Judicial Watch debate tomorrow

October 19, 2000

Reneging on his written acceptance of an invitation to participate in
tomorrow’s presidential debate sponsored by

Judicial Watch, Al Gore will not attend due to an agreement with George W. Bush’s campaign.

According to a Gore official, both campaigns met and decided the three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate would be “sufficient.” Regarding the vice president’s letter accepting Judicial Watch’s invitation, the official said the “letter was sent prior to negotiations” with the Bush campaign.

Judicial Watch chairman and lead counsel Larry Klayman said he learned about the agreement between the candidates through staff at the Bush campaign. According to Klayman, an assistant to Joseph Allbaugh — the Texas governor’s campaign manager — said the deal was for Bush to participate in the debates sponsored by the

Commission on
Presidential Debates in exchange for Gore not participating in other debates, including Judicial Watch’s.

Held in conjunction with the group’s “Ethics in Government” conference this weekend, Judicial Watch’s debate of the same theme takes place tomorrow at the Ronald Reagan Center in Washington, D.C., at 8 p.m.

Klayman said he is encouraging Bush to attend. “While we do not endorse any particular candidate, we believe it’s in his best interest to come, because there has been no discussion of ethics in government in the debates.”

“It was Gov. Bush who attempted to have Gore not honor his commitment to Judicial Watch,” Klayman continued. “Bush not only is the obstacle in terms of him coming, but he’s the obstacle in terms of Gore coming, and Gore should never have agreed to that, because he had a commitment to Judicial Watch. We’ve gone back to Gore and said we expect him to keep his promise.”

Gore’s broken promise prompted Reform Party candidate

Patrick Buchanan to back out of his
commitment to participate as well. Buchanan officially accepted Judicial Watch’s invitation on Aug. 29 [[ just four days after Gore’s acceptance. However, staff for Buchanan said yesterday the candidate’s attendance was conditional upon the vice president’s attendance and always had been. The campaign official refused to comment on the reason behind the condition.

Ralph Nader has also declined to attend. The Green Party nominee will not participate in third-party candidate debates, according to Nader’s staff.

“For those candidates who do not appear, there will be an empty podium with their name on it for the world to see,” Klayman remarked.

How much the world sees depends on media coverage of the event. Klayman said C-SPAN is “likely” to cover the debate, though there has been no confirmation. “Fox is not covering it — they’re the George W. Bush network. CNN is the Clinton network. Ironically, a CNN official said the network would send a news crew to cover the debate,” he added. No media outlet is confirmed to cover the event.

WorldNetDaily Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah is a panelist for the debate, which is to be moderated by nationally syndicated radio talk show host Jim Bohannon from the Westwood One radio network. Other panelists include Paul Rodriquez of Insight Magazine, Blanquita Cullum of Radio America and nationally syndicated columnist and radio talk show host Armstrong Williams. An additional panelist remains to be chosen.

“We are especially pleased that Jim Bohannon will moderate Judicial Watch’s Ethics in Government Presidential Debate,” said Klayman. “This is the first opportunity for the American people to hear the candidates’ position on one of the most important issues facing the public — integrity in government,” Klayman concluded.