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President Obama Campaigns With Hillary Clinton; FBI Recommends No Indictment of Hillary Clinton. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 05, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: The director of the FBI said, ultimately, it falls short of criminal intent, so he does not recommend charges. Here is Director Comey just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department in 2014, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received.

Eight of those chains contained information that was top secret at the time they were sent, 36 of those chains contained secret information at the time, and eight contained confidential information at the time.

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

Although there is evidence of potential violation of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to bring charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent, responsible decisions, and to also consider the context of a person's actions and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

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.

All the cases prosecuted involve some combination of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information or vast quantities of information exposed in such a way to support an inference of intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the United States or efforts to obstruct of justice. We do not see those things here.

Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.

I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was through this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done honestly, competently, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump has responded wasting no time tweeting his disdain. Two tweets for you.

Let me read. Number one, he tweets: "The system's rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for fear less. Very, very unfair. As usual, bad judgment." And then another, "FBI director said crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow. #riggedsystem."

Meantime, Clinton's campaign ready to be finished with this. This statement released a little while ago -- quote -- "As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal e-mail and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved."

Again, all of this reminder, we are minutes away from seeing Secretary Clinton on that stage in Charlotte with the president of the United States for the very first time on the trail together.

Evan Perez patiently waiting here, our CNN justice correspondent, with really sort of the news here.

So the FBI determined 110 of the e-mails stored on her private server had classified information. Explain that for me and the likelihood that the Department of Justice will respect what we heard from the FBI today.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I will take your second question first.

BALDWIN: OK.

PEREZ: We expect that the Justice Department will follow the guidance that the FBI director laid out this morning.

But on the question of the 110 e-mails, now, these are e-mails that the CIA, the NSA, other agencies determined was classified. This is information that they owned, in the parlance of the U.S. government, and they decided that this was e-mail, these were e-mails, this was information that did not belong on an unclassified system, not to mention a private e-mail server outside of government control.

So we now know those 110 e-mails, 52 different chains. And more than that, we know about seven e-mail chains that Comey mentioned in which Hillary Clinton was participating in the conversation and that included classified and other high-level pieces of information, special access programs, things that should never be discussed in unclassified e-mails. But one of the important things to take away from today is what Jim

Comey did today was essentially give a save to the Justice Department. We had obviously some questions that were raised because Loretta Lynch met privately with Bill Clinton in the last few days while she was on a trip to Phoenix.

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There were questions raised about whether or not this affected the outcome of this investigation. And what he did today was, he owned all of this. He said, this is what we looked at, and this is what we found. This is what we're recommending to the Justice Department.

This is almost never done. You never hear the FBI director come out and say this is the end of the investigation or, by the way, these are the bad we found, but it doesn't rise to the level. So, again, very unusual day. Very unusual situation. He didn't even tell Loretta Lynch or any of his bosses what he was about to say when he took the podium today, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. He essentially said no one's heard this before and here I go.

Evan Perez, thank you so much, covering all this for us.

Let me turn now to Matt Miller. He used to serve as director of the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice from '09 to 2011.

Full transparency, he supports Hillary Clinton for president.

But, Matt, great to have you on. Welcome.

MATT MILLER, FORMER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: OK. With your former -- your Justice hat on for me, we saw Director Comey recommending no criminal charges. Is this a fait accompli?

MILLER: Yes, it is. I think really it's been a fait accompli from the beginning of this investigation.

There was never likely to be any outcome than what we saw today. From the beginning, if you look at what Secretary Clinton actually did, sure, it was a mistake to set up her e-mail and handle it mail the way she did. But if you were going to prosecute her for receiving classified information that she didn't know was classified at the time, there are dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of people inside the government you would have to also prosecute, because I guarantee you, if you went through the e-mails of every senior official who regularly deals with classified information, you would find similar situations as to what they found with Secretary Clinton's e-mails.

BALDWIN: I know the crux of this -- as I was talking to our legal brain Jeffrey Toobin, the crux of this is intent. Right? MILLER: Right.

BALDWIN: So the FBI concluding she never intentionally disclosed classified information.

But Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, let me read this for everyone -- he released a statement today saying the FBI's decision defies explanation. He says, in part: "No one should be above the law. But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of the law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent."

Matt, does he have a point?

MILLER: He has a point that no one is above the law. But I actually think no one deserves worse treatment under the law because of who they are either.

And Director Comey, by having this really unprecedented press conference today, gave an opening for people like Speaker Ryan to call into question his judgment. It's very unusual and it is even inappropriate under DOJ rules for Director Comey to do what he did.

If you're not going to bring charges, if you're not going to put the weight of the government behind them in court, then you are supposed to say...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Should he have come out and done this?

MILLER: No.

BALDWIN: Are you surprised that Jim Comey, instead of Loretta Lynch?

MILLER: Absolutely not, he shouldn't have.

I cannot think of another example when the department after conducting an investigation declined to bring charges, but publicly announced conclusions like the director of the FBI did. It really turns due process on its head and puts Director Comey in a position where he is not just the investigator, but he's also the judge passing judgment on whether these practices were appropriate or not.

BALDWIN: Why do you think? Do you think this is because Loretta Lynch shared oxygen with Bill Clinton a couple of days ago on a tarmac on a plane?

MILLER: No.

Certainly, I think by having that meeting, she kicked the decision a little bit to Director Comey, said she was going to accept his recommendation. But it still doesn't explain why the director had the press conference he did. The only thing I can think of, he's always been someone who's very

carefully cultivated his image of independence. And knowing that he was going to come to the conclusion he did that there shouldn't be any charges, I think maybe he felt he had to give Republicans a bone by really making these...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But what about, Matt, yes, yes, maybe throwing a bone, but there has been one mega-criticism of the Clintons and Hillary Clinton is that she sort of is above the law or makes her own rules, and this just, if you talk.

MILLER: Well, but it doesn't. What the department is supposed to do is actually determine, did she the break the law or not? And that's what this investigation was for. And at the end of the investigation...

BALDWIN: But isn't this a judgment issue?

MILLER: Well, there is a question about judgment.

And voters can pass judgment on that. But that's not what the FBI is supposed to do. The FBI is supposed to look at criminality or not. And if they don't find criminality, which they clearly didn't in this case, they aren't supposed to insert themselves in the middle of a political campaign, as Director Comey did.

He really gave ammunition to Republicans in a way that is inappropriate for a law enforcement official to do.

BALDWIN: OK. Matt Miller, thank you so much. I appreciate your voice here.

MILLER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And we have got these live pictures.

I see a lot of iPhones and cameras, which tells me perhaps this moment is imminent, where we will see -- you see the signs "Stronger together," together being both the president of the United States and Secretary Clinton. They will walk out.

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This is the first time the president has stumped on the trail with the presumed Democratic nominee. Big picture here.

I have got David Chalian standing by, our CNN political director, CNN presidential historian Timothy Naftali, who is the co-director of NYU's Center for the United States and the Cold War, and CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar, who is there in Charlotte where we are watching and waiting for those two to appear.

So, David Chalian, first just to you, can you just tee this whole thing up with me? Obviously, you have the optics of this. Walking down the stairs out of that Air Force One. Walking out together. All the while this news hanging over both of them, or depending on who you ask, a burden off of her shoulders.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes.

Listen, this is probably not the day that Hillary Clinton would have designed or her campaign would have designed for the first time she hit the campaign trail with Barack Obama, but she does get a sort of legal victory here and removes this cloud of potential criminal charges on the same day that she does get to campaign with the popular president.

So at the end of the day, it's all and all a pretty good day for Hillary Clinton. Of course, having those comments from Jim Comey, they just will continue to give her opponents fodder to really go at the issues of judgment and trust.

I would be listening very carefully at this event, Brooke, when the president's coming out. What is he saying to help validate her in those quarters? Because that's been her vulnerability here. That's what got reinforced with some of Jim Comey's comments today. Let's listen to what the president has to say that sort of boosts her in the trust area.

We know that he is expected to sort of talk to his own personal journey of how he went from Clinton opponent to now cheerleader in chief and sort of walked through how he got there. I would imagine you are going to hear him address some of these concerns.

BALDWIN: What a relationship arc and, ah, to be a fly on wall of that plane cabin as they were flying down to Charlotte.

Brianna, what will you be listening for? And will Hillary Clinton touch this at all?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think so, Brooke. I think, as you heard David say, this obviously would not be the day that she would have chosen this to perhaps overshadow this big event with President Obama.

I don't think we're expecting for her to rain on her own parade because this is an event here in North Carolina that is trying to build enthusiasm here in a state that her campaign is considering a must-win. President Obama did not win here in 2012. He did in 2008.

Her campaign thinks that if they can keep Donald Trump from winning this state, that she has a much better pathway to the presidency and that his may be foreclosed, in part because of this.

I think we're going to hear him vouching for her. Even though there are no FBI -- even though there aren't any charges, as we heard today, there are still questions about her judgment and the FBI director made that very clear. So I think that we're going to hear President Obama providing her some backup and vouching for her qualifications, and also for her judgment. BALDWIN: OK. I know it's loud in there. The music is teed up. We

are about to see the president and Secretary Clinton appear on that stage there in Charlotte, North Carolina. A key, key state here. We know that Obama, then senator , took it in '08. He lost it in 2012. Obviously, Secretary Clinton hoping it turns blue come November.

Tim Naftali, to you, sir. Listening to all of this, and we were chatting earlier and you were referring to as the security clearance in Washington is like a Willy Wonka ticket.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes, indeed.

BALDWIN: How do you mean?

NAFTALI: What I mean is that when you talk about the culture of secrecy at State, I should you should differentiate between the political appointees and those who are part of the permanent government or civil servants.

BALDWIN: Talking about Clinton vs. anyone else.

NAFTALI: Well, yes.

And the political appointees, the career Foreign Service officers, they understand how to deal with classified information. Their careers would be ruined if they mishandled classified information. And I don't -- I suspect you will find that the culture among the permanent government in State is very, very respectful of classified information and maintaining classification.

BALDWIN: David Chalian, we -- I was looking at polls from I think it was two weeks ago, the CNN/ORC poll, where we were essentially talking to voters and asking about whether they thought Hillary Clinton did something wrong with regard to her servers.

And some 60 percent-plus said yes. I know maybe they're not saying this is a trust issue, but it is a judgment issue. How does the Clinton campaign turn that around ahead of November 8?

CHALIAN: Remember, Hillary Clinton herself sort of fits that category. She has called it a mistake and said that she wouldn't do it this way again.

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I think she's going to have to probably go through another round of identifying this as a mistake after how strongly Jim Comey came out questioning.

BALDWIN: What does she need to say, though, other than it was a mistake? What more does she need to say?

CHALIAN: I do think, Brooke, there's this one bid that still needs to be cleared up. There is lots of videotape of Hillary Clinton saying that she never sent a classified e-mail that was classified, marked classified at the time it was sent or received.

Jim Comey said today that was the case. That's not what they found in the investigation. They found seven e-mails that did bear markings of classification in e-mails that sent or received. I do think that itself is going to have to be cleaned up by her to some degree.

And, again, to address as she did last week these questions, she knows she has a trust deficit. She understands that. She spoke about this recently. And I would imagine that she's going to have to continue. It is not a one-and-done kind of thing, especially when the FBI director comes out in such a high-profile way, clears you of any criminal wrongdoing, recommends no prosecution whatsoever and that any prosecutor would sort of turn their head at this and say there is not enough here to prosecute, and yet still raised these questions.

So she can sort of accept that political victory of being cleared while also addressing any lingering concerns as she tries to put it to bed. But, again, I do think that this moment that's upcoming here, we're not likely to hear much about this, because this is going to be a real attempt to try to bring Barack Obama into her campaign effort, reawaken that Obama coalition.

You have got to remember this is happening at a time, Brooke, when Barack Obama is popular.

BALDWIN: Fifty-two percent.

CHALIAN: Yes. He's at one of the highest periods of his second term since his second honeymoon after the second inaugural there. This is one of his most popular periods of his second term.

Timing is just right for Hillary Clinton. We rarely have seen -- remember, the last two two-term presidents, Al Gore didn't ask Bill Clinton to come out and campaign for him, so he wasn't really part of the effort to try to get his successor in place in a big way. And George W. Bush was quite unpopular at the time that John McCain was out campaigning.

So watching a sitting president go out there and really campaign for a successor in this way, we haven't seen in quite some time.

BALDWIN: What a day. We're waiting for the moment here. Quick break.

Our eyes are in Charlotte, North Carolina, waiting for the president and Secretary Clinton. Be right back.

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BALDWIN: All right, back to our breaking news here on this Tuesday afternoon. Live pictures, Charlotte, North Carolina, where we are watching and waiting to see the president of the United States take to the stage with the presumed Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. Meantime, North Carolina's a busy place today, because we know in just

a matter of hours, about 150 miles away in Raleigh, North Carolina, we will be seeing Donald Trump at his own campaign rally, North Carolina a huge, huge battleground for the race for the presidency here in 2016.

All of this, keep in mind the backdrop of these rallies, this is the day when we now have seen the director of the FBI, Jim Comey, he's come out recommending no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her personal use of those e-mails servers, those multiple devices while she served as secretary of state, although he did multiple times use the word careless in describing her usage of said servers.

Again, I mentioned, just down the road from Charlotte in Raleigh, there is -- in Raleigh, there is a rally, forgive me -- where Donald Trump will be speaking in a couple of hours.

So, North Carolina. Let's begin right now with Sara Murray, who is there in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Sara Murray, talk to me about Donald Trump.

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, obviously, this is a chance for Donald Trump to change the narrative. We were talking all day yesterday about how he had sent off this tweet with anti-Semitic overtones, and his campaign was dealing with the fallout from that.

Today, they are trying to stay focused on Hillary Clinton and on this decision and they sort of see it as a gift that Hillary Clinton will be traveling with President Obama today, that she appeared on Air Force One. That's a way for Donald Trump to continue to make the case that the system is rigged in the favor of the Clintons, that they benefit from privileges that average Americans don't.

For instance, just look at how she's traveling with President Obama. Just look at how these charges against her have gone away. So, I think we're going to hear a lot of that from Donald Trump today as he attempts to pivot away from his own controversy and turn the heat up on Clinton.

BALDWIN: All right, Sara, stay with me.

And, Tim Naftali, let me just bring you in, because as we are watching North Carolina and Charlotte, you were saying, just as a historian, that you think this is the first time that we have seen a sitting president campaigning with a potential -- I should say presumed nominee pre-convention?

NAFTALI: Yes.

Ordinarily, when you have a retiring president, that person if they like their party's nominee will start campaigning with that nominee after the convention, when they're the official nomination. I believe -- we have to go check and I'm sure people -- the people out there can help us find this -- but I don't believe there is an instance where you had a presumptive nominee with the sitting president campaigning together before the convention, anointed that person.

BALDWIN: And your takeaway, given what we heard from Director Comey, no indictment is the headline for Hillary Clinton, although you know that the Trump campaign will take the pieces of this today, turn into an attack ad.

NAFTALI: Well, look, first of all, I believe that we will discover some day that the timing of Mr. Comey's statement is not an accident. You wouldn't want the president of the United States to be campaigning with somebody who is under the threat of indictment.

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The very fact that the FBI director did something that no FBI director's ever done before to basically wipe away this issue makes it possible for the president of the United States not to worry about a sudden indictment. Ordinarily, it is the Justice Department that would issue an indictment or seek an indictment.

The FBI is not in the prosecution business. It is in the investigatory business. But Mr. Comey has bipartisan respect.

BALDWIN: He does.

NAFTALI: He was a remarkable...

BALDWIN: But Bushes.

NAFTALI: He stood up for American privacy in the W. -- George W. Bush administration. He was embraced by both parts of the House and the Senate. He's a man with a great deal of respect.

And he has a legacy, which he doesn't want to lose. So this is probably the only person in the justice area of the Obama administration who could have said what he said. The fact that he said it today is very important. He says it before the president of the United States appears for the first time with the presumptive Democratic nominee.

This has been a great day for Hillary Clinton. There will, of course, be a lot of talk about her carelessness, and indeed it was enormous, and that of her staff. But it is noise now. There won't be an indictment. And it is the indictment that would have been the killer for her campaign.

BALDWIN: Indeed. And so instead she gets to walk out on the stage in Charlotte and be embraced, figuratively speaking, by the president of the United States, who has just amazing approval ratings in his final months in office.

Sara Murray, let me just pivot back to you, as, again, we're talking about Donald Trump also in North Carolina today. Under the veepstakes file, I know he's meeting with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. Newt Gingrich will be campaigning with him, what, tomorrow?

MURRAY: Yes, that's right, Brooke. It is sort of an unusually public audition of potential V.P.

candidates. Of course, in the past, we have seen presidential nominees campaign with people that we speculated will be the V.P. candidates. But this is a little clearer.

There are sources telling us that Donald Trump could roll out his V.P. as early as the end of next week. And so to see him make stop after stop, today, it is going to be with Corker, tomorrow, it is going to be in Ohio with Newt Gingrich, obviously, these aren't the home states of these folks.

These are just sort of bringing them along for the ride, and it's a chance for Donald Trump to get to spend a little bit more time with these people. And there are a lot of people who think that Bob Corker could be a great fit for Donald Trump. He brings a little bit more foreign policy gravitas to the ticket.

He is obviously a senator in Washington, so he knows how to sort of work the levers of power there in a way that Donald Trump does not and in a way that he's admitted he wants help from in a running mate. Newt is a little bit more of a loose cannon. So, it should be interesting to see him out on the trail tomorrow, Brooke.

BALDWIN: The public auditioning point noted. It's been fascinating watching this whole thing play out on the Trump side.

Sara, thank you.

We have Michelle Kosinski. She is standing outside. Or there she is inside. She's in that Charlotte event there, where we are waiting to see the president and Secretary Clinton.

We did hear, Michelle, from the White House, from Josh Earnest. Now, we will hear nothing from the president as it pertains to anything FBI Director Jim Comey said today, correct?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, they just completely punted on this.

I guess you could say it was somewhat unexpected. I mean -- oh, here they come. They are here.

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