Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Donald Trump Speaks to a Crowd in Arizona; FBI Reviewing E- mails Linked to Clinton Aide; DOJ Disagrees with FBI Director's E-mail Announcement; Presidential Temperament Through the Eyes of History; Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 29, 2016 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[19:00:07] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, 7:00 p.m. Eastern. And folks, if you thought this election was in the bag or in any way predictable, think again. This epic race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is now significantly tighter.

I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us tonight.

There is now a potential game changer from the FBI. Director James Comey announcing yesterday there will be a brand new review of e-mails linked to a longtime Clinton aide. Any minute now Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will step to the mic. In fact, Donald Trump has done just that. Let's take you live to Phoenix, Arizona.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right after I announced that I was running for president. And it was a tremendous scene. I think we're beating it today. We had 15,000. We have more than 15,000 and we have a lot of people pouring in.

Should we wait for them? Should we wait? No. We're not waiting. The silent majority is back. In 10 days we are going to win this state of Arizona, and we are going to win back the House. We are. Oh, we are.

A Trump administration will immediately repeal and replace the disaster known as Obamacare. It's just been announced that the citizens of Arizona are going to experience, congratulations, a 116 percent increase in their Obamacare premiums. Don't feel bad. You won't be the highest in the country. Is that amazing? 116? And it doesn't work.

Elect me and we will stop the premium hikes for good. We will stop the madness of Obamacare. It will be repealed and replaced. Believe me.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I'd love to have those cameras turn over here and just show those people. They don't understand. They don't understand. It would be so good for their television ratings. They don't understand it. They keep it right here, and this very nice but small group of people behind me.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: They don't have great seats. They don't have great seats, but tomorrow they'll be famous. OK? Oh, I wish the cameras would turn these cameras. People don't have any idea what's going on, do they, huh? They know. But they know. They are the most dishonest, corrupt people. They are the most dishonest people. They are the most dishonest people.

The only time they turn is when they have a protester and now we learned out through WikiLeaks that Hillary Clinton was paying the protesters $1500 each to be violent at our rallies.

(CROWD BOOS)

TRUMP: We just learned that last week. WikiLeaks.

Every single one of Arizona's 15 counties is losing insurers next year because of Obamacare. In Phoenix there are eight Obamacare insurers. OK? Gone. Gone. Good luck. By the way, have a lot of fun negotiating. There's nobody to negotiate with.

Next year you'll have one, one group to negotiate with. I'd like to be that one group. That one group is going to do very well, but you're not going to do very well, but you're going to do very well if I get elected, because we're getting rid of Obamacare and we're going to have an alternative that's cheaper. Cheaper and better. Better.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It was announced this week that Obamacare premiums in Phoenix will go up 100 -- congratulations -- 145 percent. 145 percent. You know the worst part? It's no good. It's no good. It's not like it's great. It's no good.

One insurer in the state will have a $14,000 deductible. In other words, you've got to use $14,000 worth of care before they start giving you anything. It sounds like a good idea? No.

[19:05:01] Folks, we're going to have so many options. We're going to have so many great plans. We're going to have plans that you don't know even what. There's going to be so much competition. We're going to get rid of the borders, we're going to get rid of the lines, the artificial lines that are put there to make the insurance companies rich. So they have no competition.

You're going to have so much competition for your business. And you're going to have great health care and it's going to be at a tiny fraction of what you're paying right now. So just remember.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Obamacare is a -- is that correct? Obamacare is a catastrophe for Arizona, and it's a catastrophe for the United States of America. And we're going to get rid of it. Even Bill Clinton admitted Obamacare is the craziest thing in the world where people wind up with premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. He's right, but it's actually much worse than that. In Minnesota

where the premium increase will be close to 60 percent, the Democratic governor who is a real party stalwart said the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable. That's in -- that's in Minnesota. A state which we could actually win. We can win Minnesota.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: And by the way, we're winning Arizona big. You've seen the recent polls.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: And I want to thank Governor Brewer for being here. Where is she? She's around here someplace. And what a job. That young, beautiful woman, what a job you did.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: And, folks, folks, he's a good man. He was one of the first endorsers of Donald Trump. Vote for Sheriff Joe.

Stand up. Stand up, Joe.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They don't love tough people in this country anymore that know how to do their job, and fair people. He's tough, he's fair. And I hope he gets reelected, and he should. Go out and make sure he gets reelected, everybody.

There's some bad undercurrents out there, folks. Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare. Remember from MIT.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: My Uncle Jon was a great professor at MIT for a long time. Unfortunately I liked him a lot better than Jonathan Gruber, but Jonathan Gruber admitted it was all a fraud, and he said outrageously that it was passed because the stupidity of the American voter is unbelievable.

We're going to show him on November 8th that the -- November 8th. We're going to show him on November 8th the American voter has had it. They've had it. Hillary Clinton wants to double down on Obamacare, make it even more expensive. In fact, much more expensive than it is right now.

(CROWD CHANTING "LOCK HER UP")

TRUMP: You know, when people ask me about the crowd, they never show the crowd, but they say it sounds like an Ohio State football, actually.

(CHEERS) TRUMP: Sure sounds big. You can actually tell a crowd by the sound. You can't imitate that sound. You know when Hillary Clinton got up -- I watched her today. Oh, and she had very few people, and she walked onto the stage. Now I always knew this, and today I didn't. Because I walk -- usually I'm always surprise by how many people. Look at -- look, it goes all the way into the corners. Look at that.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Incredible room. All the way into the corner. But when she came on today she looked at a small of group of people, she goes, wow, wow, wow. That's what I do. She's copied me. And I don't do it anymore because she's copied me. I'm always, like, surprised. I go wow, and she went wow, and there were very few people.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: My contract with the American voter outlines a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, and I'm asking for your vote, so we can save health care for every family in Arizona.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[19:10:12] TRUMP: Real change also means getting rid of the corruption in Washington, D.C.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(CROWD CHANTING "DRAIN THAT SWAMP")

TRUMP: Drain that swamp. As you've heard, it was just announced yesterday that the FBI is reopening their investigation into the criminal conduct and illegal conduct of Hillary Clinton.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate and it's everybody's deepest hope that justice at last will be beautifully delivered.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Hillary has nobody but herself to blame for her mounting legal difficulties. Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional, and purposeful. Hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her criminal conduct from public disclosure and exposure. She set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk. And put the safety and security of your children and your families at risk.

But she didn't care. As long as she and Bill got the money, the safety of your family made absolutely no difference to her. To cover up her crimes, she bleached something that even sophisticated people know nothing about, partially because it's so expensive. She bleached and deleted 33,000 e-mails after, after, after, after, after receiving a congressional subpoena, made 13 phones disappear, some with a hammer. Lied to Congress under oath many times. Lied to the FBI many times. And then recently two boxes of e-mail evidence went mysteriously missing. Although, they might have found a lot of e- mails the last couple of days, folks. Looking like. A lot of e- mails. A lot of trickery.

The WikiLeaks revelations have exposed criminal corruption at the highest levels of our government. Hillary put the office of secretary of state up for sale. Look at what's happened. And if she ever got the chance, she would put the Oval Office up for sale also. She'd put it up for sale for the special interests and the foreign dictators, whoever offers the right price, and usually that's the highest price.

Yet now it's reported that the Department of Justice is fighting with the FBI. That's because the Department of Justice is trying their hardest to protect the criminal activity of Hillary Clinton.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: What has our country come to? 97 percent of the Department of Justice employees, all of their presidential contributions, just about, 97 percent, went to Hillary Clinton. I don't think they like me.

[19:15:11] There are those, and I happen to be one of them, who think Hillary offered Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, a reappointment as attorney general if Hillary were to become president.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: We don't want that to happen. A lot of people that way, right? Right? Perhaps that was what Bill Clinton was arranging when he met with Attorney General Lynch on her airplane on the tarmac on a very, very warm day right here in Arizona. The meeting lasted 29 minutes, and it was just a coincidence. You know, he was here to play golf. I hate to tell you, it was about 109 degrees that day.

We all love Arizona but I have so many friends, I'm here so much. When it gets to a certain temperature, we just sort of stay let's stay inside today. It's 109, it was a very hot day. It was a very hot day. But he just happened to see her. Did you see that? Oh, there's the attorney general's plane riding down the runway. Oh, I'm out playing golf. Let's -- there's the attorney general. Hey, let me hop on.

I've had a plane for a long time, never once has anybody entered my plane by saying, hey, can I come onto the plane from the tarmac while the plane is moving along?

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: So they spent 39 minutes talking about golf and their grandchildren. So I give golf two minutes, I give the grandchildren three or four minutes, and the rest of the time perhaps was discussing the fact that the attorney general was going to make a decision right after that about Hillary Clinton.

So what's happened to the Justice Department? What's happened? What's happened? This is what I mean when I say that our system is rigged. Our system is rigged, folks. And be careful with your votes. Be careful with your votes and watch your votes. A vote for Hillary is a vote to surrender our government. To public corruption, graft, cronyism that threatens the survival of our Constitution itself.

What makes us exceptional is that we are a nation of laws and that we are all equal under those laws. Hillary's corruption shreds the principles of which our nation was founded. So sad. Government corruption spreads outward like a cancer infecting the whole operation of our government.

And I have to tell you, I respect the fact that Director Comey was able to come back after what he did. I respect that very much.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And when the other side is complaining and complaining and complaining, there was no -- there was no reason for it because all of the crimes that were committed, something should have happened then. Not now. And just to break it down, there are many, but when you delete 33,000 e-mails after getting a subpoena, that's it. It's over. It's over. It's over. And I will tell you without knowing anything the only reason --

(CROWD CHANTING "LOCK HER UP")

TRUMP: The only reason, the only reason that they did this action that you saw yesterday was very, very serious things must be happening and must have been found. Very, very serious things. Very, very serious things. And you could also ask when they complain on the other side, why wasn't this evidence given previously? Why wasn't it given previously?

[19:20:02] And when you talk about instincts, I don't know if anybody saw my comments on Anthony Weiner. It's called instinct, folks. I had no idea I was going to be accurate. Boy, that was right on the nose. When the outcome is fixed, when the system is rigged, people lose hope. They stop dreaming. They stop trying.

When the powerful can get away with anything because they have the money and the connections to rig the system, then people lose confidence in our laws and confidence in their futures.

Hillary Clinton's corruption is corrosive to the soul of our nation and it must be stopped. It must be stopped.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And one of the reasons I've been saying that the system is so corrupt and is so rigged is not only what happens at the voter's booth, and you know things happen, folks. I watch, Obama the other day saying oh, but this is the foundation of the system. How can he say it? And yet eight years ago he's on a clip talking about Chicago and essentially how the voting is rigged in Chicago. You know, give me a break.

Take a look at it. Eight years ago. It's all over the place but what are the reasons I say it's rigged? It's because Hillary Clinton -- nothing to do with what was found recently. Hillary Clinton should never ever based on everything that took place, be allowed to run for the presidency of the United States. She shouldn't be allowed.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: She should have been disqualified a long time ago. And when you read the nasty WikiLeaks, the horrible things said about Catholics and the horrible things said about evangelicals, and the horrible things said about Bernie Sanders, what they said about Bernie Sanders. I mean, say what you want. What they said about Bernie Sanders is rather incredible. And then they have their superdelegates and they had all of the people stacked against him. He never had a chance, folks.

And you know what? The worst thing he did was backing her. Because he would have gone down as a great figure in political history in this country, but once he did that, he sold his soul to the devil.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: But we'll take the Bernie Sanders voters because my trade policies are much tougher and much stronger and much better than his, and we're going to have a lot of trade but it's going to be a two-way highway, not a one-way road out, believe me.

As FDR once said, government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob. It's true. True. So true. Hillary believes money and power, not truth and justice, should rule the day. We have one ultimate check on Hillary's corruption, and that is the power of voting, November 8th.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So the only way we're going to beat the corruption is to show up and vote by the tens of millions, including millions of people voting for the first time in their entire lives. Vote with all your heart and soul because we are going to make America great again. OK? Just remember that. We are.

(CROWD CHANTING "USA")

TRUMP: Restoring honesty to our government and the rule of law to our society will be a very, very high priority of my presidency.

Haven't we had enough drama with the Clintons?

[19:25:00] Bill Clinton was impeached for lying and obstructing justice. Signed the worst trade deal in history, NAFTA, which emptied our country of its manufacturing jobs. And he doesn't even have the right anymore because of what he did to practice law.

Hillary brought scandal or destroyed virtually everything she's touched. Look at White Water. Look at the cattle futures. Look at jobs in upstate New York, a disaster. Or look at Syria, Iraq, Libya, and now look at the mess she's in with these e-mails, and that'll last for years.

You think that's going away?

CROWD: No.

TRUMP: That'll be there for years she'll be fighting it. This will be the year the American people say enough is enough.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: This will be the year the American people break with the bitter failures of the past and embrace a new and really optimistic future. We have such potential. My contract with the American voter begins with a plan to end government corruption. I want the entire corrupt Washington establishment to hear and heed the words, we, we, not me, we are about to say.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: When we win on November 8th, we are going to Washington, D.C., and we are going to drain the swamp.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(CROWD CHANTING "DRAIN THAT SWAMP" )

TRUMP: You know, when I first heard that term, I hated it. I said, oh, that's so hokey.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: That is so hokey. But I said, look, let's give it a shot. I tried it, the place went crazy. Then I said maybe we'll try it again. The place went crazy. And now I like it. You know, great singers, a lot of great artists, great singers. Frank Sinatra. So Frank Sinatra didn't like "My Way" when he first sang it, and then he noticed the audience liked it a lot. And then it went out and became number one, like big, and all of a sudden he started to love that song, "My Way." Right? So drain the swamp.

At the core of my contract is my plan to bring back our jobs that have been stolen from you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Right now 70 million American women and children live in poverty or near the brink of poverty. America has lost one-third of its manufacturing jobs since Bill and Hillary's NAFTA. One-third.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: America has lost -- listen to this because it's not even a number. Honestly, I thought it was a typo. I thought it was 700 factories. It was 7,000.

HARLOW: Donald Trump rallying his supporters in Phoenix, Arizona, tonight attacking Hillary Clinton saying her, quote, "corruption is corrosive to the soul of the nation." This after Clinton said in Florida Trump is lying on the campaign trail and said that he is, quote, "fear mongering."

This historic election, folks, is getting closer than many may have imagined just a week ago. Take a look at the numbers. CNN's new poll of polls updated just hours ago shows a five-point spread, only five points between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

There is now a potential game changer from the FBI as you just heard Trump talk about. James Comey announcing yesterday there will be a brand new review of e-mails linked to longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

So what led the bureau to these e-mails? It is bizarre. And frankly you can't make this stuff up. It all apparently comes back to disgraced former New York congressman, Anthony Weiner. The e-mails were found on at least one computer used by Abedin. His now estranged wife.

A separate FBI investigation into allegations that Weiner sexted with a minor appeared to be what led the feds to Abedin's computer. Whether these e-mails contained classified information or frankly anything significant or pertinent, we just don't know at this point. The FBI is just starting to review them.

Let's talk about this all in a historical precedent for what has happened with Julian Zelizer, he is a historian and also professor at Princeton University.

Thank you for being here.

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Thank you.

HARLOW: Let's dive into that first. James Comey comes up, head of the FBI, 11 days before this election and says new e-mails, we're reviewing them but we can't tell you what they mean because we don't know if they matter or not.

[19:30:12] This breaks with tradition, right? You usually don't say anything tied -- you know, that's politically sensitive within 60 days of a -- of an election. Now this is 11 days. Is there any kind of precedent for this?

ZELIZER: The only precedent I can think of was when Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor investigating Iran contra, announced the indictment of Casper Weinberger.

HARLOW: Right.

ZELIZER: Who had been Reagan's secretary of Defense.

HARLOW: Right.

ZELIZER: This is a few days before the '92 election.

HARLOW: Right. And then Clinton wins.

ZELIZER: And it implicates Bush as having known more than he said he knew. Clinton did win. Some Republicans thought this was a part. I don't think that was the turning point. Other than that, it's very hard to think of anything, certainly in modern times that resembles what we've seen right now.

HARLOW: Here's the thing. I mean, couldn't Clinton have gotten totally ahead of this by handing over all of her e-mails, her team, all of their devices to the FBI over a year when they were asked for them. I mean, you know, then the FBI wouldn't have had to find 15,000 more e-mails, which they did this summer, or find now another device that was used by Huma Abedin, this computer first?

I mean, the argument can be made that Hillary Clinton, you know, made this mess herself and she's the one to blame for it.

ZELIZER: Well, we don't know what they're even looking at at this point. And we have to remember that. There are more e-mails. We don't know what the e-mails are. We don't know exactly what Comey is reviewing. And this is part of what has upset the Clinton team.

HARLOW: But we do know that they're e-mails that he called -- that he said appear to be, quote, "appear pertinent to the investigation." You're totally right.

ZELIZER: Yes.

HARLOW: We don't know what they say, but he does think that merit looking into.

ZELIZER: Look, there's two things that obviously even Clinton supporters would agree might not have been the best decision. One is the private server and second is the response as this crisis emerged.

HARLOW: Right.

ZELIZER: Not being forthcoming, and some would say even this weekend, being out there more and changing the story because this is consuming the final few days of an important election.

HARLOW: It is 10 days to go. Trump says, he said yesterday on the stump, this is worse than Watergate. Give us the historical context and if you buy that.

ZELIZER: There's no evidence that this is worse than Watergate at this point, and Watergate was a scandal unlike almost any that we have had, including direct evidence of obstruction of justice from the president in an investigation that brings down a president where a president basically waves good-bye to the nation.

HARLOW: Right. ZELIZER: We're not there yet, but that doesn't matter. It's rhetoric

that he is using effectively to resuscitate a campaign which just three or four days ago we were looking at a potential landslide for the Democrats. And now we're talking about the race tightening and whether Clinton can survive this.

HARLOW: Yes. And I should note, we don't have any polling that yet reflects this.

ZELIZER: Right.

HARLOW: We just don't have any of that. That will come more accurate polling in two, three or four days.

Let's listen to what the vice president, Joe Biden, said to our Michael Smerconish in an interview last night about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR, "SMERCONISH": I'd be remiss if I didn't note that if she had released all the e-mails from the get-go, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, that's true. But I don't know where these e-mails came from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Hearing that from the vice president doesn't help her.

ZELIZER: No. That was not a moment, and, look, the Democrats are scrambling and part of the Clinton issue, which they've often had, is the secrecy that they surround themselves with often for good reason. They often feel that they've been under attack. Look, Bill Clinton spent his first few years as president being investigated for many things, but that approach often leads to more problems, and certainly at this point the Democrats should have some kind of coordinated response to what's going on, and you want the vice president to have a very clear answer about what's happening.

HARLOW: So Clinton called the timing of all of this suspect. She said earlier today if you're like me, you probably have a lot of questions about why, you know, the head of the FBI sent this e-mail and why he did it now. But let's just listen to Brian Fallon, the press secretary for Clinton back in July. This is after Comey held that press conference that basically said there's no case here against Clinton, although he said she was extremely careless. Here's how team Clinton defended him. Let's roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: And now it seems they were disappointed with the outcome of the FBI investigation so they decided to try to put the FBI director in the hot seat, second guess his decision. And I think it's just a bad look for House Republicans to be second-guessing a career prosecutor who is a registered Republican, was the number two official at the Justice Department under George Bush, and was even a deputy council on the White Water Committee investigating the Clintons in the 1990s.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: He said there, it's a bad look to second guess a career prosecutor. Now they're doing just that.

[19:35:03] ZELIZER: Right. They're in a bind. They had used Comey's decision before to justify the fact that this was over and now they're in a position where they have to be critical of the very person that they defended. On the other hand, Donald Trump has been claiming that this is a rigged system now for over a month and that everyone was working against him, and yet all of a sudden --

HARLOW: Now he says -- now he said it's maybe not rigged.

ZELIZER: He's backing up a little bit. Right.

HARLOW: He just complimented James Comey.

ZELIZER: Right. So hypocrisy --

HARLOW: Abound on both sides?

ZELIZER: Is part of American politics and we're going to hear more of this. But the Clinton campaign, whether this is fair or not and whether we are reading too much into an e-mail that -- a letter that doesn't say much, doesn't really matter. The headlines matter and the news matters, and the Clinton team needs to have a better response to what's been going on or this will consume the final week.

HARLOW: Yes. Only nine days and a few hours to go.

Julian, thank you very much.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

HARLOW: We appreciate it. Julian Zelizer with us.

Still ahead a closer look at why there seems to be a fundamental disconnect between the Department of Justice and the FBI on the topic of Hillary Clinton's e-mail investigation.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: We're now getting an idea of what went on inside the Department of Justice between top DOJ officials and FBI Director James Comey before he sent that letter to Congress on Friday.

[19:40:03] That letter announcing his decision to review new e-mails that the FBI says may be pertinent to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server.

CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez has more reporting on that tonight -- Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, it was an extraordinary 36 hours at the FBI and the Justice Department as top officials wrestled with how to deal with newly uncovered e-mails that appeared related to the Hillary Clinton e-mail server investigation.

FBI Director James Comey on Thursday told his bosses at the Justice Department that he planned to tell Congress about the newly found e- mails. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other officials at the Justice Department opposed that plan. They believe that doing so violated the department's policy to not comment on politically sensitive investigations so close to an election.

Lynch's staff relayed that message to Comey. But the FBI director decided to set aside those objections telling his employees in an internal memo, quote, "I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading for the American people were we not to supplement the record."

Officials at the Justice Department think Comey should have at least allowed investigators more time to determine the importance of the e- mails. Meanwhile, at the FBI officials believe that they'd be accused of covering up for Clinton if they held onto the information until after Election Day.

Comey's three-paragraph letter to Congress left many unanswered questions and now he's facing pressure from both the Clinton campaign and from Republicans to provide more information. That's highly unlikely at this point. The FBI is only beginning the process to review the e-mails and they still don't know whether the e-mails contain classified information or whether some of the e-mails may be duplicates of e-mails they've already looked at. None of those answers is likely to come before Election Day -- Poppy.

PEREZ: Nine days and counting. Evan, thank you.

Ahead, what does it take to make a good president?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: There are certain kinds of traits that I think really do transcend the time. They have to do with emotional intelligence, with empathy, with the willingness to surround yourself with people who have strengths that maybe can counteract your weaknesses. The ability to communicate and that depends on the time you're living.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We are talking presidential temperament with the women who has been called America's historian-in-chief, next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:46:14] HARLOW: Welcome back. If there is one word that could define this campaign, it is, perhaps, the word temperament. The dictionary defines temperament as, "The combination of mental, physical and emotional traits of a person's natural disposition."

This election we have seen accusations back and forth between the two major party candidates about who really has the best temperament to serve as commander-in-chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have to tell you this. I have to say it. I think my single greatest asset of any assets I have is my temperament. And I know how to win. But it's my temperament. It's my single greatest asset.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So just ask yourself. Do you really think Donald Trump has the temperament to be commander- in-chief? Donald Trump can't even handle the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So how crucial temperament when it comes to serving as America's commander-in-chief?

No one can answer that question perhaps better than my next guest, Doris Kearns Goodwin. She knows more about presidential history and politics than, well, just about anyone else on the planet. She has spent decades studying political geniuses as well as political downfalls. She recently interviewed President Obama in the Oval Office for big story in "Vanity Fair." Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Doris Kearns Goodwin, is with me.

Thank you for being here.

KEARNS GOODWIN: You're welcome, Poppy.

HARLOW: The election is almost over. Not over yet, and the key discussion has been that of temperament. I mean, you've written extensively about past presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, FDR. What have we learned from past presidents about what is needed in a commander-in-chief's temperament to do well in office?

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, it's funny. I think this should have been the discussion way early. Way back in that first January. Because I think it is the most important thing to learn about a president and a candidate. And interestingly when we looked at the clip of Trump saying that he has the best temperament of anyone ever because of winning all the time that history says just the opposite. I mean, I look at FDR and the polio that he suffered changed him. It made him more able to deal with other people to whom fate had dealt an unkind hand.

Teddy Roosevelt lost his wife and mother on the same day. He went to the bad lands, he became a Westerner as well as an Easterner as a result of that. Abraham Lincoln suffered his entire life from loss after loss after loss, and yet became our greatest president.

So the ability to get through adversity and come through trials of fire is a critical thing for a president. And I think the thing that Hillary said is interesting, too, because what you need in a temperament is somebody able to control negative emotions, to handle stress, and the campaign is a hugely stressful thing, and we've seen little evidence -- especially on Mr. Trump's side of being able to take criticism gracefully and then move on. Instead focusing on it.

HARLOW: "New York" magazine has called you America's historian-in- chief. So give us a history lesson here in terms of whether or not, in your study of presidents, has the best temperament for the White House always been the same, Doris, or has it changed over time? Meaning, are there traits that seem to transcend eras or do they change as times change?

KEARNS GOODWIN: I mean, that's the -- that's the great question that historians always ask themselves. Does the man make the times or the times make the man? Or perhaps the woman makes the times? But I think it does depend on the times to some extent. I mean, Churchill had a very difficult time, for example, during World War I, and yet when World War II came, he was the perfect person to give that confidence, to give that optimism to the American people. So that there are certain kinds of traits that I think really do transcend the time, they have to do with emotional intelligence, with empathy, with the willingness to surround yourself with people who have strengths that maybe can counteract your weaknesses.

[19:50:05] The ability to communicate and that depends on the time you're living. Teddy Roosevelt communicated at the time with short, punchy language because it was the mass market newspapers. Lincoln communicated huge speeches that you would read huge complete speeches in the newspapers. Franklin Roosevelt was great at the radio. Reagan was great at television. Today the social media is the new thing and how do you deal with that? And Trump's done pretty well with that through his campaign.

So things change and you have to adapt to the change, but the fundamental character, temperamental moral qualities, I think, stay the same.

HARLOW: Which president would you say that you have studied deeply has had the worst temperament for the job and how has that affected them adversely in office or in terms of their legacy?

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, it's interesting, I mean, I choose because I'm going to take so long two write about my presidents, I would never choose one that I didn't fundamentally feel respect for, even though there'll be disappointments in things they did, so -- but I look at the people who proceeded each of my presidents. And I look at Buchanan proceeding Abraham Lincoln when the country was falling apart and he escalated the problem of the north and the south.

You look at Hoover proceeding FDR and his mindset -- he was a wonderful man, but his mindset couldn't deal with what he had to do to change for the -- for the depression that had set in. So, you know, the temperament does depend on the time, but as I say, I think I've chosen the people that I wanted to live with because I'm going to wake up with him every morning and think about them when I go to sleep at night. So you have to be fundamentally -- that's why I've chosen Lincoln, FDR, Teddy --

HARLOW: Right.

KEARNS GOODWIN: LBJ, now he's an interesting character.

HARLOW: Right.

KEARNS GOODWIN: Because he had both the great temperament and a difficult one.

HARLOW: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about actually. I wanted to ask you about LBJ because he had a fiery personality and I think some would look at him, you know, in the rear-view mirror and say that he -- you know, did he have the perfect temperament to be president? It's arguable but look how much he accomplished on civil rights, et cetera.

KEARNS GOODWIN: Exactly. Well, he's one of the examples of a person who was perfectly suited when the trouble of the country was to get the Congress to pass civil rights, Medicare, age, education. He knew how to deal one on one. He may have been bullying at times but he was also charming and he was persuasive and he had conviction. So dealing with the Congress, nobody was better probably in the history of our whole county. But when you're dealing with foreign policy and it's not a matter of one-on-one, you can't persuade Ho Chi Min to stop the Vietnam War by giving him dams or public works projects, then it becomes more complicated different set of issues.

And he was an interesting character because he didn't have the best temperament sometimes for the staff. He might yell and scream, and then he'd feel bad and send them a Cadillac the next day to make up for it, and yet as long as they felt they were part of a mission, they were accomplishing something that mattered, they could deal with that temperament. When it fell apart, then it was much harder.

HARLOW: So however the next president is, whoever wins on November 8th, what lessons from past presidents, Doris, do you think that they should draw from when they take that seat in the Oval Office? Who can they learn from most?

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, there's a couple of things. You know, I think they can learn, especially given the complicated relationships with the press that we've seen in this last campaign cycle, FDR had a press conference twice a week. I think they have to open up more to the press. Our recent presidents have had fewer press conferences than before.

I think they can take a lesson from LBJ, who had every congressman over to the White House during that period of time after he took office. He would them at 6:00 in the morning, called them at 2:00 at night, saying, I hope I didn't wake you up. And they say, no, I was just looking here at the ceiling hoping my president would call. And I think they can learn from Lincoln that ability to make a mistake

and acknowledge it and learn from it. When Bull Run happened and the union forces were destroyed, he stayed up all night writing a memo, figuring out what he had done long. He said, as long as I can figure out what went wrong, I'll be smarter today than I was yesterday. So I think if they look at these guys, there's a lot to learn from.

HARLOW: Has temperament, Doris, in this election, given all that you've been through and written through and studied, has temperament in this election surprised you?

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, I'm really glad that it final came out because I think it is the central issue. You can -- you can make promises to people that you might not be able to keep. You can do well with Congress. Events are going to happen that change you. So the question is, your basic disposition on life. You know, that depends on whether you're an optimist, whether you are hopeful. It depends on whether you're confident but not arrogant. It depends on whether you have empathy and emotional intelligence. Whether you're aware of other people. Whether you have the strength as Lincoln did to surround himself with rivals so that he could get different factions.

It's the bedrock. It really is the bedrock.

HARLOW: Do you think we'll see that?

KEARNS GOODWIN: And I hope from now on --

HARLOW: Do you think we'll see a Lincoln-esque no matter, you know, whether it is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the White House? Will we see a Lincoln-esque sort of form of leadership where, you know, you surround yourself with rivals? I mean, that's what -- your book "Team of Rivals" is really what inspired President Obama to hire Secretary Clinton as his secretary of state.

KEARNS GOODWIN: Well, you know what, hope so. I mean, I think it's harder nowadays because the parties are so polarized that if you join the opposition party, you might be considered a traitor in your own party.

[19:55:05] But think both parties need to look openly at that. We've had opposition members from secretaries of Defense sometimes, and we had Hillary there, obviously, which was a great thing for both Obama and Hillary I think as it turned out, but I think we need more of it. I think if Hillary would have to win, it would be good to have some business people in her Cabinet. It would be good to have some Republicans close by.

Just as if Trump were to win, he definitely would need to have people who have had experience in government, as well as the people that he knows, so yes, I hope the country is willing to say, we want this from you, and let each party not demonize the other one for allowing somebody to come in. When Jon Huntsman joined Obama's -- not his campaign, but became the ambassador to China, then when he ran it was hard for him to run because of that. That's crazy. It should be a good thing to have done that. HARLOW: Next hour, more of my interview with America's so-called

historian-in-chief, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Our discussion about a quality essential to the presidency but one, frankly, that hasn't been potentially discussed enough this election. That is coming up next hour. A live look there at our nation's capital. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: If you thought this election was in the bag, think again. It is an epic race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and it is a race that is significantly tighter. It is the top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. 8:00 p.m. Eastern. So glad you're with us.

Tonight a potential game changer from the FBI. Director James Comey announcing a brand new review of the --