Former U.S. VP Gore says Trump is putting 'knee on the neck of democracy'

By Joseph Ax

 

FILE PHOTO: Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President and Climate Reality Project Chairman, gestures as he attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump of trying to "put his knee on the neck of democracy" by undermining mail-in voting and sowing doubts, without evidence, about the integrity of the Nov. 3 election.

 

"He seems to have no compunctions at all about trying to rip apart the social fabric and the political equilibrium of the American people, and he's strategically planting doubts in advance," Gore, a Democrat, said during a Reuters Newsmaker event with Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler and Editor-at-Large Harold Evans.

 

Gore, who served as vice president from 1993 to 2001 during Bill Clinton's presidency and lost the 2000 presidential election to Republican George W. Bush, called Trump's actions a "despicable strategy."

 

Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that voting by mail, a regular feature of U.S. elections that is expected to increase this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, will cause widespread fraud, while also refusing to say he would accept the election result should he lose to Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

 

Gore said Americans must be prepared for vote tallies that take days to complete after Election Day, and that the candidate who appears to be winning in initial results may end up losing once all ballots are counted.

 

In 2000, Gore and Bush were separated by only a few hundred votes in the battleground state of Florida, whose electoral votes would determine the election's outcome.

 

The result remained in limbo until more than a month after Election Day, when the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court resolved the contest in Bush's favor, prompting Gore - who had won the nationwide popular vote but lost in the complex state-by-state Electoral College - to concede.

 

"It turns out there's no intermediate step between a final Supreme Court decision and violent revolution," Gore said, smiling, of his decision to concede. "It seemed to me that respect for the rule of law and respect for the needs of American democracy were the orders of the day."

 

"You can always explore the option of dragging something out, tearing the country apart, mobilizing partisans against one another in the streets and all of that, but it was not a wise course for our country," Gore added.

 

'NOT REALLY UP TO HIM'

Gore said he believes the rule of law would hold fast this year, even if Trump does not accept the election results.

 

"It's not really up to him," Gore said, noting that Trump's term would end on Jan. 20, 2021, if he loses, under parameters set by the U.S. Constitution.

 

U.S. Secret Service and other military and security forces would answer to the new president as of that date, Gore added.

 

Trump's attacks on mail-in ballots, coupled with Postal Service cuts that already have caused delivery delays, have raised concerns among his critics that he is seeking to depress voter turnout.

 

"To try to deprive people who are scared of the pandemic from voting by mail by dismantling the Postal Service - he's attempting to put his knee on the neck of democracy," Gore said.

 

In response, Trump campaign spokeswoman Thea McDonald said Gore and other Democrats should "quit pushing their conspiracy theories."

 

"Al Gore is brazenly laying the groundwork for Joe Biden to dispute November's election results when President Trump wins - just as Gore himself did back in 2000," McDonald said.

 

Trump trails Biden in opinion polls as he seeks re-election amid a pandemic that has killed more than 177,000 Americans.

 

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump ally and campaign donor, has told Congress he has made Postal Service changes to lower costs, not to disrupt mail-in voting.

 

'STILL TIME'

Gore, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmental advocate, said policymakers cannot afford to ignore global climate change even as they grapple with the pandemic.

 

The two crises "are braided together," Gore said. In both cases, scientists with "their hair on fire" have warned of potentially deadly consequences - and both have exposed racial and economic inequities that undergird society, Gore added.

 

Unlike the pandemic, which triggered economic shutdowns intended to curb the pathogen's spread, climate change can be mitigated by investing in the economy's future, Gore said.

 

The two fastest-growing jobs in the United States are solar-energy panel installer and wind-turbine technician, Gore said, demonstrating the so-called green economy's potential.

 

Gore praised Biden for putting a major investment in environmental jobs in his economic plan and for promising if elected to rejoin the 2015 Paris agreement that set emissions goals for nearly 200 nations. Trump intends to withdraw from the accord on Nov. 4, the earliest possible date.

 

"There is still time," Gore added, "to solve this crisis before it reaches its catastrophic stage. Damage has already been done, and more will be done. But we still can avoid the worst of the consequences."

 

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Will Dunham)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-26

 

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More like the Democrat Party. 

18 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

(Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore accused President Donald Trump of trying to "put his knee on the neck of democracy"

No...just the Democrat Party. 

Troll post reported and removed along with replies. 

 

As much as they like to pump themselves up as a great democracy in the index of degree of democracy they don't fair too well. They are listed as a flawed democracy same as Thailand. Think about that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

 

Edited August 26, 20205 yr by pegman

Trump certainly is doing his level best to suppress the vote and is soliciting foreign interference and or info to attack rivals I certainly agree with VP Al Gore 

4 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

This has got to be sarcasm....hasn't it?

Most surely not I say.

4 minutes ago, ratcatcher said:

Most surely not I say.

I'm afraid I have to agree. Trump supporters are believers, it's like a religion: facts don't matter, just what you believe in. For all of you who want to see first hand how ignorant and delusional many Trump supporters are, I would suggest watching a few videos on youtube called 'Trump supporters say the darndest things'. It just beggars belief.

3 minutes ago, rudi49jr said:

I'm afraid I have to agree. Trump supporters are believers, it's like a religion: facts don't matter, just what you believe in. For all of you who want to see first hand how ignorant and delusional many Trump supporters are, I would suggest watching a few videos on youtube called 'Trump supporters say the darndest things'. It just beggars belief.

C'mon man, it's not just Trump and his supporters, Uncle Joe makes some pretty weird statements, you know the thing.

2 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

C'mon man, it's not just Trump and his supporters, Uncle Joe makes some pretty weird statements, you know the thing.

Are you really trying to compare Trump and his supporters to Joe Biden when it comes to uttering weird sh*t? Because they are clearly in a completely different league. Trump loves what QAnon supporters say about him and retweets some of the batcrap crazy stuff they put out there, for instance. Nothing that 'Uncle Joe' says or does even comes close to that.

Edited August 26, 20205 yr by rudi49jr

7 hours ago, pegman said:

As much as they like to pump themselves up as a great democracy in the index of degree of democracy they don't fair too well. They are listed as a flawed democracy same as Thailand. Think about that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

 

 

A demockracy

 

Wow, I thought Al "inventor of the internet" Gore died in 2012 when the world ended.

Off-topic post and replies removed. 

 

Off-topic posts and replies removed. 

 

A very inappropriate analogy to use on Gore's part given the times. It seems they really want  a race war. 

On 8/26/2020 at 3:55 AM, Tug said:

Trump certainly is doing his level best to suppress the vote and is soliciting foreign interference and or info to attack rivals I certainly agree with VP Al Gore 

Lying Democrat AL Gores thinks everyone is stupid. What an idiot! - and so are his followers if any.

This is the man that couldn’t win his own State when he ran for President, so he invented the internet instead.
He also told everyone that NY would be underwater by 2015 - so much for his climate change.

The biggest contribution to Global Warming is the Hot Air that comes out of his mouth.

America isn't a "democracy" it's a constitutional Republic. "democracy" isn't mentioned anywhere in our Constitution.

Trump should put his knee on the neck of democrat's idea of democracy.

Imagine if Gore won the White House! For starters 9/11 wouldn’t have happened. We wouldn’t be in wars with Afghanistan or Iraq. We wouldn’t be in Trumps wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iran! We would’ve had a Golden Age based on Green Tech and Global Warming would have been defeated. 
 

Now look where we are. Trump has caused so much racial pain, division, hatred, xenophobia and in the word of our next President Biden, Darkness. 
 

Trump stole the 2016 election from Hilary Clinton by conspiring, colliding and coordinating with the Russians. He tried to steal the 2020 election by withholding congressionally approved funds for the defense of our vital ally Ukraine in exchange for damaging political info on Joe Biden. Now he is suppressing the mail in vote by removing mail boxes and sorting machines. He’s trying to steal the black and LatinX vote. Face it Trump and his rabid ban of supporters are cheaters. Thankfully Joe Biden is leading in the national poll, likely voters, registered voters, all swing states and even in Texas. 

20 minutes ago, ipockeyHUCK said:

America isn't a "democracy" it's a constitutional Republic. "democracy" isn't mentioned anywhere in our Constitution.

USA is not a democracy now after Trump launch his assault on representative government. It is also not a constitutional republic seeing Trump consistently trample on the constitution. Which place Trump either as a wannabe dictator or a wannabe king. ????

i hope he and con family are put in a cell with a big black man 

who do you want to play mummy or daddy 

On 8/26/2020 at 1:37 PM, rudi49jr said:

I'm afraid I have to agree. Trump supporters are believers, it's like a religion: facts don't matter, just what you believe in. For all of you who want to see first hand how ignorant and delusional many Trump supporters are, I would suggest watching a few videos on youtube called 'Trump supporters say the darndest things'. It just beggars belief.

 

Where as Democrat supporters are intelligent, decent moral, critical thinking, law abiding, peaceful citizens - which is why they vote for people allowing mobs to loot, burn and assault and murder people - "peacefully".

 

Some of the Democrat supporters - politicians, wealthy entertainers, "activists" say some things that are so removed from reality it beggars belief. Then there's the do as we say not as we do mentality that is a trait of the left. etc etc. 

On 8/26/2020 at 5:40 AM, rgraham said:

Wow, I thought Al "inventor of the internet" Gore died in 2012 when the world ended.

What??  the world ended in 2012?? I thought the Y2K brought the end of the world.