Untitled Document
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter delivered a shocker at an American
University panel in Washington Monday: RAW
STORY has learned he told the crowd he was certain Al Gore won the
2000 presidential election.
There is "no doubt in my mind that Gore won the election,"
the erstwhile President declared, saying the 2000 election process "failed
abysmally."
He also snubbed the Supreme Court for getting involved, saying it was
"highly partisan."
RAW STORY reviewed a video clip of the event
late Wednesday. The comment came in response to a question from a student who
asked Carter how he felt the last two elections were handled.
In the question and answer session of his talk intended to discuss the Baker-Carter
commission report on election reform, he also savaged President Bush's handling
of FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Carter founded FEMA in 1979.
When I founded FEMA "we put it together with three specific commitments,"
Carter remarked. "One, that it would be led [by] highly trained professionals
in dealing with disasters. Secondly, that it would be completely independent
and not under another agency that would submerge it. And third, that it would
be adequately funded."
The former president said the key reason for creating the agency was to respond
to governors who asked for a consolidation of the 16 bureaucracies previously
responsible for emergency relief efforts. Carter said he hoped that the changes
he ordered would have remained permanent, allowing for a more effective response
to a hurricane now claiming upwards of 1000 lives.
Carter agreed with Bush on one point: "I think that now is the best time
not to look back on blaming about Katrina, but to try to correct the defects
that have evolved in recent years and make sure it is not repeated."
AUDIO: CLICK
HERE
"Well I would say that in the year 2000 the country failed abysmally
in the presidential election process," the former president remarked. "There’s
no doubt in my mind that Al Gore was elected president."
[Applause]
"He received the most votes nationwide, and in my opinion, he
also received the most votes in Florida," Carter added. "And the decision
was made as you know on a 5-4 vote on a highly partisan basis by the U.S. Supreme
Court, so I would say in 2000, there was a failure."
