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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Weiner Sexting Probe Leads FBI to Review Clinton Case; Swing State Sprint; Soon: Trump Speaks in Iowa; Trump: Justice Will Prevail. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired October 28, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:02:05] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Abedin on at least one device she shared with her now estranged husband, the sexting former congressmen and mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner. So as you might imagine, this set off a tabloid frenzy in New York.
The headline in tomorrow's "New York Post", not suitable for family viewers, but is remarkable all the same in addition to tabloid fever, so we're not going to show it you, but you'll see it tomorrow and you'll know what I'm talking about.
The story and how Director Comey unveiled it today is also stoking a political wild fire.
A lot to cover. We begin with CNN's Jim Sciutto.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eleven days to the election, the FBI director informing lawmakers he is revealing new e-mails related to the Clinton e-mail investigation.
Law enforcement officials tell CNN the new e-mails were not from Clinton, but were sent and received by aide, Huma Abedin. They were found on a device shared by Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, who was the target of a separate investigation into alleged sexting with a minor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.
SCIUTTO: These three months after the FBI, recommended closing the probe. In connection with an unrelated case, Comey wrote to eight congressional committee chairmen, "The FBI has learned of the existence of e-mails that appear pertinent to the investigation."
Director Comey continued that the FBI will, "review these e-mails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation. I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work," he wrote. All this after Director Comey declared on July 5th that Clinton had acted carelessly but not criminally.
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: In looking back at our investigations into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts.
SCIUTTO: In the key battlegrounds state of Iowa, Hillary Clinton at first did not comment on the case until this evening her campaign arranged to surprise press conference where the Democratic nominee turned the tables on the FBI.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTAIL CANDIDATE: The director himself has said he doesn't know whether the e-mails referenced in his letter are significant or not. I'm confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July. Therefore, it's imperative that the bureau explained this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... that they have discovered new e-mails.
SCIUTTO: Donald Trump, however, pounced at a rally in another battleground, New Hampshire.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.
SCIUTTO: Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted, "A great day in our campaign just got even better."
[21:05:00] House Speaker Paul Ryan, until now locked in a public dispute with his party's nominee, accused Clinton of mishandling, "the nation's most important secrets." Before renewing his call for the director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And Jim Sciutto joins us now. So, what's the next step with the FBI revisiting this investigation?
SCIUTTO: Well, a long step, really multiple steps, Anderson. The director saying that he is not certain yet if these e-mails are significant. Our reporting is there are thousands of e-mails. They now have to go through those e-mails and look for classified information and make a judgment if that information classified.
To do that, they've got to consult with multiple intelligence agencies. It's not frankly and exact science. We've seen from the last attempt at doing this that there are often disagreements as well. All those steps that process certainly going to take more than 11 days, so it takes you passed this election, possibly into a new administration.
COOPER: All right, Jim Sciutto, thanks very much.
More on the investigation, I want to bring in our Justice Correspondent Evan Perez. What can you tell us about the timing of Comey's statement? EVAN PEREZ, JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this was -- this puts the FBI into a bind, Anderson. You know, the FBI did not want to be playing a role in this election and that's exactly why they wrapped up this investigation back in July. However, when the investigators into the Anthony Weiner sexting, investigation came forward and said we found thousands of e-mails and they might relate to the Clinton e- mail investigation. They nearly stopped work, they brought in, the team that had done the server investigation.
COOPER: Right.
PEREZ: And the FBI director decided that there was no way, having been so public with his description of what they had found, there was no way they could not tell members of Congress. He's testified for hours before members of Congress telling them exactly what he had found, so he thought he -- there was no way he could keep this from them.
COOPER: Right, even though it's 11 days before the election. Does this, though, still answer any of those criticized Comey back in July? Because there were -- a lot of people mainly, you know, (inaudible) frankly on both sides of the aisle at times who'd criticized him for going as far as he did back in July. Does this answer those critics or does it sort of, you know?
PEREZ: Well, it sort of quiet a little bit. Well, you can see from Donald Trump's reaction today that now he says maybe now the FBI is going to do this fairly. Obviously, he says that the FBI -- he has been calling the FBI and Jim Comey lackeys and corrupt.
COOPER: Right.
PEREZ: And now, today, we have criticism from members of Congress and the Democratic side and say that this is appalling.
COOPER: Right, the ones who are praising Comey in July ...
PEREZ: They were praising Comey. And also, by the way, we also have letter from Ron Johnson who just sent letter to Jim Comey saying that you owe us more information as much information as possible about this investigation.
COOPER: What I do not understand and sort of I'm still trying to wrap my mind around is, a, how did the FBI not -- the investigators, you know, who did those investigation, how did they not know about whatever device or devices that Huma Abedin had with Anthony Weiner? And then -- or if they did, how did they not see these e-mails and why didn't Huma Abedin turn over these devices and/or these e-mails during the original investigation because it was their-- her responsibility and anyone around, Clinton's responsibility to come forward with any information.
PEREZ: Well, I think, you heard tonight from Hillary Clinton she wants answers from the FBI. I think frankly the campaign, her campaign deserves or, you know, owes us some answers as well.
COOPER: Right.
PEREZ: Whether or not Abedin -- whether or not she knew about this ...
COOPER: Right.
PEREZ: ... and did not turn them over, what was the order of events here because the FBI certainly did not have possession of this. They didn't have possession until they obtained a number of devices as part of the Weiner investigation. Again, none of this happens without Hillary Clinton setting up a private e-mail server.
COOPER: Right. And Hillary Clinton was asked at the very brief press conference she gave, I think she took two or three questions, I think the third questions, the final one was have you heard from Huma Abedin? Have you talked to Huma Abedin? She totally ignored that.
PEREZ: Huma Abedin was on the plane with her today. So, you know, if she wanted answers from Huma Abedin, she could have gotten those today.
COOPER: Right.
PEREZ: That's the thing that we have not yet heard from the campaign, is whether or not what is Huma Abedin's explanation of this? Why would these e-mails not in possession of the FBI until now?
So, thousands of e-mails are going to have to go through, as Jim pointed out, with the various intelligence agencies ...
COOPER: Right.
PEREZ: ... to determine whether or not they're relevant and whether or not they change.
COOPER: Do you think Comey will come forward and say more?
PEREZ: Well, not before the election.
COOPER: No?
PEREZ: I don't think there's much he can say. I mean they believe that they've said as much as they can.
COOPER: OK. All right, Evan Perez, thanks so much.
Two views now on the story where it could lead. Joining us CNN counterterrorism analyst and former FBI and CIA official, Phillip Mudd, and back is our CNN senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.
Phil, like Jim Sciutto you also say this investigation will take weeks at the very least, so there's no way it could be completed in the next 11 days. You're convinced to that?
PHILIP MUDD, FORMER SENIOR OFFICIAL, FBI AND CIA: No way. Look, we're talking about a simple question here, Anderson. That's not the right question. Were there classified -- was there classified information in these e-mails?
[21:10:06] There are series of additional questions the FBI has to answer, and that's going to take weeks or months. For example, once you review these e-mails and that's going to take a while, you have to interview the people potentially who might have sent them or received them. You want to compare those interviews today in October to what people might have said during the earlier investigation in mid-summer and determine whether there are discrepancies. If there are, if somebody said something in June, for example, that's different than what they say today, you might want to conduct re-interviews. Now you're it getting to maybe December.
So I don't think there's any chance, a, that this will be completed before the election or, b, that the FBI director will have enough information to talk to the press about where the investigation is headed in the next 11 days.
COOPER: Jeff ...
JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: What-- can I just add one point here? There's a preliminary question that has to be answered is, how many of these e-mails are duplicates of e-mails that have been turned over?
COOPER: Right.
TOOBIN: They just happen to be on a different computer. I don't know, but that's certainly a possibility. And if many or all of them have been turned over previously, have been reviewed by the FBI, well, that certainly takes care of them.
If I can just add another point about this business, about talking to Huma Abedin, the worst possible thing Hillary Clinton could do tonight is talk to Huma Abedin about her e-mail situation. That would be a -- she would be accused properly, I think, of trying to interfere, inject memories, lining up her stories. People do not want -- I mean any lawyer would tell Hillary Clinton, talk to Huma Abedin about anything except this e-mail situation, because the FBI is certainly going to want to talk to her again and they don't want Hillary Clinton, even the possibility that she interfered and tried to get Huma Abedin to say one thing or another.
COOPER: Interesting. So does it make sense -- and again, there's so much we do not know that, you know, it's difficult even asking some basic questions, but does it make sense to you that the FBI in their original investigation would not have found these devices if they, in fact, did not find these devices or at least know about these e-mails that were apparently on them? Or does it make sense to you that Huma Abedin would not have turned over whatever these e-mails were?
MUDD: Look, Anderson, that's a legal question and I will be asking Jeffrey. It makes sense to me depending on what kind of, for example, immunity they might have given individuals in this case.
I think, as Jeffrey said, one of the questions we're going to have is how much of this information is new, how much we knew before? It's going to take -- if you got thousands of e-mails, it's going to take a while to determine that. It's also going to take a while, as Jim Sciutto said, to determine whether this information is classified. So, it's not clear to me why they didn't uncover this information before.
I would go back to say it is clear to me why the FBI director chose to reopen this investigation. He didn't have an option. Somebody walks in his office and says we have additional information. The alternative is he says we choose not to reopen. I don't think he could have done that, Anderson.
TOOBIN: I think that's ...
COOPER: Go ahead, Jeff.
TOOBIN: I think that's right. He had no option except to pursue this investigation.
I just like to just maybe correct something about immunity. The only time immunity comes up is when someone takes the fifth then refuses to cooperate, then you give them immunity to force and to cooperate. There's no suggestion that Huma Abedin took the fifth or has refused to answer question. So I don't think immunity is irrelevant question at this point for her.
COOPER: Phil, you were saying Comey, you know, had no choice but to do what he did. Do you see a scenario in which he would then come forward, you know, tomorrow or the next day, because so many people are saying, look, you got to give more information, we're 11 days before this election?
MUDD: Boy, I really doubt that for two reasons, Anderson. First, we have an American citizen in this case the former secretary of state is being investigated. The FBI decided that she would not be charged criminally before. Why are we revealing private information about American citizen before the FBI determines that she should be charged?
There is a second reason, Anderson, and that is as we go forward with this investigation, there's going to be information day by day. The reviews of the e-mails, possible reviews of earlier interviews with the individuals, maybe future interviews with the individuals. The story might change day by day, week by week.
If he gets out there on Monday and starts talking about the investigation, what he's supposed to do, change the story on Wednesday? That is not the way the FBI does business. I don't see that happening.
COOPER: Jeff, do you agree with that?
TOOBIN: I do. I don't think there's any way he could come out and give piecemeal updates on this investigation. Remember, this is already a very weird and unusual statement. And that the FBI has a policy, not a law, but a policy that they are not supposed to make any big announcements within 60 days of elections, even in, you know, state situations or local elections. [21:15:00] COOPER: Where did that come from? I've never heard that before.
TOOBIN: Well, that's a long standing rule. And I certainly was aware of it when I was a prosecutor. Is that, if possible, you are not supposed to, as a federal prosecutor, make announcements on the eve of elections. It's just generally not done because they could have such enormous impact.
Here, I think one of the things that people will be talking about, not for months, but for years, is whether Comey was right to make this announcement now instead of waiting.
I can certainly understand his perspective, but I think he would certainly compound the problem by making piecemeal announcements over the next 11 days, when, as we all agree, there's no way you could have a final decision about any criminal conduct in such a short period of time.
COOPER: All right, Jeffry Toobin, Phil Mudd, thanks very much.
More to talk about ahead. We're going to hear from both campaigns. And later, how this is being seen in swings states like Iowa, where Donald Trump speak shortly, where Hillary Clinton has also been campaigning today. We're waiting for Trump. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. Any time the headline is Wiener or sexting probe believes the FBI to review Clinton case and you're the Clinton campaign, it is tough to call the day a good one. This evening the campaign tried to redeem it by going on the offensive with FBI Director James Comey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I have now seen Director Comey's letter to Congress. We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election of our lifetimes. Voting is already underway in our country. So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's Hillary Clinton earlier this evening. We have two campaign reports tonight, Dana Bash with the Trump campaign in Cedar Rapids, and Jeff Zeleny in Des Moines traveling with Secretary Clinton. Let's begin with Jeff.
So what more does Secretary Clinton have to say at this brief press conference?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, she called on the FBI director to release all the information, whatever it is, immediately. [21:20:03] She acknowledged that there were 11 days left in this campaign and she said there simply can't be these questions hanging over it. She did not go beyond that, but then she made a turn to signal that this is really more of the same on e-mails and that's how the campaign hopes to handle this, at least in the short term, to rally Democrats and say look, this is just the same old here.
She made it clear and pointed out that the FBI director sent his letter only to Republicans in Congress. That is the signal in the campaign tonight as sending a signal to other Democrats, to rise up on this and simply cast this more of the same. But Anderson, that is overlooking some big questions tonight that her campaign privately is acknowledging.
COOPER: Yeah. I mean, what -- I know you've probably been talking to sources within the campaign. What worries them the most at this point?
ZELENY: Anderson, talking to a lot of Democrats close to the campaign, the thing that worries them the most is that this campaign is ending being about her. The idea from the beginning was that if it ends being about Trump, if questions are about Donald Trump, not her, then that is a winner for her. But if questions are about her, that is an issue.
The reason is, Anderson, she has very limited credibility on this issue. This has been a very long campaign and e-mails have been the sound track of this campaign going way back to the U.N. back in March of 2015 when she first explained this private e-mail server and has gone through so many iterations. And now we're even seeing more behind the scenes information because of those WikiLeaks, those hacked e-mails.
So what her advisors are most worried about is, a, the independents and moderates who are still not quite sure are going to vote for her because they didn't like Trump. But most of all because the questions are about her, they believe that she does not going to get the benefit of the doubt here from any voters, Anderson.
COOPER: And at that press conference, as we talked about, Clinton was asked about whether she talked to Huma Abedin, if Abedin was able to give her more information. She basically avoided that, avoided answering.
ZELENY: She avoided it. She did. And she -- look, the reality is she was next to Huma Abedin most all day long on the plane, here to Iowa. She said, look, we don't know if she wouldn't acknowledge that it's about Huma Abedin's e-mails at all. She said we've heard the rumors. We've seen these rumors. She called on the FBI to release and say what they're looking for.
But the reality here is most Democrats I have talked to today and tonight, Anderson, believe that that is not enough. They can't control what the FBI does, but they can control Huma and all the e- mails that she has seen. So they believe that they will have to say something more on that. She's her closest confidant and adviser here, so it's unclear if those three questions she took today will solve all this. Most people believe it will not.
COOPER: Yeah, and Jeffrey Toobin just raised the point earlier and just from a legal standpoint, it would not be wise for Hillary Clinton to be talking to Huma Abedin about this given the FBI's (inaudible) talk to her.
Again, Jeff, thanks for reporting.
Donald Trump's speaking shortly in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It's been delayed a little bit. We want to bring it to you as soon as he does. Our chief political correspondent Dana Bash is there.
Trump clearly hitting her hard on this issue today. It would be remiss of him not to. What points do you think the Trump campaign is looking to kind of emphasize?
DANA BASH, CHIEF CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, with any campaign, when something bad happens or something comes out in your opponent's campaign that feeds into a narrative that is already a winning one, you think, you seize on it. And from the perspective of the Trump campaign, there is nothing that is more of a winning argument than any headline that has to do with the FBI e-mails and Hillary Clinton. And so, that is why the Trump campaign and Donald Trump himself already in two rallies he has had since this news broke has been hitting this hard and we certainly expect him to do so here.
But I want to kind of give the flip side of what Jeff just said from the Hillary Clinton campaign, what I've been hearing from the Trump campaign, which is he was saying that Hillary Clinton's people are nervous because the focus is on her and not him. What I'd heard from Trump officials, in fact, one senior adviser over the past few weeks talking about the fact they didn't think it was that likely that they were going to win, the one break that they were hoping to get is if something bad happened to her. And there was a bombshell with regard to Hillary Clinton and her actions. Whether or not this could be it, that's still to be determined, but they're certainly hoping to seize on any -- seize on it, Anderson, anyway she had perform they can.
COOPER: I imagine the crowds there tonight; they're all aware of what's been in the news cycle today. It's got to add a lot of excitement, I would imagine.
BASH: Yes. Lock her up is a chant that you hear at every one of these rallies no matter what. There seems to be a renewed enthusiasm for that chant tonight as they have certainly heard. I was just talking to the crowd earlier; certainly have heard the news about this.
[21:25:03] And, you know, Hillary Clinton when she was in Des Moines earlier talking about this, she mentioned that early voting has started in many states. Iowa is one of them. They have been voting here since September 29th. So this is -- this is not just about whether things can be resolved in the next 11 days. This is about the here and the now in the state like Iowa, which I should mention went for Barack Obama twice and already it was potentially going to go for Donald Trump. The Trump campaign is hoping that this gives them an extra leg up.
COOPER: All right, Dana thanks so much. We're going to bring you Donald Trump's remarks shortly because we expect he's going to talk about this.
Just a few hours ago, Hillary Clinton was campaigning in Cedar Rapids. She held two rallies today in the crucial swing state.
Ahead tonight, how the new twist in the e-mails controversy could shift the race is some key battleground state. John King with that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, we are waiting and we're expecting Donald Trump's reaction any moment.
Now to the breaking news, Hillary Clinton calling on the FBI to release "the full and complete facts" about the review of e-mails related to her personal server. Her remarks coming hours after FBI Director James Comey said they agency would once again be examining e- mails related to Clinton's time as secretary state.
[21:30:01] Now, according to a law enforcement official, the e-mails and questions were sent or received by top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, and found on at least one device she shared with her estranged husband disgrace former Congressman Anthony Wiener.
Now, all of this, the question is how will it shift the election, will it shift the election? Polls have been tightening in some key battlegrounds. John King joins us now to break it down by the numbers. Do we know the impact?
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: We don't, and we should be careful about this. But what we know what big events sometimes do like the "Access Hollywood" tape, Donald Trump cratered, he's just now beginning to recover from that. He hasn't fully recovered from that.
So here's what we know. We woke up this morning looking at a map like this. This is the important number. We already have Secretary Clinton if you look at the solid Democrat and lead Democrat states. We already have her passed the finish line, right? The gold states are the toss-up states. So if you're Donald Trump, your task was win Nevada, win Utah, win Arizona, win Ohio, win North Carolina, win Florida. In many of these states, Hillary Clinton is ahead or at least tied with you. In most of these states, she has a better ground operation than you. And she has much more than you in the bank.
So Donald Trump's task this morning was almost impossible, because even if he won all of these gold states, Anderson, even if he won them all, even if Donald Trump won them all on the board, absolutely no guarantee of this, in fact, incredibly hard, it wouldn't be enough, even if he won them all. So what does he need?
He needed a shift in the national dynamic. It was too much to ask in 10 or 11 days to change eight or nine states, right, or to win eight or nine states. This is the national dynamic, a six-point lead in the national poll.
Donald Trump needs to get this down to one or two. If he's down one or two on Election Day, it's still conceivable nationally, it's still conceivable he can win at the state level.
But number one, watch this. See if it gets closer. Number two, the first poll might show a big swing, don't believe it. Let's wait until the second, the third and the fourth, but you could see a big swing then the question is, does it trickle back in the case of the "Access Hollywood" tape. Remember, we were talking about a blow out.
COOPER: Right.
KING: We were talking the race was over.
COOPER: Right.
KING: He had cratered. It has slowly crept back, not fully back. This was month ago, this was a death heat race. This is where we are now. Can Donald Trump swing it back? And if it starts to swing back, can Hillary Clinton adapt? That's ...
COOPER: With only 11 days to go?
KING: Right, that's the final -- you're looking, Donald Trump -- the "Access Hollywood" thing happened a wile ago, so he still hasn't fully recovered, but it's gotten somewhat closer. The question is if there's a big backlash, then what happens?
COOPER: What about state by state?
KING: So if you go state by state, right, again, we don't know what this is going to do. You heard Paul Begala saying it's all baked in. You hear Republicans thinking this a game changer and this is going to change everything.
Let me just go back to the other map, it's where the toss-up states are. So, number one, one state to watch, watch Georgia. Right now, it's a dead heat. Why do I say Georgia, because this is a state that should be in the Donald Trump bank a long time ago. So watch the red states where he's still struggling. He cannot afford in the final days of the campaign to be worrying about reliably Republican states.
So if the polls in that state swing back in the next couple of days and if it goes locked in back to its Republican DNA, Trump can stop worrying about that.
Here's another place to watch, Utah. This morning if you are concern of about to vote for Evan McMullin, the third party never-Trump candidate, you thought Clinton was going to win in a blow out. You wanted to send Donald Trump a message, but you also wanted to send the Republican Party a message that you didn't like the nominating process, you didn't think Donald Trump belongs.
Now, if you're -- if this map starts to change, if Trump gets momentum, those Evan McMullin voters are going to have to think, do we want to deny Donald Trump Utah six electoral votes because in doing so, if the race gets tight, you might make Hillary Clinton president. So they will have to reconsider. So watch Utah.
But then, I want to come back to this point just to finish with this. If you look -- go back to where we were, this is an incredibly hard left, almost impossible. Can he get enough of a swing to pull off everything on this map? If he could win them all, it gets him close. Then watch a place like New Hampshire or a bigger price like Pennsylvania because even if Donald Trump runs all the toss-ups right now, Anderson, he has to turn something on this map that is blue, and then all of these blue states, the light states and all of them, he is down anywhere from five points to 10 or 12 points right now. Can he swing those that fast? That's the challenge. We'll watch.
COOPER: All right, John. Thanks.
Coming back to the panel, I want to talk about some other stuff. I want to bring in the rest of the panel, CNN political director, David Chalian, CNN political analyst and Hillary Clinton biographer, Carl Bernstein, CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, CNN political commentators, Kayleigh McEnany, Maria Cardona, Paris Dennard and Bill Press. Kayliegh and Paris are Trump supporters, Maria and Bill are certainly not, they support Clinton. Not yet.
Carl Bernstein, I heard people earlier on air talking about Watergate and some Republicans saying, look, this is bigger than Watergate. You know a thing two about Watergate, how do you compare?
CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not Watergate. Watergate was about a criminal president of the United States who presided over a criminal administration from the day he took office until the day he left. This is nonetheless about a hugely serious event in which a secretary of state was clearly reckless, endangered the national security by her handling of e-mails.
And one of the things that I think we're looking for that is suggested, perhaps and they don't want to speculate too much, is that some of these e-mails maybe from Huma Abedin to Hillary Clinton and perhaps, is it that the so-called missing e-mails from Hillary Clinton's server, those that she said were personal, is it possible that some of these e-mails were work related. That might be suggested in this, but you don't want to be too speculative.
[21:35:21] COOPER: Right. Yeah, I mean, Gloria, we don't know the content of these e-mails. We don't know if -- all the e-mails they found are actually duplicates of e-mails they've already seen and just having a hard time to go through.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Exactly. And we don't know if it's on Huma's computer, whether she took some stuff from work and sent it home.
COOPER: Which she should have told the FBI investigators ...
BORGER: Right.
COOPER: ... according to Pamela Brown's reporting ...
BORGER: That's right.
COOPER: ... that she had done that because she had a problem printing stuff, I guess, in her office.
BORGER: That's right. So we don't know. And what we do know is that the FBI hasn't reviewed all of these e-mails yet. There is a significant number. We're not sure how many. And that they haven't reviewed them yet, which is why Comey said that they can't assess whether or not this material may be significant.
What Comey didn't tell us was that it wasn't Hillary Clinton's e- mails. It was somebody else's e-mails.
COOPER: Right.
BORGER: And I think that's what the Clinton campaign right now is fuming about.
COOPER: David Chalian, our political director, can you assess the political impact of this or is it just too early days?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Oh, I don't think we can assess yet, except we can assess this. This is not how the Clinton campaign wanted to close out. And it is something that gives them a real life force to the Trump troops. I mean, this is ...
BORGER: Yeah.
CHALIAN: ... Trump campaign has been ...
COOPER: Not only the -- not only Trump, but all down-ballots Republicans.
CHALIAN: Oh, without a doubt. I think it may even have a more beneficial impact to down-ballot. But for Donald Trump himself and his whole operation, just think about, they just got this huge ability to have something to go out every day and rail against ...
COOPER: Right.
CHALIAN: ... that is fresh in the headlines that they can dominate and keep the conversation on. This is precisely how they want to close out the campaign.
COOPER: John?
KING: Every time he has had that opportunity in the past ...
COOPER: Right.
KING: ... something has come up, either a lack of his own personal discipline as a candidate or the "Access Hollywood" tape or something else has come out. So let's see this is the campaign that defies all rules, all logic, all history. It's just a remarkable one. But to David's point, Hillary Clinton has -- they have run -- she is not the best candidate. She has many flaws. She's not a great political performer, if you will. She also has many skills, but they have made this campaign about Donald Trump, which has been a masterful on their part ...
COOPER: Right.
KING: ... because you have a two-term Democratic president this campaign should be about, do you leave the Democrats in power? Do you have a third Obama term continuity? That's what it normally would be about. The Clinton campaign masterfully has made it about Donald Trump.
COOPER: I did -- we're going to take a break, but I just -- very quickly, I learned something from you in the last hour and I just want to have our viewers learn this as well in this hour because I just think it's so fascinating.
Just in terms of who the Clinton campaign with all their access to data and the Trump campaign, who they try to get out first in early voting and why maybe this might not have as big an impact?
KING: As big an impact. Big data has fundamentally changed how this business works. You don't knock on doors anymore. They have a database. The first people you try to turn out in early voting and you have them in your database are people who used to support Donald Trump, who pulled away from Donald Trump for whatever reason, maybe for these attacks on the Gold Star family, maybe for the "Access Hollywood" tape. You have a database, you know she used to be a Trump voter, she's is now for Clinton. On the first day of early voting, you grab her by the ear and you make her vote.
COOPER: Because they're on the ...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: You can get that vote in the bank. Those are -- everybody has score.
COOPER: So, somebody who is a die hard Hillary Clinton supporter, they're not as concerned about getting ...
KING: They want you to vote early, but they're the last person you worry about.
COOPER: And they know all of that stuff.
KING: They have it all.
COOPER: So crazy.
KING: So the test of their data operation, how many of those people did you turn out already? And now it's a test of the Trump data operation because those records are all public. So they know he used to be for Trump, he was going to vote for Clinton, he hasn't voted yet. Let's see if we can get him back.
COOPER: Interesting.
BORGER: Can you imagine if there were another Republican candidate that Hillary Clinton was running against, right?
COOPER: Well, yeah. I think a lot of people have imagined that.
We're going to take a quick break. We are waiting to hear from Donald Trump who's now said to be minutes away. We'll continue our conversation after break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:43:01] COOPER: Again, we are waiting to hear from Donald Trump, expected very shortly in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That's retired general and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Michael Flynn there on stage, a big Trump supporter, obviously. We heard from him at the convention and in a number of Trump events.
I want to turn to our Trump supporters, also our Clinton supporters. Kayleigh McEnany, this is -- you're smiling. This is a good day for you.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: It is. And it's so significant because Hillary Clinton's MO was typically this is a vast right-wing conspiracy. That's what she did with the Benghazi hearings. But here, you have the Federal Bureau of Investigation reopening what was a criminal investigation. This is straight from the FBI, no Republican involvement and that makes it significant.
And, you know, for those wanting to blame Jim Comey or blame the FBI, just back up for a moment and ask yourself, we wouldn't be here today if Hillary Clinton had abided by State Department protocols and protect the national security information. We would not be here today if she didn't delete 30,000 non-work related e-mails. We wouldn't be here today if she would have handled government with integrity and acted like a public servant not someone else who further herself and act in such a private manner. We wouldn't be here today if not for Hillary Clinton's actions.
COOPER: Right. We should point, John Podesta's making the point that they're not re-opening the case ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
COOPER: ... which I knew all the Clinton surrogates were itching to get in there. But also, I mean, to Kayleigh's point, we also might not be here today if Hillary Clinton and some of the people around her had cooperated right away in a timely manner as opposed to some of the difficulties, I mean, they had in actually going to -- Donald Trump is actually now taking the stage. It looks like he's just going to be greeting the crowd. We'll bring it to you as soon as he starts to talk.
But, Bill, what about -- I mean, that's the point some in the FBI was making that look, this thing got pushed back because there wasn't a lot of cooperation early on.
BILL PRESS, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Well, what I would make too is that we wouldn't be here today if James Comey had done his job. I mean, I don't think -- to me, irresponsible it is on the part of James Comey. He was told by -- it was reported early, Pamela told us, Huma Abedin told him there were other e-mails on other servers. What did the FBI do? Let that go?
(CROSSTALK)
[21:45:08] PRESS: And now he drops his stink bomb 11 days before the election.
COOPER: OK. We'll -- let's listen in to Donald Trump.
TRUMP: ... and Kathy, his beautiful wife. They're here someplace for their support. Greatest wrestler maybe ever. Pretty good. And I'll tell you what? He loves Iowa, and so do I. So thank you, Dan. You're out here some -- where is Dan? Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Kathy. So nice. Thank you.
I love you, too. I love you, too. I love you, too.
As you've heard earlier today, the FBI, after discovering new e-mail, is re-opening their investigation into Hillary Clinton.
The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and it's everybody's hope that justice at last can be delivered.
In a very brief remark tonight, Hillary Clinton tried to politicize this investigation by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director of only sending the letter to Republicans, another Clinton lie. As it turned out, the letter was sent to both Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress.
The FBI would never have re-opened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense.
As you know, I have had plenty of words about the FBI lately, but I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. Justice will prevail.
Prior to today's events, I was going to start off this speech by talking about how great we've been doing in the polls. We've been running an issue-based campaign focused on change, accountability and, of course, repealing and replacing ObamaCare. We're campaigning all over the country with a plan to bring back our jobs and provide safety for our families.
In recent days, Remington polls, which is highly respected, showed us surging four points ahead in Ohio, going three points ahead in North Carolina. We're up, according to Bloomberg, at least two points in Florida. And, by the way, the people standing on lines in Florida and so many other places are unbelievable. Early voting states. And a lot of them have red hats. They have white hats. They have pins. They have shirts that happen to say make America great again. And for the most part, these are people that are voting for Trump, right? For the most part.
When they have the whole deal and plenty of buttons, we've got their vote. But the lines have been incredible all over the country. We pulled -- thank you. We pulled ahead nationally in numerous polls and this was all before this recent disaster for her, but justice for the country occurred.
We have gaps, but we are really moving, and I just wanted to say that because I don't know what's going to happen now. And by the way, speaking of Iowa, and speaking of polls, the "Des Moines Register", not my favorite paper, has us up four In Iowa.
[21:50:10] In 11 days we are going to win the state of Iowa and we are going to win back the White House.
COOPER: It looks like Donald Trump has moved off the topic on Hillary Clinton, which is really what we're looking to hear. Do you think -- were you surprised he didn't kind of make more of it tonight? I mean he earlier did and certainly it has -- there's a lot of enthusiasm in that crowd about it.
MCENANY: No, because I don't think he wants to over reach. To me, that's something the Clinton campaign has had a problem with, they over reach. I mean, a lot of times their arguments sound quite silly because they do. He made the points, he made it twice today, they're going to hear this repeatedly. That's going to be succinct, he's going to over reach. He's going to let the FBI play out and let the FBI speak for itself.
COOPER: There is a danger that he says too much and he becomes president and that impacts the investigation.
KING: Well, I think that both candidates tonight have said things that they should not have said.
COOPER: How so?
KING: Hillary Clinton said they only sent this letter to Republicans. That's simply not true. They sent the letter to the chairmen of the committee, who happen to be Republicans because the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate. And then they (inaudible) that ranking Democratic members, that's how it works. If the Democrats were in charge, the letter would have gone to the Democrats, they would have (inaudible) the Republicans.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: They all get, they all get it. Yes, they all got the e-mail. So it is just simply not true and that's an attempt to play to the partisanship to say they only sent this for the Republicans, it is not true.
Now, Donald Trump could be the president elected in of the United States in 11 days. He should not be telling the FBI how to finish its investigation. He should be saying I'm glad they reopened it, that's fine. He's going to benefit from this any way, but to say then justice will be served, they're going to get it right now, you know, it used to be rigged, now it's fine, but he is saying I'm going to be president -- you know, that is kind of Nixonian since Carl's at the table.
You know, he has to be careful. He should be more careful about that. He's going to get political benefit anyway. If he's going to be president of the United States, you can't be prejudging investigations.
MARIA CARDONA, CLINTON SUPPORTER: I actually do agree with something that Donald Trump said tonight, and that is that justice will prevail, and I do think justice will prevail.
And to quote Hillary Clinton earlier, there's not going to be any their there. And I think there's a couple of things that that they're repeating form both of the letter and in terms of what the facts are. This is not a reopening of the case, OK, number one. Number two, none of the e-mails came from Hillary Clinton's server. Number three, none of these -- we don't even know if any of these contains classified material. We don't even know if any of this is significant. And if they have seen these, they have actually have had to look at some of this, and if they don't know if it contains classified material, didn't classified materials suppose to have that big all heading that says classified?
MCENANY: No.
CARDONA: So, yeah they said, they said. If it is marked classified, it should have a big all heading that says classified.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But it could be something ...
CARDONA: We don't have all the information ...
COOPER: Right. But it also doesn't have to be classified material. It could also just be some incriminating e-mails in which somebody was discussing something which is incriminating.
Bill?
CARDONA: We don't know.
PRESS: Let me just --- before I was rudely interrupted by Donald Trump, the point I was trying to make is, now having dropped the stink bomb, I think James Comey has to. I disagree with Jeffrey Toobin. He's got to just let it all out there. I mean, he's -- how dare he say he's not sure this is significant. We're talking about an election for the president of the United States. You cannot have this cloud hanging over the election for 11 days. Put it out there -- if I could just say, put it out there and let the voters decide.
BORGER: He had told the congressional committees, when he testified, that if there were any changes in his investigation, he would notify them and that is exactly, we were talking about it earlier, that is exactly what happened today. However, I agree with you in the sense that he didn't say that -- he said we don't know if this is going to be significant or not, but he didn't say why, he didn't say this was Huma Abedin's computer, he didn't say these are not Hillary Clinton e- mails, he didn't put enough meat on the bones, and therefore, the speculation, of course, runs rampant 11 days before the election.
COOPER: Because, Carl, it does -- it does feed into, I hate the word "narrative, " it's overused, but it does fit into this something you wrote about in your biography.
BERNSTEIN: Yes, I was about to say just that. If this goes to the picture of the Clintons and Hillary Clinton and a circus Anthony Weiner sexting, her e-mails, all in this one sorted pot, we're back in the swamp and that's what Donald Trump can playoff of here.
On top of which, it seems to me that ...
COOPER: Right. It also reminds people of think like, oh, wait, so this is what it's going to be for four years ...
BERNSTEIN: That's my point.
COOPER: ... if she gets to the White House, like ...
BERNSTEIN: That's exactly the point, that oh, the circus again, we had this before and here we go again, and we're not even in the White House. And this is something that can go to those voters who might go for the Gary Johnson possible. They might say, I don't want to vote for Hillary Clinton with this.
[21:55:03] CARDONA: But in all most fairness, most of the people who think what you just said were never going to vote for Hillary anyway. So I believe ...
BERNSTEIN: I'm not sure. I think ...
CARDONA: ... that this has been -- for the majority of the American people, this has been baked in.
MCENANY: Maria, but I do think ...
COOPER: For millennial voters who didn't have that experience of the '90s suddenly getting the first glimpse of like, oh, wait a minute, this is a reminder.
PRESS: We're talking about a few number of voters that pays in elections.
COOPER: Go ahead, Paris.
PARIS DENNARD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: If the millennials are looking at this right now, they say OK, she was secretary of state, what happened? We had Benghazi, we had her deleting e-mails, we had her taking a hammer to devices. OK, fine. Look at her campaign, what did she do with the campaign? And it looks like the same type of -- if you want to use the term corruption, hiding, not being trustworthy. And so this was their experience with Secretary Clinton. That's all that they see.
(CROSSTALK)
DENNARD: And so now you want that person to go to the White House with the investigations over her head?
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: One at a time.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: OK, Bill, go ahead.
PRESS: This is Huma Abedin's machine, OK, or her device. It is not Hillary -- wait a minute. I've listened to you. It is not Hillary Clinton.
CARDONA: That's right.
PRESS: A.P. has reported. She sent none of these e-mails. We know nothing about it. And you're just jumping to conclusions.
COOPER: We got to take a break. I want to thank everybody on the panel. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, that's all the time we have. Thanks for watching. "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon starts now.
