November 8, 2000

NASHVILLE - The Gore/Lieberman campaign today released the following official chronology of Election Night events:

· Al Gore placed a call to George W. Bush between 1:30 and1:45 a.m. CST to concede the election when the media reported that he was losing Florida by 50,000, and all three networks had called the state and the race for Bush.

· He then proceeded to the War Memorial Plaza to make a statement.

· When the motorcade was approximately two blocks from War Memorial Plaza, field director Michael Whouley paged traveling chief of staff Michael Feldman to inform him that only 6,000 votes separated Gore from Bush at that time, according to the Florida Secretary of State, with a significant number of votes outstanding.

· Feldman called Campaign Chairman William Daley to apprise him of the situation.

· By the time they reached the War Memorial, the count was down to fewer than 1,000 votes. They met in Gore's holding room at the War Memorial to discuss the situation.

· Chairman Daley called Bush Campaign Chairman Don Evans around 2:15 to inform him of the discussions.

· Between 2:30 and 2:45 a.m. CST, Gore called Bush again. The conversation lasted a few minutes. Its contents are private.

· At that point, Gore left the War Memorial to return to Loews, and Daley made his remarks to the assembled crowd.

I have some news to share with you tonight.

And let me say: I’ve been in politics for a long time. But there’s never been a night like this one.

Just an hour or so ago, the TV networks called this race for Governor Bush.

It now appears that their call was premature.

I want to be very clear about this: according to information supplied by the Secretary of State of Florida, with 99.9 percent of the vote counted, there is a margin of only 1,200 votes out of millions cast – with about 5,000 votes left to be counted.

This is significant for a very important reason: under Florida State law, this triggers an automatic recount.

As everyone in America knows, this race has come down to the State of Florida.

And without being certain of the results in Florida, we simply cannot be certain of the results of this national election.

I want to add that Vice President Gore and Senator Lieberman are fully prepared to concede and support Governor George W. Bush if and when he is officially elected President.

But this race is still too close to call – and until the recount is concluded and the results in Florida become official, our campaign continues.

So I want to thank you all, on behalf of the Vice President, for waiting out here so late tonight – and we hope to have you all back here very soon.