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 doing. What their motives were, I was not privy to all that. I do not know whether
 any of our legislators would be considered racist. But I think the governor did
 what he thought the people of Manatee County wanted, and that is democracy.
 When I was elected county commissioner, I felt like I was obligated in some
 sense to support whatever I thought was the majority view of the people in my
 district. I think a governor or any other legislator, you know, if it affects Manatee
 County, it is a Manatee County issue, that you should take the pulse of the
 county to see where they stand. And unless it is something really horrible, if it is
 the majority view, why, I think that should get an overwhelming consideration.
 They do not elect you to serve yourself. They elect you to serve them.

B: You mentioned earlier the use of force that you attributed to yourself. Certainly,
 there were a lot of phrases like that which were bandied about that seemed to
 contribute...

H: Yes. I think the press overplayed that part of it, and the United States attorney
 and them went out and told the press that they had been threatened, more or
 less. Of course, that played big. But the truth was that my statements, two of
 them-1 hope it does not come to that and I will use force to meet force-I just
 meant cease-and-desist. You know, I am trying to get through this as amiably as
 possible. I knew the federal marshals and the United States attorney had a job to
 do and I had one to do, and I knew it was going to be a tough position to take but
 I had to take it. I was just trying to tell him, if you keep pushing, there will be
 problems. But I was not threatening to shoot him.

B: Did you feel like there were any other quotes that resulted in that situation,
 because it seemed like the governor's staff had to backpedal from the spin that
 the press was putting on it.

H: I know the governor, and I explained to him there was nobody threatening to
 shoot them. I was just joking when I made the statement, I hope it does not
 come to that. I mean, he never expected me to be armed, and I am sure he [the
 marshal] was surprised that I was authorized to even carry a gun. It was just a
 remark that got carried a lot farther than what the intention was. Of course, I saw
 in the paper where even some of our legal people, in making their arguments
 before the court, that, you know, it is getting really desperate and bad things can
 happen, and there might be shots fired or something to that extent. I never saw it
 to that extent, but maybe I was a little blind myself. But when the federal
 marshals start to come in to take somebody out, they are going to do it. If it takes
 it, I guess they would do whatever is necessary. It has been done in the past. But
 I never thought that it would come to that. I felt like we would get to a point where
 we would certainly come to some kind of legitimate solution based on law and
 not on force. I really hated it, it made me feel bad for those kind of comments to
 come out because that really was not what I was trying to do for the governor.
 Like I said, the one about the gun threatening to shoot, that was really off the