When all eyes were on Florida and it wasn't looking good for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, his campaign was warned by a senior network correspondent that conceding on Election Night would be a bad idea. That intervention stopped Gore from conceding the election according to a top Democratic strategist.
Former John Kerry campaign manager and long-time Democratic political consultant Bob Shrum made the allegation on the CNN show "Reliable Sources" Sunday.
Interviewing Shrum about his new book, titled No Excuses, CNN host Howard Kurtz brought up Shrum's revelation that he was warned by a "senior network correspondent" to stop Al Gore from giving his planned concession speech on the night of the 2000 election.
"A senior network correspondent, you said, called you and warned, 'The Florida numbers are wrong. Don't let him concede.'"
Shrum confirmed: "Someone I knew ... I think this happened not only with me, someone else called Carter Eskew and, who was in a different place than I was at that point."
Kurtz set up the question to Shrum: "Here's one thing that jumped out at me in your book. Election night 2000, very close. Suddenly, it looks like George W. Bush is going to win. A senior network correspondent, you said, called you and warned, 'The Florida numbers are wrong. Don't let him concede.' Why would a correspondent, this is not a commentator, this is not a columnist, be giving you that kind of advice?" (Transcript follows)
Shrum responded: "Someone I knew, and Al Gore, I think this happened not only with me, someone else called Carter Eskew and, who was in a different place than I was at that point, and Al Gore was speeding toward the war memorial to concede. And we actually had to have David Morehouse, who was his body guy, stop him and say, 'No, Mr. Vice President, you cannot go to the stage. You must go into this holding room.' Why would the correspondent do it? I think because the correspondent was just informing me that the Florida results were not what they had been reported as when we left the hotel."
After Kurtz commented that this revelation would "fuel everybody who thinks there's a liberal media," Shrum argued that Bush would also have been warned if the roles had been reversed. Kurtz ended by unsuccessfully inquiring about the reporter's identity.
Below is a transcript of the relevant exchange from the Sunday June 17 "Reliable Sources" on CNN:
BOB SHRUM, Democratic strategist: Someone I knew-
KURTZ: Yeah?
SHRUM: -and Al Gore -- I think this happened not only with me, someone else called Carter Eskew and, who was in a different place than I was at that point -- and Al Gore was speeding toward the war memorial to concede. And we actually had to have David Morehouse, who was his body guy, stop him and say, "No, Mr. Vice President, you cannot go to the stage. You must go into this holding room." Why would the correspondent do it? I think because the correspondent was just informing me that the Florida results were not what they had been reported as when we left the hotel.
KURTZ: "Don't let him concede." This is going to fuel everybody who thinks there's a liberal media, that there were journalists that were rooting for Gore-
SHRUM: Oh, I don't-
KURTZ: -trying to spare your candidate from embarrassment.
SHRUM: I don't, I don't, I actually think that if the situations had been reversed, there would have been correspondents who would have called the Bush campaign and said, "The numbers are wrong, don't let him concede, you shouldn't concede," something like that. I don't think it was in the nature of giving advice, actually.
KURTZ: Do you want to take this opportunity to name the correspondent?
SHRUM: No.
KURTZ: All right.
