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?