Transcript: Al Gore talks with CNN's John King

*partial transcript

KING: There is a political battle going on, of course, during your legal challenge. And some ask if you feel so strongly that you won the election -- and obviously, you do, why not just come out and turn the tables on them and say, "I believe I won the election. And I believe they are trying to steal the election"?

GORE: Well, I've never used the phrase "steal the election." I think that's an intemperate phrase. And I think that both Governor Bush and I have an obligation during this period when the votes are yet to be counted to try to pave the way for whichever one of us wins to be able to unify the country.

You know, the only way to avoid having a cloud over the next president is to count all the votes. Because our country is based on the consent of the governed, and the consent of the governed can only come through a vote by the people. And all the people who vote legally have to have their votes counted; that's the basic principle.

If all of the votes are counted, that's the best way to confer legitimacy on the outcome of the election.

KING: I want to repeat something to you that came to me from a very close friend of yours and a long-time adviser who said, "Al believes passionately in this. Al believes he won. And I believe he's right. But I do worry that we may reach a point where he's hurting himself. And that if it appears that this is slipping away, we reach a line where the 2004 calculation" -- your own viability -- "comes into play." Does that enter into your mind at all?

GORE: Look. You know, they started speculation about the 2000 race probably three years beforehand. And it's not over yet. So, I mean, I hope that I'm going to be in a position to consider running for re-election in 2004.

But to answer your question seriously, John, whatever concern that I might have about myself is not even on the radar screen compared to the obligation that I feel to the 50 million people who supported Joe Lieberman and me, who believed in the agenda that we put forward, who gave us more votes than any Democratic ticket ever in the history of this country, more votes than any ticket with the exception of Ronald Reagan in 1984.

But a higher obligation still, is the obligation I have to the Constitution and to the country to insist that the election have integrity.

KING: This is obviously uncharted waters, unprecedented territory. One of the things happening as the legal challenge unfolds is the Florida legislature, controlled by Republicans, is having a process of hearings now, and they've been quite open about the possibility that if you succeed, if your challenge, your contest, is upheld, and if they count those votes and the courts say, "Al Gore won Florida," that they will, regardless of that, send to Washington a slate of Republican electors directed by the state legislature to vote for Governor Bush. What happens then?

GORE: I can't believe that the people of Florida want to see the expression of their will taken away by politicians. The people of Florida have the right to select the candidate for president that they -- that they want.

If the politicians ever try to take that away from the people, I think you'd see -- I think you'd see quite a negative response to it.

KING: We have, in this conversation, talked about politics and polling, lawyers and legal briefs, courts, votes, counts. This has to be emotionally a pretty amazing roller coaster, having gone through the campaign and being exhausted at the end. We spoke near the end of the campaign, it's a tiring ordeal.

GORE: Yes. You were, too.

KING: I sure was.

And it's 22 days later. And you know, you win one day. You win one decision. It seems just hours later something goes against you. Then you win another one and something goes against you.

GORE: That's an incredible story, the way it's unfolded, isn't it?

KING: What do you -- what goes through your mind? And who do you reach out to when you want to get away from the lawyers and the consultants to have just a little bit of personal peace?

GORE: My family. And faith and family, as I've said to you before, is really the center of my life. And this is -- it is an unusual time because you prepare yourself to win. You prepare yourself for the possibility that you won't win. You don't really prepare yourself for the possibility that you flip the coin in the air and it lands on its edge and you get neither outcome.

But it's a heck of a lot easier than the campaign schedule, I'll tell you that. It's nice to sleep in the same bed every night, and to be surrounded by my family, and to get seven, eight hours sleep and exercise every day. So in many ways it's much more relaxing and much easier than the campaign trail.