WHITE HOUSE: Jerry Shows 'I'm Still President'

WHITE HOUSE Jerry Shows 'I'm Still President'

Puerto Rico's new Governor-elect, Carlos Romero Barceló, was startled to be summoned from a luncheon table in San Juan on the last day of the year by an urgent telephone call from the White House. The message: within an hour, President Gerald Ford would propose that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico become the U.S.'s 51st state.

Romero was not the only official to be surprised. Secretary of the Interior Thomas Kleppe, whose department is responsible for drafting statehood legislation, learned of the proposal the night before it was released. Senate leaders were notified...

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