October 11, 2016, 04:29 pm
Gore in Florida: 'Take it from me,' your vote counts
By Lisa Hagen
Al Gore made an impassioned call Tuesday for voters to head to the polls in November, arguing that his unsuccessful presidential run is a prime example of each vote affecting an election.
At his first joint campaign appearance with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the former vice president referred to the 2000 election — when he was Democratic nominee and the outcome of the race hinged on a recount in Florida, where the Supreme Court ruled that Republican George W. Bush had won.
“Your vote really, really, really counts, a lot,” Gore said at the Miami rally. “You can consider me as an exhibit A of that group.”
“Take it from me: It was a very close election,” he continued, to cheers from the audience chanting, “You won!”
“Here’s my point: I don’t want you to be in a position years from now where you welcome Hillary Clinton and say, 'Actually, you did win, it just wasn’t close enough to make sure that all the votes were counted.' Elections have consequences."
Gore, a vocal environmental activist, addressed the threat of climate change as he worked Tuesday to help Clinton woo the millennial voters she has struggled to win over. Gore was one of the last high-profile Democrats to withhold an endorsement of the Democratic nominee, after declining to pick sides in the presidential primaries.
Gore said Clinton will build on the progress made addressing climate change and attacked GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, without mentioning his name, as someone who would set back America and its future.
While most Clinton surrogates have heavily trained their fire on Trump, the former vice president barely swiped at the real estate mogul and instead focused the bulk of his speech on the need to deal with climate change.
“When it comes to the most urgent issue facing our country and the world, the choice in this election is extremely clear: Hillary Clinton will make solving climate change a top national priority,” Gore said.
“Her opponent — based on the ideas he’s presented — would take us toward a climate catastrophe,” he added.
Throughout the campaign, Trump has cast doubt on the science behind climate change. Prior to running for president, the real estate mogul sent several tweets calling climate change a “hoax,” a “con job,” fictional” and “truly stupid.”
At the first presidential debate of 2016, Clinton brought up a 2012 tweet in which Trump said climate change is a Chinese hoax. But Trump pushed back and denied ever saying that.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300467-gore-to-florida-voters-take-it-from-me-your-vote-counts
