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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMemory Lane: CBC's Lonely Objections to the Bush/Gore Vote Count
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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0101/06/se.02.html
Congressional Black Caucus Protests Electoral Vote Count
Aired January 6, 2001 - 2:00 p.m. ET
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And if you're just joining us, we're going to go straight to the press conference we told you about with the Congressional Black Caucus with regard to the -- all right, we're working on getting audio for you in just a moment. And while we're doing that, I will recap just a bit.
REP. ALCEE HASTINGS (D), FLORIDA: Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Today was a very solemn day, and the remarks are that many of us were not permitted, regretted by us all. Had I been given an opportunity to go forward with an appropriate objection, I would have indicated that because of the overwhelming evidence of official misconduct, deliberate fraud, and an attempt to suppress voter turnout by unlawful means, I felt the necessity -- as do my colleagues from the Congressional Black Caucus, and other members of the House of Representatives -- to object to the kinds of errors against democracy, the holy grail of democracy, that were permitted in the state of Florida.
And we felt that they should not be tolerated, as they would not be tolerated in other countries. Indeed, we should not tolerate them in America.
I would have said to Vice President Gore that Harry Truman once said that what is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular. What we were doing here today is right. I hope all of our colleagues and the American people see it that way. And that is why we raised our objection. And it's a proud moment for the conscience of the House of Representatives, for those of us that are representing the entirety of the Congressional Black Caucus, in the presence of our chairlady, and the members here assembled, we stand proudly to say that we did what was right.
JOHNSON: Forty years ago, during the civil rights movement, I marched for justice with a firm belief that my son would not have to march, in order to utilize his voting rights. Much to my dismay, 40 years later, I find myself marching again, but this time for my grandchildren, so that they will not have to march in order to be afforded the same rights.
How long will we settle for injustice in America? How long will we have to fight to perfect the 15th Amendment? How long will we have to struggle for something that should be every American's birthright? On election day, 100 million Americans went to the polls to make their voices heard. Those voices want to be heard still. No hyper- technical manipulation of election laws should derail the intent of the voter.
We cannot sweep under the carpet the claims of first-time college voters who say they registered to vote, had voter registration cards in their hand, but when they were not allowed to vote at the polls, because their names were not on the roll, the lines were busy all over the country, where they tried to call to clarify their registration.
We cannot sweep this under the carpet, the cries of those who were incorrectly removed from the polling places in Florida by an inept Texas company hired by Mr. Bush's brother.
We cannot ignore believable stories of police intimidation, questionable activities by poll workers and simple ineptness by volunteers at the precincts. We cannot ignore what we saw with our own eyes on television: polls closing on voters in St. Louis, un- American voting lines in Pennsylvania and incredibly complex ballots in South Florida.
There is overwhelming evidence that George W. Bush did not win this election, either by national popular vote or the Florida popular vote. As members of Congress charged with defending the constitutional principles of this country, it is our duty to challenge this vote.
<snip>
REP. CARRIE MEEK (D), FLORIDA: We dare not have it repeated. We dare not have the Tilden and the Rutherford Hayes situation repeated again, because it disenfranchised our people at that time.
This will disenfranchise -- it already has -- our people. We don't want that continued. We will always come out. We will always fight. We don't care who is it there.
We are very disappointed that our senators did not stand up and support us today. We helped to elect those senators. They will hear from us again, because we feel very disappointed that they didn't say we want our African-Americans, and our disjointed people who were not able to vote, to have someone in the halls of Congress to say, yes, give them a chance to debate this issue, so that the world could see what is happening here.
We have had our votes nullified. That's why we're so sad. They were nullified by defective voting machines, nullified by discriminantly distributed and targeted machinery, election machinery, in our neighborhoods. The votes were nullified by a purge of voting lists, undertaken by direction from a campaign that retained the equivalent of electoral thugs.
I was there. I saw exactly what happened. I was chased by these thugs. I was called a communist by these thugs, a socialist by these thugs, many of them who were not even citizens of this country. That's what happened in this campaign in Miami-Dade, Florida.
So that we were illegally struck from the voting list by a process that classified thousands of our people as felons. We were nullified again by deals that were cut in cities -- cut by the winning campaign, with our leading authorities in our cities. We were nullified by ballots that were printed in such a way that reasonably thinking citizens could not know for whom they were voting. That's why we're here.
Everyone should have a right to know how they're voting, and for whom they're voting. We were nullified again, by a secretary of state, who has already been given a very big accomplishment by this administration. She authorized her authority to prevent valid votes from being counted. So, it nullified the thing for us.
All that is left for us now, as the Congressional Black Caucus and as citizens of this country, is to exercise our First Amendment rights, while we still have it, and before it is further undermined by a politically dominated Supreme Court.
We exercise that right today to protest against this ill-chosen nomination. We exercise our right to petition our government for our citizenry to receive a redress of grievances. So, I speak for the majority of Americans, particularly African-American Americans, who did not vote for the new president-elect, but who now must live under an administration that appears to award spoils to the victors, even when the electoral process has been so clearly corrupted.
thank you
----
We're going to bring in our congressional correspondent Chris Black once again.
Definitely not business as usual today, Chris.
CHRIS BLACK, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not exactly. Things were going along as expected. The District of Columbia votes were recorded, and then Chaka Fattah, ironically a member of the black caucus himself but one of the two House tellers working on this Electoral College vote today, got to Florida. He announced the 25 Electoral College votes. Al Gore said, is there an objection? And there were a lot of them. A dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus, one after the other, rose to their feet to object to the votes from Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For what purpose does the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Deutsch, arise?
REP. PETER DEUTSCH (D), FLORIDA: To make point of order.
GORE: Gentleman will state his point of order.
DEUTSCH: Mr. President, we have just completed the closest election in American history. There are at least...
GORE: The gentleman will suspend. The chair is advised by the parliamentarian that under section 18 of title 3, United States Code, no debate is allowed in the joint session. If the gentleman has a point of order, please state the point of order.
DEUTSCH: Mr. President, there are many Americans who still believe that the results we are going to certify today are illegitimate.
GORE: The gentleman will suspend. If the gentleman from Florida has a point of order, he may state the point of order at this time. Otherwise, the gentleman will suspend.
DEUTSCH: I will note the absence of quorum and respectfully request that we delay the proceedings until quorum is present.
GORE: The chair is advised by the parliamentarian that section 17 of title 3, United States Code, prescribes a single procedure for resolution of either an objection to a certificate or other questions arising in the matter. That includes a point of order that a quorum is not present.
The chair rules on the advice of the parliamentarian that the point order that a quorum is not present is subject to the requirement that it be in writing and signed by both a member of the House of Representatives and a senator. Is the point of order in writing and signed not only by member of the House of representatives, but also a senator?
DEUTSCH: It is in writing, but I do not have a senator.
GORE: The point order may not be received.
HASTINGS: Mr. President, and I take great pride in calling you that, I must object because of the overwhelming evidence of official misconduct, deliberate fraud and an attempt to suppress...
GORE: The chair...
HASTINGS: ... voter turnout.
GORE: The chair must remind members that under session 18 of title 3, United States Code, no debate is allowed in the joint session.
HASTINGS: Thank you, Mr. President.
To answer your question, Mr. President, the objection is in writing, signed by a number of members of the House of Representatives but not by a member of the Senate.
Thank you, Mr. President.
WATERS: I rise to object to the fraudulent 25 Florida electoral votes.
GORE: Is the objection in writing and signed by member of the House and a senator?
WATERS: The objection is in writing, and I don't care that it is not it is not signed by a member of the Senate.
REP. BOB FILNER (D), CALIFORNIA: I have an objection to the electoral votes from Florida.
GORE: Is the objection in writing? Is it signed by a member of the House of Representatives and a senator?
FILNER: No, it is not in writing, but I rise in solidarity with my colleagues who have previously expressed their objection.
GORE: The chair thanks the gentleman from Illinois, but -- hey.
(end of video clip)
BLACK: There were 13 objections in all, 12 from minority group members in the House of Representatives, last one saw was Bob Filner, who's a Democrat from California, a former professor, a big supporter of Al Gore, and clearly was just moved by the emotion of the moment.
They were all gavelled down. It was a great irony for the vice president. Here were some of his biggest supporters in the House of Representatives. He was clearly sympathetic, understood what they were trying to do, but he went right by the book. There was no debate allowed under the law that governs this joint session. There is also -- no objection can be heard unless it is signed by a House member and a senator.
Not a single senator would join members of the Congressional Black Caucus, much to their dismay. About a dozen members of the caucus walked out in protest, to protest the Florida vote, and then had a press conference in the gallery.
<snip>
G_j
(40,367 posts)of this little piece of history..
malaise
(268,997 posts)is why we are where we are today.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Agreed on 2000 election.
And perhaps Obama's greatest mistake -- not prosecuting the leaders of US torture. John Yoo should be in prison, not at Cal. The next time Americans torture people I sadly say I will partially blame Obama.
Bluepinky
(2,268 posts)And I was angry that nobody was held accountable for the lies told to us prior to the invasion of Iraq and the outing of a CIA agent for political gain. Nobody was held accountable for the leak, except a bit player Scooter Libby was convicted of lying to investigators.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Pluvious
(4,310 posts)Today, lying by news media and the resulting polarity of perceptions is destroying our Republic.
I read that over a third of GOP voters get 100% of their "news" from only Fox.
We are the dead.
G_j
(40,367 posts)our national sense of integrity/morality. It really hurt us all.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Obama is a great domestic leader, one who wishes to seek consensus often.
But he's shied away from conflict, which has hurt him with Putin, with torture, and ultimately with the GOP. Obama's style is better for him and better for the long game. But in the long game, we will all be dead*. We needed action then as we need action now.
* slight distortion of Keynes
G_j
(40,367 posts)after Obama essentially let War Crimes of the former Republican administration go unmentioned, uninvestigated, and unpunished, the Republicans did every conceivable thing they could to hurt and obstruct him. You would think they might have the tiniest bit of relief or gratitude. Just shameful all the way around. IMHO..
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Passing a health-care bill arguable requires consensus-building skills.
But realpolitik is required for dealing with torture, and crimes against humanity by the Bush admin, Yoo, Feith etc. and dealing with the modern authoritarian billionaire-donor-purchased GOP.
That's not in Obama's personality. Bill Clinton, or LBJ, would have been dems that could have handled both the media/PR effort as well as the conflict required to punish these crimes against America.
And that is exactly why GOP dirty and criminal tactics during Obama years and the 2016 election have become normalized and accepted by all those who voted for Trump, the media and possibly now even the SCOTUS.
The proverbial 'slippery slope' became a sheer cliff that we plummeted over.
Bluepinky
(2,268 posts)Just like now, when the Trumpians tell us to get over it, Trump won.
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Here's the sad list of Democratic Senators who refused to support the CBC. Amazingly, many of the same did support the invasion of Iraq.
List of Democratic Senators who refused to support Congressional Black Caucus' objection over the 2001 election results:
Blanche Lincoln AR
Dianne Feinstein CA
Barbara Boxer CA
Joe Lieberman CT
Chris Dodd CT
Tom Carper DE
Joe Biden DE
Bill Nelson FL
Bob Graham FL
Max Cleland GA
Zel Miller GA
Daniel Akaka HI
Daniel Inouye HI
Richard Durbin IL
Evan Bayh IN
Tom Harkin IA
Mary Landrieu LA
John Breaux LA
Paul Sarbanes MD
Barbara Mikulski MD
Ted Kennedy MA
John Kerry MA
Debbie Stabenow MI
Carl Levin MI
Mark Dayton MN
Paul Wellstone MN
Jean Carnahan MO
Max Baucus MT
Ben Nelson NE
Harry Reid NV
John Corzine NJ
Robert Torricelli NJ
Jeff Bingaman NM
Hillary Clinton NY
Chuck Schumer NY
John Edwards NC
Kent Conrad ND
Byron Dorgan ND
Ron Wyden OR
Jack Reed RI
Ernest Hollings SC
Tim Johnson SD
Tom Daschle SD
Patrick Leahy VT
Maria Cantwell WA
Patty Murray WA
Robert Byrd WV
Jay Rockefeller WV
Herb Kohl WI
Russ Feingold WI
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)This is so important.
A modern success of voter suppression .
byronius
(7,394 posts)Same here.
I well up every time I see that clip. African Americans have always stood up for truth and justice even when others will not. And the beat goes on with stolen elections via voter suppression by the Republicans.
SweetieD
(1,660 posts)tried to save us. Looking back I think people will see the election of gwb as the beginning of the end.
DK504
(3,847 posts)This has it's beginning with the Reagan administration.
HelenWheels
(2,284 posts)Our country started its attack on the middle class hidden in the smiles of Reagan.
Bluepinky
(2,268 posts)He said "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."
Bluepinky
(2,268 posts)That Florida election was such a corrupt fiasco, from Jeb Bush certifying his brother's victory before the election to Fox News prematurely declaring Bush the winner on election night. Then during the recount after the election, the photo of dozens of Republicans protesting to stop the hand recount of votes, taking it to the US Supreme Court, which sided with Bush et al. That is how a terrible president is installed and a Democracy is killed.
And I watched the proceedings by the CBC noted above and felt dismay, anger and embarrassment that not a single Senator went on record to support them.
As bad as Trump is, I believe that George W. was the worst President ever: because of him, we got 9/11, the Iraq War, Citizen's United, more tax code manipulations to favor the wealthy, Wall Street collapse, etc. And it legitimized so many bad people with terrible ideas, like Carl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, etc. He also maintained conservative majority on the US Supreme Court by installing Samuel Alito and John Roberts on it.
elias7
(4,001 posts)Have been cheating at least since the "vast right wing conspiracy" of the 90's. They don't respect honesty or fair play. They believe the ends justify the means. Too slimy to have honor, to self-centered to have shame
Tatiana
(14,167 posts)I watched this live and bawled like a baby. And, I think a little part of Mr. Gore broke as well.
He fought the good fight all the way to SC. But we lost control of things. We let it get that bad.
And now it's even worse.
Our children will be helping this country dig itself out of this hole.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)At this remove from the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s, a lot of people would like to think that they for sure would have stood up in solidarity with black people in the south and the freedom riders who literally put their lives on the line for the cause of civil rights for all.
Not. One. Senator joined with the CBC. None. Every objection was disallowed under the rules, because any objection had to be signed by a House member and a Senator. And no Senators would stick their neck out. None of them. Every last one of them retired to their wood-paneled studies with their snifter of brandy, tut-tutted that it was all a damned shame, but there was nothing that could be done, just water under the bridge, an event gone beyond recall, the moving finger had written and moved on.
Would it have made any difference at all? Nobody can say. But it certainly made no difference at all to duck the controversy so completely. How heartening is it to citizens to watch each and every elected official scurry away from the fight? Thanks a lot, guys.
SweetieD
(1,660 posts)shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Didn't get sworn into the "upper house" until 2007.
Bluepinky
(2,268 posts)And because I know you're not picking on Bernie to start dividing people, Hillary wasn't a Senator yet either.
(Just for the record, Bernie voted against Iraq War, Hillary voted for it).
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Hillary was sworn in on January 3rd. This meeting was on the 6th. She was brand new, but she was a Senator on that day.
Bluepinky
(2,268 posts)Hillary missed a golden opportunity to stand up for Democratic principles (as did the many other Democratic Senators).
wryter2000
(46,045 posts)I was watching that in Oakland when our Congresswoman, Barbara Lee, appeared on the screen. There was an audible gasp in the theater.
Thank heaven Barbara Boxer signed in 2004. DUers filled her office with roses the next day.
Skittles
(153,160 posts)INDEED I DO
Amaryllis
(9,524 posts)that. It was on C-span for a couple hours before they voted to cerify the electoral votes. That election was also stolen.
bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)There is a long history of this attitude in the US. There is a basic belief that the American people cannot handle the truth. Some might say simply that Americans cannot handle uncertainity or ambiguity.
The Warren Commission IIRC was to present an 'answer' as quickly as possible. And remember all the obstacles placed in the way of any real investigation of 9/11.
One of the possible perceived dangers of a real investigation of election 2000--The longer the public examination of the FL election process continued the more people would begin to want to investigate what was actually going on in the election process in their own state.
I remember being stunned at the little, stupid actions and decisions that occured at each stage and realizing similar types of things were probably going on in each state. But then the result was given and there was no more daily discussion of our election process. So 'the people' forgot about election process until OH in election 2004 when a different state's process was examined. But that public examination 'was not allowed' to last very long.
With Obama the 'horror' of blacks actually daring to be part of the whole election process became clear. So voter suppression became blindingly 'necessary.' And we the people can see it and hear GOPers publically admit why this is being done. But ... again there is not a constant daily public focus on this threat to the integrity of our elections.
And now direct evidence of Russian access to voting machines at the local and state level. Is there daily continuous public discussion of this in all media at the local, state, and national level?
Having to think about this mess is simply too upsetting to face. Question the validity and integrity of the vote and you then begin to question the integity and validity of the country. This is simply too distubing for most of us. So we close our minds, hearts, and eyes and hope for the best. And whisper to ourselves at night 'Well, what can I do anyway??'
G_j
(40,367 posts)however, the real reason is almost always to cover-up the truth to protect the powerful.
panader0
(25,816 posts)A very disappointing day for the party.
Perhaps the desire to maintain propriety and order in transition.
But it has happened since then with Kerry and again with Hillary.
It seems that rules no longer apply and that we are adrift.