Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Clinton Speaks in Ohio on E-mail Probe Saying "No Case There"; October Surprise Clinton E-mail Probe Raises Questions about Early Voting; Trump's Charitable Giving Questioned; Political World Reeling After FBI Director Announcement on E-mail Probe. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 31, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:07] HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're about to enter the final week of this election. So I wanted to come back to Ohio, one of the most competitive and consequential battleground states in the country, to talk about what's at stake in this election.

But let me start with this. You may be asking what this new e-mail story is about, and why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election with no evidence of any wrongdoing with just days to go.

(SHOUTING)

CLINTON: That's a good question. First of all, for those concerned about my using a personal e-mail, I understand. And as I've said, I'm not making excuses. I've said it was a mistake and I regret it. Now they apparently want to look at e-mails of one of my staffers. By all means, they should look at them. And I am sure they will reach the same conclusion they did when they looked at my e-mails for the last year, there is no case here.

(CHEERING)

CLINTON: And they said it wasn't even a close call. And I think most people have decided a long time ago what they think about all of this.

Now what people are focused on is choosing the next president and commander-in-chief of the United States of American.

(CHEERING)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You heard it there, Hillary Clinton speaking at a rally in Ohio, "There is no case here," on FBI Director James Comey now reopening this investigation into that private server.

Hillary Clinton's comments come today as more than 18 million Americans have already cast their ballots, before that controversial announcement on Friday from FBI Director James Comey, through that letter to members of Congress about the discovery of new e-mails possibly relating to Clinton's private server. It raises the question, is early voting really a good idea, particularly in an unprecedented election season when a late October surprise could be just about anything. Mark Preston, let me go straight to you, CNN political director at the

official CNN decision desk.

On early voting, how are the numbers comparing to this time four year ago and are any folks expressing buyer's remorse, early voting remorse?

[14:35:35] MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: First of all, as we talk about what happened now and what happened four years ago, they're talking about this being a suppressed election but we're seeing high numbers of voting. As you said, more than 18 million people have voted so far. This is only through Friday. This is the latest data we got from Catalyst, which is sourcing it for us. We'll get more data by tomorrow. That will certainly raise this number up. And when we get now to where the votes are, let's look at the battleground statements in yellow. About 9.7 million people in the battleground states, the states that are going to decide the election. If you live in a gray state, that's it. I'm sorry, you're not going to be as important as these yellow states are right now.

How are they doing when it comes? Well, in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, in North Carolina, Democrats have a lead when it comes to registered voters putting in their ballots. In Arizona, Ohio, Florida and Utah, Republicans have the lead.

But the story is a little more complicated than that. Let's dig into three specific states.

First of all, the state of Colorado right here, 700,000 people have cast their ballots right here. What's interesting about Colorado, it's an all mail-in state. You don't go to a poll place. You get a ballot in the mail, you check it off, stick it in the mail or drop it off at a registrar's office. Let's see how those numbers are $ aping up. Right now, Democrats have an edge by about four percentage points right now. Why this is important, look what happened back in 2012. Republicans at the same time had a 3 percent edge. That's a seven- point swing in a state right now we saw Donald doing.

Let's look at the big state of Florida as well. Look how many people have voted in Florida so far, more than 2.7 million. Of course, this number we believe has increased exponentially over the weekend. But how are they doing here in Florida, Democrats and Republicans? Look at this right here. Republicans have about a half percent lead in the state of Florida. Look at this number right down here. About 20 percent, 5333,742, these are Independents or belong to another political party. As we compare the 2016 numbers to 2008, the Republicans had a much wider margin. So, even though Democrats right now in Florida are trailing Republicans they're actually not doing too bad.

Let's go to the state of Ohio where we saw Hillary Clinton holding that rally, talking about her e-mails, about 936,000 people have voted so far through Friday. Let's see where these numbers drop. Look at that rite lead by Republicans. It's about 4.5 percent over Democrats. Look down here, a third of the electorate, 36.5 percent, Independents. We don't know if they voted Democrat or Republican. Check this out. If you look at 2008, it was basically even. Republicans are doing much better.

Brooke, I have to say these early vote numbers aren't going to tell us necessarily who is going to win, but they are instructive about how each political party is getting out their message to vote.

BALDWIN: Mark Preston, thank you.

Donald Trump -- let's talk about Donald Trump. He says no one is as generous as he is. He claims he's given away millions of dollars to charities. It seems like the money trail should be an easy one to track. Apparently, it isn't.

The "Washington Post's" David Farenthold has spent months of Trump's claims of philanthropy. He joins me once again.

David Farenthold, it is awesome having you on.

You know, you start this mega piece of yours with this story. It's like celebrity charity ribbon-cutting where you have Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, the former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and in strolls Donald Trump. Frank Gifford is saying, why is he here? Tell me that story.

DAVID FARENTHOLD, REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: This is in the fall of 1996. There's a ribbon-cutting at a new nursery run by this charity in New York called the Association to Benefit Children. It's a nursery school for children with AIDS. Trump has never given this charity any money. He's not invited. He shows up. And he actually steals a seat at the front of the room they saved for someone who was an actual donor, another guy who was a developer. Trump takes that guy's seat as the ceremony begins and sits there through the whole ceremony. He sings "This Little Light of Mine," dances with the children, sitting there looking like he's given to this charity. As soon as it's over, he leaves, doesn't give a donation, is just gone. It's a story if I hadn't seen pictures, I'm not sure I would have believed it.

BALDWIN: So, do you all this digging and digging, David, and you can only find instances where he is donating, was it $7.8 million to his own foundation?

FARENTHOLD: He's given $7.8 million, I found, over his lifetime, going back to the early '80s. Million went to the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which is a charity that, as we have seen, that he treats as a second bank account for himself. It's nominally a charity, but he's used it to buy two portraits of himself, other art, a signed Tim Tebow football helmet, and to settle big legal disputes involving his actually for-profit businesses.

[14:39:58] BALDWIN: Now, you're on the phone or contacting the Trump foundation going show me the money, show me the evidence, I want to know what you've given in charity. And you do this work, then you turn around and you call charities. What did you find from those charities?

FARENTHOLD: Trump's people say he gives tens of millions of dollars and provide no backup. They just though out that number. I called 420 charities that seem --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: 420 charities. Let me give you credit for doing that.

(LAUGHTER)

FARENTHOLD: Thank you.

BALDWIN: What do they tell you?

FARENTHOLD: I was asking the Trump people, give me a list. They won't do that. I'm trying to find the donations that seem closest to Trump, to do my own search. What I found between 2009 and year, only one gift out of Trump's own pocket in that seven-year span, that was for less than $10,000 in 2009. For many years I could find no evidence that he gave a dollar out of his own pocket.

BALDWIN: Maybe someone from the Trump campaign is watching and will give you more information.

In the meantime, great job digging, and your journalism.

David Farenthold, of the "Washington Post," bravo to you.

FARENTHOLD: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Moments ago, Hillary Clinton saying the FBI does not have a case involving her e-mails, as the spotlight remains on the FBI director and the "what it is it" they're actually going to find. Did James Comey go too far? You'll hear from both sides of the debate, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:55] BALDWIN: We are eight days until Election Day. The political world is reeling after FBI Director James Comey ended up turning this race upside down with this unprecedented letter he sent to leaders in Congress putting Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server back in the spotlight.

Let's hear from both sides. Author Charles Kaiser, who has penned a CNN.com opinion piece critical of Comey's conduct; and Paige Pate, a constitutional attorney who is supportive of James Comey.

Gentlemen, welcome.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Charles Kaiser, let me begin with you.

The premise of your column is you say, in this incidence, Comey went farther than J. Edgar Hoover.

CHARLES KAISER, AUTHOR: J. Edgar Hoover did many terrible things as director of FBI, the founding director. He undermined democracy in many ways. He tried to undermine the civil rights movement. He tried to --

BALDWIN: The tapes --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- and committing suicide.

KAISER: And committing suicide. But one thing that even he would never do was put his finger on the scale of an election. This never happened before in the history of our democracy. No justice official has ever done anything like this. Can you see today that this is no longer a partisan question when you have 100 former Justice Department officials criticizing him, a former Republican deputy attorney general criticizing him, saying this has become the equivalent of kind of a reality tv of federal criminal investigation. And you have the former ethics lawyer, chief ethics lawyer of the White House saying he has, in fact, violated the Hatch Act. This is a very bad day for American democracy.

BALDWIN: That's how you see it.

Paige Pate, you see it differently. Tell me how you see it.

PAIGE PATE, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: I completely disagree with that and I don't think it's fair to compare him to Hoover. Everyone prior to this letter thought that James Comey was a great guy.

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: I never thought James Comey was a great guy. I think he's misbehaved all year. What he should have done in July was he should have announced that there was no case against Hillary Clinton, that she had not committed a crime. He should have issued a one-paragraph press release. He should not have given that press conference. This is the latest incidence of his misbehavior.

PATE: We didn't see your opinion piece back then. In fact --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: I wrote exactly those actual words at that time.

PATE: I didn't see it. And I doubt the rest of the country saw it. At this point you have to look at what he's faced with. Does he not investigate this new information? Of course, he does.

KAISER: This is not a question of investigating.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: Exactly. Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: This is a question of whether he announces it or not.

PATE: What does he do, then? Does he tell people what he said to Congress earlier is now inconsistent with the fact there is an open investigation?

KAISER: He doesn't have to say --

PATE: That's his responsibility.

KAISER: -- anything. There was no reason for him to say anything at this point. And all of the former senior officials of the Justice Department, Democrat and Republican, agree on that point today.

PATE: You threw the policy book out the window when you had James Comey as the FBI director making the final decision about prosecuting or not prosecuting someone. I've been critical of the way they've handled this. I thought there should have been a personal prosecutor appointed months ago. But there was no prosecutor here. Attorney General --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: There was never any crime committed here. There is no crime. This is not --

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: Maybe not. Maybe not. Then, why weren't these e-mails provided to --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Forgive me. Hang on.

Let me just turn to you and ask you, a fear would be critics have said, what if he went ahead and reopened this -- looked at this review, looked at whatever e-mails they found on Weiner's laptop, and somebody could have leaked that they were looking into this.

KAISER: Well, that's exactly --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That is the potential of having a cloud hanging over the FBI.

KAISER: That's exactly --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- and covering it up.

KAISER: Mr. Comey has proved he isn't qualified to be in this position because he caved into the pressure of irresponsible Republicans, like Representative Chaffetz, and, B, of his own right- wing FBI agents. If he's acting today out of the fear that his own agents would leak this if he didn't announce it, this is proof he does not have control over his own agency, and he's not qualified to have this job.

BALDWIN: Paige --

[14:49:54] PATE: You've lost your mind. Do you realize President Obama appointed this man as director of the FBI? He was considered to be completely nonpartisan and objective.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: Now because you don't like the news, you've decided he's, all of a sudden, become partisan. That's not true. James Comey has been the only person in this entire mess who does not have a political agenda.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:50:12] PATE: And the idea that he's doing with a political --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: -- disagree with you and the deputy attorney general of the George Bush administration disagrees with you.

BALDWIN: I think --

KAISER: If he's not partisan, how is it possible that he's now being accused formally of violating the Hatch Act by George Bush's chief ethics lawyer? How is that possible?

PATE: All of -- there's no violation of the Hatch Act. If you've read the Hatch Act, you realize it requires the government to show that the intent was to cause some effect to the election.

KAISER: That's exactly what it does not say according to the lawyer for George Bush.

BALDWIN: It's in the books.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: Why are all these Republicans opposing him now? Why are all the Republicans opposing him now? Because it's anti-Trump. And I get that. I don't support Donald Trump, but that doesn't mean James Comey caused this mess. This mess started with those e-mails --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: James Comey is a candidate who basically defeated last week --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: The investigation should proceed according to policy and then determine if they mean anything. Perhaps they don't. But don't blame --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: It's fine to investigate this but there was no reason to announce it.

(CROSSTALK)

The only thing he accomplished by announcing it was to throw a life line to a faltering candidacy.

PATE: You think he wanted to do that?

KAISER: Yes, I do. He's contributing to the only strategy -- the Trump campaign has, which is voter suppression.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Why do you think they wanted to throw a life --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Hold on, Paige.

BALDWIN: Why do you think he wanted to throw a life line to Trump when you saw what he did, which had Trump and Republicans up in arms earlier this summer? Ultimately, saying --

KAISER: He went both ways earlier in the summer.

BALDWIN: -- saying it was not criminal.

KAISER: Earlier, in the summer, he properly found there was no crime, but instead of leaving it at that, he then decided that he had to engage in character assassination. This is the sort of thing Joseph McCarthy did 50 years ago. It's a disgrace we now have an FBI director doing the same thing as Joseph McCarthy did. Engaging in character assassination after he's declared she's not guilty of any crime.

BALDWIN: Paige, do you think Comey did absolutely nothing wrong.

PATE: I don't think he had to send the letter. Let me be clear about that. He was under no legal obligation --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: Yes, we agree about that.

PATE: Would you please let me answer Brooke's question?

KAISER: I'm agreeing with you.

PATE: There was no legal obligation for him to send the letter. But ethically, he left America and Congress under the impression that the investigation was closed. He wasn't looking for additional information. He wasn't trying to investigate Clinton but these e- mails came to light, they were put on his desk, and he has the obligation to investigate it.

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: -- which is invisible to every other former member of the Justice Department including the former Republican deputy attorney general. This is an ethic Paige has invented. Nobody else is aware of it.

PATE: I'm the only person here without any political motivation in this at all. I'm not normally a friend of the FBI. I'm a criminal defense lawyer. I'm not supporting either one of these candidates for president.

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: I'm a proud Democrat and I am supporting Hillary Clinton, but that's not what this is about.

PATE: Clearly.

You're right, that's not what this is about.

KAISER: This is about whether or not you believe in the rule of law, Paige.

PATE: I absolutely believe --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: And the FBI director undermined the rule of law.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: He has not distorted a single law.

KAISER: -- in a way that no former Justice Department official has ever done, and it's an outrage, and it's a sad day for American --

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: You're saying the obligation is not to look at new evidence that may potentially --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: No. I'm saying his obligation is not to announce it. I did not say that.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: -- to move on but --

KAISER: He did not have to announce it.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: He left the public with the impression there was nothing left to investigate. He was presented this information --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: The only thing I agree with you about, Paige, you wrote there is no chance this will lead to a new indictment or anything else. I agree with you entirely about that, which is another reason it never should have been announced.

PATE: Then what's the fear here? Let him look through the information. They have a subpoena now. They have the ability to go through these e-mails. They're already cataloging them --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: He said, these e-mails --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: -- to look at them. He didn't even have a subpoena to look at them before yesterday.

PATE: No. Right.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: Now the Democrats --

(CROSSTALK)

KAISER: He is behaving in an outrageous, shameful fashion.

PATE: Now we'll go into the details of the investigation. You can't have it both ways.

KAISER: There was no reason to announce it, Paige, none, zero.

PATE: We disagree, respectfully.

KAISER: Yes. And so do all the former officials of the Justice Department --

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: Congratulations.

(CROSSTALK)

PATE: I think the law is clear. I'm not talking about my personal position. I'm just talking about the facts.

[14:54:28] BALDWIN: OK. OK. Charles, Paige, agree to disagree, I suppose.

Eight days. This is a huge, significant deal here as voters are weighing what they should believe as they go into that voting booth.

Gentlemen, I appreciate both of your perspectives.

Meantime, Hillary Clinton just in the key state of Ohio, just weighed in on this very matter moments ago.

Stay with us. Eight days to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Live pictures here of Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail in Ohio, addressing the FBI investigation into her private e-mail server, what we were just discussing -- saying a little while ago, quote, "There is no case here."

Donald Trump, for his part, seizing on the controversy with eight days to go. We will look at the political impact of this massive story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So, we continue on, on this Monday afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN. Let's get right to it.

Hillary Clinton, she is campaigning right now in the battleground state of Ohio. She just addressed the controversy right off the bat with that crowd over the newly discovered e-mails belonging to her right-hand woman --