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 December 14, 2000  |
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Kwame Holman reports on George W. Bush's first day as president-elect.
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JIM LEHRER: George W. Bush spent his first day as President-elect of the United States. He attended a prayer service in Austin, and spoke by phone with President Clinton, to discuss the transition. He is to meet with Vice President Gore next Tuesday in Washington. Gore conceded the election last night and urged national unity. In his acceptance speech, Bush called for bipartisan cooperation. We'll have excerpts from the speeches in a few minutes. But first, Kwame Holman reports on this day of change. KWAME HOLMAN: Wrapping up his tour of Great Britain, the current U.S. President pledged this morning to help President- elect Bush get off to a good start. PRESIDENT CLINTON: The essential unity of our nation was reflected in the words and values of those who fought this great contest. I was proud of both men. I pledged to President-elect Bush my efforts and the best efforts of every member of our administration for a smooth and successful transition. I wish President-elect Bush well. Like him, I came to Washington as a Governor, eager to work with both Republicans and Democrats. And when we reached across party lines to forge a vital center, America was stronger at home and abroad. The American people, however divided they were in this election, overwhelmingly want us to build on that vital center, without rancor or personal attack. KWAME HOLMAN: Governor Bush started his first full day as President-elect at a morning church service in Austin. A spokeswoman said Bush wanted to begin with "a message of prayer and healing." In Washington, Democratic congressional leaders promised they would work with a Bush- Cheney administration and the Republican-led Congress, but said that calls for a new spirit of cooperation. SEN. TOM DASCHLE: Bipartisanship isn't an option anymore; it is a requirement. The American people have divided responsibility for leadership right down the middle. We must govern from the middle, or we will not be able to govern at all. REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT: The true test for all of us is, will we engage in a constructive, ongoing dialogue on a partisan agenda that can achieve the goals that we all share, or will it be a "take it or leave it" approach to passing legislation? Genuine compromise means having a true give and take. We're going to disagree, we know that, but let those disputes be open and honest, and let us have honest compromise-- not dictation-- as our guiding principle over the coming years. KWAME HOLMAN: A short time later, the former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee returned to his seat in the U.S. Senate and addressed his colleagues. SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Governor Bush and Secretary Cheney are in my prayers, as I know they are in the prayers of all Americans as they begin now to assume to awesome responsibilities that go with leadership of this great country. In the strong words and soft voices they both used last night, Vice President Gore and Governor Bush raised us all up and pointed us toward the reconciliation that our history expects and that our national interest now requires. As they both noted last night, this is the closest election we've ever experienced, with the vote for President essentially ending in a tie, the Senate split 50-50, and the House nearly even as well. That puts a special burden not just on Governor Bush, but on all of us here in congress to work on a bipartisan basis and in a cooperative spirit.
SPOKESMAN: I have here the official key to the transition space, which I would like to give to you now. ( Laughter ) KWAME HOLMAN: This afternoon, he received an electronic key card to open the doors to the transition office he will direct. The General Services Administration also said it will release five million dollars to fund the Presidential transition. DICK CHENEY: We're delighted to have this opportunity to begin to receive the official support from the government for the Bush-Cheney transition. This has been a-- as many folks have said-- a unique time in American political history. The transition is well underway. We've been able to do that, in part, through the foresight of the Congress that had authorized the use of private funds, as well as public funds, for the transition. And the process, in terms of the transition being shortened, as I mentioned earlier, in our earlier press briefs, it has an impact because of our ability to go out and begin to actively and aggressively interview people, be able to source various folks in terms of what kinds of individuals we ought to look for for certain jobs, or to be able to check out the references on certain individuals. All of that has really been pretty limited by virtue of the fact that there was still a lot of uncertainty about going forward. The area, for example, of talking with those in the Democratic Party, then awkward while there was still a contest underway. So we're now-- those constraints are now off and we're able to begin to be much more aggressive in that regard. I might also point out-- and I think you know President-elect Bush will be in Washington the first part of next week, most of the day Monday and Tuesday. He will be meeting with President Clinton at that time, as well as Vice President Gore, and also with the bipartisan congressional leadership. But probably those meetings will take place Monday and Tuesday. We will have a number of other things that we're doing here at that time. One of those, obviously, is the further work with respect to selecting prospective cabinet members. So there'll be a fairly intense period of time at the beginning of the week when he's here, Monday and Tuesday. With respect to the meetings next week, my experience from prior transitions has been this begins the exchange, if you will, between the outgoing administration and the incoming administration. One of the things that we have not really been able to do yet in connection with the transition is any interface at all with officials in the government administrations and agencies that are already there. We haven't talked with folks in the Defense Department or at state or HUD or any of the other departments. And so this meeting at the top, if you will, sort of sets all of those kinds of contacts in motion to begin to talk about common problems and make certain that our people get up to speed so that by January 20 we're in a position to actually take the reins of government beginning right after the inauguration. When the history books are written on this period of time, you'll find that that meeting next week between the two of them will be very important to healing the wounds, to moving on, and to getting the new administration in place, ready to go. So it's a very important meeting. Symbols are important in this business, and this certainly has great symbolic significance.
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