Reporters: Clinton Says Gore Won

W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 1 -- President Clinton has reportedly broken his public neutrality on the disputed presidential race, telling two reporters that Al Gore would be president-elect if every vote in Florida were counted.

Clinton offered his off-the-cuff observations to Hilary MacKenzie, a Southam News reporter writing for the OttawaCitizen in Canada and Stefan Simons of the German weekly DerSpiegel. They ran into Clinton at a book party in WashingtonWednesday evening and engaged him in a half-hour conversation aboutthe Florida election imbroglio.

Clinton reportedly said that “America will be embarrassed in front of the world ifthe votes are not counted,” a statement that White House press secretary Jake Siewert believed was “mischaracterized.”

“I did talk to him this morning about one comment which I think wasmischaracterized there, which was that there was some sort of embarrassmentrisk to the country, and that was simply something that someone else hadsaid that he had noted, not something he said, himself,” Siewert told White House reporters today.

MacKenzie and Simons wrote down their memory of the conversationimmediately afterward. MacKenzie filed a story and said she was“absolutely certain” of the accuracy of her notes. She said sheidentified herself to Clinton as a reporter and gave him herbusiness card.

Checking Ballots

She said Clinton added that Florida’s policiesallow citizens to scrutinize the ballots.

“In a few weeks, students and their professor are going torecount all the votes in Florida,” he was quoted as predicting,adding: “If the votes were counted Al Gore would carry thestate.”

“The president passionately dissected the minutiae of eachcounty’s votes,” MacKenzie reported. She quoted him as saying Gorewas denied the votes of Holocaust survivors living in Florida whowound up voting for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan because ofconfusion over the Palm Beach County ballot, and black voters “whowere given the wrong instructions and double-punched” ballot cards.