WEBVTT - Bush v. Gore: Episode 1 – Homestead 0:00:16.311 --> 0:00:23.191 Pushkin. Hey, Leon here, Before we get to this episode, 0:00:23.431 --> 0:00:25.191 I want to let you know that you can binge 0:00:25.231 --> 0:00:28.591 the entire season of Fiasco bush v goor right now 0:00:28.791 --> 0:00:33.071 ad free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber. Sign up 0:00:33.111 --> 0:00:37.031 for Pushkin Plus on the Fiasco Apple podcast showpage, or 0:00:37.191 --> 0:00:44.230 visit Pushkin dot fm slash plus. Now onto the episode. 0:00:44.671 --> 0:00:48.230 On Thanksgiving morning nineteen ninety nine, a Florida man from 0:00:48.231 --> 0:00:52.311 outside Fort Lauderdale named Donado Dalrymple went on an impulse 0:00:52.351 --> 0:00:55.071 fishing trip with his cousin. The water was choppy as 0:00:55.071 --> 0:00:57.471 they took their motorboat out into the Atlantic Ocean in 0:00:57.471 --> 0:00:58.551 search of Mahi mahi. 0:00:59.271 --> 0:01:02.351 My cousin he said, look for seaweed and debris, anything 0:01:02.431 --> 0:01:06.351 floating on the ocean. And I point out with my 0:01:06.551 --> 0:01:09.591 finger and I said, like that inner tube that's there. 0:01:09.591 --> 0:01:12.511 He goes, Yeah, let's go around that inner tube. 0:01:12.711 --> 0:01:15.391 Dalrymple was thirty nine years old and he wasn't much 0:01:15.391 --> 0:01:17.991 of a fisherman. He owned a house cleaning business, which 0:01:17.991 --> 0:01:21.111 he still does. Out on the water, he followed his 0:01:21.151 --> 0:01:23.151 cousin's lead as they scouted for a good place to 0:01:23.191 --> 0:01:26.791 throw out their lines. Then dal Rymple saw something. 0:01:28.551 --> 0:01:31.351 We were about twenty five yards from the inner tube, 0:01:31.391 --> 0:01:34.431 never that close to it, and I told my cousin, 0:01:34.511 --> 0:01:36.831 I said, there looks like there's somebody on there, but 0:01:36.871 --> 0:01:37.951 they look like they're dead. 0:01:39.351 --> 0:01:42.351 When dal Rymple got closer, he noticed a tiny hand 0:01:42.431 --> 0:01:45.511 moving in the inner tube. His cousin jumped into the 0:01:45.511 --> 0:01:46.511 water to investigate. 0:01:47.191 --> 0:01:51.031 My cousin's in the water and he's screaming, it's a baby, 0:01:51.871 --> 0:01:54.991 and he's pushing up and I'm leaning over, almost falling 0:01:55.071 --> 0:01:57.831 into the water. That's how rough the seas were, and 0:01:57.871 --> 0:02:04.071 I snatched what we know today as Ellon Gonzalez. 0:02:06.591 --> 0:02:10.271 Eleon Gonzalez was five years old. His mother had to 0:02:10.270 --> 0:02:12.231 bring him to the United States from Cuba in a 0:02:12.270 --> 0:02:15.351 small aluminum boat. He had just barely survived the journey. 0:02:16.031 --> 0:02:22.311 His mother drowned along with ten other people. After dal 0:02:22.351 --> 0:02:25.591 Rymple and his cousin brought Elean ashore, they delivered him 0:02:25.631 --> 0:02:28.351 to the Coastguard. When it was discovered that Eleon had 0:02:28.351 --> 0:02:30.991 a great uncle living in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, 0:02:31.391 --> 0:02:33.311 the boy was sent to stay with him and his family. 0:02:34.551 --> 0:02:36.831 Eleon's story was seen as a miracle by some in 0:02:36.871 --> 0:02:38.111 the local Cuban community. 0:02:38.431 --> 0:02:42.150 He was highlighted in the local news. This little kid survived, 0:02:42.231 --> 0:02:43.831 the mother died, everybody died. 0:02:44.311 --> 0:02:48.031 This is Carlos Saladriguez, a Miami businessman who fled Cuba 0:02:48.071 --> 0:02:51.191 in nineteen sixty one. Because of his deep ties to 0:02:51.191 --> 0:02:54.351 the city's Cuban American community. Saladriguez was able to watch 0:02:54.391 --> 0:02:57.430 the Elian Gonzales ordeal unfold from close range. 0:02:57.671 --> 0:03:01.551 There were rumors circulating around that dolphins had saved the 0:03:01.671 --> 0:03:04.951 kid from drowning and from being eaten by charge. 0:03:05.031 --> 0:03:08.031 He was safe by God, but the dolphins. 0:03:07.711 --> 0:03:08.391 Is a miracle. 0:03:11.191 --> 0:03:14.311 A few days after Eleon's rescue, his father back in 0:03:14.351 --> 0:03:16.391 Cuba made it known that his son had been taken 0:03:16.391 --> 0:03:18.191 to America without his permission. 0:03:18.631 --> 0:03:21.831 The father, back in their hometown of Cardinis keeps asking 0:03:21.871 --> 0:03:25.231 his son when he's coming back, and demanding his return 0:03:25.311 --> 0:03:26.511 by the United States. 0:03:28.151 --> 0:03:32.031 The custody battle instantly ballooned into a diplomatic crisis, as 0:03:32.111 --> 0:03:35.151 Cuba's President Fidel Castro started putting pressure on the US 0:03:35.231 --> 0:03:36.511 to send Elyon back. 0:03:36.711 --> 0:03:39.391 Now to the young refug j caught in the custody 0:03:39.431 --> 0:03:42.351 dispute between the US and Cuba today. 0:03:42.151 --> 0:03:46.271 And that sort of became an opportunity to hidelight the 0:03:46.311 --> 0:03:50.311 plight of the Cuban victims of the communists, and all 0:03:50.351 --> 0:03:54.991 of that, he had all the qualities of becoming a 0:03:55.111 --> 0:03:56.671 good political football. 0:03:57.231 --> 0:04:00.511 Relatives here claim Eleon's father is being pressured by the 0:04:00.551 --> 0:04:02.991 Cuban government to ask for his son's return. 0:04:03.711 --> 0:04:06.151 Miami Dade County was home to six hundred and fifty 0:04:06.191 --> 0:04:10.551 thousand Cuban Americans, many of them first generation exiles. These 0:04:10.551 --> 0:04:13.231 were people who hated Cuba's communist regime with a passion 0:04:14.071 --> 0:04:16.151 to them. It didn't make a difference what Eleon's father 0:04:16.271 --> 0:04:19.511 or Fidel Castro said. The boy's life would obviously be 0:04:19.510 --> 0:04:21.311 better if he was allowed to grow up in America. 0:04:22.551 --> 0:04:25.751 The US government did not see it that way. In 0:04:25.871 --> 0:04:29.270 January of two thousand, six weeks into Elyon's stay in Miami, 0:04:29.871 --> 0:04:32.151 the Clinton administration announced that he would have to be 0:04:32.231 --> 0:04:33.351 sent back to Cuba. 0:04:34.391 --> 0:04:37.031 The US Attorney General Janet Reno says the child should 0:04:37.031 --> 0:04:39.751 be returned to his father in Cuba as soon as possible, 0:04:40.071 --> 0:04:42.351 especially in light of the hardships he endured coming to 0:04:42.391 --> 0:04:43.671 this country. 0:04:43.791 --> 0:04:48.791 The news did not go over well in Little Havana. 0:04:49.071 --> 0:04:52.351 Dozens of Cuban Americans were arrested while protesting the US 0:04:52.391 --> 0:04:56.711 government's decision to return Eleon Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. 0:04:57.031 --> 0:05:00.431 A standoff ensued as Eleon's Miami relatives looked for ways 0:05:00.431 --> 0:05:01.431 to keep him in the country. 0:05:01.711 --> 0:05:05.271 Because it was a child, he sort of brought down 0:05:05.311 --> 0:05:09.151 the political issue and gave it a human face and 0:05:09.231 --> 0:05:12.551 the face of a of a young child who lost 0:05:12.631 --> 0:05:17.991 his mother. And it just became a very emotional and 0:05:18.151 --> 0:05:24.471 deeply emotional issue, and it consumed the Quean American community 0:05:24.951 --> 0:05:25.951 into that drama. 0:05:26.911 --> 0:05:30.311 As the custody battle over Eleon dragged on, many Cuban 0:05:30.351 --> 0:05:33.231 Americans in Miami came to despise the Clinton administration for 0:05:33.231 --> 0:05:34.270 its handling of the case. 0:05:34.751 --> 0:05:38.271 President Clinton, have you no shame. 0:05:40.711 --> 0:05:42.711 But in the end, it was not Bill Clinton who 0:05:42.751 --> 0:05:45.111 had to answer for the Elyon case. It was the 0:05:45.151 --> 0:05:46.391 guy running to replace him. 0:05:46.711 --> 0:05:49.831 Vice President Al Gore today formally declared himself a candidate 0:05:49.871 --> 0:05:51.631 for the Democratic presidential nomination. 0:05:51.911 --> 0:05:55.511 Today I announced that I am a candidate for President 0:05:55.671 --> 0:05:56.791 of the United States. 0:06:00.151 --> 0:06:03.231 Al Gore was five months into his presidential bid when DONALDO. 0:06:03.311 --> 0:06:06.391 Dalrymple and his cousin pulled Eleon Gonzales out of the water. 0:06:07.551 --> 0:06:09.711 There are those who believe that Gore's fate was sealed 0:06:09.791 --> 0:06:12.831 right then and there, that the Elyon controversy placed the 0:06:12.871 --> 0:06:16.871 vice president on the path to inevitable defeat in Florida. 0:06:16.951 --> 0:06:19.471 But as you're about to hear, the real story of 0:06:19.511 --> 0:06:23.951 Gore's loss in two thousand was messier, richer, and harder 0:06:23.991 --> 0:06:26.311 to arrange in a straight line of cause and effect. 0:06:27.271 --> 0:06:30.791 And none of it could have happened anywhere but Florida. 0:06:30.951 --> 0:06:35.551 I'm Leon Nafok from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This 0:06:35.911 --> 0:06:37.711 is fiasco Bush v. 0:06:37.871 --> 0:06:38.111 Gore. 0:06:39.471 --> 0:06:41.671 The rice with the White House is incredibly close. 0:06:41.911 --> 0:06:44.431 It's election like we haven't seen in decades. 0:06:44.071 --> 0:06:48.831 Uncharted Territorge Tonight, the outcome and history itself on Home 0:06:48.911 --> 0:06:53.271 and the battled ground is Florida. 0:06:52.151 --> 0:06:57.510 Episode one, Homestead. What happened in Florida before everything else 0:06:57.671 --> 0:07:06.231 that happened in Florida. I'll just tell you now. Al 0:07:06.311 --> 0:07:09.031 Gore lost Florida to George W. Bush by a margin 0:07:09.071 --> 0:07:11.671 of five hundred and thirty seven votes out of nearly 0:07:11.791 --> 0:07:15.871 six million cast. The outcome played out in slow motion 0:07:16.071 --> 0:07:19.071 over thirty six days, as vote totals across the state 0:07:19.111 --> 0:07:22.631 came under dispute, Hundreds of thousands of ballots were recounted, 0:07:23.031 --> 0:07:25.111 and the two campaigns went to war with each other 0:07:25.151 --> 0:07:29.711 in the courtrooms of Tallahassee. Now, many people believe, quite 0:07:29.751 --> 0:07:32.791 reasonably that Gore lost the two thousand election because of 0:07:32.791 --> 0:07:36.191 the way the recount played out in Florida. But the 0:07:36.311 --> 0:07:38.631 roots of Gore's defeat can be traced back to the 0:07:38.671 --> 0:07:42.871 earliest days of the campaign itself. Because what's striking when 0:07:42.871 --> 0:07:46.151 you think back on two thousand is that, in most respects, 0:07:46.151 --> 0:07:48.951 the fundamentals of the race were strongly in Gore's favor. 0:07:49.591 --> 0:07:52.071 Now, Governor Bush likes to say that we should go 0:07:52.151 --> 0:07:54.351 back to the policies of eight years ago. 0:07:55.231 --> 0:07:58.391 I think that reflects perhaps a fuzzy memory. 0:07:58.551 --> 0:08:01.071 This is the asan al Gore's deck, as it were, 0:08:01.231 --> 0:08:02.311 the strength of the economy. 0:08:02.471 --> 0:08:04.231 It's probably too late for George W. 0:08:04.311 --> 0:08:05.031 Bush. 0:08:05.351 --> 0:08:07.951 He had been vice president for nearly eight prosperous years. 0:08:08.591 --> 0:08:12.511 The economy was booming, crime was down, the budget was balanced, 0:08:12.831 --> 0:08:15.671 and the country was at peace. Yes, Bill Clinton's sex 0:08:15.671 --> 0:08:19.231 scandal and impeachment created a serious challenge for Gore, but 0:08:19.311 --> 0:08:21.311 on paper, at least, it should not have been that 0:08:21.431 --> 0:08:23.351 hard for him to convince voters to stay with the 0:08:23.391 --> 0:08:24.111 winning formula. 0:08:24.791 --> 0:08:29.951 Bill Clinton worked hard to get this economy right, and 0:08:30.111 --> 0:08:33.790 I'm pledging to you here today, i am not gonna 0:08:33.871 --> 0:08:36.951 let the other side wreck it and take it away 0:08:36.951 --> 0:08:40.070 from us. We're gonna keep the prosperity going. 0:08:41.351 --> 0:08:44.511 So what happened? What was it about Al Gore and 0:08:44.511 --> 0:08:47.030 his candidacy and the way he ran his campaign that 0:08:47.151 --> 0:08:51.790 made the race so incredibly close? The general election was 0:08:51.830 --> 0:08:54.391 ten months away when the Clinton administration announced that Elian 0:08:54.471 --> 0:08:57.831 Gonzales would have to be sent home to Cuba. The 0:08:57.871 --> 0:09:01.311 situation placed Gore in political quicksand if he sided with 0:09:01.310 --> 0:09:04.391 his own administration, he would surely forfeit the crucial Cuban 0:09:04.430 --> 0:09:08.271 American vote in Miami to his Republican opponent. But if 0:09:08.271 --> 0:09:09.950 he broke with the White House and pushed for l 0:09:10.151 --> 0:09:14.710 On to stay in America, he would alienate his own party. 0:09:14.950 --> 0:09:21.991 We'll be right back. Gore was never going to have 0:09:22.030 --> 0:09:25.830 an easy time winning the Cuban American vote. For decades, 0:09:25.871 --> 0:09:28.430 the perception had been that Democrats were soft on Castro 0:09:28.710 --> 0:09:32.511 and soft on communism. In nineteen eighty, about eighty percent 0:09:32.550 --> 0:09:34.950 of the Cuban American vote in Dade County went from 0:09:35.030 --> 0:09:38.551 Ronald Reagan and in nineteen eighty eight, the same percentage 0:09:38.631 --> 0:09:41.910 voted for George HW. Bush. 0:09:42.471 --> 0:09:47.111 President Bush is a beacon of hope for the millions 0:09:47.111 --> 0:09:53.550 seeing Cuba who want liberty and democracy. President Bush has 0:09:53.631 --> 0:09:56.471 shown his loyalty to the Q and people. 0:09:57.950 --> 0:10:01.871 But despite that history, al Gore had reason to be optimistic. 0:10:02.830 --> 0:10:04.991 For one thing, he had an ally in the powerful 0:10:05.030 --> 0:10:08.870 mayor of Miami Dade County, Alex Penelis. The rare Cuban 0:10:08.871 --> 0:10:11.151 American politician who also a Democrat. 0:10:11.391 --> 0:10:14.231 Alex Panels has propelled himself to the center of South 0:10:14.231 --> 0:10:18.790 Florida's political stage. He's making himself heard far beyond his state. 0:10:19.351 --> 0:10:23.351 Panellus was considered a rising star in national politics. In 0:10:23.430 --> 0:10:27.310 nineteen ninety nine, he was named America's sexiest politician by 0:10:27.310 --> 0:10:28.350 People magazine. 0:10:28.590 --> 0:10:32.711 With two million constituents, he is Florida's second most powerful 0:10:32.751 --> 0:10:37.710 politician after the governor, and some say the most influential 0:10:37.830 --> 0:10:39.630 Hispanic politician in America. 0:10:40.190 --> 0:10:42.991 In addition to Penelus, Gore owe his chances in Little 0:10:42.991 --> 0:10:45.191 Havana to Bill Clinton, who had made a steady and 0:10:45.231 --> 0:10:47.591 concerted effort over the course of his presidency to make 0:10:47.631 --> 0:10:51.790 inroads with the Cuban American community. Here's journalist Michael Grunwald, 0:10:52.111 --> 0:10:54.550 who wrote about Clinton's courtship of the Cuban American elite 0:10:54.710 --> 0:10:56.310 in his book The Swamp. 0:10:56.430 --> 0:10:59.471 And Bill Clinton is a political animal. You know, he's 0:10:59.511 --> 0:11:04.991 a precinct by precinct vote counter, and he knows the demographics, 0:11:05.111 --> 0:11:09.511 and he knows who matters in each demographic. And he 0:11:09.550 --> 0:11:14.510 recognized that Cuban American voters who had been traditionally extremely 0:11:14.590 --> 0:11:19.271 Republican could be made somewhat less Republican, and in Florida, 0:11:19.391 --> 0:11:20.430 margins really matter. 0:11:21.351 --> 0:11:23.751 The charm offensive dated all the way back to Clinton's 0:11:23.751 --> 0:11:27.711 first presidential campaign. During that spring of nineteen ninety two, 0:11:28.111 --> 0:11:31.110 Clinton voiced his support for a hardline bill to intensify 0:11:31.111 --> 0:11:34.271 the Cuban embargo, a bill that George H. W. Bush 0:11:34.310 --> 0:11:38.591 initially declined to support. Then the following August, when the 0:11:38.590 --> 0:11:42.550 Category five storm Hurricane Andrew caused twenty five billion dollars 0:11:42.590 --> 0:11:45.631 in damage across South Florida, Clinton was presented with a 0:11:45.710 --> 0:11:48.431 chance to build ties with the Cuban American power brokers 0:11:48.550 --> 0:11:51.711 who would be steering the recovery effort. One of the 0:11:51.710 --> 0:11:54.831 worst hit areas in Hurricane Andrew's path was a small 0:11:54.871 --> 0:11:58.751 city in Dade County called Homestead. Before the storm, the 0:11:58.751 --> 0:12:02.191 city's economy had revolved around the federally owned Homestead Air 0:12:02.190 --> 0:12:02.751 Force Base. 0:12:03.271 --> 0:12:05.711 Homestead received the most damaged. 0:12:05.871 --> 0:12:09.951 Witnesses say almost every building was damaged, many destroyed. 0:12:11.310 --> 0:12:14.830 Homestead Air Force Base was almost completely destroyed in the storm. 0:12:15.271 --> 0:12:17.711 The base had been there since nineteen forty two and 0:12:17.751 --> 0:12:21.111 had played an important role in military relations between Washington 0:12:21.111 --> 0:12:23.790 and Havana. When more than a thousand prisoners of war 0:12:24.030 --> 0:12:26.191 returned to the United States after being captured during the 0:12:26.190 --> 0:12:29.271 failed Bay of Pigs invasion, they landed at Homestead. 0:12:30.710 --> 0:12:32.750 It certainly looked like a happy New Year to the 0:12:32.751 --> 0:12:36.950 eleven hundred and thirteen captives returning from Cuba. Homestead Air 0:12:36.991 --> 0:12:40.271 Force Base, Florida was their first taste of freedom after 0:12:40.310 --> 0:12:43.350 being Castro's prisoners for twenty months. 0:12:42.830 --> 0:12:45.751 In Clinton, on a campaign swing through South Florida not 0:12:45.830 --> 0:12:48.911 long after Hurricane Andrew visited the ruins of the Homestead 0:12:48.910 --> 0:12:51.631 Air Force Base and made a promise that if elected president, 0:12:51.950 --> 0:12:53.910 he would use the power of the federal government to 0:12:53.950 --> 0:12:56.950 revitalize the area. Here's Michael Grunwald again. 0:12:57.631 --> 0:13:00.830 So he had a sort of kitchen cabinet of some 0:13:01.511 --> 0:13:05.311 prominent Cuban American advisors, and they let him know early 0:13:05.910 --> 0:13:09.430 that Homestead Air Force Base was a good issue, not 0:13:09.511 --> 0:13:12.470 just on the merits where it seemed like the right 0:13:12.511 --> 0:13:15.511 thing to do to rebuild a destroyed air Force base, 0:13:15.991 --> 0:13:17.591 but that it would be a way of sort of 0:13:17.830 --> 0:13:22.350 signaling culturally that he cared about South Florida generally and 0:13:22.590 --> 0:13:26.430 the sort of Cuban American slice of South Florida specifically. 0:13:26.991 --> 0:13:30.151 In nineteen ninety four, a group of Cuban American investors 0:13:30.231 --> 0:13:32.950 unveiled the proposal to convert Homestead Air Force Base into 0:13:32.991 --> 0:13:36.910 a commercial airport. The proposal promised to turn Homestead into 0:13:36.910 --> 0:13:39.710 a hub of international travel, but in order to get 0:13:39.710 --> 0:13:42.551 off the ground, it needed the Clinton administration's approval. 0:13:43.271 --> 0:13:46.191 It was federal land, you know, as a US air 0:13:46.190 --> 0:13:50.591 Force base, and the Pentagon was going to be running 0:13:50.631 --> 0:13:54.391 the show in terms of what to do with this land. 0:13:54.590 --> 0:13:57.831 It was going to be a federal process, and you know, 0:13:57.910 --> 0:14:00.351 the White House clearly was going to play a role 0:14:00.910 --> 0:14:05.790 in directing the Pentagon which direction it wanted to go. 0:14:06.991 --> 0:14:09.671 The promise of a brand new airport in Homestead gave 0:14:09.710 --> 0:14:12.311 Clinton in an opening to forge political alliances with the 0:14:12.351 --> 0:14:14.790 Cuban American power brokers who are pushing for it. 0:14:15.351 --> 0:14:18.271 One way to show some of the Cuban elites that 0:14:18.310 --> 0:14:21.551 he was on their side was to really emphasize his 0:14:21.590 --> 0:14:24.151 support for this airport. He knew it was something that 0:14:24.231 --> 0:14:27.911 they wanted, and he knew that those business and political 0:14:27.951 --> 0:14:31.711 leaders had a fair amount of influence with making actual 0:14:31.791 --> 0:14:32.870 votes and dollars happen. 0:14:33.671 --> 0:14:36.551 All of this behind the scenes work paid off. In 0:14:36.631 --> 0:14:39.871 nineteen ninety six, Clinton managed to get between thirty five 0:14:39.911 --> 0:14:43.391 and forty four percent of Miami's Cuban American vote. This 0:14:43.551 --> 0:14:46.551 astonishing result helped Clinton become the first Democrat to win 0:14:46.631 --> 0:14:51.231 Florida in twenty years. As Al Gore looked ahead to 0:14:51.231 --> 0:14:54.551 two thousand, it seemed possible that the Cuban community's goodwill 0:14:54.590 --> 0:15:01.311 towards Clinton would carry over to him. But then Elian 0:15:01.351 --> 0:15:02.231 Gonzales happened. 0:15:03.311 --> 0:15:06.871 We will not forget Elyon, we will not forget his mother, 0:15:07.431 --> 0:15:14.031 and we will not live peaceably and until we see freedom. 0:15:14.191 --> 0:15:16.951 Gore initially tried to step lightly around the Elyon issue. 0:15:17.471 --> 0:15:19.951 I would insist, he told reporters upon due process of 0:15:20.031 --> 0:15:24.071 law within the appropriate tribunal. On the substance, Gore was 0:15:24.071 --> 0:15:26.991 putting distance between himself and the Clinton administration by saying 0:15:26.991 --> 0:15:29.111 that the question of custody should not be handled by 0:15:29.111 --> 0:15:32.590 federal immigration authorities. But as far as Bold stands go, 0:15:33.071 --> 0:15:35.671 it left something to be desired and did not win 0:15:35.751 --> 0:15:38.951 him a ton of credit. In Little Havana, George W. Bush, 0:15:38.951 --> 0:15:41.590 on the other hand, spoke about the Elyon issue simply 0:15:41.710 --> 0:15:44.510 and freely. The boy should just be given US citizenship, 0:15:44.511 --> 0:15:46.591 he said, and his father should be allowed to come 0:15:46.590 --> 0:15:48.110 to the United States and join him. 0:15:48.551 --> 0:15:50.351 The man ought to be brought to the United States, 0:15:50.351 --> 0:15:52.551 given a whiff of freedom so he can see how 0:15:52.590 --> 0:15:53.470 wonderful our country is. 0:15:53.511 --> 0:15:55.630 I want to say something about Cuban our hemisphere. 0:15:55.671 --> 0:15:59.991 As anti Castro demonstrations flared around Miami Eli, young Gonzales 0:16:00.031 --> 0:16:02.830 settled into a strange life under the glare of international 0:16:02.871 --> 0:16:03.551 media attention. 0:16:03.871 --> 0:16:07.311 Ellon today trying to roller skate outside his house in 0:16:07.351 --> 0:16:10.470 Little Havana in its stand off with the government and 0:16:10.631 --> 0:16:11.431 the boy's father. 0:16:11.951 --> 0:16:14.671 A few days after his sixth birthday, his family took 0:16:14.710 --> 0:16:16.711 him to Disney World, where he was followed around by 0:16:16.751 --> 0:16:19.631 a pack of reporters and sheriff's deputies while people chanted 0:16:19.710 --> 0:16:20.071 his name. 0:16:20.431 --> 0:16:22.471 The case of the smiling six year old is so 0:16:22.751 --> 0:16:26.830 entangled in American politics that even his new puppy came 0:16:26.911 --> 0:16:28.230 from a member of Congress. 0:16:29.590 --> 0:16:32.591 Donardo Dalrymple meanwhile made regular visits to the house where 0:16:32.590 --> 0:16:35.471 Ellion was staying, driving there most days after work to 0:16:35.511 --> 0:16:37.151 spend time with the boy and his family. 0:16:37.710 --> 0:16:40.951 I just felt that I wanted to see this child again. 0:16:41.391 --> 0:16:45.431 You know, it's not every day that you pull a 0:16:45.511 --> 0:16:48.911 child out from the ocean, and I want to know 0:16:48.951 --> 0:16:51.351 what was going to happen with his life. 0:16:51.511 --> 0:16:54.751 What your name, sir, My name is Donado dal Rymple. 0:16:55.471 --> 0:16:58.350 Dalrymple would regularly give interviews to the reporters camped out 0:16:58.351 --> 0:16:59.711 in front of Ellon's house. 0:17:00.191 --> 0:17:02.511 To see this gift of God. I believe that's what 0:17:02.590 --> 0:17:04.711 he really is. To hang on the water for that 0:17:04.751 --> 0:17:06.871 many days. I don't know how long it was, but 0:17:07.191 --> 0:17:09.031 I mean, he's definitely a gift of God, and I'm 0:17:09.031 --> 0:17:10.591 really privileged to be now to him. 0:17:11.151 --> 0:17:13.190 That's awesome, Thank you, that is awesome. 0:17:13.391 --> 0:17:14.311 What a beautiful kid. 0:17:15.271 --> 0:17:18.311 Soon, Dalrymple became a media sensation in his own right. 0:17:18.911 --> 0:17:22.191 So who is Donando Dalrymple, the man widely known as 0:17:22.191 --> 0:17:22.830 the Fisherman. 0:17:23.350 --> 0:17:25.830 In the Washington Post story headlined a Fisherman in his 0:17:25.911 --> 0:17:30.110 fifteen Minutes, Dalrymple was cast as the Miami equivalent of kato' kalan, 0:17:30.630 --> 0:17:33.270 the actor who lived in OJ Simpson's guest house and 0:17:33.311 --> 0:17:37.271 briefly became famous after Simpson was charged with murder. In 0:17:37.311 --> 0:17:41.191 the Post story, Dalrymple was described signing autographs and talking 0:17:41.191 --> 0:17:43.390 about how Howard Stern had mentioned him on the radio. 0:17:44.390 --> 0:17:46.671 His own cousin, the same one who helped pull elli 0:17:46.751 --> 0:17:49.071 On out of the water, was quoted in the story 0:17:49.110 --> 0:17:52.350 saying that Dalrymple was a desperate man looking for publicity. 0:17:52.911 --> 0:17:53.791 He says, you're. 0:17:53.751 --> 0:17:56.311 Using the child for fame and glory, and that you 0:17:56.590 --> 0:17:59.630 believed from the start a child should be with his father. 0:18:00.150 --> 0:18:01.910 I like to tell my cousin I love him very 0:18:01.991 --> 0:18:05.830 much and that it's very interesting, h how he's making 0:18:05.870 --> 0:18:08.950 these accusations. I've never made an accusation towards him or anybody, 0:18:08.991 --> 0:18:10.551 so I don't know where he's coming with that. 0:18:11.311 --> 0:18:13.871 Dal Rymple, who was born in Poughkeepsie, says he came 0:18:13.870 --> 0:18:15.951 to identify with a Cuban American cause. 0:18:19.071 --> 0:18:22.390 They embraced me as one of their own. And I 0:18:22.511 --> 0:18:27.511 listened to literally hundreds of stories of older men that 0:18:27.590 --> 0:18:31.150 were in political prisons in Cuba and they came here. 0:18:31.271 --> 0:18:34.350 And this is what made me see life a little 0:18:34.350 --> 0:18:40.231 bit different. Is when they seen Elion, they seen themselves. 0:18:41.110 --> 0:18:43.551 Dal Rymple absorbed a great deal from his new Cuban 0:18:43.590 --> 0:18:47.111 American friends, including their resentment towards Clinton and their view 0:18:47.110 --> 0:18:49.870 of al Gore as complicit in the administration's policies. 0:18:50.350 --> 0:18:52.910 I just thought that he was one and the same 0:18:52.991 --> 0:18:57.471 with him. They served together, and those decisions were made together. 0:18:57.751 --> 0:19:00.230 Bill Clinton just wasn't the be all end all. I 0:19:00.231 --> 0:19:02.390 mean he as a vice president, yet they have to 0:19:02.390 --> 0:19:07.470 consult each other. And if al Gore thought different, he 0:19:07.590 --> 0:19:09.271 might have stood up and said, you know, I don't 0:19:09.271 --> 0:19:10.271 think this is right. 0:19:11.511 --> 0:19:14.830 That winter Gore watched that the Clinton administration became more 0:19:14.870 --> 0:19:16.791 and more radioactive in Little Havana. 0:19:17.311 --> 0:19:18.951 I used to be a Democrat up to the time 0:19:18.991 --> 0:19:23.830 of the Leon Gonzalez incident. My loyalty did not belong 0:19:23.870 --> 0:19:26.551 in the Democratic Party. I believe that our government, the 0:19:26.630 --> 0:19:29.231 United acting in the best interests of all Americans. 0:19:28.830 --> 0:19:31.950 In March, the Cuban American National Foundation announced that it 0:19:31.951 --> 0:19:35.910 would work actively against Gore's election. Meanwhile, on the Cuban 0:19:35.951 --> 0:19:40.111 exile radio station Radio Mambi, an influential commentator named Armando 0:19:40.191 --> 0:19:43.830 Perez Rua, sometimes referred to as the Cuban American Rush Limbaugh, 0:19:44.311 --> 0:19:46.830 called on his listeners to punish their enemies with their votes. 0:19:47.911 --> 0:19:50.991 Even the mayor of Miami Dade County, Cuban American Democrat 0:19:51.031 --> 0:19:54.670 Alex Panelis, took a hard line against the Clinton administration. 0:19:54.511 --> 0:19:58.590 And if the Justice Department's handling of this matter, if 0:19:58.630 --> 0:20:05.871 their continued provocation leads to civil unrest and violence, we 0:20:05.911 --> 0:20:11.231 are holding the federal government responsible and specific Lee Janet 0:20:11.311 --> 0:20:13.751 Reno and the President of the United States. 0:20:13.870 --> 0:20:17.190 To some, Panella seemed to be inviting trouble when he 0:20:17.231 --> 0:20:21.791 said local police would not participate if the government removed Elyon. 0:20:22.551 --> 0:20:26.110 Panellis's aggressive stance was bad news for Gore, who had 0:20:26.110 --> 0:20:28.791 been counting on the mayor's enthusiastic endorsement in his quest 0:20:28.830 --> 0:20:33.350 to win over Cuban American voters. Penelos's support was Gore's 0:20:33.390 --> 0:20:35.511 best chance to convince people that he was his own 0:20:35.511 --> 0:20:38.071 man and that he shouldn't be held responsible for the 0:20:38.110 --> 0:20:42.351 sins of the Clinton administration. On March thirtieth, two thousand, 0:20:42.911 --> 0:20:45.511 Gore made a dramatic bid to distance himself from Clinton 0:20:45.551 --> 0:20:48.590 on the Elyon issue. He did so by coming out 0:20:48.630 --> 0:20:51.511 in favor of proposed legislation that would allow Eleon to 0:20:51.551 --> 0:20:54.111 stay in the United States while his case was adjudicated. 0:20:54.191 --> 0:20:57.311 The Vice President stepped elbows deep into the Elian Gonzales 0:20:57.350 --> 0:20:58.591 controversy quite suddenly. 0:20:58.630 --> 0:21:02.191 This afternoon, Vice President Gore, now running for president, said 0:21:02.191 --> 0:21:04.511 that Congress should change the law. 0:21:04.590 --> 0:21:06.791 That seems to put Gore in direct conflict with his 0:21:06.830 --> 0:21:09.510 own administration, which says the fight over Elion is an 0:21:09.511 --> 0:21:11.870 immigration issue, not the custody battle. 0:21:13.191 --> 0:21:18.150 Gore's move looked transparently cynical. Republicans and Democrats alike criticized 0:21:18.231 --> 0:21:19.991 him as a craven political chameleon. 0:21:20.390 --> 0:21:24.110 Already some Democrats, Congresswoman Maxine Waters on our air earlier 0:21:24.110 --> 0:21:27.031 when this news broke, said she would reconsider her support 0:21:27.071 --> 0:21:27.910 for the Vice president. 0:21:28.110 --> 0:21:33.150 I was just overwhelmed, surprised, blindsided. I didn't think he 0:21:33.150 --> 0:21:36.071 would go so far as to support right wing legislation 0:21:36.390 --> 0:21:39.271 that would give him permanent status, Nor did I expect. 0:21:39.311 --> 0:21:42.071 A few days later, Gore went on The Today Show 0:21:42.150 --> 0:21:43.390 to clarify his positions. 0:21:43.671 --> 0:21:46.751 Mister Vice President, good morning, Good morning, Matt, how are you. 0:21:46.911 --> 0:21:47.311 I'm fine. 0:21:47.311 --> 0:21:47.551 Thanks. 0:21:47.590 --> 0:21:48.630 It seems like we're about. 0:21:48.471 --> 0:21:50.391 But when he was pushed on what he actually believed, 0:21:50.870 --> 0:21:52.110 Gore seemed to equivocate. 0:21:52.390 --> 0:21:54.151 With all due respect, you haven't answered my question. 0:21:54.191 --> 0:21:56.150