An election in limbo . Nobody really knew what was going to happen. Just count the votes and a nation divided. We were going to hold florida unless they sent in federal troops. Happening not in 2020. This is cnns coverage of election 2000. But 20 years ago, bush versus gore, the closest race in modern american political history. I was just seeing my life kind of flash around me. An Election Night like no other. I was operating in an environment of volcanic chaos. Bulletin. Florida pulled back into the undecided column. Launching a war for the white house. The Campaign Chairman comes in and says to you you better get people scrambling for a recount. And that was the holy shit moment. 36 days of political combat at the highest levels. In the end the Supreme Court had the last word. If you were a screenwriter, theyd fire you for this story. So could it happen again . Theres no question it could happen again. We want gore we want gore we want gore. Its after 3 in the morning in 2000. Al gore is inside getting ready to publicly concede the president ial election to george w. Bush. It was total chaos as we were trying to get into the war memorial, pouring rain. The Vice President and liebermans family, the san jec service and the police and everybody. I got on the phone and i said, we havent lost. This thing is too close to call. I was seeing my life flash before me and breaking out in a sweat saying what do we do here . Thats when he contacted david moorehouse. Told him grab the Vice President , get him into a holding room with Joe Lieberman, do not let anybody go out. Everybody freeze. Michael feldman was trying to get ahold of me. He said youve got to stop the Vice President from conceding. The Vice President is walking really fast. Takes me a bit to catch you to hill. I caught up to him. End of the hallway stars that lead to the outside where the stage is. I said mr. Vice president , we have to go to hold. He said this better be good. Before election day of started, the 2000 vote was too close to call. Our polling was showing that it was a dead heat, that was it was basically within the margin of error. For news anchors, Election Night is the super bowl. Were electing the most powerful person in the world. And this election looked like one for the record books. Any journal ist, what you wanted was a great story and this was a great story. Election night for any president ial contest is not routine routi routine. No, its not because its too historic. As the night wore on, this one is different, this one is different. This is a cnn election 2000 special presentation. If youve ever longed pore those nights that you heard about when people stayed up late wondering who their leader was, pull up a chair, this might be it. We started late with the polls closing and watched the clock. This is how a map looks. Governor bush far ahead of Vice President gore. Predictable results in the states first to close their poles. Then earth shattering news. And all together according to senator excuse me, im sorry to interrupt you. Mike you wouldnt do this if it wasnt big. Florida goes for al gore. And it happens like that. Ladies and gentlemen, lets pause right here because this could be decisive in the election. 25 decisive electoral votes, votes that could deliver the presidency for al gore. At the Governors Mansion in austin, there was anguish. There was this pause, it was very quiet. I asked president bush 41 how he was doing . He said not so good right now. What were you guys thinking about the network projections . I think our feeling was that the networks were wrong. Karen hughes wasnt the on one unconvinced. I dont believe some of these states theyve called like florida, i dont believe they have enough evidence to call the state. That states going to flip, i really feel that way. I do remember saying to myself i hope theyre right with this. Basically it was, listens are dont question the decision of the decision desk, florida belongs to gore. But i think, bill, and youre the maven on this, networks do not call unless they have a pretty high degree of assurance, correct . That is correct. We have a pretty high degree of assurance florida has gone for al gore. Then all hell breaks loose. Stand by. Cnn is moving our earlier declaration of florida back to the too close to call column. Beads of sweat start popping out on my forehead. 25 electoral votes in the home state of the governors brother, jeb bush, are hanging in the balance. This no longer is a victory for Vice President gore. Were moving it back into a too close to call oh waiter, one order of crow. I could actually feel sweat as i realized this was wrong, we had to correct it. And so did every other Network Within minutes. Nbc news is now taking florida out of Vice President gores column and putting it back in the too close to call column. Bulletin, florida pulled back into the undecided columncomputcolumncomput. Computer and polling problem. Turn the lights down, the Party Just Got wilder. We dont just have egg in our face, weve got omelet all over our suits. The numbers started to go back and forth and i finally ran out of ways to explain to the audience what was going on. The chaos factor just went through the roof theres always chaos. Now weve reached land where weve never been. Basically the projections are made by exit polling data and also actual vote counts from model precincts. But those numbers were off and they are shared by all the networks. This model had worked in the past. It clearly not only did not work that night but it sputtered and sputtered and sputtered. The models didnt work because florida was a mess. Confusing ballots left voters unsure about whom they had actually voted for. Local Election Officials misreported vote counts and exit poll samples were just not accurate. In your ear are they trying to be calm even though theyre freaking out . Yes, theyre trying to be calm but thats a failure. I was trying to be as transparent as possible. This system is breaking down around me at that point. I know i was thinking we got to find out now where we go next. Those computers, tom, this is the answer, get it right. Coming up al places the call and at one point i believe al said Something Like you dont have to be so snipity about it. [narrator] the shark vacmop combines powerful suction with spray mopping to lock away debris and absorb wet messes, all in one disposable pad. Just vacuum, spray mop, and toss. The shark vacmop, a complete clean all in one disposable pad. d burke i Nothing Happened. Appened. driver Nothing Happened . burke Nothing Happened. driver sure looks like something happened. burke well, youve been with farmers for three years with zero auto claims. driver yeah . burke so you earned your policy perk accident forgiveness. Now instead of this being something, it s driver its nothing burke get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. They should really turn this ride off. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum burke vo start with a quote at 1800farmers in the tubbs fire. The flames, the ash, it was terrifying. Thousands of family homes are destroyed in wildfires. Families are forced to move and higher property taxes are a huge problem. Prop 19 limits taxes on wildfire victims so families can move without a tax penalty. Nineteen will help rebuild lives. Vote yes on 19. In the Early Morning hours on november 8th while thousands gather outside in nashville, Joe Lieberman and his wife are in their hotel room waiting to hear if he will be the nations next Vice President. Somebody had sent an arrangement of flowers to our room, and in coming into the room, she expressed herself expletives deleted, and basically sort of knocked the flowers off the table. Everyone is frustrated. And then shortly after 2 a. M. , it gets worse. Bush wins. Florida goes bush. The presidency is bush. Thats it. The home state of governor jeb bush is going to be a much happier thanksgiving for the bush family. Abc news is going to project that florida goes to mr. Bush. Just stop and absorb that for a second. Weve got the tv on. All of a sudden, which ever network we were watching, you know, i think it was cnn and it was bern add shard shaw broke i said george bush will become the 43rd of the United States. I get a chill when i say it right now. I said ive got to go see al. What lieberman didnt know was that gore had already decided to concede. He placed the call. He just said, governor, put up a fight or whatever he said, conceded, a very short call. I think governor bush just thanked him. There was no love loss between either one of these guys. They didnt like each other, period. It was probably a tensecond call at most. And that was it. At the time he conceded, jeb bush was still over there on his computer and he was like i dont know what theyre seeing, i think its still too close. Were you guys kind of surprised . Sounds like jeb was. I think jeb was. Jeb bush was trying to deliver the state for his big brother. He wasnt the only one scratching his head at gores concession. Our numbers were going back and forth. At headquarters, gores own numbers wizard kept doing the math with no idea that gores motorcade was already on the way for his concession speech. How is it that you guys in the boiler room were not told they were going to concede . I dont know. I think they believed the network news. When tom brokaw and dan rather said that george bush had won, they thought it was game over. But there was a furious scramble to find somebody in the motorcade. Maybe a minute after we left the hotel, my white house pager went off and it was a call from michael hooly. I think my words were where are you guys . He said were at the war memorial. And i asked why. I was obviously incredulous. And he said were about to concede. And i said for what . We havent lost. Something was fishy and it smelled all the way to austin where team george w. Bush nervously waited. Jeb bush looking like his life is passing before his eyes because hes the good brother whose state is going to let down his brother george. And george and laura bush looking pretty like kind of shell shocked a little bit. Finally after 3 a. M. , a second call to bush from gore, who was still hunkered down backstage at the war memorial. The phone rang again, and i heard governor bush in this very incredulous voice saying youre retracting your concession . And, you know, i mean theres no precedent for anything like that. Then at another point toward the end of the conversation, he said i dont care what your little brother says, the networks are all saying now its too close to call. And, therefore, ive got to withdraw my concession. Hell, his brother was the governor. He was like my brother and i was like, hey, ill never forget his facial expression. So he hung up the phone, everybody cheers. Somebody says, wow, you called jeb bushs little brother. Al gore said i didnt call him his little brother, he called him his little brother. It fell to Campaign Chairman bill daly to deliver an unprecedented message, that gore had withdrawn his concession. It was 4 a. M. And gore said to me you do it. I said im not going to do it. Forget about it, im not going to go out there on tv at 2 30 he said you do it. So have i to go out there to a billion people in the middle of the night watching this to figure out who is the president of the United States. This race is simply too close to call. Until the recounts are concluded and the results of florida become official, our campaign continues. [ cheers and applause ] up next, taking the fight to the streets of florida. I wasnt a big fan of al gores, and the prospect of evening the score was an enticing prospect to me. That wall is your everest. But not any more. Today lets paint. Behr. Exclusively at the home depot. Beautiful. But when i started cobra kai, the lack of control over my business made me a little intense. But now i practice a different philosophy. Quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. And now im back on top. With koala kai. Hey more mercy. Save over 30 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. The easy way to a happier business. I only see one price on my phone bill. Youre on tmobile, taxes and fees are included. Why cant all my bills be like this . I dont know mama. Umph at tmobile, taxes and fees are included. Get 4 free 5g Samsung Galaxy s20 fes with 4 new lines. At visionworks, and we want you to see yourself in your new glasses and think, ooh but if you get home and your ooh is more of a hmm. You have 100 days to change your mind. Thats the visionworks difference. Visionworks. See the difference. Can go your own way its time you make the rules. So join the two Million People whove switched to xfinity mobile. You can choose from the latest phones or bring your own devic, and choose the amount of data thats right for you to save even more. And youll get 5g at no extra cost all on the most reliable network. So choose a data option thats right for you. Get 5g included. And save up to 400 yr on the network rated 1 in customer satisfaction. Its your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. At the Governors Mansion in austin, it was the morning after. How many hours of sleep did you get last night . Not sure. How about you . About three and a half, actually. The one thing that keeps every operative, every person who works on a campaign going, is the knowledge that its over on election day. You know that this thing has an end. Reporter but the election of 2000 didnt end. It just moved to florida, where 25 electoral votes would determine the presidency. We were going to take liebermanns plane. We had a bunch of lawyers get briefed on on the whole thing. And they were going to go off to florida that night, in the middle of the night. I remember telling my wife as i left, early that morning, to get on the plane, that id be home by friday. I was pretty sure id be home by friday. Good idea. Yeah. Reporter in austin, team bush needed a leader. A heavy hitter. The choice was obvious. We have asked former United States secretary of state, james baker, to travel to florida on our behalf. He said, well, joe, how long do you think we ought to pack for . And i said, oh, two or three days. Were going to the sunshine state. By 2 00 that afternoon, i was on an airplane to florida with joe. He has one bag and we get in the plane. Very small plane. Fly off to tallahassee, and he says, okay, brief me. After about 45 minutes, he leans back in the seat, and he says were heading to the Supreme Court. I was absolutely blown away. Supreme court. Supreme court of the United States. I said youre kidding me. And without batting an eye, taking a breath, he said its the only way this can end. Reporter punching heavyweight for the democrats was former secretary of state, ron christopher. We are proceeding in accordance with the constitution of laws, and well continue to do so. Reporter both, statesmen. Both, diplomats. But hardly alike. Never met anybody who had more respect for. But he was an old sanction, bythebook lawyer. Jim baker was that, plus a downinthepit, political, handtohand combat fighter. When i heard jim baker was going to be involved on the other side, this is a guy who comes armed on both sides. And hes got other hidden weapons. Reporter baker and christopher had only one facetoface meeting. At the governors inn in tallahassee. Where it became very clear they were fighting different wars. Secretary christopher laid out a number of ideas about how the uncertainty in florida might be resolved. And secretary baker listened, politely. But simply said, really, i have no idea what you are talking about. Theres no dispute here. Governor bush won the election. Secretary of state Kathleen Harris is going to certify that. And the only thing we are here to discuss that is the terms and conditions under which he is going to concede. Somebody had to win and somebody had to lose. But i heard you came in and were just sort of very like we won. Of course, i did because thats what i believed and, by the way, thats what happened. Reporter baker knew, to win, he needed to get out of floridas courts. If we didnt find a way to get into the federal courts, we were dead meat. Reporter because the florida Supreme Court was dominated by democrats, baker had to make his case to conservatives, who wanted to leave it at the state level. You want to be ideologically pure . Or you want to win . They said we want to win. I said, well, then, dont be criticizing our going to federal court because if we stay with the florida Supreme Court, were going to lose. There was no doubt about it. And if you look at their opinions and the way they screwed us with those opinions, it we wouldve lost. Reporter the gore team complained the odds were against them. Republicans controlled the statehouse, and george bushs brother jeb was the governor. We thought it would be close. Never, in my wildest dreams, did i ever imagine it would be this close. If you own the system, which the governor, at the time, bush, owned, you generally will win. They didnt do anything criminal or inappropriate. But as i said, i think if the democrats controlled the governorship and basically controlled the state, no doubt in my mind, those calls would have been made for the democrat. Jeb was sort of the wizard behind the curtain. Well, hes the governor of the state. Yeah. And there was there was chaos as a result of an election in his state. And he was going to come back and try to get control of this thing. Hes between a rock and a hard spot. I mean, obviously, he wants his brother to win. But he can show no favoritism, in his role as governor of the state. And we werent asking him. I dont believe that he pulled any levers. Reporter or, maybe, he didnt have to. Maybe, it was just understood. No Major Law Firm in florida would work for al gor