Step 1 : Introduction to the question "During the 2000 presidential election, what did Al Gore's critics say he claimed to have invented?"
Former Vice President Al Gore is frequently quoted as claiming credit for the invention of the internet, but what he actually said in a 1999 CNN interview was “I took the initiative in creating the internet.” Gore was widely mocked for this statement. But the men who did invent the internet, TCP/IP designers Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf, argue that Gore was “the first political leader to recognize the importance of the internet and to promote and support its development.” As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an “Interagency Network”.