Transcript for This day in history: Dec. 20, 2002

We begin tonight with the most powerful man in the senate forced from his job by members of his own party. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi who got in trouble by making remarks that many people believed were racist. Gave up try to keep his job as the Republican leader in the senate though he will stay as a senator from Mississippi. He said today that he is stepping down in the interest of pursuing the best possible agenda for the future of our country. No a majority leader has ever lost his job in a scandal. Senator Lott gave way to several powerful forces we begin of ABC's Linda Douglass was on Capitol Hill Linda. Well Peter senators are lining up and have finally completely lined up behind that Tennessee senator Bill Frist to be there majority leader. This is a stunning development. And one that would have been unimaginable just ten days ago. By the time he left for his morning job Bill Frist knew the political momentum was in his favor. Senators had begun to phone Trent Lott to tell him that it was time to go. I called alone it was not a it was not an easy call to call a friend. And Intel and the truth. After a lot released his resignation statement in Washington mrs. Lott confronted reporters outside the family's home in Pascagoula Mississippi. She handed out a note from her husband that said please go home. What's Lott was out senator's past and present rushed to announce their support for Frist within hours all opposition to his candidacy had been crushed. Can't we have to begin to talk about. And and ultimately. Elect him by acclamation. Frist quickly began mapping out next year's legislative strategy. Stop pretty much everywhere else come forever. Republican senators say it will take all of them a long time to recover from a lot fiasco. Thank you it has caused damage but it. Can be overcome but it's going to take more were many Republican leaders say Frist is the perfect person to do that work because he can shift the party's focus away from racial issues to health care. A prescription drug benefit health insurance. Crist may inspire trust in those areas because he's the first practicing physician in the senate in eighty years a famous heart surgeon who treated victims when a gunman opened fire at the capitol. He cares for the sake in Africa and was the resident expert during the anthrax scare. And finally at now the Democrats are beginning to comb through his record to see if they can tarnish his shiny image they're looking at his record on civil rights to see if he is. Vulnerable on the issue of race and Peter this is something that never would have happened. If Trent Lott had nutter that racially insensitive sentence just two weeks ago.

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