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Email twist sets stage for final week of campaign; Justice Department obtains warrant to review emails; Trump targeting blue states in final stretch; Trump tales aim at Clinton over emails; Clinton to FBI chief: Explain everything on emails; Clinton looks past email issue; Trump pushes it; Clinton targets Trump in new "Daisy" ad. Philadelphia reacts to Trump's voter fraud claims; Trump stokes skepticism of Colorado voting system; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 31, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. An unprecedented move in major backlash stinging criticism for FBI Director James Comey, after he announces the agency will begin a new review of e-mails from one of Hillary Clinton's top aids Huma Abedin, the Justice Department, obtaining a warrant to search those e-mails which were found on a computer belonging to Abedin's husband, Anthony Weiner.

Weiner, as you know, was the subject of a separate federal probe and while the e-mails were discovered weeks ago, the news was only disclosed last Friday. The timing of that disclosure, just days before the election, prompting a swift response from both sides of the aisle. A bipartisan group of nearly 100 former Justice Department officials joining with Senate Democrats and the Clinton campaign, all of them urging Comey to release all the facts, but for Donald Trump the news is a boom to an embattled campaign that hopes to close the gap in the final sprint to November 8th.

CNN's covering all the angles as only we can. But let's begin with Evan Perez. He has the latest on the FBI investigation. Good morning, Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. FBI investigators are beginning the work of reviewing thousands of recently discovered e-mails belonging to Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton's closest advisors. Investigators have reason to believe that at least some of these e-mails are from an account on Clinton's private server, including perhaps, ones that were previously deleted. That's the reason why they're investigating whether it affects the case that FBI thought was completed back in July, when the FBI director James Comey recommended that no charges be brought against Clinton. Investigators found the emails weeks ago, stumbled on them as they were conducting an investigation of Abedin's estranged husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner. He is under investigation for allegedly, exchanging sexually explicit messages with an underage girl.

So, why did all of this become public only on Friday, when Comey sent a letter to Congress, just days before the presidential election? Law enforcement officials tell me that investigators spent the past month doing a lot of work trying to figure out how big of a deal this was. Technical experts were cataloging the e-mails, analyzing the metadata to determine that a significant number of the e-mails went through the Clinton server. Officials tell me that they saw enough in the e-mails to know that there may be classified information in them and that some may not have been reviewed by FBI agents before. They were constrained by the fact that they were operating under this existing search warrant that was limited to the Weiner sexting case. Now, they're bringing back all these agents that did the Clinton investigation and trying to do this as quickly as possible. But Carol, the reality here is it's unlikely to be done by the Election Day.

COSTELLO: All right, Evan Perez reporting live for us from Washington. Thank you. And while Clinton heads to battleground state of Ohio today, her top aides and Democratic lawmakers are pressuring the FBI for details on this new e-mail review. Our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny has more on that. Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Hillary Clinton is heading back to the campaign trail today, focusing on Ohio, one of the states that she is trying to block Donald Trump's path to the White House. But her campaign and Democrats across the board are pushing back furiously on this episode. And Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate is leading the charge on that. Take a look at this letter that he sent. It says in part this.

"Through partisan actions, you may have broken the law. Moreover, in tarring Secretary Clinton with thin innuendo, you overruled longstanding tradition and the explicit guidance of your own Department."

Of course, Harry Reid there is trying to carry the Democrat's water on this, but the interesting thing for the party, Carol, is that the director, of course, was appointed by President Obama. So watching what the White House has to say on this today, also so interesting. But it's the letter from the former DOJ officials in both sides, Democrats and Republicans that really is drawing attention as well. Let's take a look at that as well.

"Director Comey's letter is inconsistent with prevailing Department policy, and it breaks with longstanding practices followed by officials of both parties during past elections."

So, what they are saying here is that the director is trying to tip his hand on the scales of this election here. But he in his defense says look, he is simply alerting Congress as he said he would to an investigation. So, going forward, Carol, this is going to play out in a couple arenas. One in Washington, at the Justice Department and Congress, but on the campaign trail as well. I am told Hillary Clinton is going to try and move beyond this and not talk about this, but turn her attention back to Donald Trump and her closing argument here. And they're trying to fire up Democrats and get them to vote now, Carol. But no question, this is hanging over them for the next eight days of this long campaign. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right, Jeff Zeleny reporting live for us, thanks so much. As for Mr. Trump, he's targeting blue states and pouncing on the FBI director's decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the biggest political

[10:05:16] scandal since Watergate. And it's everybody's deepest hope that justice, at last, can be properly delivered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. CNN's Jason Carroll has more on this, good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you. You know, this has really been a gift for Donald Trump and all of his supporters. And he's going to do everything that he can to really try to capitalize on all of this. The Trump camp feels they can go on offense now and take their case to try to win over traditionally blue states. So now, the FBI director, who the campaign used to criticize, is being part of what they called, this so-called rigged system, is now being praised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The great, and they are truly great, men and women who work for the FBI are embarrassed and ashamed of what he's done to one of our truly great institutions, the FBI itself.

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

GOV. MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we to want commend the FBI. We want to commend the FBI for reopening this case. For one simple principle, and that is, no one is above the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: A great institution in Washington. Whoever thought we'd hear Donald Trump say that. The Trump campaign will be campaigning in Michigan today and Wisconsin tomorrow, again, the campaign really feels emboldened. And that they can take their message to traditionally blue states. They also know in order to get to 270 they really have to flip a blue state. Even if they're able to win, let's say, the battleground states of Florida and North Carolina, they're still going to have to flip a state in order to get to that magic number of 270.

COSTELLO: Well, I guess we'll see in eight days, right? Jason Carroll -- at least I hope so, right?

CARROLL: Fingers crossed.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll thanks so much. With me now to talk about this and more is David Lauter, Washington bureau chief for the "Los Angeles Times." Patricia Murphy is a columnist for "The Daily Beast" and "Roll Call". Nia-Malika Henderson is a CNN's senior political correspondent. Welcome to all of you. OK. Let's dive in. Nia- Malika, you have long covered campaigns. How unusual is it for an FBI director to release such cryptic information to the public eight days before an election?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean it's unprecedented. It's certainly something I've never seen in my long career covering campaigns. It goes back, you know, I've covered about three or four presidential campaigns. I mean, typically, you know, if you think about October surprises, they are things that come out in the waning days of a campaign, typically from media outlets, right? You think about 2004 and the release of the Bin Laden tapes or something like that. Or the release of information about George W. Bush's record, serve in military are record that obviously ended up being discredited.

So, those are the kinds of things you think about. This idea of the foremost investigative arm of the federal government releasing this information, and in such a cryptic fashion that can be so easily politicized and obviously has been over these last days. That is something that is unprecedented. Even if you think about what media institutions would do, there would be long and hard discussions about whether or not you have the goods, right? Before you released such an explosive story, and so here, I think there are so many questions about what the what is of what Comey is talking about. It appears that the FBI so far doesn't even know what's in those e-mails, how many e-mails might have come on from Hillary Clinton, where they've come from, what they say, so, I mean to do this, I think is incredibly unprecedented. That's why you see, this kind of bipartisan head scratching about why the director decided to do this.

COSTELLO: Yes. Because Patricia, Nia-Malika is right. We think that these e-mails are Abedin's and not Clinton's that came from Abedin's husband's computers. I think we do actually know that, but we don't know if any of the information is classified. We don't know if any of those e-mails came from Clinton's server or why they were on Anthony Weiner's computer. So, of course, Democrats are insisting that Director Comey released more information ASAP, in fact, they give him a deadline of today, think he'll meet it?

PATRICIA MURPHY, COLUMNIST "THE DAILY BEAST" AND "ROLL CALL": Oh, of course he won't meet it in part because there's no way that he can meet it. What we know from what he said is almost nothing, except that he knows something. There is no way to draw a conclusion. There's no way for Democrats or Republicans to draw a conclusion. There's certainly no way for voters to draw a conclusion, and that's why this doesn't happen before an election. The FBI typically takes no action that could influence the campaign, 90 days outside of Election Day because of the kinds of uncertainties that it raises. I think it's just puts the Clinton campaign though, in a very

[10:10:16] difficult position. We're not going to know, yes or no before Election Day, but it just resurfaces the entire question of why people don't trust Hillary Clinton in the first place. And that's exactly where they don't want to be eight days going into an election.

COSTELLO: Well here's the thing, David, Clinton's camp is no longer apologizing for Hillary Clinton's e-mail server. It's fighting back. Her campaign spokesperson, Brian Fallon, released this video, watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN FALLON, CLINTON'S SPOKESPERSON: Those were not to or from Hillary Clinton or even ever on her server. In fact, it's entirely possible that they are all duplicates of e-mails the FBI already looked at months ago. So if that's the case, why send this letter in the first place? You're probably just as puzzled and outraged as we are. Former Justice Department officials say this violated protocols intended to prevent action that could be seen as influencing the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So he's talking about the letter that Director Comey sent to Congress and the Clinton camp is now putting this into a politically motivated context instead of I'm sorry context. Is that effective, David?

DAVID LAUTER, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, let's look, Carol, at what typically happens in this sort of case. You've got a big headline. No one quite knows what it means. So, voters are inclined to go to their partisan corners. Republicans will look at this as confirmation of everything they've always disliked about Clinton. Democrats look at it and say this is misconduct by the FBI and what the Clinton campaign wants to do is reinforce that feeling among Democrats, that there's something wrong with this, that the FBI shouldn't be doing this. Because it gives their partisans way of looking at this issue that doesn't make them feel that maybe they shouldn't be voting the way they have already made up their minds to vote.

So, up until now, the whole point of what the Clinton campaign has been trying to do is to reinforce that partisan sense, that there's something wrong with this, let's not pay any attention to it. Now, what they have to do going forward, is try to figure out a way to get back on to the campaign message about something other than the e-mails because that's not what they want the last week the campaign to be focusing on.

COSTELLO: So, Nia-Malika, you heard what Jeff Zeleny said. He said that he thinks the Clinton camp is not going to talk so much about these e-mails. They're going to continue to talk about Donald Trump and his short comings in their eyes.

HENDERSON: That's right. I mean, if you think about the ad they just released in battleground states, it's all about Donald Trump's temperament, this idea that you can't trust him with the nuclear code. So that has worked for them so far. That's gotten them to a place where they're averaged five points ahead in our CNN poll of polls. So, it's unlikely. I think they have been pretty effective in creating kind of an echo chamber around their message of essentially saying, what is James Comey up to in this? Why is his politicizing this campaign so close to an Election Day and framing to put his thumb on the scale of Republicans?

So, that's been pretty effective. You had Eric Holder with his op-ed in the "Washington Post" and in that bipartisan group of former justice officials as well. But listen, they want to turn this page. I think Donna Brazile tweeted something like "Please God, let this election be over." And that is essentially where they are right now.

COSTELLO: So, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, Patricia, he's going to be campaigning in three blue states over the next several days, because he has to flip one to win. And I would think he's going to pound this issue incessantly. So will it change people's minds? Will it sway those three undecided voters there are in America today to vote a certain way?

MURPHY: Well, let's find all three of them real quick. And you know, I just don't know, and that's the problem going into this. It raises questions about Hillary Clinton. But those questions have been out there, simply reinforces a weakness on her part. I find it very rich, though, for Donald Trump to be praising the FBI right now. I went to one of his rallies last week where he said that the FBI is totally corrupt. And we heard many of his surrogates in the last several weeks say, again, that the FBI was part of the problem. That the FBI is totally corrupt and now suddenly, now that the FBI's doing something that Donald Trump likes, they're no longer corrupt, they're very brave individuals.

But again, I think for voters, you know, we just don't know. I tend to think that -- this cake is relatively baked. The question for Hillary Clinton is that, will this depress turnout? Will this have somebody who was very focused on Donald Trump now turning their attention to Hillary Clinton and saying maybe I'm not so sure about her either, maybe I'm not just going to vote at all. I think that's where the real danger is for her here.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it here. Nia-Malika Henderson, David Lauter, Patricia Murphy, actually, stick around, because we have much more to discuss after the break. And thank you, thank you in advance.

Still to come in the "Newsroom," Nia-Malika just mentioned this girl from that iconic 1960's "Daisy" ad, she's coming back. And this time, she's warning against Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:50] COSTELLO: As we hit the final stretch of the 2016 campaign, it's starting to look kind of like the 1964 campaign, back then, the "Daisy" ad shocked the nation. It started with a little girl plucking a flower and ended with a nuclear blast, the message, if you elect Barry Goldwater, instead of Lyndon Johnson, it could be the end of the world. Now the Clinton campaign has brought the "Daisy" ad back. The very same actress is new in the Clinton ad that questions if Donald Trump can be trusted with nukes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONIQUE LUIZ, "THE DAISY GIRL": This was me in 1964. The fear of nuclear war that we had as children, I never thought our children would have to deal with that again. And to see that coming forward in this election is really scary."

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST MSNBC'S "MORNING JOE": Trump asked three times why can't we use nuclear weapons?

TRUMP: I want to be unpredictable.

SCARBOROUGH: What safeguards are there to stop any president who may not be stable, from launching a nuclear attack?

MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER HEAD OF THE CIA AND NSA: The commander-in- chief is the commander-in-chief.

TRUMP: Bomb the -- out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So, let's talk about this ad, Patricia Murphy and David Lauter are back with me. Welcome back. So, David, now the "Daisy" ad, it was a very effective ad 52 years ago. But I'm not sure that a lot of people actually remember it and what it meant in the country at that time.

LAUTER: Well, Carol, you're right. I mean, I'm unfortunately old enough that I can actually remember back

[10:20:16] then. And the fear of nuclear war was heavier thing, I think than it is now. But -- what makes this effective, potentially, is that if you look at the polling, consistently the strongest argument that Hillary Clinton has had, the one that sways voters most is that Donald Trump doesn't have the temperament or stability to be president. That's been a very powerful argument for them. And that's clearly the argument that they want to try to emphasize in these closing dates of the campaign. And, to the extent that you can link that to something as fearful as nuclear weapons, that's a very powerful way to drive that argument home.

COSTELLO: Patricia, I'm sure that Hillary Clinton wants voters to concentrate on what she calls the unhinged part of Donald Trump's personality, so will that help pave the way?

MURPHY: I think -- it's an important avenue for the Clinton team to pursue. I think it's very smart of them to take this tact so close to Election Day, particularly among female voters. More than 70 percent of women and this has been documented many times. 70 percent of women don't believe that Donald Trump has the temperament to be president. And I think that is a big part of what's driving his lower numbers among women. And I will never forget conducting an interview with a Republican female voter who said she would vote for Hillary Clinton and she said, because at least there would be another four years. And I said, do you mean another four years of Hillary Clinton. She said, no, another four years of the world. I have women raise it to me again and again, deep concerns specifically about the nuclear issue with Donald Trump. So, I think it's a very smart play for the Clinton team to be pursuing right now.

COSTELLO: Well, that's so interesting because David, I've interviewed voters who say, if Hillary Clinton gets into office, that the world will end as we know it.

LAUTER: I think as you get towards the end of the campaign, you get more and more apocalyptic rhetoric on both sides. But I think, Patricia is right, that there is definitely a core of voters, particularly women, who are concerned about safety and security for their kids. That's always been a powerful argument. That was the argument that put George W. Bush over the top in his reelection in 2004, that you could trust him with safety. And the Clinton campaign has been trying to turn that argument in their direction, arguing that Donald Trump isn't safe. And so far, at least until this weekend, they seem to be making a lot of progress with that. Now we'll see over the next few days, does that change or not?

COSTELLO: That's right. Because Donald Trump is campaigning in blue states, some of those states like Michigan where Hillary Clinton has as much as a seven-point lead over Trump, but Kellyanne Conway, Trump's, you know, lead person, says that there is a chance that Donald Trump could flip a blue state. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We're expanding our map. We were in New Mexico yesterday and Mr. Trump continues to go to places like Colorado, Pennsylvania, states that have been blue for a while. I think that you saw that Hillary Clinton's lead was evaporating in the polls last week before the FBI's explosive new revolution, Mika, and we're going to win the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So it is it possible, Patricia, that for example in Michigan where voters seem to have pretty much decided that -- Donald Trump could present this argument that the Clinton e-mails, this is more evidence that she should go to jail and that will sway voters in those blue states.

MURPHY: Well, I think that his decision to go to blue states has gotten a lot of criticism from Republicans. They would really like to see him lock up the swing states. Lock up Florida, lock up North Carolina, really make sure that he has the states, one that are must- win and then go into blue states if you have the flexibility to do that. Now, I think that a piece of the confidence from the Trump campaign is this concept that there are voters out there who are not answering honestly in polls. That maybe the public polling isn't showing support among Donald Trump that is really there, particularly among white voters.

And so, when he goes into a lot of these states, this just have wider populations when you see him going into Michigan, Wisconsin, even in Ohio, those are populations that should be more persuadable to Donald Trump's message and so I think that's a big piece of what they're doing. Democrats I've talked to have their own concerns that there are voters out there who are not answering honestly in these polls. So, I think it's a little bit of a flier to be taking, but it's enough of a concern on both sides that I think that's what explains it.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there, Patricia Murphy, David Lauter, thank you so much.

Coming up in the "Newsroom," I went to Philadelphia where Donald Trump claims -- the election system, the whole thing, is rigged. Now the city is responding, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL SCHMIDT, PHILADELPHIA COMMISSIONER: It's a concern when anyone says things that undermine confidence in elections and could potentially dissuade people from participating in them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:29:40] COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump, not backing off claims, this election is rigged. This time, focusing on Colorado, when its mail-in ballot system, telling voters "make sure their ballots are counted."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You've got to get those ballots. So, you can go to university center, and they'll give you a ballot, a new ballot. They'll void your old ballot. They'll give you a new ballot. And you can go out and make sure it gets in. Now in some places, they probably do that four or five times, but we don't do that. But that's great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)