As Donald Trump refuses to commit to accepting the results of the November election, his surrogates have brought up Al Gore and the Florida recount in the 2000 election.
Gore did request a recount by hand in Florida, but only after an automatic recount found the race to be even closer than the original tally. And once the Supreme Court weighed in and stopped the recount, Gore conceded the race to George W. Bush.
But it goes beyond that.
In a remarkable moment on the floor of the House in January 2001, Vice President Gore presided over the certification of the Electoral College vote – and repeatedly rejected attempts to block the certification by Democratic House members who were continuing to protest Bush’s victory.
A video from C-SPAN shows Gore presiding over the joint session of Congress. Several members, mostly from the Congressional Black Congress, presented objections to the certification of the Florida vote, arguing that black voters in the state were disenfranchised during the election. Because the objections needed a signature from a senator and the House members objecting did not have one, Gore repeatedly dismissed each objection presented on the House floor.
After the joint session came to a close and Gore declared the election for Bush, members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a press conference outside the capitol protesting the outcome of the election, according to the New York Times’ report from that day.
“‘There is overwhelming evidence that George W. Bush did not win this election either by national popular vote or the Florida popular vote,” Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) said at the press conference.
Watch the C-SPAN footage from the session. The action begins around the 29 minute mark.
