Wed Jan 10 2001 17:01:53 ET
KATHERINE HARRIS TELLS DIANE SAWYER THAT SHE HAS NOT HEARD FROM GEORGE W. BUSH AND HAS NO PLANS TO JOIN HIS ADMINISTRATION
-- First Interview with Florida's Secretary of State to Air on "PrimeTime Thursday," January 11 at 10PM --
Despite speculation about her closeness with the Bushes, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris tells Diane Sawyer that she has not heard from President-elect George W. Bush and has no plans to join his administration as an ambassador. "That is a dream for everyone, but right now I have a job to do and am very focused." During a wide-ranging interview with Sawyer, Harris defends the outcome of the election. "I believe we have a President-elect. I believe the process followed the law." The exclusive interview will air on ABC News' "PrimeTime Thursday" on January 11, at 10pm.
Harris tells Sawyer no one can know who would have won the presidential election if every vote had been counted. "There's just no way I could know," she tells ABC News. "I have no idea."
For the first time, Harris talks about the ridicule concerning her personal appearance, in particular that she wore too much makeup. "It was just silly. You know, if that's the worst thing they can say about me after they've gone through my high school and college and talked to friends and former boyfriends...." Harris also implies that the criticism was inherently sexist. "I have many friends that were in TV every day--it was my friends that were men, and they were wearing much more makeup than I was, and I didn't think that was fair, because here they weren't being attacked and I was."
In spite of it all, Harris did manage to maintain a sense of humor about it, as evidenced in anecdote she tells about visiting a Target store. "The woman looked at my credit card and looked at me, and she goes, 'Katherine Harris,' And I said, 'Yeah, I only have on one layer of makeup. I'm incognito.'"
Secretary Harris says she is now committed to reforming Florida's voting system. "There is no consideration about doing anything different until I can be assured that we are going to have the best voting systems in the county."
While Harris freely admits that she wanted to George Bush to win, she contends that she followed the law in her capacity as Secretary of State. "The law is what stands. It is the final arbiter no matter what your preferences are." The rule of law left her with no options, according to Harris. " I don't know what other alternatives I would have had if George W. Bush had not been winning and Al Gore had. I don't know how I could have done anything but the same thing."
On election night, Harris tells Sawyer she went to bed thinking Bush had been elected and was awoken by a call from Florida Governor Jeb Bush. "He wanted to know what prompted the automatic recount, and by statute when there are elections this close," Harris explains. She denies that the two discussed anything else other than the legal process. "No one knew if we would have a President by January, and so the most important issue that we could do was to take a look at the law, what is the next step." The following day Harris asked for outside counsel. "I selected a Democratic firm--I didn't want any ties to either the Bush camp or the Republican Party.
Harris says she was scared by Gore campaign tactics which attempted to discredit and vilify her. "That type of intimidation tactics were not going to make me not follow the law. My only safe harbor was following the law." Democratic strategist Paul Begala went as far as to compare her to Cruella de Vil. "I like Dalmations. I couldn't believe he said that," says Harris.
"I always want to make sure that every voter feels that their vote is counted, but you're asking such a speculative question, because then there was not a standard," responds Harris when asked if she wanted a statewide manual recount. As Al Gore pleaded for patience in counting the votes, Harris maintains this may have actually added to the delay in the process since she had only seven days after the election to certify the vote. "From my perspective, it just seems that if [the Gore campaign] followed the law before the Supreme Court changed the law and extended the deadlines, they would have had more time for contest. It is up for history or for them to determine if that was a shot in the foot."
Harris calls that the language the Florida Supreme Court used on November 21st to describe her decision to certify the election as "scathing." "I was disappointed in their decision because I though I had acted with due diligence...I thought that we had, again, bent over backwards in finding new criteria that would justify a manual recount." Harris had many sleepless nights during the election process, but says she finally slept well following the U.S. Supreme Court's final decision. "I guess that was just the point where it was okay."
When asked about the personal rumors surrounding her, she responds, "Sometimes that's more difficult, but I'm not a victim. I asked to do this." |
