 537 votes.

Wow.

That's a landslide

if you're running

for student council treasurer.

- She certified

a 537-vote total.

- The margin was 537,

a number that for any Democrat

over the age of 35

is stamped into their head.

- 537 votes.

I could probably go

and talk to, personally,

537 people that I know.

- 537 votes. That's stunning.

- What happened to Al Gore

is very simple.

He won the state of Florida,

but Miami-Dade made sure

that at least 10,000 ballots

never saw the light of day.

- All of the dimpled chads

were never counted ever,

ever, to this day.

- And the takeaway is,

close elections can be stolen.

- It's now clear that the

Miami-Dade recount being ended

was the seminal event

that decided

the 2000 presidential race.

Had things not gone down

as they did in Miami-Dade,

we might have had

a different result.

- It was the first domino

to fall.

It was the beginning of the end.

- We drew the short straw

and had that terrible mess

with the Elián González case.

Cost him a lot of votes

in Florida.

- It was humiliating

to many Cuban Americans,

and the 2000 election

was payback.

- Bill Clinton got about 35%

of the Cuban American vote

in Florida in 1996.

In 2000, Al Gore's support

dropped to less than 20%.

What was the decisive factor

in this election?

The U.S. Supreme Court,

the Clinton scandals,

the debates, or a little boy

shipwrecked in Miami?

- Who's to blame?

Democratic sources say

it's South Florida's

former Hispanic golden boy,

Alex Penelas.

- Alex Penelas may have cost

Al Gore

the presidency

of the United States.

- Before they're being made

to me,

it's obvious nothing more

than a PR stunt.

- The boy mayor

finished his term

and Alex Penelas decided to run

for United States Senate.

- This Miami-Dade mayor

and U.S. Senate candidate

is doing damage control

to save his reputation

after being singled out

by former presidential

candidate Al Gore.

"One of the other candidates

in this race became in 2000

"the single most treacherous

and dishonest person

I dealt with during the

campaign anywhere in America."

- Alex Penelas ended

Al Gore's political career,

and Al Gore returned the favor.

- It was a moment.

It was a Miami moment.

- I have something else

to ask you,

to ask every American.

I ask for you to pray

for this great nation.

- We're way ahead of you.

- This country would've been

so different

if Al Gore have been elected.

We would've addressed

climate change.

We would have maintained

our position

as the moral leaders

of the free world.

- Vice President Al Gore read

the national security

daily briefs every day

as vice president.

I can't imagine he wouldn't have

read them twice a day

as president.

I don't think that 9/11

would've happened.

- We would not have gone

to war in Iraq.

- The United States

ended up in two wars

and killed 350,000

to 500,000 people.

- When we went to what I thought

was an unjust war in Iraq,

I actually regretted the fact

that he had become president.

- We went from

a $300 billion surplus

to running

a $1/2 trillion deficit.

We put a giant hole

in the American economy.

We almost went insolvent.

- I can draw a direct link

to a war

we shouldn't have fought

to over 3,000 soldiers dying

to 537 votes here in Miami.

- What happened

in Miami-Dade County

changed the political landscape

of this country forever.

- America changed as a result

of that one year in Miami.

We have become one

of the most polarized nations

in the world.

What Miami was, America became.

- If people do not think that

elections have consequences,

they do.

You need to take the time

to vote.

- Democracy is messy,

but I'm a political animal.

Politics is in my blood.

So once an election is over,

the best thing to do is start

focusing on the next election.

- Ladies and gentlemen.

- Who discovered America?

Who... who... who...

Who discovered America?

- Ladies and gentlemen.

- Who discovered America?

Who... who... who discovered...

Who discovered America?

- Who discovered America?

- Who discovered America?

- Who discovered America?

- Who discovered America?