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Hillary Clinton Speaks in Volusia County; Huma Abedin, center of the latest revelations about this FBI email review; Breaking news tonight out of Turkey, a travel warning for Americans and an order for family members of U.S. consulate employees in Istanbul to leave. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired October 29, 2016 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow, you're live in the "CNN newsroom". We begin, of course, with politics, because if you thought this election was in the bag, think again. The epic race between Hillary Clinton and Donald trump is now significantly tighter, and now there is a potential game changer for the FBI. Director James Comey announcing yesterday there will be a brand new review of e-mails linked to a long-time Clinton aid. For Donald trump this is fresh ammunition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and it's everybody's deepest hope that justice at last can be properly delivered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: The Clinton campaign is hitting back demanding that the FBI come forward with all that it knows immediately.
ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON'S CAMPAIGNE MANAGER: It's now incumbent on Director Comey to immediately provide the American people more information than what is contained in his letter. He owes the public the full story or else he shouldn't have cracked open this door in the first place.
HARLOW: CNN's new poll of polls updated just hours ago shows only a five-point spread now between the two candidates, Clinton in the lead there, 47 to 42, all this happening as Clinton and trump race across the battle ground states pivoting on the fly and testing their new strategies in real time. FBI Director James Comey defying the objection of top Justice Department officials sending this letter yesterday to congress saying, "In connection with an unrelated case the FBI has learned of the existence of the e-mails that appear pertinent to the investigation. I'm writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday and I agree that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these e-mails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
Comey says right now the FBI doesn't know if there's anything material in them or if it's significant. Comey is breaking with long-standing policy, practice really, not to comment publicly about politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election. This announcement came 11 days before. This as department of justice officials acknowledge the fallout from that summer day in June when former president Bill Clinton boarded Attorney General Loretta Lynch's plane on the Tarmac in Phoenix for a private conversation not long before the Clinton e-mail investigation wrapped up. Well, that's putting a lot of pressure on them and in the optics of that, anything but good for Hillary Clinton.
So what led the FBI to these new e-mails? In a bizarre turn, it apparently comes back to disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner. Yes, the e-mails the FBI is reviewing were found on at least one computer used by his now estranged wife, Huma Abedin. She has been by Clinton's side as a close aide for the better part of two decades. A separate FBI investigation into sexting allegations against Weiner, that is apparently what led the Feds to this computer used by his wife, and now here we are. Whether these e-mails contain classified information or anything significant, we just don't know at this point.
And our [INAUDIBLE] reporting, We probably won't know anything more about them before the election. Our Phil Mattingly is traveling with the Clinton camp, he joins us from Daytona Beach, Florida. Her rally is set to begin in minutes and Huma Abedin is not going to be by her side. That matters because these two inseparable. I mean, this is someone that politico described as her shadow. Why isn't she there?
PHIL MATTINGLY; CNN CORRESPONDENT: A noticeable emotion from the Clinton traveling party, very rarely do you see Hillary Clinton go anywhere without Huma Abedin by her side, whether it's on the campaign plane or in the bus or at the rally, she's always there, not today. Now campaign officials are pushing back on the idea that this has some grander meaning, saying they're rotating travelers at this point in time, but there's no question about it. Hillary Clinton traditionally does not go anywhere without Huma Abedin and it underscores the issue, the very real issue that the campaign is facing. [16:05:11] This is a stunning development, and Poppy, you ran through
it point by point, kind of laying out how epically amazing this story has become. And Abedin is right in the center of the right now. I think the Clinton campaign -- we are told Hillary Clinton is expected to address the FBI latter at the top of this rally. For the most part they want to move forward with their strategy, they are already set in place for the last ten days and try and get around this, that might be one reason Huma Abedin isn't with them today.
HARLOW: Do we know, Phil, how she's going to tackle it, I mean, you know, what she's going to say? How - is she going to blast call me? Because I thought the press conference she held last night, she took three questions, it was pretty subdued.
MATTINGLY: Yes, It was subdued. And that's interesting because the campaign is angry, they're very angry. They were stunned by the development and stunned when they found out about it but they're very angry about the letter itself. That's been repeated to me over and over again by Clinton both advisers and those in the orbit, democrats that have been talking to him, democrats that have been getting talking points from the Clinton campaign over the course of the last 24 hours. What you heard yesterday from Secretary Clinton, what you heard this afternoon from her advisers on a conference call, that's the strategy going forward. When it comes to the FBI letter, go after James Comey, go after the FBI director, go after his rationale for sending the letter at all.
Try and make it and partisan issue and try and force him to say more about the letter. That's how they're going to deal with that, and again, it's going to be a dual tracked, that's of way of doing it, and then they went Hillary Clinton to keep going with what she was doing. They felt like the strategy has been laid out, her TV buys, her travel, everything they've laid out to this last ten days was setting her up very well. They don't want to move off that if they don't have to, Poppy.
HARLOW: Phil Mattingly, thank you so much, we'll get back to you as soon as Clinton takes the stage there at Daytona Beach, Florida any moment. Let's talk about this with our panel Farai Chideya a senior writer with fivethirtyeight.com and author of the Episodic Career, thank you guys for being here. CNN political commentator Mary Katherine Ham is with us, the senior writer with The Federalist, and CNN political commentator Ryan Lizza, also Washington correspondent for the New Yorker. Mary Katherine, let me begin with you. The problem here is really for the voters because we as voters just don't have the full set of information, and we're likely not going to have much more before the election. What can voters do with this? Where do they go from here?
MARY KATHERINE HAM, SENIOR WRITER AT THE FEDERALIST: Many of them have already voted which is one of the reasons I don't actually early vote because I like for all of this to play out. Look, I'm not sure there's much that voters can do besides stay tuned and hear what's going on here. Can I be real for a second for everybody and say it feels like we're in season six of Shonda Rhimes series that it's -- like this thing is going off the rails and it does not end happily. Like after this is over you just end up in like season 17 sitting on the couch by yourself drinking wine. Like I don't know how this is going to end, then in sorry voters that I cannot help you more.
But I think, like there will be some more information about this forthcoming, and Hillary Clinton is paying the price for things that she has done to herself. She knew that this was wrong, frankly. They've admitted as much, if no very nicely, but they have. It's not going to go well for her.
HARLOW: Yes. Who is - I think it was Chuck Todd that tweeted yesterday something to the effect, you know, it was kind of like, "it was Billy bush and Anthony Weiner".Can you believe that it's come to this? Guys, let's go back to the primary for a second. Let's take a listen to Bernie Sanders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE SANDERS, AMERICAN POLITICIAN: The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Are they Ryan Lizza?
RYAN LIZZA, ANN CONTRIBUTOR: Depends on who you are. I mean, I think a lot of republicans who believe that there was more to this scandal than say the FBI director believed in the end who decided not to prosecute, they think the e-mails are a big deal. I guess, my view of this right now is that I think both sides are blowing this out of proportion. I think a lot of democrats are blowing out of proportion the idea that this is some earth shattering event, that James Comey has somehow, you know, thrown such a grenade into the final days of this election and that the voters are these poor sensitive beings that they can't make sense of this and somehow it's going to lead to a Donald trump victory.
I don't think it's that earth-shattering. I think voters can process this relatively quickly in the ten days we have. At the same time, I don't believe as trump has been going around saying that this is some big aha moment and Hillary is now finally going to end up in the slammer because of this. I think in the end, if Hillary Clinton becomes president and Comey had not revealed this and it had come out that leadership at the Justice Department would not allow him to reveal this, that would turn into a scandal.
And I think Comey was in a tough situation and given the situation he was in on balance made the right decision here. I'm a journalist, I'm always in favor of more disclosure rather than less.
[16:10:08] I think it would be hypocritical for me to say "Oh, Comey should have kept quiet when we all know it would have leaked out anyway."
HARLOW: But to that point, perhaps for the first time in this entire 16-month race, team Trump and team Clinton are on the same page. They both want the same thing from the FBI. Let's listen to what Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said last night to Anderson Cooper.
ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN NEWS: So we heard Secretary Clinton press her case, Kellyanne, on saying she wants more information from the FBI, saying the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately, do you agree with that? Do you think voters are entitled to more information?
KELLYANNE CONWAY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I'm for transparency and full disclosure and immediately and honesty.
HARLOW: Weigh in on this. They both want the same thing. Evan Perez reports it's not going to happen. So now what?
HAM: Well, I mean, it would be extremely helpful for Comey to clarify exactly what it is that he's looking at and looking for, but it's pretty clear that the timeline is -- you know, the timeline of this election is just too accelerated. And I do think that there are questions, I mean, obviously this does, you know --the decision to make the announcement cuts against traditional justice department policy, on the other hand, the point of what if Secretary Clinton is elected and it came out later that the justice department is squashing this, that's fair too.
But I think it's extremely difficult to know what to do as a journalist with basically a floating allegation, and I think it really comes back to the voters, I mean, that's my beat, is covering the voters and having gone to both conventions, et cetera, there are some people, particularly people who work in the government who are conservative who say if I had done what Secretary Clinton did, I wouldn't get the same treatment.
At the same time, I don't think there's any evidence of a smoking gun, there's never been any evidence of a smoking gun.
HARLOW: The problem is it plays into -- I wouldn't even say narrative, I would say belief among some that the Clintons on the whole live by a different set of rules than others. I mean, if you look Mary Katharine Ham, back to one of the e-mails from Nina Tandem who is running the Clinton transition team from this wikileak drop, obviously, they were stolen e-mails. In one of them, she was asked, you know, why didn't aides -- made public Clinton's private server, and she said because they wanted to get away with it.
HAM: Yes. I think it's obvious to most voters that the Clintons do live by a separate set of rules and that other people would have gotten in trouble and other people have gotten in trouble. That's sort of her weirdly get-out-of-jail free card, I mean that literally but get-out-of-jail free card to run for president which may people -- if you look at the polling, many people do not think it's fair. The problem with all of these scandals is that they do confirm this idea about the Clintons and they will continue to do that for the next couple of days.
Whether that makes a difference in the election, I'm not sure. I think what it does do is it gives us a preview what a Clinton presidency will probably look like with scandal after scandal, and to Ryan's point in voters not being helpless and unsophisticated, it may mean they split more ballots when you think about the question of a check on Hillary Clinton if it looks like she's ahead in the last ten days which it does look like at this point. There may be, more ballot splitting than we've seen in the past.
HARLOW: Very quickly before we go guys, lets pull up the tweet from journalist Kurt Eichenwald, here's what he tweeted, a columnist, he wrote "Flip this around and imagine if Comey came out and said we're looking into evidence re trump and Russia, don't know what that means." Ryan Lizza? They look like that.
LIZZA: He has a good point. A lot of people would be upset about that. But if there was a genuine investigation that was important for the voters to know before they go to the polls about Donald Trump, you know what? I want the government to tell us about that. I want to know about that before I vote, and I think most people do, too. That's why I say disclosure is better than nondisclosure, even when it's imperfect.
HARLOW: Guys, thank you --
FARAI CHIDEYA, AFRICAN-AMERICAN NOVELIST: I agree.
HARLOW: Thank you very much. We got to get a commercial break in. Ryan Lizza, Farai Chideya, Mary Katherine Ham, thank you, and Mary Katherine, good luck on your big marathon tomorrow benefitting veterans and families of fallen heroes.
HAM: Thank you very much.
HARLOW: Good luck. We'll be watching. You can help runners with fundraising donations by visiting the Marine Corps marathon website. We are ten days out, folks. That is it, November 8th you choose. Ahead this hour we will take you to the battle grounds of north Carolina, Colorado, Ohio and Florida where at any moment Hillary Clinton will make her first stop of the day. She is expected to address this e-mail review.
[16:15:03] Stay with us. You're live in the "CNN newsroom".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:18:31] HARLOW: At any moment Hillary Clinton will make her first campaign stop of the day. She is expected to of course address the latest e-mails. I believe -- is that her? Nope. She's being announced. we'll bring that to you as soon as she begins. FBI director James Comey told congress that he found new e-mails possibly linked to Hillary -- to the instigation into Clinton's private server. When he did that, he didn't just go against department of justice practice, he went against those who advised him to do otherwise at the very top of the DOJ Sources tell CNN top officials at the justice department expresses concern to call me about this letter to congress saying that sending it this close to the election goes against how the DOJ does business.
Call me however disregard this concern, sent the letter anyway and now his decision is being blasted by the Clinton campaign and officer Matthew Miller is one of them. He joins me now. He was up late on twitter last night. Thank you for being here.
MATTHEW MILLER, AMERICAN JOURNALIST: Thank you.
HARLOW: How many tweets did you send about this? 14?
MILLER: Too many probably.
HARLOW: You hate this, why?
MILLER: I think it's appalling.
HARLOW: Why? By the way, just to correct something, Clinton said in the press conference last night that he sent it to republican.
MILLER: Yes.
HARLOW: That's not true. He sent it to democrats and republicans on the committee in congress.
MILLER: Yes. I think - I'm sure she probably made the same mistake a lot of us did when you first saw the letter which was released by republicans and there were images released on twitter, they only showed the front page and not the CC on the bottom.
HARLOW: It was equally distributed.
MILLER: It was equally distributed, that's right.
HARLOW: Why do you hate that he did it?
[16:20:00] MILLER: It's so for the same reasons that apparently we're now reporting, (clearly) reporting that senior justice officials objected to it. It flies in the face of the way the FBI handles investigations or is supposed to handle investigations in any other case. They have a blanket rule which is they do not comment on ongoing investigations. He already blew through that rule in July and I have concerns about that, then other people have concerns.
But even if you set aside that rule, there is a long-standing practice that in the final days before the election and they interpret final days as the last 60 days, they don't do anything that can be seen by the public as trying to influence the election. So to come forward 11 days and put this out there with no facts and give political opponents the opportunity to raise innuendos and spread rumors is really irresponsible and goes against D.O.J. practices.
HARLOW: While we talk I want the control room to pull up sound from team Clinton back in July Bryan found, the press secretary spoke pretty highly about James Comey. So we'll play that as soon as we have it. But at the same time, why does the public not have the right to as much information as possible? You know, we both -- team trump and team Clinton want the details of these e-mails, but for the voters, why is it not beneficial for the voter to even know that this is going on? MILLER: So, I think it is helpful for voters to have information about the candidates but the problem with what Director Comey did yesterday is he didn't give them any more information. All he did is say we're looking at something and so the reason D.O.J. rules typically prohibit that is oftentimes the public when they hear that the FBI is looking at something they always consume the worst. Oftentimes those investigations go nowhere, in this case we're now hearing that maybe the e-mails aren't from Secretary Clinton, they might be duplicates of other copies, but you create this political football, this flurry of activities close to the election.
HARLOW: But then again, if you don't say anything and don't put anything out there and if she is elected and it is learned a month or two later that indeed they were doing this new sort of review before she was elected, many voters might feel like they weren't given the full story. Stay with me, let's listen. You're a Hillary Clinton supporter, let's listen to what she says. She is addressing her supporters in Daytona Beach, Florida, a critical battleground state, a state with 29 electoral votes. she wants this state, she needs is this state, and now she's going to address for the first time since that press conference last night at the latest revelations about e- mails from Huma Abedin's computer that, according to FBI Director James Comey, appear, quote, pertinent to the investigation into her private server.
HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you all. Wow. Thank you, thank you. I am just thrilled to be here. Are you ready to canvas?
Well, we need your help in these last ten days until the election. I want to thank Leslie Pierce for that introduction and her lifelong work on behalf of children. I want to thank state representative Dwyane Taylor and Mayor Derrick Henry for being here with us and to all of the elected officials, all of the organizers and the volunteers. I am thrilled to ha this chance to with you for a few minutes about what's at stake in this election because this may be one of the most important elections in our lifetime lifetimes. And we cannot take anything or anyone for granted.
I was just over at BCU for their homecoming celebration and a lot of people told me they had already voted, but I said get your friends, get your family, get everybody you know to vote. Because you've got early voting here in this county and Volusia County until November 5th, no excuses, everybody's got to get out and vote, and that's what this canvas is meant to make sure we do, right?
Now, I'm sure that some of you may have heard about a letter that the FBI director sent out yesterday.
[16:25:06] Well, if you're like me, you probably have a few questions about it. It is pretty strange. It's pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact, it's not just strange, it's unprecedented and it is deeply troubling because voters deserve get full and complete facts. And so we've called on director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table, right? Now, of course Donald Trump is already making up lies about this. He is doing his best to confuse, mislead and discourage the American people. I think it's time for Donald Trump to stop fear mongering, to stop disgracing himself, to stop attacking our democracy. We can't let him get away with this, can we? Now, like any campaign, there have been ups and downs and ups and downs, but I got to tell motivated, so excited, so ready because I have always stayed focused on one thing, you and your families.
What I worry about are the problems that keep you up at night. And I'm going to stay focused on that because you know on November 9th, that's what's going to matter. We can't let this election in the last ten days be about the noise and the distractions, it's got to be about what kind of country we want for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren and who can help take us there as your president.
Now I think you and I agree the choice is pretty clear. Between a president whose ready to bring us together, keep us safe, and make the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top and someone who is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified for the job. I promise you this. I will never stop working for you every single day. As a candidate and most importantly, as your president, that's how I was raised.
You know, when I was over at BCU, I met one of the Methodist ministers because BCU is affiliated with the Methodist church, and I felt right at home. And my mother, my mother taught me to never ever quit. Now, what does that mean? Well, that means everybody gets knocked down, what matters is whether you get back up. I've been fighting for families and underdogs my entire life, and I'm not stopping now, we're just getting started.
And let's always ember what our wonderful first lady told, when they go low, we go high. So no matter what they throw at us in these last days, we're not going to back down, we're not going to get distracted, we're not going to get knocked off course because we know how much lection matters. We know how many people are counting on us, and that's why we're going to reject Donald Trump's dark and divisive vision about America.
[16:30:08] We are going to stick together and we are going to win on November 8th!
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: But, we can't take that for granted. Remember, we have got to keep our foot on the gas, right? Because Donald Trump's strategy is pretty simple. They have even said it in his campaign. It's to get women to stay home, get young people to stay home, get people of color to stay home. And get a lot -- get a lot of smart, intelligent men to stay home too.
Now, this is all part of his scorched earth campaign. It goes against everything we stand for. And you know how we stop him? By showing up with the biggest turnout of voters in American history.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: We need more of everybody to vote, more women, more young people, more people of color, more African-Americans, more Latinos, everybody. Let's break every record that we have ever had for voting. Let's make that the story of this election. And here in Florida, you can, as you often have, make the difference, right, Florida? If you all vote and you get everybody you know to vote, if you go out and talk to people today and every day about what's at stake in this election, then we will make history. We will win up and down the ballot. And I feel strongly about this because we need people in Washington who are problem solvers, not problem makers.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: That's why I hope you will vote to send Patrick Murphy to the Senate. He will be an independent voice for Florida families, and this is important. Unlike his opponent, Patrick has never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Now, here's some really good news. We just reached a milestone. More than 200 million Americans are registered to vote. That is the highest number ever, and that includes 50 million young people. That's the most in history. And you know what else? More than 16.5 million people have already voted in this election. And more than three million of those votes have been right here in Florida.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Now, you only see numbers like we are seeing here in Florida when people are standing up for they really believe in. Americans are coming together. And I know because I hear from people who are Republicans and independents who are joining us to reject hate and division, rejecting Donald Trump's demeaning treatment of women, his plans to break up immigrant families and deport millions of people, his lie that President Obama wasn't born in America.
I will tell you, we have learned who Donald Trump is. Now it's up to us to show who we are. And the energy that we are seeing is not just about what we are against. It's about what we are for. It's about a common vision that we share for a hopeful dynamic unified America where everyone counts, everyone has a place, everyone willing to work can get ahead and stay ahead, where women are respected, where veterans are honored, where workers are paid fairly, where marriage is a right and discrimination is wrong.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: So my friends, it is not just the fact that my name will be on the ballot, everything we care about is at stake. Your future, making college affordable, helping you pay back your debt, getting the cost of prescription drugs down, protecting and defending Social Security and Medicare from privatization and Wall Street schemes, fighting climate change is at stake. LGBT equality is at stake. Equal pay for women is at stake. In the end, we know the American dream itself is at stake.
Now, did any of you see the debates? Well, I will tell you, I stood next to Donald Trump for three debates, four-and-a-half hour, proving conclusively I have the stamina to be president and commander-in- chief.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: But I have to tell you, he said a lot of things that were troubling. But in that last debate he said something that was truly horrifying. He is the first person of a major party, Republican or Democrat, ever to refuse to say he would respect the outcome of the election.
(BOOING)
CLINTON: Now, we can think about every issue we care about, but you know, after attacking women and African-Americans and Latinos and people with disabilities and Muslims and POWs and everybody, now he is attacking the institutions of democracy. And so it comes down to this. When your kids and grandkids ask, what did you do in the 2016 election when everything was on the line, I want you to be able to say you voted for a better, fairer, stronger America!
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: And the way we're going to do that, we are going to turn everybody out. Early voting has begun right here every day in Volusia County every day from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Until November 5th you can vote. The nearest early voting site is just one mile away from here at a Volusia county library center at city island. So don't wait one more day. Go vote and then help us get everybody else out to vote too!
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Now I know that we have got our canvas organizers up here. I don't want to take too much of their time because they are workers. They are organized. They are focused. I'm so grateful to them and to you, and we need you. We need you. Stakes couldn't be higher. We got to do everything we can. I don't want anybody, I don't want anybody waking up on November 9th and saying, oh, I wish I had just done a little more.
So help us knock on doors. Make phone calls, talk to voters, and ask them when are you going to vote? Do you know where you're going to cast your ballot? Who will you take with you? And make sure they know about early voting already begun here in Florida. And then if you need to, sign up yourselves. We have signups for three more shifts between now and Election Day.
And, you know, this is going to be a close election. They always are these days. And we are going to win because of you, because of hard working volunteers like you.
(APPLAUSE) CLINTON: And if you know anybody thinking about voting for Donald Trump, stage an intervention. Remember, friends don't let friends vote for Trump! And think about it this way. On January 20th we are going to have a new president. And I will tell you what. I will be proud to build on the progress we have made under President Obama and go even further.
But I can't do any of the things that I'm talking about, any of the plans that I have unless you help me. So that's what I'm asking you. That's why I came to Daytona Beach today. I came to ask you to help me in these last ten days. Let's give every American a chance to chart their own future, make their own contributions. Let's build a future we can all be proud of, and let's make sure we prove once and for all that love Trumps hate. Thank you.
[16:40:21] POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: There you have it. Ten days before you go to the polls, Hillary Clinton making her case to supporters there in the critical battleground state of Florida, opening with some pretty tough language for the head of the FBI and, frankly, for Donald Trump.
Let me just recap here. She said if you are like me, you probably have a few questions about that letter that the head of the FBI sent to Congress yesterday. She said it is deeply troubling that voters don't have more information, the totality of what emails they are reviewing. And she said that the voters deserve full and complete thoughts. She said Donald Trump is already making up lies about this and capitalizing on it. And she said what matters is when you're knocked down, how you get up.
Let's talk with our panel about this. Let's begin with CNN legal analyst Paul Callan.
Paul, you wrote a pretty scathing op-ed on CNN.com last night taking on Jim Comey, the head of the FBI, for doing this. What do you make, first your reaction to Clinton today and her remarks?
PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I'm not surprised that she is calling for the release of all of the information and all of the emails, but of course it's not going to happen.
And I have to tell you, Poppy, when I was asked by CNN.com to write the article, it originally just started out as a general sort of informational article about how often does the FBI publicly announce the results of investigations. And as I started looking into it and thinking back of the clients that I had represented through the years, I became angrier and angrier that Comey had, in fact, really botched a long line of tradition that investigations are kept secret until they reach a conclusion. And you don't just -- you know, in midstream have a press conference ten days or 11 days before a presidential election saying, you know, there's new evidence that's come in it might be really important but it might not be really important. What kind of message is that sending to the voters as they select the president?
HARLOW: Here is something Paul. I hear you, Paul Callan, but the other side of the argument is, do voters not deserve every single piece of information they can get? Of course both the Trump camp and the Clinton camp right now want the public to see all the e-mails. They are actually on the same page o that one.
CALLAN: They are.
HARLOW: But for voters at home who are saying, you know what, what if Clinton wins and two months later we find out for the first time that there were additional emails that they looked at and they do have potentially something incriminating and they were never told about them. That's the flip side of the argument.
CALLAN: Well, it is the flip side of the argument, but the judicial system and the court system has a way that it functions in these investigations. And I just want to, you know, it's something that I have been watching carefully, the panels that have been discussing this, and I think what people are missing and Hillary Clinton of course saying, let's release everything. What it looks like is a lot of these emails are Abedin's emails, Huma Abedin, her advisor, her side person for over 20 years really, her alter ego. She really knows a lot about Hillary Clinton, and of course her strange husband Anthony Weiner.
Now those emails, let's say hypothetically you sent -- you or anybody sent an email to Weiner or Abedin and you said something in it of an embarrassing nature. Well, is it right that your email should now be made a matter of public record because you had the misfortune of having these two people who are under investigation as friends? No, it would be an invasion of your privacy rights. If the feds were investigating your taxes, would it be OK to reveal emails that had come from your good neighbors, maybe gossiping about another neighbor? No.
That's why these things are privately investigated to see if there's anything there. And only when a criminal act is disclosed sufficient to prosecute does a prosecutor have we are proceeding. There will be an indictment.
And just to finish with the answer to the thing you were asking in the beginning, what happens if she gets elected and this bad stuff comes to light that we think should have come to light earlier. Well, the founding fathers figured this out. It's called checks and balances and impeachment. And her vice-president would become president of the United States.
So I don't think we should disrupt the criminal justice system and the way we have investigated cases just because Mr. Comey wants to avoid embarrassment for the FBI.
[16:45:03] HARLOW: Here's the thing. So much of this is unprecedented. Two big factors leading up to Comey's letter to Congress yesterday that certainly are at play here. One of them is when the former president, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband, walked onto Loretta Lynch's plane (INAUDIBLE) in June and had a 30- minute conversation with her that they say was about golf and grandchildren right before the FBI came out and said basically she was careless with the emails but there is no case here. There is that. And then there's the unprecedented press conference that Comey had in
July talking publicly about this case which also the FBI usually doesn't do. Those two things our Evan Perez is reporting pushed his hand so that he felt like he had to tell Congress about this development even if it is not significant.
CALLAN: Well I understand that. But he set the train in motion, the freight train running down the track himself, when he chose to have this press conference in saying that essentially Hillary Clinton has been cleared by our investigation. And the second thing that happened here -- let me just tell you something about Comey. He is always been highly respected in all aspects of his career previously, but you know something, he is a lawyer and he is a prosecutor. And he is acting now like he is the top prosecutor on this case. But guess what, he is the FBI director. And that means he is a cop in this case. And his job as t equivalent of a police detectives say or the head of all the detectives investigating the crime is to gather the evidence and then turn it over to the justice department for a decision.
And if Loretta Lynch can't be involved in the decision-making process because Bill Clinton decided to get on her airplane in the middle of the investigation, we have a procedure for that also. You have a special prosecutor appointed to deal with it. But instead, they've all short-circuited the whole process and all of a sudden the head of the FBI now is the chief prosecutor on the case having press conferences about whether we are going to prosecute or not prosecute. Well, the FBI doesn't prosecute.
HARLOW: Paul, I got to leave it there but I would point everyone to your fascinating op-ed. Just go to CNN.com. You will see it there. Paul, thank you very much.
CALLAN: Thank you.
HARLOW: Coming up, outside of Chelsea Clinton and Bill Clinton, there may be no person closer to Hillary Clinton than this woman, Huma Abedin. But now her long-time aid is at the center of the latest revelations about this FBI email review. We will talk about their relationship and ho she is largely staying out of the public eye for the better part of two decades though working right next to Hillary Clinton. Bill Cohen who wrote an extensive piece on her in "Vanity Fair" will join me next.
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[16:51:31] HARLOW: If you didn't know the name Huma Abedin before yesterday, you certainly do now. She is the Hillary Clinton confidant at the heart of the new revelations about the Clinton email investigation. In a bizarre twist, it appears a separate FBI investigation into sexting allegations with a minor against disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Abedin is what actually led the FBI to these new emails. Whether they are relevant or significant, we just don't know at this point. But they have renewed scrutiny on Clinton's relationship with Abedin. She was once described by "Politico" as Hillary Clinton's shadow. That's how close they are. This is not just an ordinary Clinton aide. Trump brought up her name in a speech in Colorado earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wonder is she going to keep Huma. Huma has been a problem, do we agree? Huma has been a problem. I wonder if Huma is going to stay there. And I hope they haven't given Huma immunity, because it seemed that everybody that walked down the sidewalk got immunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Huma Abedin has known Clinton since she began working for her at age 19. She has been by her side for the better part of two decades.
William Cohen is a contributing editor of "Vanity Fair." He wrote the article earlier this year. It is Hua Abedin, Hillary Clinton's secret weapon or her next big problem.
Thank you for being with me, Bill.
WILLIAM COHAN, AUTHOR, THE PITCH OF SILENCE: Sure, Poppy, thank you.
HARLOW: Let's talk about who she is? What does she mean? What does Huma mean to Hillary Clinton?
Everything. I mean, she has been by her side, as you said, for 21 years now. She just turned 40, so I mean, this has been all of Huma's life, all of Huma's adult life, and she has been with Hillary when she was a senator, when she was at the state department, when she was first lady. And now she is, you know what, vice chairman of the campaign based in Brooklyn. So this is a long-term, deep relationship, a close confidante. She travels on the road with Hillary. Was by her side during the Benghazi hearing. Even yesterday, when she was making a statement about this whole new Comey investigation, she was by Hillary's side. This has been a long-term, very deep relationship.
HARLOW: But she is not there today, Bill, and that's what's interesting. She is not on this two-day Florida swing that Clinton is taking. You describe her in your piece as a third rail in the Clinton sort of political world, and that makes her somewhat untouchable.
COHAN: Right. I mean, all of the other close advisors to Hillary that I spoke to for that piece did not want to be named and were very wary of really talking about her because how powerful she is. She is literally in every sense of the word Hillary's gate keeper. You can see that from the emails that have come out, how close she is to Hillary, how can get in to see her, who cannot get in to see her. And so, nobody, of course, wants to be quoted as saying anything negative about her for fear they won't have access to Hillary anymore.
So, I mean, you know, Poppy, the real question that I have about this is, given the history of Huma and her husband, Anthony Weiner, or her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, how could they have shared a computer knowing that Huma had on this computer sensitive information? How can they in a world shares a computer, who shares the computer anymore, whether with anybody or a spouse, let alone a spouse like Anthony Weiner? That's a real question of judgment that I don't understand.
[16:55:02] HARLOW: This does come down to the judgment question that Donald Trump is clearly harping on here. Here is one line you wrote in the piece. For all her proximity to the white hot center of American politics, Abedin is every bit as unknown to the general public as her boss is world famous. How has she stayed under the radar for 21 years?
COHAN: Because basically she refuses all press inquiries. She obviously not cooperate with my "Vanity Fair" piece, except for articles about her fashion sense which have appeared in "Vogue," including one in September. She went -- in addition to that, she and Anthony also appeared together in a very lengthy "New York Times" magazine piece when Anthony was running for mayor of New York before, you know, he blew himself up with these sexting scandals.
So basically she keeps away from the press. She is smart enough to know that Hillary is her number one client. Hillary is who she cares about. She is incredibly loyal to Hillary and except for her fashion and trying to help Anthony when he was running for mayor, she basically stays out of the press, and therefore not many people know who she is.
HARLOW: Bill Cohan, I wish we had a lot more time. But everyone, you should read his piece in "Vanity Fair," came out in February, but a lot of fascinating information in it today. Thank you.
COHAN: Thank you, Poppy.
HARLOW: Coming up, breaking news about the U.S. consulate in Istanbul. What you need to know next.
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[16:58:37] HARLOW: Breaking news tonight out of Turkey, a travel warning for Americans and an order for family members of U.S. consulate employees in Istanbul to leave.
Our senior international corporate Ivan Watson is on the phone.
Ivan, when you think about the strategic importance of Turkey in the fight against ISIS you think about it as one of the largest majority Muslim democracies in the world and a key U.S. ally. How significant is this news?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): Well, I think there have been a succession of increasingly concerned messages of warning coming from the U.S. state department to American citizens visiting Turkey, as well as to diplomatic staff warning about the threat of potential terror attacks of kidnappings. And Turkey has been much more volatile, much more unstable within the last year or two and it really has been in decades. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that I can recall
that the families of diplomats stationed here in the commercial capitol Istanbul which has long been a major tourist destination, that they are being ordered too home because of these concerns. But over the course, again, of the last week and more, there have been a lot of warnings from the U.S. state department about avoiding the southeast of Turkey which is bordering with Iraq and Syria where there's a Kurdish insurgency, and where there are also affected by these attacks. And Istanbul itself has been hit multiple times this year by suspected ISIS attackers - Poppy.
HARLOW: Ivan, thank you very much for the reporting, of course, on the phone from Istanbul. We got much more with Ivan coming up here.
