With two months to go until the American presidential election, this week we meet five historic “losers” of the elections in the company of Françoise Coste, professor of American civilization at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaurès. In this first episode, La Loupe tells the story of how Al Gore narrowly lost the American electoral college.
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The team: Charlotte Baris (presentation), Mathias Penguilly (writing), Léa Bertrand (editing) and Jules Krot (direction).
Credits: C-SPAN, CNN, HuffPost, The White House, Paramount, The ParisianPBS NewHour, Time Magazine
Music and design: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
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Charlotte Baris: On that evening in November 2000, the results of the American presidential election were too close to be announced with certainty. Confusion reigned on the television sets and quickly, all eyes turned to one state: Florida, where barely a few hundred votes separated the two candidates – Al Gore for the Democrats and George W. Bush for the Republicans. For days, the votes were counted and recounted, in Miami, Tampa or Palm Beach. Feverishness took hold of both camps: it was Florida that would determine the name of the next president.
The situation is unprecedented: more than a month after the election, the result is still unknown. The Supreme Court then decides to end the recount and confirms the victory of George W. Bush. Al Gore is defeated and forced to proclaim his own defeat.
Irony of History: this improbable sequence ends on January 6, a date that will become so symbolic, with the storming of the Capitol and the contestation of Donald Trump’s defeat, two decades later…
To go further:
Kamala Harris and the Landslide Scenario: “She Could Win All the Swing States”
Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris: What will this duel that no one expected look like?
Philip Gordon, the discreet diplomat in the service of Kamala Harris