Whatever he said, no one would believe him. Not even the cave dwellers. Gore is a pathological liar.
5/30/00 3:55 p.m. False Advertising VP Gore "misspeaks" about the
spending of soft money.
By John J. Miller, NR's national political reporter-----
jjmiller@nationalreview.com
"There has never been a time in this campaign when I have said
something that I know to be untrue." ? Vice President Al Gore, January
26, 2000
By now, pretty much everyone recognizes that Vice President Gore has a
problem with the truth. So we decided to perform our own assessment of
Gore's veracity, and came up with a list of lies, originally published
in the May 22, 2000 issue of NR. But, be warned: This is not a static
list. As more Gore Lies pop up, we will out them here ? so check back
often.
New Lie! SOFT MONEY March 15, 2000; CNN
CLAIM: "What I did yesterday was to call on the Democratic National
Committee?and they'll comply with this?to not spend any of the so-
called soft money on these issue ads unless and until the Republican
Party does."
TRUTH: The DNC may soon launch a $30 million ad campaign to boost
Gore's standing in the polls. Gore's media consultants "hope the
party's summer 'issue ads' will reintroduce the vice president to an
electorate that they believe has a fuzzy or lukewarm impression of
him," reports the Washington Post (5-23-00). As of May 30, the
Republican Party has not purchased any ads with soft money.
TEXAS GOVERNOR May 2, 2000; Washington Post
CLAIM: "You know [Bush] has never put together a budget. The governor
of Texas is by far the weakest chief executive position in America and
does not have the responsibility of forming or presenting a budget.
He's never done that."
TRUTH: Texas law defines the governor as "the chief budget officer of
the state" and orders him to distribute his budget to every member of
the legislature. And Bush, in fact, has formed and presented budgets as
governor.
BUSH CRIME RECORD May 2, 2000; Atlanta YWCA speech
CLAIM: "Under Bush, Texas' recidivism rate has increased by 25
percent."
TRUTH: Nobody knows what has happened to the recidivism rate under Bush
because those figures haven't been published, due to extensive lag
times in reporting. The most recent numbers are from 1994, according to
the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council.
BUSH DEBT PLAN April 25, 2000; Association for a Better New York speech
CLAIM: "He provides for no reduction in the debt ? and no reduction in
interest on the debt."
TRUTH: By promising to reserve excess revenues generated by Social
Security payroll taxes for Social Security, Bush essentially promises
to retire federal debt with this money.
BUDGET SURPLUS May 2, 2000; Washington Post
CLAIM: Describing the Clinton administration plan outlined in the 1999
State of the Union address to have the federal government invest some
of the budget surplus in the stock market: "We didn't really propose
it. We talked about the idea."
TRUTH: Page 37 of the Clinton administration budget submitted to
Congress in February: "The President also proposes to invest half of
the transferred amounts in corporate equities." From last year's
budget: "The administration proposes tapping the power of private
financial markets to increase the resources to pay for future Social
Security benefits."
TOBACCO #1 March 1, 2000; San Jose Mercury News
CLAIM: ?It?s not fair to say, ?Okay, after his sister died, he
continued in the same relationship with the tobacco industry.? I did
not. I did not. I began to confront them forcefully. I don?t see the
inconsistency there.?
TRUTH: The same month Gore?s sister died in 1984, he received a $1,000
speaking fee from U.S. Tobacco. The next year, he voted against
cigarette and tobacco tax increases three times and favored a bill
allowing major cigarette makers to purchase discounted tobacco. In the
1988 campaign, Gore bragged of his tobacco background: ?I want you to
know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put [tobacco] in the
plant beds and transferred it. I?ve hoed it, I?ve dug in it, I?ve
sprayed it, I?ve chopped it, I?ve shredded it, spiked it, put it in the
barn, and stripped it and sold it? (Newsday, 2-26-88).
TOBACCO #2 March 1, 2000; San Jose Mercury News
CLAIM: ?My family had grown tobacco. It was never actually grown on my
farm, but it was on my father?s farm.?
TRUTH: Gore had already admitted growing tobacco on his own farm: ?On
my farm, we stopped growing tobacco some time after Nancy died? (Cox
News Service, 4-26-99). Also, Gore received federal subsidies for
growing tobacco on his farm (Wall Street Journal, 8-10-95).
ABORTION #1 February 20, 2000; New York Times
CLAIM: Gore said he has ?always, always, always? supported Roe v. Wade.
TRUTH: In 1977, Rep. Gore voted for the Hyde Amendment, which says that
abortion ?takes the life of an unborn child who is a living human
being,? and that there is no constitutional right to abortion. He cast
many other votes favorable to the pro-life cause and earned an 84
percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee.
CROWD ESTIMATE February 4, 2000; New York Times
CLAIM: ?We had a huge event with 3,000 people at Ohio State
University.?
TRUTH: ?Officials at that rally said the room where it had taken place
did not hold more than 1,200 people, and, given the area needed for the
staging erected for the occasion, they estimated the crowd at 500,?
reported the Times.
NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY February 2, 2000; Good Morning America
CLAIM: ?We won in every single demographic category? in the New
Hampshire primary.
TRUTH: Bill Bradley carried male voters and voters aged 18-29,
according to exit polls.
BRADLEY VOTING RECORD January 8, 2000; Democratic debate in Iowa
CLAIM: ?Why did you [Bill Bradley] vote against the disaster relief for
Chris Peterson when he and thousands of other farmers here in Iowa
needed it after those ?93 floods??
TRUTH: Bradley voted for $4.8 billion in flood aid and opposed an
amendment, also opposed by the Clinton White House until the last
minute, to add $900 million in disaster compensation.
HUBERT HUMPHREY December 27, 1999; Washington Post
CLAIM: Gore has suggested that he contributed important lines to Hubert
Humphrey?s acceptance speech at the 1968 Democratic convention. ?Young
Gore later often told the story . . . [A]s [he] sat in the convention
hall and looked up at Humphrey in the spotlight, he thought he heard
his own words coming back to him.?
TRUTH: When Gore?s supposed conduit to Humphrey denied the influence,
Gore blamed his recollection on ?Faulty memory. Faulty memory.?
RESIDENCE December 23, 1999; ABCNews.com
CLAIM: ?I live on a farm today. I have my heart in my own farm.?
TRUTH: Gore lives in the vice-presidential mansion at the Naval
Observatory in Washington, D.C. After making this farm claim, Gore
said: ?Yes, I live in Washington, D.C., when I?m working there?!
INTERNET PROTECTION December 17, 1999; Democratic debate on Nightline
CLAIM: ?I helped to negotiate an agreement with the Internet service
providers to put a parent-protection page up and give parents the
ability to click on all the websites that their children have visited
lately. That?ll put a lot of bargaining leverage in the hands of
parents.?
TRUTH: Bartlett Cleland of the Internet Education Foundation, seven
months earlier: ?There was no Gore involvement. They hijacked this
issue. He makes it sound like he led the project. I can?t imagine what
he will invent tomorrow? (Washington Times, 5-6-99).
LOVE CANAL December 1, 1999; Concord High School, Concord, N.H.
CLAIM: ?I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal. I
had the first hearing on that issue.?
TRUTH: In October 1978, Gore did hold congressional hearings on Love
Canal ? which he apparently ?found? two months after President Carter
declared it a disaster area and the federal government offered to buy
the homes.
HOME BUILDER November 30, 1999; New England Business Council,
Manchester, N.H.
CLAIM: ?I was a home builder after I came back from Viet-nam. . . . I
know a good bit about how to make money that way. . . . To build this
country is a great thing.?
TRUTH: A Gore family corporation, Tanglewood Home builders, built nine
houses between 1969 and 1973 on property once owned by Gore?s father.
?I believe he [Al Gore Jr.] came by a time or two, but not too often,?
Jewell Dillehay, the contractor for the development, told the Orange
County Register on February 20, 1988.
MCCAIN-FEINGOLD CAMPAIGN-FINANCE BILL November 24, 1999; New York Times
CLAIM: ?Unlike Senator Bradley, I was a co-sponsor of it.?
TRUTH: Gore and Russell Feingold never served together in the Senate.
Gore later admitted to the Times that his comment ?was a mistake . . .
[W]hat I meant to say was that I supported that.?
EITC November 1, 1999; Time interview
CLAIM: ?I was the author of that proposal [the Earned Income Tax
Credit]. I wrote that, so I say [to Bill Bradley], Welcome aboard. That
is something for which I have been the principal proponent for a long
time.?
TRUTH: The original EITC law was enacted in 1975. Gore entered Congress
in 1977.
STIFF AND WOODEN October 23, 1999; Associated Press
CLAIM: ?I never got that stiff-and-wooden rap in the House and Senate.
It has been as vice president.?
TRUTH: Time, March 21, 1988: ?A joke among the press corps is, How do
you tell Al Gore from his Secret Service protection? Answer: He?s the
stiff one.?
VIETNAM SERVICE October 15, 1999; Los Angeles Times
CLAIM: ?I carried an M-16. . . . I pulled my turn on the perimeter at
night and walked through the elephant grass, and I was fired upon.? In
1988, Gore told the Washington Post: ?I was shot at. . . . I spent most
of my time in the field.?
TRUTH: Gore never faced direct enemy fire, although several times he
may have arrived on the scene shortly after fighting was completed.
TEST-BAN TREATY October 14, 1999; Gore ad
CLAIM: ?I ask for your support, and your mandate if elected president,
to send this treaty back to the Senate with your demand that they
ratify it. I?ve worked on this for 20 years because, unless we get this
one right, nothing else matters.?
TRUTH: Gore indeed ?worked on? this matter for many years, but often in
opposition to a test ban. During his presidential campaign in 1988, he
criticized his Democratic primary opponents for ?the very idea of
having a complete ban on all flight-testing of missiles when we rely on
deterrence for the survival of our civilization? (Washington Post,
2-22-88).
INTERNET March 9, 1999; CNN interview
CLAIM: ?During my service in the United States Congress, I took the
initiative in creating the Internet.?
TRUTH: The Internet is an outgrowth of a Pentagon program established
in 1969. In the 1980s, Gore supported legislation considered favorable
to the Internet?s development.
CENSUS July 16, 1998; NAACP annual convention
CLAIM: ?The Republicans know theirs is the wrong agenda for African
Americans. They don?t even want to count you in the census!?
TRUTH: Most Republicans opposed the Clinton administration?s plan to
conduct the census by statistically sampling the population rather than
actually trying to count everybody.
BUDDHIST TEMPLE January 24, 1997; Today show
CLAIM: ?I did not know that it was a fundraiser.?
TRUTH: A DNC memo prepared for Gore made plain that the event at Hsi
Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif., was a fundraiser. A Secret
Service document called it a fundraiser, Gore?s staff described the
event as a fundraiser to reporters, and DNC chairman Don Fowler
testified to the Senate that he knew ?there was a fundraising aspect to
this event.? Six weeks before attending the event, Gore met with temple
master Hsing Yun at the White House with fundraisers Maria Hsia and
John Huang. Later that day, Gore sent an e-mail saying that he couldn?t
be in New York on April 28, 1996: ?If we have already booked the
fundraisers [in California], then we have to decline.?
ABORTION #2 January 22, 1997; NARAL meeting
CLAIM: ?I reached out to individuals who are leaders on the [pro-life]
side of this issue? to ?make common cause? on reducing unwanted
pregnancies. He went on to imply that Catholic pro-lifers? opposition
to birth control made it impossible for both sides join ?together to
make abortions rare.?
TRUTH: Despite many queries, no pro-life leader has ever said Gore
approached him on this subject.
PEACE CORPS February 16, 1992; C-SPAN?s Booknotes
CLAIM: Gore said his sister was ?the very first volunteer for the Peace
Corps.?
TRUTH: Nancy Gore Hunger was a paid employee at Peace Corps
headquarters, 1961-64.
SUPERFUND April 16, 1988; Democratic debate in New York
CLAIM: ?I have written the law, along with one other principal author
of the Superfund law, and amendments to the other major law in this
area, which requires that companies improperly disposing of hazardous
waste must bear the financial consequences of cleaning it up.?
TRUTH: Rep. Jim Florio, Democrat of New Jersey, wrote the first
Superfund law in 1980. Gore was not a coauthor but merely one of 42
cosponsors in the House. Eight years before claiming authorship and
praising the Superfund law, Gore criticized it for being ?far too small
to make a reasonable start on correcting this enormous environmental
problem? (Congressional Record, 5-16-80).
HOMETOWN February 1988; two ads
CLAIM: ?I?m Al Gore. I grew up on a farm,? and ?growing up in Carthage,
Tennessee, I learned our bedrock values . . .?
TRUTH: Gore, the son of a senator, grew up primarily at the Fairfax
Hotel in Washington, D.C., in a suite of rooms overlooking Embassy Row.
He graduated from the ritzy St. Albans National Cathedral School, also
in the capital.
SCHOOL DAYS 1988 campaign video
CLAIM: Narrator calls him a ?brilliant student.?
TRUTH: ?His grades were uneven, never approaching the plateau of A?s
and B?s that might be expected of one who possesses such a pedagogical
demeanor,? reported the Washington Post (3-19-00).
MUSIC LYRICS November 3, 1987; Variety
CLAIM: ?I was not in favor of the hearing? on music lyrics.
TRUTH: At the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on September 19, 1985,
Gore said: ?Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank
you and commend you for calling this hearing. Because my wife has been
heavily involved in the evolution of this issue, I have gained quite a
bit of familiarity with it, and I have really gained an education in
what is involved.?
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER September 27, 1987; Des Moines Register
CLAIM: Gore claimed he ?got a bunch of people indicted and sent to
jail? as a reporter in the 1970s.
TRUTH: Two city councilmen were indicted; one was acquitted and the
other given a suspended sentence. In an interview with the Memphis
Commercial Appeal (10-3-87) a few days later, Gore admitted to ?a
careless statement that was unintentional.?
FEMALE STAFFERS August 22, 1987; Associated Press
CLAIM: Gore ?said half his campaign staff were women, and he would make
half of a Gore Cabinet women.?
TRUTH: ?But pressed by reporters later to name women on his staff, he
fumbled and then mentioned one name, which later turned out to be
incorrect.?
ARMS CONTROL 1984 Senate ad
CLAIM: Narrator says Gore ?wrote the bipartisan plan on arms control
that U.S. negotiators will take to the Russians.?
TRUTH: Ken Adelman, director of U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency: ?He had nothing to do with what we proposed to the Soviets?
(Boston Globe, 4-11-00). |
