Lieberman Announced as Vice Presidential Nominee

SHOW: CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL 13:10
August 8, 2000; Tuesday
HEADLINE: Gore Announces Lieberman as Running Mate

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THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

AUDIENCE: Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Let me tell you, I love Tennessee.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you, dear friends, for that extraordinarily warm welcome. Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for your confidence, for your courage, for your great words. I am humbled and honored and excited to be here in Nashville today. I am proud to stand by your side and ready to use every ounce of strength and capacity that the Good Lord has given me to make you the next great president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Dear friends, I am so full of gratitude at this moment. I ask you to allow me to let the spirit move me as it does to remember the words from Chronicles, which are to give thanks to God. To give thanks to God and declare his name and make his acts known to the people.

(APPLAUSE)

To be glad of spirit. To sing to God and to make music to God, and most of all, to give glory and gratitude to God from whom all blessings truly do flow.

(APPLAUSE)

Dear Lord, maker of all miracles, I thank you for bringing me to this extraordinary moment in my life.

And, Al Gore, I thank you for making this miracle possible for me and breaking this barrier for the rest of America, forever.

God bless you and thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe.

J. LIEBERMAN: Thank you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

I am so proud to be joined here today by my family and the Gore family. We are so grateful to Al and Tipper, not just for having the confidence to chose Hadassah and me, but for being such dear friends and making this last miraculous day and a half be so comfortable and full of concern and support for us.

I'm proud to have our children here—Hana and Rebecca and Matt and his now famous wife, April...

(LAUGHTER)

... and Ethan and his wife, Ariella (ph).

And Al, I want to thank you for mentioning my granddaughter, Tennessee.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm just sorry that we also couldn't be joined here today by my cousin, Carthage.

(LAUGHTER)

Well, as the vice president has mentioned, Tennessee, our beautiful granddaughter, is not the only member of our family that traces her lineage to this great state. My daughter-in-law, April, was born and raised, as Al said, in the small town of Gleason, Tennessee, in Weakley County.

I bet all of Gleason is here today. It's right in the middle of that county, which happens, as Al said, to be the birthplace of another strong and proud pioneering woman of the South, her name is Pauline Gore, and I am so honored that she is here today.

(APPLAUSE)

Al Gore and I were lucky to have been born into strong and loving families. Our parents taught us the importance of faith and family and country. I am so proud that my mom, Marcia Lieberman, is with us today. You know, she's 85 years old, and she told me this morning that she's never felt younger in her life than she does today.

(APPLAUSE)

I am so grateful to God for so many things in my life, but I'll never be more grateful for anything than I am for the woman who has been my friend, my partner and my inspiration for almost 20 years now.

I love you and thank you, my dear, Hadassah Freilich Lieberman.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, my friends, I stand here today with a proud, simple but I think very important, message: Al Gore of Tennessee is the best man to lead America into the new century.

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And I know you agree with me.

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And America agrees with us, too.

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Al and I have been friends for almost 15 years now, personal friends. And I can tell you that before the nation knew Al Gore as a vice president, I knew him as a man of family and a man of faith. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, more important to Al Gore in this world than the strength of his family and the love and devotion he has for his wonderful children. I can tell you the times—the many times—he moved meetings or rearranged his schedule to attend his children's sporting events or to be home when one of his daughters called from school. He has never, never wavered in his responsibilities as a father, as a husband and, yes, as a servant of God Almighty. Those are qualities that make him a great man and will make him the next great president of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, my friends, leadership is not just a word. It means something. It requires courage, it requires character, and I can stand here today and say to you from personal experience that Al Gore has both. He has proven time and time again, by volunteering to serve his country in Vietnam, by honoring the legacy of his father with 14 remarkable years in the United States Congress, by compiling the most accomplished and successful record of leadership of any vice president in the history of his great country.

(APPLAUSE)

That record, my friends, speaks for itself.

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Forty years ago, when I was 18 years old, I remember so clearly watching in awe as John F. Kennedy, the inspiration and hero of my political life, became the first Roman Catholic president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

To me, that election said so much to me about the courage and the character and the fairness of the American people. And I want to say to you today that choosing me as his running mate says the same thing about the courage and character and fairness of Al Gore of Tennessee.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, there are some people who might actually call Al's selection of me an act of chutzpah.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

I cannot express with words the gratitude that I feel in my heart today, as the first Jewish American to be honored to be a major party candidate for the vice presidency of this blessed United States of America of ours.

(APPLAUSE)

But let's be very clear about this. Let's be very clear about this. It isn't me, Joe Lieberman, who deserves the credit and the congratulations for taking a bold step. It is Al Gore who broke this barrier in American history.

(APPLAUSE)

That's right.

And you know what it shows? It shows Al's faith in the tolerance of this diverse nation, in the basic fairness of the American people.

And I want to say to the people of America, Al Gore trusts you, which is one good reason for you to place your trust in him as the next great president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

You know yesterday, the day that the vice president asked me to be his running mate, was, to put it mildly, a miraculous day. Remember that old Beatles line, a magical mystery tour. I felt I was on a magical mystery tour yesterday. I had some—just memorable conversations. And one of the most memorable of them was with the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

He said something to me that went to my heart. And I hope it will to yours as well. He said to me, you know, Joe, each time a barrier falls for one person, the doors of opportunity open wider for every other American.

(APPLAUSE)

I think we can say with certainty here in Nashville today that the American dream is alive and it is well.

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You might almost say that you could call this ticket the American dream team.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, eight years ago—eight years ago, the American dream was not alive and well. Remember?

And what strikes me as incredible is that today the same people who let this nation drift are trying to convince us that the last eight years have been squandered. Can you believe it?

AUDIENCE: No.

J. LIEBERMAN: They must—no is right.

It's unbelievable. I'll tell you this. If you're one of the 22 million people in our country who got a new job during the last eight years, you know that the last eight years were not squandered.

(APPLAUSE)

And if you're one of the 15 million parents in our country who got time off from work to care for a child, you know that the last eight years have not been squandered.

(APPLAUSE)

And if you are one of the millions and millions of families who were able to buy a new home because this Democratic administration turned their deficits into surpluses, you know the last eight years were not squandered.

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The American people know from their own lives, not from the happy talk coming out of Philadelphia a week or so ago, that these last eight years have, as the vice president has said, been years of progress and prosperity.

We still have a long way to go, and the question before us today, as we begin the drive for the White House, is this: Are we going to elect the old guard...

AUDIENCE: No.

J. LIEBERMAN: ... that created the problems? Or a new guard that will continue to work to solve America's problems and make this a better, safer, more secure country?

(APPLAUSE)

Well, I appreciate that answer because that's my answer to that question, too.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'd like to starve today if it wasn't for...

(CROSSTALK)

J. LIEBERMAN: Al Gore...

(LAUGHTER)

This is no contest. Al Gore is without a doubt the most qualified person to be president of the United States, I can tell you.

(APPLAUSE)

For the last eight years, he has served as a full partner in this administration, helping to shape this country's economic policy, its social policy, its strong foreign and defense policy, and its fight for America's working middle-class families.

(APPLAUSE)

As a matter of fact, as I think back to what happened in Philadelphia, and then I think of the extraordinary eight years of progress and prosperity, I'm tempted to ask the same question Vice President Bush asked in 1988: If you have to change horses in midstream, doesn't it make sense to get on the one that's going in the right direction?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Oh, I love that line. It's the truth.

Our opponents have done all they can to blur the differences, but we're not going to let them get away with it, are we?

AUDIENCE: No.

J. LIEBERMAN: No.

Yesterday, they even responded to the news that Al Gore had picked me by saying that George Bush and I think alike.

AUDIENCE: No.

J. LIEBERMAN: With all due respect...

(LAUGHTER)

... I think that's like saying that the veterinarian and the taxidermist are in the same business because either way you get your dog back.

(APPLAUSE)

Yes, there is a real and important difference.

Dear friends, we have real choices to make before us that will affect our families. These are not theoretical. They're going to affect our lives and our hopes for a better country for years to come. We've got to decide which agenda is most focused on strong economic growth, with balanced budgets and middle-class tax cuts.

You know which it is. It's the Democratic agenda.

(APPLAUSE)

Which agenda is focused on protecting patients' rights and improving the quality of health care for all Americans, on strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and providing prescription drug benefits for my mom and every other senior citizen in America?

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I'm delivering on the promise of a first-class education for every child in America...

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... on supporting the teachers who make that first-class education possible for our children in America.

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... and for continuing the great and noble and classically American work of lifting up all the families that have still been left behind in the great economic boom of the last eight years.

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And let me add this, we must work and we will work, Al and Tipper, Hadassah and I, to help renew the moral center of this nation so that families can be stronger, children safer and parents empowered to pass on to their children their faith and their moral values.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm really getting heated up here.

(CROSSTALK)

Beautiful. Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm getting hot, aren't I?

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

AUDIENCE: Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe.

J. LIEBERMAN: Thank you.

As Tipper Gore said so well, and she said it when it was so difficult to say, we're going to stand with parents across this country who are working so hard to raise PG kids in an X-rated society.

(APPLAUSE)

Tipper was there before it became fashionable.

Yes, there's a lot at stake in this election and, as I said, there are real differences between the two parties. And we're going to talk about those differences from this day, on. It's a choice, again, as all elections are about whether we want to go forward or whether we want to go backward.

For me, for my family, that's an easy question to answer.

And frankly, the answer comes from our history. My dad came out of high school during the Depression. He never had the chance to go to college. His first job was on a bakery truck. He'd get on it at night in New Haven; he'd ride it down to the bakery in Bridgeport. He'd work all night in the bakery, and then ride the truck back as it made its stops delivering the baked goods, finally dropping him off at home where he slept a few hours and back to work that night. I've got to tell you that later in my life, sometimes even in political campaigns, or even in my work in government, when I felt like we'd been working hard, I would think back to my dad's labor and my dad's example and the long hours he put in, literally working from 9 to 9. He worked so very hard to send my two sisters and me to college. And he gave us a chance to become our hopes and our dreams. And that is what the American dream is all about.

(APPLAUSE)

I tell you my friends that somewhere in America right now—and probably many in this crowd today, there are another father or mother working just as hard to give their children a better life. And I tell you today that they deserve a leader who hears their voice.

They deserve to have a government that is on their side. They deserve to have a president who will stand up for them. They deserve the leadership of Al Gore of Tennessee.

(APPLAUSE)

It was nearly a century and a half ago that another great son of Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, remarked on the nature of leadership, and he said that one man with courage makes a majority.

(APPLAUSE)

Today, Al Gore is one man with courage that will serve the American people well when they elect him to be our next president.

(APPLAUSE)

I have talked about my dad. I know that my dad would be extremely proud of me today. I know my mom who, thank God is here, is.

I don't know that even they even dreamed that this day would arrive. I can tell you, I never did. But I do think that, as they raised us, my mom and dad knew that in this country, as in no other in the world, today's hopes and aspirations can and do become tomorrow's realities.

And I know...

(APPLAUSE)

I know that as good as life in America as become during the last eight years, Al Gore—and no one else is close—Al Gore is America's best hope for an even better future.

So together...

(APPLAUSE)

... let us go forward to build that better future.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

God bless you. God bless America.