Bill Clinton and Gore had maintained an informal public distance for eight years, but they reunited for the media in August 2009. Clinton had arranged for the release of two female journalists who were being
held hostage in North Korea. The women were employees of Gore's
Current TV. In May 2018, he was included as a member of the Indian Government committee to coordinate year long celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary from October 2, 2019.
Criticism of Bush Beginning in 2002, Gore began to publicly criticize the
Bush administration. In a September 23 speech that he gave before the
Commonwealth Club of California, Gore criticized Bush and Congress for the
rush to war prior to the outbreak of
hostilities in Iraq. He compared this decision to the
Persian Gulf War (which Gore had voted for) stating, "Back in 1991, I was one of a handful of Democrats in the United States Senate to vote in favor of the resolution endorsing the Persian Gulf War ... But look at the differences between the resolution that was voted on in 1991 and the one this administration is proposing that the Congress vote on in 2002. The circumstances are really completely different ... in 1991, Iraq had crossed an international border, invaded a neighboring sovereign nation and annexed its territory. Now by contrast in 2002, there has been no such invasion." In a speech given during the
2004 presidential election, Gore accused George W. Bush of betraying the country by using the
9/11 attacks as a justification for the
invasion of Iraq. The next year, Gore gave a speech which covered many topics, including what he called "religious zealots" who claim special knowledge of God's will in American politics. Gore stated: "They even claim that those of us who disagree with their point of view are waging war against people of faith." After
Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Gore chartered two planes to evacuate 270 people from
New Orleans and criticized the Bush administration's response to the hurricane. In 2006, Gore criticized Bush's use of domestic
wiretaps without a warrant. One month later, in a speech given at the
Jeddah Economic Forum, Gore criticized the
treatment of Arabs in the U.S. after 9/11 stating, "Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong ... I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country." Gore's 2007 book,
The Assault on Reason, is an analysis of what Gore refers to as the "emptying out of the
marketplace of ideas" in civic discourse during the Bush administration. He attributes this phenomenon to the influence of television and argues that it endangers American democracy. By contrast, Gore argues, the Internet can revitalize and ultimately "redeem the integrity of representative democracy". In 2008, Gore argued against the ban of same-sex marriage on his Current TV website, stating, "I think that gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women to make contracts, have hospital visiting rights, and join together in marriage." In a 2009 interview with
CNN, Gore commented on former Vice President
Dick Cheney's criticism of the
Obama administration. Referring to his own previous criticism of the Bush administrations, Gore stated: "I waited two years after I left office to make statements that were critical, and then of the policy ... You know, you talk about somebody that shouldn't be talking about making the country less safe, invading a country that did not attack us and posed no serious threat to us at all." While Gore has criticized Bush for his Katrina response, he has not spoken publicly about his part in the evacuation of 270 patients on September 3 & 4, 2005, from Charity Hospital in New Orleans to Tennessee. On September 1, Gore was contacted by Charity Hospital's Neurosurgeon Dr. David Kline, who had operated on his son Albert, through Greg Simon of
FasterCures. Kline informed Gore and Simon of the desperate conditions at the hospital and asked Gore and Simon to arrange relief. On Gore's personal financial commitment, two airlines each provided a plane with one flight later underwritten by
Larry Flax. The flights were flown by volunteer airline crews and medically staffed by Gore's cousin, retired Col. Dar LaFon, and family physician Dr. Anderson Spickard and were accompanied by Gore and Albert III. Gore used his political influence to expedite landing rights in New Orleans.
Presidential run speculation asked: "Will you run again?"Gore replied, "Oh, you aren't going to get me on this one!" People were speculating that Gore would be a candidate for the
2004 presidential election (a bumper sticker, "Re-elect Gore in 2004!" was popular). On December 16, 2002, however, Gore announced that he would not run in 2004. While Gore seriously considered challenging Bush in 2004, the
September 11 attacks and the subsequent stratospheric rise in
President Bush's popularity as a result of his response to these attacks were strong factors in Gore's December 2002 decision not to run again in 2004. Despite Gore taking himself out of the race, a handful of his supporters formed a national campaign to
draft him into running. The draft movement, however, failed to convince Gore to run. The prospect of a Gore candidacy arose again between 2006 and early 2008 in light of the upcoming
2008 presidential election. Although Gore frequently stated that he had "no plans to run", he did not reject the possibility of future involvement in politics which led to speculation that he might run. This was due in part to his increased popularity after the release of the 2006 documentary,
An Inconvenient Truth. The director of the film,
Davis Guggenheim, stated that after the release of the film, "Everywhere I go with him, they treat him like a rock star." After
An Inconvenient Truth was nominated for an
Academy Award,
Donna Brazile (Gore's campaign chairwoman from his 2000 campaign) speculated that Gore might announce a possible presidential candidacy during the Oscars. During the
79th Academy Awards ceremony, Gore and actor
Leonardo DiCaprio shared the stage to speak about the "
greening" of the ceremony itself. Gore began to give a speech that appeared to be leading up to an announcement that he would run for president. However, background music drowned him out and he was escorted offstage, implying that it was a rehearsed gag, which he later acknowledged. After
An Inconvenient Truth won the
Academy Award for Best Documentary, speculation increased about a possible presidential run. Gore's popularity was indicated in polls which showed that even without running, he was coming in second or third among possible Democratic candidates
Hillary Clinton,
Barack Obama, and
John Edwards.
Grassroots draft campaigns also developed with the hope that they could encourage Gore to run. Gore, however, remained firm in his decision and declined to run for the presidency. Interest in having Gore run for the
2016 presidential election arose in 2014 and again in 2015, although he did not declare any intention to do so. Speculation of a Gore candidacy was resurrected in March 2026 when he was a guest on
The Bulwark and was asked about a possible run for president in
2028. He is 2 years younger than incumbent Donald Trump and is also younger than former President Joe Biden as well. He has not ruled out running. Stating there is a "real desire for another
septuagenarian candidate." However by 2028, Gore will be 80 years old.
Involvement in presidential campaigns in
Denver, Colorado. After announcing he would not run in the
2004 U.S. presidential election, Gore endorsed
Vermont governor Howard Dean in December 2003, weeks before the first primary of the election cycle. He was criticized for this endorsement by eight Democratic contenders particularly since he did not endorse his former running mate Joe Lieberman (Gore preferred Dean over Lieberman because Lieberman supported the
Iraq War and Gore did not). Dean's campaign soon became a target of attacks and eventually failed, with Gore's early endorsement being credited as a factor. In
The New York Times, Dean stated, "I actually do think the endorsement of Al Gore began the decline", and the
Times further noted that "Dean instantly amplified his statement to indicate that the endorsement from Mr. Gore, a powerhouse of the establishment, so threatened the other Democratic candidates that they began the attacks on his candidacy that helped derail it." Dean's former campaign manager,
Joe Trippi, also stated that after Gore's endorsement of Dean, "alarm bells went off in every newsroom in the country, in every other campaign in the country", indicating that if something did not change, Dean would be the nominee. Later in March 2004, Gore endorsed
John Kerry and gave Kerry $6 million in funds left over from his own unsuccessful 2000 bid. Gore also opened the
2004 Democratic National Convention. During the
2008 primaries, Gore remained neutral toward all of the candidates, which led to speculation that he would come out of a brokered 2008 Democratic National Convention as a "compromise candidate" if the party decided it could not nominate one. Gore responded by stating that these events would not take place because a candidate would be nominated through the primary process. Senator
Ted Kennedy had urged Gore to endorse Senator
Barack Obama, though Gore declined. On June 16, 2008, one week after Hillary Clinton had suspended her campaign, Gore endorsed Obama in a speech given in Detroit, Michigan which renewed speculation of an Obama-Gore ticket. Gore stated that he was not interested in being vice president again. Such support led to new speculation after Obama was elected president during the
2008 presidential election that Gore would be named a member of the Obama administration. This speculation was enhanced by a meeting held between Obama, Gore, and
Joe Biden in Chicago on December 9, 2008. However, Democratic officials and Gore's spokeswoman stated that during the meeting the only subject under discussion was the climate crisis, and Gore would not be joining the Obama administration. On December 19, 2008, Gore described Obama's environmental administrative choices of
Carol Browner,
Steven Chu, and
Lisa Jackson as "an exceptional team to lead the fight against the climate crisis". Gore repeated his neutrality eight years later during the
Democratic presidential primaries of 2016 until endorsing Hillary Clinton on July 25, 2016, the first day of
that year's Democratic National Convention. Gore appeared with her at a rally on
Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus on October 11, 2016.
Environmentalism in the
city hall of
Oslo, 2007. meets with Al Gore and the other 2007 Nobel Award recipients, November 26, 2007. Gore has been involved with environmental issues since 1976 when as a freshman congressman, he held the "first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsor[ed] hearings on toxic waste and global warming". later called the "Democrats' Greens, politicians who see issues like clean air, clean water and global warming as the key to future victories for their party". In the late 1990s, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the
Kyoto Protocol, which called for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. He was opposed by the Senate, which passed unanimously (95–0) the
Byrd–Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98), In 2004, Gore co-launched
Generation Investment Management, a company for which he serves as chair. A few years later, Gore would also found the
Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization which eventually founded the
We Campaign. Gore would also become a partner in the venture capital firm,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group. In 2010, he attended
WE Day (
Vancouver, Canada), a
WE Charity event. He favors replacing the
income tax with a
carbon tax: "We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make." BankUnited Center, February 28, 2007 In 2013, Gore became a
vegan. He had earlier admitted that "it's absolutely correct that the growing meat intensity of diets across the world is one of the issues connected to this global crisis – not only because of the [carbon dioxide] involved, but also because of the water consumed in the process" and some speculate that his adoption of the new diet is related to his environmentalist stance. Gore's
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, a sequel to his 2006 film,
An Inconvenient Truth, premiered at the
2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film documents his continuing efforts to battle climate change. A "Climate and Health Summit" which was originally going to be held by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was cancelled without warning in late January 2017. A few days later, Gore revived the summit, which was held by the
Climate Reality Project without the support of the CDC. In 2020, he helped to launch
Climate TRACE to independently monitor global
greenhouse gas emissions. In November 2021, Gore spoke at the early stages of the
2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in
Glasgow, Scotland. He later criticised the
Morrison government for failing to increase Australia's 2030 emissions reduction target.
Criticism In the late 1980s and 1990s, Gore was criticized for his involvement in asking the
EPA for less strict pollution controls for the
Pigeon River, which had long been polluted by a
paper mill in
Canton, North Carolina. A number of people and organizations, including
Marsha Blackburn, a current U.S. Senator and former Congresswoman from Tennessee, and a conservative Washington, D.C. think tank, have claimed that Gore has a
conflict of interest for advocating for taxpayer subsidies of green-energy technologies in which he has a personal investment. Additionally, he has been criticized for his above-average energy consumption in using private jets, and in owning multiple, very large homes, one of which was reported in 2007 as using high amounts of electricity. Gore's spokesperson responded by stating that the Gores use
renewable energy which is more expensive than regular energy and that the Tennessee house in question has been retrofitted to make it more energy efficient. Data in
An Inconvenient Truth has been questioned. In a 2007
court case, a British judge said that while he had "no doubt ...the film was broadly accurate" and its "four main scientific hypotheses ...are supported by a vast quantity of research", Gore was also criticized when in 2012 he sold his television channel
Current TV for around $100 million to
Al Jazeera, a media company funded by the government of
Qatar, a nation largely dependent on income from the
fossil fuel industry. ==Personal life==