James Baker
James Baker
James Addison Baker III is an American attorney and statesman. He served as White House Chief of Staff and United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, and as U.S. Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. As Secretary of State, he helped oversee U.S. foreign policy during the end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as during the Gulf War...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth28 April 1930
CityHouston, TX
CountryUnited States of America
From our standpoint at least, it was a win.
I don't believe that the people of America want this national election turned over to lawyers and court contests, ... I can certainly understand the pain and frustration of losing an election so very, very narrowly, but it is time to honor the will of the people. It is time to let the orderly process of transitioning go forward.
I disagree. By proposing to proceed in such a way, we will be doing the right thing, both politically and substantively. We will occupy the moral high ground.
We would like to see this process completed in a very transparent, open, judicious way, ... We are quite confident this is the way the process has been conducted so far.
When is it going to happen? Probably during the seasonal peak, which is August to mid-October.
We think this ruling is inconsistent with Florida law, federal law and the United States Constitution. We have no alternative but to appeal to U.S. Supreme Court for relief, ... We have already put in motion a process to do that.
The Gore campaign strategy is crystal clear, ... Keep conducting selective recounts. Keep filing selective lawsuits, keep making false charges that divert attention, and keep refusing to accept any deadline until the results change.
The Gore campaign ought to agree with us that we will go with the automatic recount, ... They should say, 'OK, we will stop all these shenanigans. We will stop calling for recounts.'
The Gore campaign is asking for a third recount here. We can go into Wisconsin, we can go into Iowa and start recounting,
The Gore campaign has refused to achieve finality unless they achieve the result they are seeking,
While we are disappointed ... they specifically noted we are free to return to the federal courts to present our constitutional challenges to the selective and subjective manual recount process at an appropriate time in the future,
We wouldn't be in this position if the Gore campaign had been willing to accept the results of the recount in Florida, ... They want these recounts to be in counties where they have these large margins. We don't think that's fair.
There are no uniform, objective standards here. It's all subjective,
Both sides should agree to accept the vote count of all the counties at the statutory deadline,