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Change Your Life! |
Gore’s
answers matches Clinton’s in Monica case |
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June 25, 2000
WASHINGTON
(AP) - Wrestling with the meaning of the term "fund raising" and
insisting there was no price tag on White House coffees, U.S. Vice
President Al Gore engaged in sometimes sharp exchanges with a Justice
Department prosecutor who now wants a special counsel to investigate the
truthfulness of Gore's answers.
Gore's
attendance at a fund-raiser in a Buddhist temple and his hosting of coffee
gatherings linked to a massive drive for 1996 campaign donations were the
key topics at a sworn interview April 18 that the vice president released
verbatim Friday.
Gore's
decision to open the 123 pages of fund-raising testimony to public
scrutiny is a risky attempt to right his U.S. presidential campaign. It
was thrown off track Thursday when word leaked out that Robert Conrad, the
Justice Department prosecutor who questioned the vice
president, is recommending a special counsel.
Gore insists he doesn't know "to this day" that he was attending a fund-raising event when he went to the Buddhist temple in California.
"I
sure as hell did not have any conversations with anyone saying
this is a fund-raising event," Gore testified, flatly denying knowing
anything about the dlrs 60,000 in illegal donations that followed his
appearance that day.
Word
of Conrad's recommendation for a special counsel leaked to Senator Arlen
Specter, who then spread the word.
"We're not going to put up with this kind of dirty tricks and political skullduggery," Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said of the leak.
Members
of Gore's Democratic Party raised questions about whether Conrad
is politically motivated, pointing reporters to a dlrs 250 donation to
Senator Jesse Helms of the Republican Party by attorney While Gore said he is releasing the transcript of his interview with Conrad so that the American people can see that "I've told the truth," the testimony is being held up by Republicans as just one more reason for voting for presumptive Republican nominee George W. Bush. Questions about Gore's fund raising are "indicative of what has gone on" in the administration of President Bill Clinton, Bush said. "People are sick and tired of all this stuff." Gore's answers turned legalistic, reminiscent of Clinton's answers in the Monica Lewinsky scandal who at one point said an answer depended on the definition of the word "is." In Gore's case, his answer turned on the meaning of "fund raising." "With respect to raising ... dlrs 108 million, did you have discussions with anybody concerning the role coffees would play in raising that type of money?" Conrad asked. "Well, let me define the term `raising,' if I could, because if you mean by it, would they be events at which money was raised, the answer is no," Gore replied. "There simply was no quid pro quo of attendance at a coffee, payment to follow?" Conrad asked.
"That is absolutely my impression," Gore replied. "You are not familiar with the cost of dlrs 50,000 being ... the cost to attend the fund-raiser ... a coffee?" asked Conrad. "Absolutely
not," Gore replied. "And it is my belief that that would
have been considered wildly inappropriate, if not worse." |