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FBI Director James Comey Announcing New Review of Emails; Trump Unleashes Fresh Round of Ammunition. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired October 29, 2016 - 20:00   ET

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


[20:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: 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 emails link to long time Clinton aide Huma Abedin. She is the estranged wife of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner. The focus of a separate FBI investigation into allegations that he may have texts with a minor. Whether these newly found emails contain classified information or are significant, we don't know at this point. But moments ago, Donald Trump unleashed a fresh round of ammunition aimed squarely at Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only reason, 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. Very, very serious. And you could also ask when they complain on the other side, why wasn't this evidence given previously? Why wasn't given previously? And when you talk about instinct instincts, I don't know if anybody saw my comments on Anthony Weiner, its call instinct, folks. I had no idea I was going to be that accurate. Boy, that was right on the nose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Trump was referring to this 2015 tweet that he sent. Here's what it says. It came out that Huma Abedin knows about all Clinton's private illegal emails. Huma's PR has been Anthony Weiner will tell the world. Now just a few things there. There was no evidence of that at the time. And frankly, no charges have been brought against Hillary Clinton in regard to her email server, although the FBI did call it extremely careless.

So, moving forward, Clinton right now is hosting this a get out the vote concert featuring Jennifer Lopez in Florida. For her part, Clinton said today Trump is lying and quote "fear mongering."

The Clinton campaign is also hitting the FBI hard demanding that FBI director James Comey reveal all the facts linked to this new email review, so what did the polls show? Pretty close race. CNN's poll of polls shows a five point spread between Clinton and Trump. Clinton in the lead, but of course, this does not include the new email revelations.

A Clinton aide tells CNN that Clinton handled this news quote "like a champ." And Clinton told voters today that she would not let it distract her. As we mentioned, she is in Miami as a get out the vote concert that is being headline by Jennifer Lopez. That is where M.J. Lee is.

M.J., what is the reaction there? I mean, obviously, you are surrounded be by a lot pretty much all Clinton supporters, all young folks. Do these email, you know, I won't even call them revelations because we don't know what they say. Is this new email review troubling to them?

M. J. LEE, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, you can tell that it is a very festive scene here in Miami. As you mentioned, this was supposed to be a very cheerful and sort of happy day for Hillary Clinton. The mood has been very good inside of the Clinton campaign for the last couple of week, really, because they have seen their poll numbers go up especially in battleground states. This was supposed to be a get out the vote effort with Jennifer Lopez, other celebrities like Mark Anthony.

But now, they come to Florida very different circumstances. Of course, now, they have a cloud of FBI investigation or at the beginning of you know, the examination of these emails. And what's the Clinton campaign is trying to do is to reassure supporters there's nothing to see here. That as far as they are concerned right now, they don't have enough information to even feel worried that anything new might be uncovered.

It was really interesting, actually, seeing Clinton to address her supporter at Daytona Beach earlier in the day. As soon as she mentioned James Comey's name, but the crowd actually started to boo. I should say she shouldn't even state him by name, but when she did, you know, (INAUDIBLE) mentioned the letter that James Comey sent to congressional leaders, the crowd reacted very negatively to this letter. They know that there's something that out there and they sort of buy into this idea that this might be a wrongly timed thing to have to come out so close to the election, so this is the message of the Clinton campaign is really pressing right now.

HARLOW: All right, M.J., we will get back to you in a little bit. Clearly, a little loud at that get out to vote event in Miami. Thank you, M.J.

It is too early to tell what impact this will all have on Clinton. Well, it (INAUDIBLE). She's still ahead. She is ahead five points in CNN's poll of polls nationally. One thing we know it has become the talk, the talk of the campaign trail today.

Donald Trump is using it as ammunition. He is using it all weekend long. He calls this as an example of corruption. That's what he said in Colorado today. Hillary Clinton again saying Trump is lying and fear mongering. That's what she said in Daytona Beach, Florida. The person missing from this discussion is the one closest to this new

FBI email review and that is this woman, Huma Abedin herself. She was noticeably missing from the campaign trail in battleground Florida today. We are told she was in Brooklyn, New York at campaign headquarters working on the campaign in the final days here. And this is nothing out of the ordinary, but this is a woman that's been called by "Politico" Hillary Clinton's shadow. Someone that really has been by Hillary Clinton side for the past 21 years. She started working with Clinton at age 19.

Let's talk about the big picture here. CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter, Hilary Rosen, is with me tonight. And CNN political commentator and conservative radio host, Ben Ferguson. Thanks for being here, guys.

[20:06:07] HILLARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Poppy.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

HARLOW: Hi. So let's listen to what vice president Joe Biden said to Michael Smerconish in his exclusive interview about this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, MICHAEL SMERCONISH SHOW: I would be remiss if I didn't note that if she had released all the emails 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 this email - where these emails came from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, Hillary Rosen to you, as a Hillary Clinton supporter. I mean, vice president Joe Biden, a big supporter of Secretary Clinton, said that's true. Couldn't Clinton have gotten ahead of this by handing over her team and her all of the emails so that 15,000 new ones weren't found a few months ago? And frankly, all of the devices so that the FBI wouldn't be saying look, we have this new Huma Abedin computer that has emails. They may be pertinent. We are going through them.

ROSEN: First of all, she did hand over the emails. There is a process. She can't just release them to the public despite what Michael said today. The state department had to review every single one of them to make sure that there were not things that they didn't want released and so, she wasn't in control of that.

HARLOW: The FBI found 15,000 more emails after the 30,000 were handed over.

ROSEN: Poppy, the FBI themselves said that after additional emails were found, that they didn't know how many were duplicates. And ultimately, what they found were that the overwhelmingly, they were duplicate and that there was nothing else in the ones that weren't that were relevant. So this constant sort of suspicion about what's there really doesn't connect to the fact that Hillary Clinton has cooperated with the FBI and the state department from day one. That the FBI for the last 24 hours has been back-grounding reporters, kind of back peddling from what Comey said to make sure that people didn't think that they knew that these emails were new emails. Huma might have, you know, had all of these same emails already sent over. So there's just a constant action like well, these must be new, but actually, they were turned over. So --

FERGUSON: We don't know that.

ROSEN: So, you know, Comey's behavior is just puzzling to so many of us for that reason.

HARLOW: Ben?

FERGUSON: It wasn't puzzling a couple of months ago when you were praising him the same way that Joe Biden was praising him for being an ethical guy that is nonpolitical and has done an incredible in this role at the FBI. The reason why --.

HARLOW: Let's listen to that.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Ben, let's listen to the exact words from Brian Fallon in July, Clinton's press secretary, about Comey.

ROSEN: Yes. And then I'll respond too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN FALLON, CLINTON PRESS SECRETARY: And now, it seems that we are disappointed with the outcome of this FBI investigation, so they decide to try to put the FBI director in the hot seat, second guess his decision. And it's just a bad look for house Republicans to be second guessing a career prosecutor who was a registered Republican, who is the number two official at the justice department under George Bush and was a deputy counsel on the white water community investigating the Clintons in the 1990s.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So Ben?

FERGUSON: Yes. This is the point. He did his job then. People didn't like it on the Republican side. He is doing his job now, Democrats don't like it.

But let's be clear about what is unprecedented here. It is unprecedented t to have a server in your basement. It is unprecedented to swipe and clean and bleach that server. It is unprecedented to smash phones so that your staff makes sure that the emails you don't want to be seen or not seen by the American people.

Hillary said today it is unprecedented what the FBI did before this election. All of her actions of secrecy and deceit and lying and covering up of what she was doing while at the state department, that's what's unprecedented.

Hillary Clinton should only be angry at Hillary Clinton tonight because she did this on purpose to be secretive and it's finally biting her in the rear end as it should.

[20:10:01] ROSEN: So let's just review what Ben -- everything that Ben just said was actually already looked at by the FBI and cleared by the FBI. So, what we have now is and this goes to the heart of why you think, Poppy, that somehow, Brian is being inconsistent from what he said before to where they are today.

In June, it was a conclusion and it was specific. We found no criminal intent. We found no reason to prosecute or pursue that. What he did on Friday was vague and completely speculative. Not his job. His job is to investigate and conclude. And make a recommendation of prosecutors. Instead what he did was, in my view, to cover his ass with Republican house members.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: Let her finish.

HARLOW: Let her finish.

ROSEN: They have been a little thin skinned about all of the attacks that the FBI has taken from the right over the last couple of months. So I think he went overboard with information not having any clue what it means, and then they realized what happened and they have spent all day today talking to reporters saying oh, no, we didn't mean to say they were --

HARLOW: To that point --

ROSEN: We didn't mean to say that Huma had released them. We didn't need to speculate anything.

HARLOW: To Hillary's point, Ben, do you think it is helpful to the voter because that is -- this is who it's all about.

FERGUSON: Yes, I do.

HARLOW: Is it helpful to the voter to put out a three paragraph letter to Congress saying we think, you know, there are emails here. We think they may be pertinent. But we don't know if they are significant and not laying out any details of what they are. Is that helpful to the voter? Because frankly --.

FERGUSON: Yes.

HARLOW: But listen. The Trump team and the Clinton team actually are on exactly the same page saying give us all the facts. Don't you want to know what it is?

FERGUSON: Hillary, let me answer. I would love to know what it is. And the problem is, is that your candidate, Hillary Clinton, purposely destroyed emails and purposely deceit people. ROSEN: What we're talking about is this-

FERGUSON: No, no.

ROSEN: You're trying to reopen the past. You can't reopen the past. You can't use them to reopen the past. And that's what you are trying to do.

FERGUSON: The American voter doesn't know was found here. And here's what I know about what you said James Comey was covering his ass earlier. He probably is because he found information that is more than like from what he said so shocking that within 24 hours --

HARLOW: No. Ben, Ben, got to stick to the facts.

You know what? Both of you, I'm going to tell our viewers the facts right now. Here are the fact. Just give me a minute. Here are the facts.

James Comey said, the FBI cannot assess whether or not this material may be significant.

So, Ben, he is not saying this is shocking or not shocking. He is not saying it's material or immaterial. We don't know. Those are the facts.

FERGUSON: See this. It is shocking that you have information that is showing up on Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin's computer that is classified in nature. The point where the FBI --

ROSEN: He didn't say it was classified.

FERGUSON: I'm going to go out on a limb here and say when there's 1200 documents, there's an extremely good chance --

HARLOW: You can't do that. Ben, Ben, this show is not a platform for things we don't know and that's one thing we don't know. You're perfectly entitled to your opinion, but facts are facts.

FERGUSON: OK. But here's the fact. Why is there information that the FBI need to investigate if it is not somehow classified in nature?

ROSEN: Well, there could be a hundred of reasons. And what we don't know is whether the information that was on that computer was already submitted as emails that Huma had sent and that they were relevant. They don't -- what happened was the New York office apparently and the only reason we know this, frankly, is because of the FBI is sort of back-grounding and secretly telling reporters some additional information because they know that their director on Friday threw everything out into the open and against the wall and put everybody in an unfair frenzy. So what they have been saying secretly is, here's something that we don't know.

HARLOW: I got 30 seconds, Ben.

FERGUSON: Let me say this. The only thing here that's unfair is the fact that Hillary Clinton put you and me and everybody in this situation to have this much doubt about her credibility, honesty, when dealing with national security issues and state department by destroying her emails and putting them on a sever which in our own campaign's words were why in the world would she do this. They used an expletive that I can't use in TV here to explain it when they found out about her server. So I will say it this way. These people who were upset, you should be set at Hillary Clinton for not being transparent.

ROSEN: You can't use what happened yesterday to reopen what the FBI already concluded was not an issue. And Hillary Clinton has already apologized to the voters for that.

[20:15:05] HARLOW: Well, we are going to leave it there. Ben Ferguson, Hilary Rosen, we appreciate it.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

HARLOW: Coming up, Hillary Clinton's campaign obviously not happy with the FBI writing this letter to Congress and not giving more information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In fact, it's not just strange, it's unprecedented and it is deeply troubling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We will take a look at the investigation through the eyes of a former FBI assistant director who joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:18:45] HARLOW: When FBI director James Comey decided to announce a new review of emails potentially linked to Hillary Clinton's private email server investigation, he put the spotlight during this contentious campaign scarily frankly on himself. He is getting praised from some criticism from others, so who is the FBI's top man?

Gary Tuchman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: I, James Comey --.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Comey became the seventh director of the FBI in to 2013, in the beginning of President Obama's second term.

COMEY: So help me God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Mr. Director.

TUCHMAN: But years before that, he became the number two at the justice department under President George W. Bush and was a registered Republican. Although now, he says he is quote "not registered any longer." But in the past, he donated to both the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012 and the John McCain campaign in 2008. He also served as counsel on the white water committee back in 1996. But his reputation for bipartisan fairness has long been well-known.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Mr. Jim Comey.

TUCHMAN: Comey took over the FBI director spot from Bob Mueller, this is what Mueller had to say.

BOB MUELLER, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I have had the opportunity to work with Jim for a number of years in the department of justice and I have found him to be a man of honesty, dedication and integrity.

[20:20:06] TUCHMAN: Comey gained a degree of fame for his role in one of the most dramatic incidents during George W. Bush tenure in the White House. Comey's boss, attorney general John Ashcroft was gravely ill in the hospital. Two of President Bush's top aides rushed there to try to get Ashcroft to endorse a warrantless eavesdropping program.

Comey was acting attorney general and when Ashcroft was in the hospital. And when he found out about the plan, he rushed to the hospital and stopped it.

COMEY: I was very upset. I was angry. I thought I just witnessed at effort to take advantage of a very sick man.

TUCHMAN: The eavesdropping program was not endorsed. As federal prosecutor, Comey dealt with the (INAUDIBLE) terrorist bombing case following the attack 20 years ago on a U.S. military facility in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 service members. He prosecuted members of the mafia.

COMEY: We are here this afternoon to announce the unsealing of three separate indictments against 14 alleged members and associates in the Gambino crime family.

TUCHMAN: And he prosecuted America's domestic diva.

COMEY: Martha Stewart is being prosecuted not because of who she is, but because of what she did.

TUCHMAN: Back in July, Donald Trump tweeted the system the rigged after Comey's statement regarding Hillary Clinton.

COMEY: We are expressing justice our view that no charges are appropriate in the case.

TUCHMAN: But at this news continues to develop, Trump said this.

TRUMP: It might not be as rigged as I thought. Right? Right? The FBI, I think they're going to right the ships folk, I think they're going to right the ship.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Let's talk about this with a man who certainly is unique insight into the federal bureau of investigations, former FBI assistant director and our CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes.

Tom, thanks for being here.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Hi, Poppy.

HARLOW: Hi. I just want your assessment of what Comey has done. Was he right to come forward to send that letter to Congress say look, we found another device. We found some emails. We don't know if they are pertinent or not, but we want you to know we are looking at them.

FUENTES: Well, I think he kind of painted himself into a corner because of the July 5th press conference. That was unprecedented and to have the FBI director determine that it shouldn't even be referred to the department of justice, you know, nobody in the FBI in my former colleagues and many of them still in the bureau, just no one understood why that was. When they heard his presentation, they thought that it merited an announcement that charges were recommended, if any announcement be made. But they thought that the package should have gone to the department of justice for a final decision. And he cut that off and said we recommend closing it. Once he did that, there was no choice.

HARLOW: But frankly, Loretta Lynch - frankly, the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, had said previously, we will defer to the FBI on this.

FUENTES: Well, she did. But she could have deferred to and that was wrong on her part. She has underlings that are professional career prosecutors, that are civil service, that are not under the appointment of the president or serving at the behest of the president. So that could have been handled by normal means. The senior officials at the FBI referring that to senior prosecutors at DOJ who have handled many, many of these types of investigations and handling it that way.

Now, that he did, what he did on July 5th, then testified before Congress, and Congress says if there's a new development, you are closing this case, he did close this case or you're stopping the investigation. If there's a new development, tell us. You have to let us know. And I think that's what comes down to this week. That they have a new development that he felt compelled. He couldn't sit on it until November 9th and not say anything. And he had to come out that he already had known for a week and a half that this was going to be looked into it. So I think he felt that there was just no choice and they made the decision to send the letter.

HARLOW: Let's listen to what Hillary Clinton said about exactly what it transpired over the last 24 hours. Here's what she said on the trail today in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Voters deserve to get full and complete facts. And so we would call on director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Would that be appropriate for the FBI director to do that? I mean, you know, Lanny Davis, who is a big Clinton supporter, former special counsel for the Clintons, represented in white water, said look, he can bring in 200 extra agent, spend 24 hours and release them to the public. I mean, why not do that ten days out?

FUENTES: Because they are going to also have to contact people that were at the sending and receiving ends on these chains of emails and determine what they have to say about the nature of these messages. And they are working business hour, FBI, they have agents working at 2:00 in the morning are not going to be able to knock on the doors of officials from other agencies and ask them about this investigation. So you know, they know that the FBI --.

[20:25:14] HARLOW: You are saying it was lack contents.

FUENTES: Well, yes. It's not practical. And the FBI, you know, they know that the FBI is not going to release on a daily basis every little bit of information as they learn it. So it's easy for them to say oh, release everything. And you know, I would say, you know, they may come to regret what they wish for, one thing has come out about this.

But there's a lot of other context. This is not being discussed. And that is that the FBI has an intensive investigation ongoing into the Clinton foundation. The reports that three came in with a request to Washington to open cases and that they were turned down by the department of justice, that's not true. What was turned down was that they be the originating office. Headquarters at the FBI made the determination that the investigation would go forward as a comprehensive unified case and be coordinated. So that investigation is ongoing. And Huma Abedin and her role in the foundation and possible allegations concerning the activities of the secretary of state in the nature of the foundation and possible pay to play, that's still being looked at. And now, you have her emails on the computer where the FBI already has a separate case going for Anthony Weiner's alleged activities with a minor girl on that case. So in a sense, it's almost turned into a one stop shopping for the FBI as they could have implications affecting three separate investigations on one computer.

HARLOW: But why are you bringing, what are you connecting here? The Clinton foundation to this. I mean, Comey was writing specifically about emails found on Huma Abedin's computer that they came across because they were investigating her husband for alleged sexing with the minor separately.

FUENTES: That's right. But he didn't say in the letter how this affects every investigation and issue a five page memorandum to be made public as to all the implications. I'm saying that internally, when they are looking at this case and they see Weiner's alleged activities and then they see Huma Abedin's email sitting on there and her emails are not just related to the email Clinton, that part is being reopened. The Clinton foundation case didn't need to be reopened. It has never been closed. That's ongoing.

So, what I am saying is, when they say that this possibly when the team looking at the Weiner computers, they went to the team of investigators that did the Clinton email case and showed emails to them earlier in the week and that team said this is really significant. We need to take this to the director. Maybe we need to take another look at the email case. But intermixed with all of this, is still the ongoing foundation case. So what I am saying is --.

HARLOW: I got to leave it there. But I just want to clarify, you saying sort of walking through the process of how this transpired within the FBI this week.

Tom, is that -- are those facts you know from the FBI?

FUENTES: Yes, I do, from the FBI senior officials at the FBI, several of them, in and out of the bureau. The team doing the Weiner investigation took the information they got from that computer to the team that had done the Clinton email investigation. And the two teams went to director Comey. And the next day, he put out the letter.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, thank you.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

HARLOW: The presidential campaign comes down to well, election night and who get to 270 electoral votes. We will look at the path ahead and what it could mean for both candidates. You are live in the CNN NEWS room.

You are also looking at pictures from Hillary Clinton's get out the vote event. Jennifer Lopez there in Miami. We will be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LOPEZ, SINGER: Can I talk to you from my soul?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:32:54] HARLOW: It is too early to know what affect the FBI's review of emails linked to a long time Hillary Clinton aide may have on this race. But it certainly has given Donald Trump some new ammunition on the campaign trial. You have heard him certainly playing it up today.

Our political director David Chalian breaks down a path to 270 electoral votes, the number, the magic number of electoral votes needed to win for Trump.

What could that look like?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We have been talking a lot about Donald Trump's very narrow path to 270 electoral votes. And it was clearly on display if you looked at his travel schedule on Friday. He went to New Hampshire, Maine and Iowa. A total of 11 electoral vote at play there, but he needs them all.

Take a look. This is our battleground map where we start right now. Remember, if we give Donald Trump every remaining battleground state, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, I'm even giving him that one electoral vote in Nebraska that is up for grabs, that gets him to 265 electoral votes. So, he was in New Hampshire on Friday. Look here. If he gets New Hampshire, that's 269 electoral votes. But why was he in Maine? Because he went to Maine's second congressional district, which they award their electoral votes by congressional district to pick up one electoral vote. That electoral vote gets him to 270 if he's able to win that electoral vote in Maine.

This is Donald Trump's path to 270. Run the board. Flip New Hampshire. Win that Maine electoral vote, which has a lot of white, non-college educated voters. Trump voters, where they really think they could pick that up. And they think it's what puts him over the hurdle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: David, thank you very much. That road to 270 electoral votes. We will see if it gets tougher for Hillary Clinton after this new FBI review of emails found on Huma Abedin's computer or not. We just don't have polling to show how people are feeling about this yet.

Now, a former prosecutor on the Watergate scandal says the FBI director acted quote "totally inappropriately." We will ask him why. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:38:50] HARLOW: You are looking at live pictures of JLo warming up the crowd for Hillary Clinton who is speaking in Miami at the get out the vote event. So it is the rain. But that's not the umbrella top view you see. It is raining, but the show must go on. We will bring you Clinton as soon as she begins to speak.

Meantime, FBI director James Comey when he told Congress he found new emails possibly linked to Hillary Clinton's private servers, he didn't just go against long standing justice department practice, he went against those at the very top of the department of justice. Sources tell us here at CNN that top official at the DOJ expressed concern to Comey about sending any letter to Congress at this point because they said doing so, so close to an election goes against how the department of justice does business. Comey disregarded those concerns. Sent the letter any way.

Let's bring in Nick Ackerman. He is the former assistant special Watergate prosecutor.

Thank you for being here.

NICK ACKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: Thank you.

HARLOW: You take issue. You call this totally inappropriate.

ACKERMAN: Totally inappropriate and outrageous.

HARLOW: Why?

ACKERMAN: Because the FBI has one function. It is the investigative arm of the department of justice. Their job is simply to investigate cases, determine what the facts are and then provide that information to the prosecutors in the department.

[20:40:09] HARLOW: Here is the thing, though. He went in front of the public in July and held a press conference and said, yes, Secretary Clinton and her team at state were extremely careless, but no, there's not a case to be brought here. No, she didn't do anything illegal. And then, told Congress, if anything changes, we will update you. This is him updating them. How could he not have done this after what he did in July?

ACKERMAN: First of all, what he did in July was totally inappropriate. He had no business first of all making any kind of announcement with respect to the investigation.

HARLOW: That may be, but it happened, right. So let's press word (ph) to where we are here. So then, what's the argument for him not updating Congress yesterday?

ACKERMAN: Because he has no obligation to update Congress. He is not beholding to Congress. His boss is the attorney general. Under the attorney general is the under attorney to assistant attorney general in-charge of the criminal division. And if he was to do anything, it had to be at the behest of those two individuals.

HARLOW: And we know that top leaders at the department of justice didn't want him to do this. So why do you think he did?

ACKERMAN: You will have to ask James Comey why he did it. I mean, this is more about Jim Comey than it is about anything else here. This is completely inappropriate. It has ever been done before. I don't think there has been an instance with the department of justice where the FBI director has basically gone rogue in taking it upon himself to hold his own press conferences and to comment and give an ongoing running commentary on an investigation and then to violate department of justice rules.

HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE). They are not rules. They are practice. Nothing is written in stone.

ACKERMAN: No, it is not true. There are actually --

HARLOW: But it's not written in stone that you can't do this.

ACKERMAN: It's in the manuals of the department of justice. He has to clear this. He doesn't have the right to have a press conference about anything. This is, the spokesman for the department of justice is the attorney general. She decides who makes announcements on behalf of department of justice.

HARLOW: He did say before he held that press conference in July that she would defer to his findings in this case.

ACKERMAN: She said she would defer to his findings and the findings of the career prosecutors. The career prosecutors were the ones that are going to make the ultimate decision. He is not the prosecutor here. He is simply in-charge of the investigating agency.

HARLOW: Is he damn if he does, damn if he doesn't?

ACKERMAN: Not at all.

HARLOW: What if --.

(CROSSTALK)

ACKERMAN: Right.

HARLOW: Hillary Clinton, let's say if she wins, and then two months later, it is revealed to the public that indeed they were looking at new emails, ten days before the election.

ACKERMAN: First of all, there is no transparency at a criminal investigation. End of story. The best example I can give you is look at what happened with Governor Christie's situation. You have got this trial going on in New York right now. The only facts that we know about that come out of the evidence that's presented at trial, which is the proper place and time for evidence to be presented. There is no press conference by the FBI. We didn't see James Comey at any point. Even when on governor Christie was running for president getting up there and telling the public that they have to know about what's going on in the investigation because this man is running for president.

HARLOW: All right.

ACKERMAN: He didn't do that.

HARLOW: Comey has done what he has done. He did the July press con that you didn't like and he has done this.

ACKERMAN: Nothing I didn't like. Again, it is unprecedented. Not even Jay Edgar Hoover did this. Not even Jay Edgar Hoover did this. Nobody.

HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE) that he worked more sort of under, you know, behind the scenes, (INAUDIBLE). But that is neither here nor there. What is pertinent is what now, right? So what should Comey do now?

ACKERMAN: It's a complete mess in terms of what he should do.

HARLOW: Because both Trump and Clinton, both their camps are actually calling on him to do the same thing, which is release all the emails, put it all in the public domain. ACKERMAN: First of all, it shouldn't be Comey. It should be the

assistant to attorney general, in-charge of the criminal division directing that all of these emails get out there as quickly as possible. She should completely bypass Comey. This should be done in coordination with certain agents and personnel at the department of justice. They should go through all of that and release it immediately like tomorrow.

This is not a very difficult thing to do. You have got a certain number of emails, the question that he raised in the letter is whether or not there is classified information. Well, there can only be three classes of classified information. It is either top secret, secret or confidential. All you need to do is have a few word searches and you are going to know immediately whether any of those emails had those particular designations.

HARLOW: I got to wrap it there, Nick.

Nick Ackerman, thank you very much.

ACKERMAN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Nice to have you on the program.

Coming up, the presidential election of 2016 will go down in history as well, certainly unique for a variety of reasons, of course. Pulitzer-prize winning historian and bestselling author Doris Kearns Goodwin with me next on her thoughts on this race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:48:14] HARLOW: Leadership, it is critical in whoever the next president is. And no one knows how important that quality is in a president than perhaps Doris Kearns Goodwin. She spent decades studying political geniuses as well as political downfalls. She recently interviewed President Obama in the oval office for "Vanity Fair." And she is known by some as America's historian in chief. I sat down this week with the Pulitzer-prize winning author and historian to talk about leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Let's talk about leadership because your next book is about leadership. What have you learned about what voters should look for in presidential candidates when it comes to leadership? You know, outside of temperament, what else do they need to look for as they decide in the next less than two weeks who they're going to vote for when it comes to being a great leader?

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, AUTHOR/HISTORIAN: Well, I think to some extent, you know, a great leader depends upon the events that a person is presented with. And you have to hope that they have the adaptability to be able to move with the times. Me, for example, what made FDR I think one of our greatest leaders. He was extraordinary in giving the country optimism during the depression. But then when he has to shift, he had a terrible relationship with the business community because of all the regulations he put on them during the new deal era, then when the war came, he was able to say Dr. New deal is going to become Dr. Win the war. He saw that he have to change his mode of being, his style.

So, you need somebody that can adapt in times, but has enough confidence inside that they are not going to take criticism personally. Eleanor Roosevelt once said she could take it personally because she just saw people who are against her ideas rather than against here. And that kind of -- it is not a hard shell, but it is just a deep confidence that allows you to take it and assume it.

HARLOW: Regardless of who wins on November 8th, Doris, what do you think our children will be taught about this election?

[20:50:08] GOODWIN: Well, what I worry about is the whole dialogue that the children have seen on television. You know, clearly, things were just as bad in the 19th century. People said terrible things about each other in campaigns. But they were limited to partisan press. You would only read your own press. You wouldn't be seeing it on television. And I think what young people have seen on television, what they have heard about people calling each other a liar and cheats and babies. And it's a bad thing. It is a bad thing for the country. But nonetheless, you know, the fact that so many people have been interested in this campaign, the fact that is has become part of the conversation of the country more than any other, that's probably a good thing. And maybe a lot of young people hopefully will be interested in public life as the result.

HARLOW: What do you think it would mean for this country or frankly, will mean for this country to either elect the first female president or to elect someone with zero time in office, their time in political office?

GOODWIN: It will be the first time either way. You are absolutely right. I mean, there's -- obviously we have had 43, 44 presidents and not a single female amongst them, I think that's been overshadowed. It is unbelievable in this campaign. And that's not a major issue. I think when people wake up, it is Hillary with the win. On the morning after her election, they will realize, my God, finally there is a woman there.

And you are right also about the Mr. Trump. It's the first time anybody without military experience, without any political experience, we had Wendell Wilkey (ph) running against FDR in extraordinary figure in business in 1940, but that's usually it. And he has been a public figure before that.

So it may open the door to a lot of other people or it may not. This election, they decide going in the different direction. What if it opens the door for 43 more women to run after this to become president, it's inconceivable. But it just shows how long that we have gone without a woman. So either way it's going to be historic. You are right.

HARLOW: Let me ask you about President Obama because you did a big exit interview with him that ran in "Vanity Fair." And in that, he talked about ancient Egypt and he thinks about, you know, when he thinks about the responsibility of his job and his responsibility to the future, he thinks of ancient Egypt?

GOODWIN: And you know, I think what he was saying was just that it was so interesting because it was near to that comment about ancient Egypt where I ask him what decision might have hurt him and haunted him the most and he talked about Syria. And he said it wasn't so much that he didn't make the right decision given what decisions were presented to him, but what if he had the genius of a Lincoln or a Churchill? What if he has had the charm of an FDR? What if he has a legislative act of an LBJ? Maybe there would have been new ways to think about things that he had not thought about. And that shows that combination of deep confidence but yet on the other hand, an awareness that when you look at these people who died in ancient Egypt and they were the center of the world and now they are just pyramids, and there is just people that, you know, dust that is there, it gives you a perspective that they are not really the center of everything. And that's important for a president especially to remember because they are made to be the center of the world.

HARLOW: And he also said this, when you were talking about sort of leaving his time in office and going back to being a private citizen, he talked about George Washington. And he said he, George Washington, understood that part of the experiment we were setting up was this idea that you serve the nation and then it's and then you are a citizen again. And that office of a citizen remains important for your ability to let go is part of the duty that you have.

GOODWIN: I absolutely agree with that. I mean, I think letting go in a democracy, that's why George Washington is so revered. He could have served until he died. People wanted him to be president continually. But he realized that it was important to stop after that two terms and then obviously that became the tradition. But it is deeper than that even. You are going to go back to being a citizen, just a private citizen. And I was teasing him about Eisenhower who had been in office for so long as general and president that he had never made a private phone call for a long period of time. And when he went home, he put up the phone and he heard this sound, and he said what is this sound, and it was a dial tone. You had to tell him, dial tones have come in. And he said, well, he thought he was a little bit more technologically sophisticated because of his daughters than that. But still, the idea he said being able to walk around somewhere other than in the Rose Garden followed by the secret service and your dog, you know. That it will be a wonderful thing. So I think it's a really important thing to be able to let go. And to let that space.

HARLOW: What do you think he will do?

GOODWIN: He is so young that I think he will do many things, you know. I don't even think he fully decided. Clearly writing memoire will be the first thing, creating the library. They now become rituals that presidents almost have to do. But I think in his case as a writer, it's going to be a great treasure for him to be able to look at himself from the outside in, which I think he always does and to be able to write something that could be very special in memoir history.

HARLOW: And your November 9th headline is?

GOODWIN: My God. I am a historian. You can't ask me to predict the future. I can only look at the past.

HARLOW: Come on.

[20:55:02] GOODWIN: Well, I think if Hillary wins, I hope that the headline of deals were the fact that this is the first woman in such a long period of time. That finally America has caught up with the rest of the world. And maybe if there is Trump winning, there will an exclamation point after it, Trump! Who knows? But --.

Anyway, I'm not worried about the idea that we are going to go through a terrible transition because of his claiming that we are having a rigged election. That maybe for a while in his supporters' part. But we saw the transition with Al Gore, when it was in very contentious ways and he came out finally and said that he was going to give support to Bush and that he was going to do whatever he could to heal the country. And there's something about the presidency then when Bush did become president. He was president. That a mantel of the presidency.

If I have a faith in our country and our presidency who say that this person will be legitimate, hopefully, when they do take the office.

HARLOW: A faith in our country.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer-prize winning author and historian, my thanks to you.

GOODWIN: You're welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. Let me take you now to battleground Florida. Get out the vote event, Hillary Clinton just wrapping up her remarks there onstage following J.Lo. Let's listen.

CLINTON: There are just ten days left in the most important election of our lives. And, you know, it might be a little easy to forget that with all the fun and the excitement and the joy that you saw up on this stage today, Donald Trump is out there stoking fear, disgracing our democracy, and insulting one group of Americans after another.

Well, let me ask you this. Are we going to let Donald Trump get away with that? You are right, we are not. And we believe in a different kind of change where we come together, we grow together, because you know what, we are stronger together.

So just remember, no matter how low our opponents go, we go high. And no matter what they throw at us, we don't back down. Not now, not ever.

The rain has come back, so here's what I am asking all of you to do, 16.5 million people have already voted. More than three million right here in Florida. Let's keep the momentum going. We just heard Jennifer performing "let's get loud." Well, I say let's get loud at the voting birth.

You can vote early at the Art Center (ph) which is just a mile from here every day from now until November 6th, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. So don't wait another day to vote. And let's get loud by knocking on doors, making calls and take out your phones and text j-o- i-n to 47246 because if we turn out, we win.

So I am going to work as hard as I can between now and the time of the election being over every day, every hour, every minute. This is our chance to stand up for our values, to say with one voice, one, say it loud, love Trump's hate. Thank you all, and God bless you.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHANTING)

LOPEZ: Shall I do one more?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more.

LOPEZ: One more? One more?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more?

LOPEZ: One more before we get out of here.

HARLOW: There you have it, J.Lo following Hillary Clinton's brief remarks tonight there in Miami Florida, a critical battleground state, 29 electoral votes there that she desperately wants to win in what has been a needless to say challenging day for camp Clinton on the trail today. Though pushing forward we are ten days out, folks, until you make your decision on the next president.

Thank you for being us tonight. Next on CNN, the essential Donald Trump.

I'm Poppy Harlow. I will see you back here tomorrow night.