AL GORE

March 14, 2000
		Vice President Al Gore talks about campaign finance reform and his call for twice weekly debates with his Republican opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Online NewsHour Special Report: An Interview with Al Gore Part 1: Campaign finance reform and debates Part 2: Economic policy and George W. Bush Part 3: Oil prices, abortion and gun control Part 4: Foreign policy and what's at stake this election year   Online NewsHour Special Report: Election 2000 March 2, 2000: Excerpts from the final Bradley-Gore debate March 1, 2000: Two viewpoints of the Democratic presidential candidates Jan. 13, 2000: Al Gore and Bill Bradley on the stump Dec. 22, 1999: One-on-one with Al Gore Oct. 5, 1999: An Al Gore campaign snapshot June 17, 1999: A look at the Gore presidential candidacy Sept. 5, 1997: Shields and Gigot on the Democratic Party campaign finance investigation Sept. 4, 1997: The Justice Department's campaign finance investigation March 26, 1997: The vice president goes to China. Dec. 13, 1995: A Newsmaker interview with Vice President Gore. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of politics	JIM LEHRER: Mr. Vice President, good morning. Welcome. AL GORE: Thank you, Jim. Thanks for coming to Smith County. JIM LEHRER: I'm delighted to be here. Governor Bush has said that it's a joke that you're making campaign finance reform an issue in this campaign. Is it a joke?
	Making campaign finance reform an issue
	AL GORE: Well, it certainly is not, and it's not so much that I'm making it an issue as that the American people have made it an issue. The American people have insisted in their support for reform, also their support for John McCain's candidacy, those who did support him, Bill Bradley's candidacy, and those who heard my statements about campaign finance reform. I think there is a heartsickness for change in our country and a demand for change. And I am trying to honor that demand by the American people. I feel very strongly about it myself. I think that our democracy is in jeopardy because of the overbearing influence of special interest money in campaigns. I think the introduction of television commercials in recent decades has accentuated the danger posed by big money and campaigns. And I favor dramatic reforms, eliminating all of the so-called "soft money" special interest contributions, also eliminating the 30-second and 60-second TV ads. That would have to be done on a voluntary basis by agreement between Governor Bush and myself, and instead of running these TV ads have debates twice a week. And I've also called for joint open meetings before undecided voters. And as for the regular debates, I think they should be on a different issue each time. We could announce it in advance and invite people to join in. And I would love for you to host one of those debates, Jim. Would the "NewsHour" be willing to do that? JIM LEHRER: Absolutely. Absolutely. AL GORE: I accept your invitation. JIM LEHRER: All right. I accept your -- I accept your acceptance. AL GORE: All right. JIM LEHRER: The governor says you have no credibility on this issue because of what you did in 1996. How do you respond to that? AL GORE: Well, I've acknowledged my mistakes, and the -- the '96 campaign saw both political parties pressing the limits, and I think that it demonstrated the pressures that all campaigns are under in the current system and the need for change. Now, the fact is when I first represented this county here in Tennessee 24 years ago, I proposed full public financing of all federal elections, and I still believe that's ultimately going to be the solution to this problem. But as an interim step, I strongly support the McCain-Feingold legislation, and over the last quarter century I've sponsored or cosponsored more than a dozen major campaign finance reform bills. And yet we don't have to wait for a law to be passed. We can honor the demand of the American people for change by using this campaign as an unprecedented opportunity to change the way we approach the election process. After all, Americans have been turning away from the voting booth. Here it is election day, and you can see the polling place right down the hall in this little school building here. The turnout is low today -- obviously there are a lot of reasons for that on this election. But in the general elections that we have, the turnout has been going steadily down. Now, why is that? I think it's because people feel that the dialogue in campaigns is artificial and contrived. They see these 30-second TV ads and people tune in, in the last days of a campaign just about the time when the ads turn negative, and they conclude everybody running is a dirty dog, and they don't want anything to do with it. But just imagine for a moment what it would be like -- I'm serious in making this proposal -- imagine what it would be like if my proposal was accepted, and we had debates every Tuesday and Thursday night, 8 p.m., with a different issue announced in advance each time. You'd see civics teachers and community leaders conducting forums and boning up on the subject matter of each debate, and getting into it, and you'd also see both of the candidates really digging deeper into the search for good, new solutions for these problems, and I think it would be so exciting to bring more people back into our democracy. That's what people want.
	Getting past previous troubles
	JIM LEHRER: But what they're going to get, according to what is already on the table, is attacks back and forth. The one against you is -- you say you made mistakes in '96; Governor Bush and others say wait a minute, those were violations of the law. What do you see -- for instance, in the Buddhist temple situation, and the phone calls that you made from your office, those are the mistakes that you've acknowledged you've made. What were the mistakes? What did you do wrong? AL GORE: In pressing the limits, of course, all of that's been investigated thoroughly three years ago, millions of dollars spent investigating it in congressional hearings, and all the rest. But that doesn't make it right. The fact that they found no -- that the law was not violated on my part doesn't make it right. And it was a mistake for me to go to that Buddhist temple. It was a mistake for me to make those telephone calls, but the damage from what both parties did in that campaign was not to the people running so much as to the system. And the question is how we change it; the question is not how we go back and pick over mistakes from years ago, but how we change it now. For example, Governor Bush is one of only a handful of candidates in history to evade the normal campaign finance limits and break out of the system. And just in the last few days John McCain has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about the last-minute, secretly financed special interest attack ads where a couple of people came in with two and a half million dollars and dumped it into New York and California and Ohio in the last few days after the Bush campaign spent all of their money and couldn't fight John McCain within the limits. And I -- you know -- we can -- we can make this campaign a point of departure to renew our democracy. I'm serious about this. And I'm going to take unilateral steps, whether he will join me or not. I'm going to have open meetings with undecided voters all over the country, and I'll stay there as long as anybody has a question. I've refused to accept PAC (political action committee) contributions, even though that's allowed under the current law. And I'm going to be making some other changes too. JIM LEHRER: Senator Thompson from Tennessee, a Republican, who has always been an advocate, strong advocate of campaign finance reform, says he welcomes you to the foxhole now for campaign finance reform, but he says before you can do that, there has to be accountability on the '96 things. And he says, for instance, and others have said, OK, Maria Hsia, a friend of yours, has been indicted and been convicted of a crime and as relates to the Buddhist temple thing. What was different from what you did versus what she did? AL GORE: Well, it was all the difference -- I mean, the theory of this -- first of all, I don't want to comment on an ongoing court case because it's in the appeal process, and she has been a friend and a supporter; and that was a hard day for her. But I don't want to comment on her ongoing case. The news report said that the theory of the prosecution was -- that what they charged was that in the process of doing what she did she deceived the others that were a part of this and that others did not know. But the point again is, how do we change this going forward? Now, you know, like John McCain, I bring the passion born of personal experience to the battle for campaign finance reform, and John McCain and I are hardly unique. There are people in both political parties all over our political process who have been put into these situations where the pressure to raise money to do combat back and forth is such that the limits are pressed. Let's end it. Let's change it. Let's ban the so-called "soft money." I'm ready to do it right now. All Governor Bush has to say is yes -- one word, three letters, one syllable -- yes -- and then it is done.
	A question of values, not tactics
	JIM LEHRER: Well, here's what he said -- quote -- about your having come out in favor of campaign finance reform -- the interview with the New York Times. He says, "I think the vice president is somebody who will say anything to get elected -- at least that's my interpretation of how he handles things." That is in relationship to your -- AL GORE: I don't think that the American people really care that much about personal attacks back and forth. I think that what they want is change. They know that we've got something not only special but really unique here in this country, and they know that it's in danger. You look at these other countries -- like take South Africa, for example; they didn't have freedom. All of a sudden they get it; then they get a 95 percent voter turnout, and people wait in line seven miles long. Other countries in Eastern Europe and Central Europe you see the same thing. They're just thrilled at having an approximation of what we've had for more than 200 years now. And yet here in the birthplace of representative democracy in the modern world we have begun to turn away from our process because of these excesses, and the American people don't care about these -- about attacks on the individual candidates. What they want is change. I am for that change. Now, I want to emphasize this is not a new position for me. I have advocated it for a quarter century now. And yet the passion that I bring to it is heightened by the experiences that I've gone through and by the demands that the American people have been making throughout this campaign year and throughout the last several years for dramatic and fundamental change. Make no mistake; they're serious about it. JIM LEHRER: In other words, you're not doing it to inoculate yourself from questions -- AL GORE: This is not a question of tactics; this is a question of values. And the American people are responsible for putting this issue on the political agenda. I am proud and honored to hold the banner high. It ought to be a bipartisan effort, and I am offering Governor Bush an opportunity to make it a bipartisan effort. I'm going to push it no matter what. And I'll tell you this, Jim. One consequence of raising this banner high during the election campaign is that if I am entrusted with the presidency in the election, I am going to have -- I'm going to claim and I will have a mandate to go to the Congress and say, now, listen here, the American people have spoken on this, and we have dilly-dallied around on this -- all of us -- for long enough; let's make this -- let's make these changes and get rid of the soft money and honor our democracy by putting the people back in charge and getting these special interests out of the driver's seat.