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Saturday Morning News

Roger Stone and Peter Fenn Discuss the Florida Recount

Aired November 18, 2000 - 11:25 a.m. ET

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

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: With the recount and the legal maneuverings still in progress, the candidates are striving to appear presidential before the American people. For more on that, we're joined by Republican strategist Roger Stone and his Democratic counterpart, political consultant Peter Fenn.

Good morning, gents.

Thanks for coming in and talking to us today. Appreciate it. Sharing your weekend with us on all this.

I'm not going to ask you, each one of you, which candidate you think is doing the best at this right now because I can pretty much guess what your answers are going to be. But let's play some tape. I think we've got some tape right now of each of the candidates. Let's take a look first at Al Gore, and I want to get each of your thoughts on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERT GORE (D), VICE PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And what is at stake is more important than who wins the presidency. What is at stake is...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right, now, what do you think about that and the image that he is trying to portray, starting with you, Peter.

PETER FENN, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Well, I think that he's reflecting the feelings of all Americans, and that is that our process, our democracy is critical. You know, it may be kind of ugly, the way we do all this. It may look like we're making sausage. But in the end, it tastes very good.

HARRIS: Him saying all this in front of the White House...

FENN: And he's bringing...

HARRIS: ... actually, was part of the plan, correct?

FENN: Well, yeah. He was in his office that day, and I think, you know, both candidates want to appear presidential, want to appear to be leaders of this country. HARRIS: All right, and...

FENN: No question.

HARRIS: All right, Roger?

ROGER STONE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think that the vice president's kind of changed his rap a little bit. First he's for the will of the people, then he's for the rule of the law when the court rules for him. And then when the court rules against him, say temporarily, then he's for the will of the people. This is a floating crap game in which both candidates have to kind of change their posturing slightly.

The truth is, nobody looks good in this. Both candidates have managed to stay above their operatives and try to stay out of the squabbling. But the day-to-day combat, with new developments each day, really isn't good for anybody here. And whoever wins this prize is going to have a very difficult road ahead.

HARRIS: Yeah, a lot of people are saying the same thing, and they're all thinking that this can really only go on for a certain length of time. How long do you all think the window is before there's going to be diminishing returns on this right now? Peter?

FENN: Well, I think the important thing is to get it right, not to get it fast. My guess, though, is that -- look, you're going to have a hearing before the supreme court tomorrow. They will probably rule on Tuesday. These absentee ballots you're getting counted now. I mean, I would think that this thing could all be done before the end of the month without any -- without any problem.

I mean, you do have this difficulty in Seminole County, and you do have the Palm Beach question. But you know, I think the people of this country, they don't want it to go on, you know, ad nauseam, but they do want to get it right. And they do want it to be fair, and they do want people enfranchised.

HARRIS: Right.

FENN: And that's exactly what the vice president has said all along. He's been totally consistent.

HARRIS: Roger, your thoughts?

STONE: I think this could drag on for quite some time. First of all, I don't think that the process can allow the wholesale manufacturing of enough votes for the vice president to, in essence, steal this election. Now, there's a number of different things that could happen. I suspect that the vice president will win in the Florida state supreme court, one of the most liberal, activist and nine-zip Democratic courts in the country.

The federal courts have not said they won't hear this. They have -- they have left the door open to hear an equal protection question. There's also the question whether the Florida legislature, in the hands of the Republicans, can overrule the supreme court in electing -- and knock out the election of electors. There's a number of avenues here. No one knows how this is going to come out. But this crown is going to be very tarnished when somebody gets it.

HARRIS: All right, well, let's be fair and take a look now at some tape we've got of George W. Bush. And I want to get your thoughts on what -- the image the governor is trying to portray in this, one of his few public appearances of late.

Now, Roger, let's start with you because this is your candidate. What do you think is -- we haven't seen much of the governor, and then to have him come out at the ranch with his -- his partner on the ticket there by his side, and then later showing up there in the governor's mansion, making this statement to the public. What kind of message are you trying to shape here?

STONE: Well, clearly, the -- Governor Bush is attempting to look presidential. If you remember some of the wire photos immediately after the election, they had a tableau set up like an Oval Office meeting, with all the transition figures sitting around. Clearly, he's trying to stay above the battle here, divorced from his operatives on the ground from Florida, looking somewhat presidential, not being involved in the daily nitty-gritty. The vice president, I think, has been a bit more involved in the day-to-day, but I think that reflects his personality. Both candidates here try to project a presidential image.

HARRIS: All right, Peter, how would you rate the governor's attempt at projecting that image?

FENN: Well, I think, you know, again, you had two images. You had your regular guy there in his leather jacket, and then you had the Oval Office setting with the flag over his right shoulder and those drapes that look like they came right out of the Oval Office. So clearly, what the Bush team wanted to do this week was they wanted to shut this process down. They wanted to -- they wanted not to have voters finish the -- the counting. And they wanted to portray him as president and this thing as being done. They expected that would happen today. They booked a suite of rooms in the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, thought they were going to have a big celebration. Well, that's now on hold for them. But you know, we'll just -- you know, this is going to play out, as Roger said. This is going to play out in the courts now.

HARRIS: Right now, everything and everyone is on hold. Peter Fenn, Roger Stone, thanks much for your time, guys. We'll check and see how things turn out later on this week. Have a good one -- Daryn.

FENN: Thanks a lot.

KAGAN: Associated Press is reporting that all the overseas absentee ballots have been counted, and we have those latest numbers for you. According to the Associated Press, with all 67 counties reporting in Florida, George W. Bush picked up 1,376 votes, and Al Gore picked up 750 votes. And that would give the current lead to George W. Bush at 926 votes. That tally including the overseas ballots, not including the hand recounts currently going on in many of those south Florida counties.

We will take a break. More on the new numbers straight ahead.

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