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Source: FBI Director Stands by Decision to Revive Clinton Probe; GOP Senator Jokes about Shooting Hillary Clinton. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 01, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A lot of you may be asking what this new e-mail story is about.

[06:00:05] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you, Huma. Thank you, Anthony Weiner.

CLINTON: There is no case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are not the hallmarks of a responsible investigation.

TRUMP: I have to give the FBI credit. It took a lot of guts.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: One U.S. senator's shocking comments caught on tape.

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), NORTH CAROLINA: I was a little bit shocked that it didn't have a bullseye on it.

CLINTON: This is one of those make or break moments.

TRUMP: To all Americans, I say it is time for real leadership.

CLINTON: It truly is in your hands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, November 1, 6 a.m. in the East.

A blatant double standard. That's what Clinton calls the FBI's surprise announcement of that probe into Huma Abedin's e-mails. Clinton says, quote, "There's no case here."

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Need more controversy? How about this? Donald Trump's campaign is facing new questions this morning about whether he cheated to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes over nearly two decades.

Also, there are multiple and uncorroborated reports about his campaign's potential links to Russia. This all matters more because of where we are, seven days out from the election.

We've got it all covered for you. Let's begin with CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez, live in Washington -- Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

The big question today remains, will the FBI be able to provide more information about what its investigation into Huma Abedin's recently- discovered e-mails are showing.

FBI Director James Comey has told officials that, at this point, he has no plan to provide partial updates, and it's unlikely that his investigators can complete their work by election day. A team of investigators has begun the work of digging through these thousands of e-mails, which were found on the computer belonging to Abedin's husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Abedin's attorney says that she has no idea how her e-mails were on the computer at this point. The FBI investigators are still trying to figure that out. That's what the FBI computer forensics experts are trying to do.

Now, Comey's been under attack, including from all three most recent attorneys general under the Bush and Obama administrations. Now, all three find fault with Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation and particularly for the publicly commenting on the latest e-mail discovery just days before the election.

Comey's current boss, however, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, checked in on Comey yesterday to see how he was doing. Lynch was opposed to Comey sending his letter to Congress on Friday, but we're told that the conversations yesterday were a friendly chat between two officials under great scrutiny over this Clinton investigation -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Evan, thanks so much for all of your reporting.

The Clinton campaign is going after the FBI chief for what they call, quote, "a blatant double standard." And a new report has Donald Trump's taxes back in the headlines.

Phil Mattingly has it all for us, live from Chappaqua, New York. Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

There's no question on Friday when all of this news broke, the Clinton campaign was rattled. They were shocked. They had no idea this was coming. By the end of the weekend and into Monday, it became very clear their strategy: to escalate their attacks on the FBI and the FBI director, and Alisyn, doesn't look like that's going to slow down any time soon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLINTON: There is no case here. MATTINGLY (voice-over): Hillary Clinton and her campaign firing back

at FBI Director James Comey, slamming his decision to notify Congress of a new investigation into thousands of e-mails found on a computer belonging to the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. Clinton's campaign turning the tables on Comey.

ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard.

MATTINGLY: Seizing on reports that Comey refused to publicly comment on potential ties between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.

On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid accused Comey of sitting on, quote, "explosive information," Trump's Russia connections, without offering proof. CNN cannot corroborate any of these reports. But U.S. officials do tell CNN that Russia is behind hacks that could potentially influence the U.S. election.

Meanwhile, Trump is capitalizing on Comey's new e-mail probe.

TRUMP: It took guts for Director Comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had.

MATTINGLY: Comey has only said the e-mails found on disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner's computer, quote, "appear to be pertinent to the now-closed Clinton private server investigation."

TRUMP: We can be sure that what is in those e-mails is absolutely devastating. And I think we're going to find out, by the way. For the first time. Thank you, Huma. Thank you, Anthony Weiner.

MATTINGLY: Abedin's attorney responding, saying in a statement, quote, "from the beginning Ms. Abedin has complied fully and voluntarily with State Department and law enforcement requests" and reiterated Abedin only learned of the e-mails on Weiner's computer on Friday from the press.

Clinton continuing to apologize for her private e-mail server but issuing a challenge to investigators.

CLINTON: I'm not making excuses. I've said it was a mistake, and I regret it. 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.

MATTINGLY: All of this as "The New York Times" obtains documents that they say show Trump potentially escaped tens of millions of dollars in federal personal income taxes in the 1990s by using a tax avoidance maneuver later outlawed by Congress.

Trump's campaign responding to the report in a statement saying, quote, "Any tax experts that you have consulted are engaged in pure speculation. There is no news here."

(END VIDEOTAPE) MATTINGLY: And guys, if you want to get a sense of where the race is, just one week out from election day, you can really just kind of look at the map, get a sense of where Hillary Clinton is, where Donald Trump is, where their top surrogates is -- are. That's how you know how things are actually going.

So take a look. Donald Trump, he will be in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania today. A very big speech with running mate Mike Pence in Pennsylvania about Obamacare.

Hillary Clinton, she will be in Florida, hopping on the plane with her in a couple hours. President Obama, he's going to Ohio. Vice President Joe Biden, he's in North Carolina. So what does that all mean?

Where Hillary Clinton and her top surrogates are going, those are true battlegrounds. If she wins any one of those states, likely she locks up the White House. Where Donald Trump is heading, those are places where Hillary Clinton is favored. He needs upsets if he wants to win this race. That's what the map is showing right now.

The Trump campaign says they're on offense. They think they've got places to move right now. The Clinton campaign says that's just pure desperation -- guys.

CUOMO: That's -- and both takes are because of what we just heard from the FBI director. Phil Mattingly, thank you very much.

No question his decision changed the state of play. Let's discuss.

Political reporter for "The Washington Post," Phillip Bump; CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich; and CNN political analyst David Gregory.

So Mr. Bump, you have Jim Comey, who goes from making a call that it isn't a close call to making a call that keeps this election close. Does he deserve the criticism of the political overtones and the timing?

PHILLIP BUMP, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, I mean, it seems pretty clear that, you know, people who know this far better than I do are criticizing the timing of this, saying that it is a step outside of what normal procedure is. So I think that it seems pretty clear that he deserves criticism for that.

The race, however, seemed to have been tightening even before Comey. We haven't even really seen poll results, yet which suggest the Comey revelation on Friday really affected things that much. I mean, I think the Donald Trump campaign, which was trailing last weekend, appears to still be trailing now, wants to focus on that as being the reason for the turnaround, because it gives him the idea that they can talk about momentum, so on and so forth. I'm not sure I really buy it.

CUOMO: He literally thanked Huma Abedin and thanked Anthony Weiner. On the list of "I've never heards," I've never heard a candidate for president thank people who brought controversy, even without basis, into the campaign instead of making a case for themselves, ever.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, in theory, down ballot should be thanking them. Because I think that's where we might see some of the movement. Because down-ballot candidates can now -- like someone running for Senate or someone running for House, can now talk about Hillary Clinton instead of having to defend Donald Trump and whatever bombastic thing he said that day. At least for this particular news cycle.

So while people are going to the polls early, they're casting their votes, and these Republican candidates aren't talking about Donald Trump, that's good.

CAMEROTA: I mean, look, David. At first it sounded like a bombshell. Oh, my gosh, maybe thousands of e-mails previously undisclosed, found on this laptop. Until you dig in and figure out that at least James Comey doesn't know anything about them. Maybe they're duplicates. Maybe they're not relevant or pertinent, as he said.

So now that the dust has settled and people got more word that we really have no idea what these e-mails are and they may be nothing, what do you think the effect is on the election?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, we simply don't know, other than the obvious, which is there's a lot more focus on this than there is on Donald Trump. If there's a guiding light in this campaign, it is that a majority of Americans, upwards of 60 percent, believe that Donald Trump is neither qualified nor has the temperament to be president. That's a very important attack area for Hillary Clinton. And she's trying to revive it on the campaign trail yesterday as she's talking about Donald Trump.

So this takes some of that attention away. We were a week ago talking about how this was a campaign that was only about Donald Trump. And now it's a reminder of what people don't like about Hillary Clinton. That's a problem.

[06:10:04] I do think there's a high degree of confidence, if you hear Secretary Clinton on the trail, that these are duplicate e-mails or there's certainly not anything untoward about them that haven't already been investigated, which is what's so disruptive about putting all of this into the record now.

CUOMO: Well, normally careful with her words where it concerns her own exposure, for her to say there is no case, it is unusual.

So let's play to the other side of the ball. People who are worried about Trump's qualifications, temperament, whatever word you want to put on it, they have new food for thought also. Comey didn't want to talk about this suggested investigation into Trump and Russia they have, because it's too close to election, too thin, but he will talk about e-mails he hasn't read yet.

The reporters now putting out different versions of what they say is the truth about Trump, that some spy came out to "Mother Jones" magazine and said that he had been asked to do oppo research and found the invention of some kind of server that Trump has.

Trump's campaign says this is, you know, junk, that it doesn't exist. But all these headlines on your screen right now are coming out about ties between Trump and Russia. Doesn't of it stick? We have to say, a lot of that stuff is uncorroborated...

BUMP: That's right.

CUOMO: ... and probably not a coincidence, although the writers will say, "No, we're working on this when it comes. It's not timed to the end of the election."

BUMP: Well, I think the reporting, which actually cites what the FBI is saying about any possible links between Trump and Russia, you saw the CNBC headline there. I think that's something worth digging into. There is a "New York Times" report out last night which suggested that there really wasn't any real -- the FBI didn't find any real links.

I think there's a lot of speculative stuff out there that, you know, some of the other headlines we saw out there. And I think that, at the end of the day, the question for Donald Trump, as David Gregory just said, has always been, do people see him as presidential?

More than half, in every single ABC/"Washington Post" poll that we've done over the course of this election, at least half, more than half have said, no, Donald Trump is not qualified to be president. I think that all those things do is it gives partisans a reason to sort of celebrate, and if Donald Trump's having some bad news cycle, but I'm not sure it actually does anything to help or hurt Donald Trump individually.

CAMEROTA: Well, Senator Harry Reid, "Go ahead. Go ahead."

GREGORY: I was going to say, Frank Forrest's piece in "Slate" about a potential connection, there's a very strong story between Trump's servers and -- and Russia. But we don't know where all of this goes as a matter of investigation.

But this kind of makes the point that the Clinton campaign is trying to make, which is wait a minute. This is a lot of range of speculation, including from Donald Trump, suggesting that these e- mails that they're looking at of Hillary Clinton, you know, are part of the cache of e-mails that were deleted. There's no evidence that that's the case at all. That is not, in fact, the case. And he's just putting that out there willy-nilly. \

And you have the FBI, you know, saying that they're investigating this, not talking about the Russia piece.

The political dimension of all this, because we're in a zone of unknown when it comes to the investigation, is firing up the Democratic base. It may have been a little soft on Hillary Clinton. And now making the argument, look, "You've got to get out there and do this. This is a case of Clinton's enemies overreaching." That's the argument here. And I think that's what they want to make down the stretch. CAMEROTA: I was going to make the point that Senator Harry Reid sent

this fiery letter to James Comey, saying, "Come on, come out with it. Reveal what we know, because we've been briefed. You are investigating about the ties between Trump and Russia.

CUOMO: And Manafort also. You know, Paul Manafort, who was the campaign manager. You know, t here's speculation on the other side that the reason they got rid of Manafort wasn't how he was managing the campaign but what they eventually realized, his liability was in terms of his connections.

CAMEROTA: But instead, let's get to something that Donald Trump has not denied. That is that he has not paid taxes for...

CUOMO: Celebrated it.

CAMEROTA: He hasn't paid it for a couple of decades. Now there's this new "New York Times" report that says that he used a very sketchy, they say, dubious loophole that, in fact, his tax advisers advised him not to use because it would come to the attention of the IRS. But basically, that he avoided paying federal personal income taxes for years.

Jackie, what is interesting about this is remember when Republicans saw that as a huge, you know, stain, as a huge liability. Remember how Mitt Romney said 47 percent of the country isn't paying taxes, and that was seen as such a criticism.

Now it's OK that Donald Trump doesn't pay personal income taxes?

KUCINICH: What's not OK is that we haven't seen Donald Trump's taxes and that he hasn't released them, breaking with, you know, years and years of precedent.

But no, this is very basic. This is fairness. And this is Donald Trump did not pay taxes. He's this rich guy, and he used all of these loopholes because he can do it to get out of paying taxes.

And I think that -- the intrigue with Russia is really interesting, and if it's true, it could be very, very important. But this is -- this is very easy to understand and is very straightforward. And I think that might have more implications than perhaps the Russian speculation at this point in the race.

[06:15:03] CUOMO: All right. We have to go, but just to make things clear, Trump's lawyers never told him not to do what he was doing. In a legal letter, which big shots always get from tax attorneys, they said there was so little legal basis for it that he may be exposing himself to problems with the government. Not, not to do it.

CAMEROTA: But didn't they advise him not to do it?

CUOMO: No, he did it, but they asked him for a legal opinion. And they said, due to the lack of definitive judicial or administrative authority, substantial uncertainties exist with respect to many of the tax consequences of the plan. CAMEROTA: So I understand that legal word salad perfectly. Panel,

thank you very much.

Election day is one week away. So be sure to join us next Tuesday for election day in America. We'll have every race and every result covered. Stay with CNN until the last vote is cast.

CUOMO: All right. So we have a Republican senator in North Carolina who is apologizing for a stunning quip about gun owners targeting Hillary Clinton. Wait until you hear what he said, and you can say if it's a quip or not. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:05] CUOMO: North Carolina senator Richard Burr apologizing after CNN obtained audio of him making a terrible joke about gun owners shooting Hillary Clinton.

CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju joins us with more. Manu, what do you got?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

That incumbent GOP senator, Richard Burr, who also chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee is surprisingly in one of the toughest races in the country, with polls in North Carolina showing him tied with a little-known Democrat, Deborah Ross, in a race that could determine the next Senate majority. Now I've obtained this audio of a private meeting Burr had over the weekend with volunteers in Worsborough (ph), North Carolina, when the subject of Clinton and guns came up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURR: Nothing made me feel any better than, I walked into a gun shop, I think yesterday in Oxford. There was a copy of a rifle magazine on the counter. It's got a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it. I was a little bit shocked at that. Didn't have a bullseye on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, that resembles what Donald Trump said in August, that Second Amendment people should take matters in their own hands when it comes to Clinton.

But unlike Trump, Burr apologized when I asked his campaign for comment, saying the comment was, quote, "inappropriate and I apologize."

Now, at that same meeting, Burr also said that "I'm going to do everything I can to ensure Clinton cannot fill that final Supreme Court seat," one, to keep it vacant for four years. And this comes as Burr has calculated to win reelection. It's in no part about revving up his base, and that means also praising Donald Trump, which he did at that meeting, saying that Trump aligns, quote, "perfectly" with where the GOP is today -- Alisyn and Chris. CAMEROTA: All right, Manu, thanks so much for all of that.

So could Senator Burr's comments have any impact on his race and the Senate majority? He is fighting a tough re-election bid in the battleground state of North Carolina. Let's bring back our panel. We have Phillip Bump, Jackie Kucinich and David Gregory.

David, I'll start with you. What do -- do you think that there are any repercussions from his comments for him or Trump?

GREGORY: Well, there very well could be. And we've talked about this last hour. Senator Burr is responsible for the comment that he made. Really over the line, inappropriate. This casual talk against -- about violence against Hillary Clinton, which he has made, and you're right, Donald Trump has made on numerous occasions. There were supporters of Trump up in New Hampshire, a state senator who talks about Hillary Clinton should be shot for treason.

I don't know where these people think that this is appropriate public discourse to talk about assassinating Hillary Clinton. And are they not nimble enough of mind to come up with a different analogy when speaking about the gun debate?

There ought to be repercussions, and people will make a judgment about this. And what you say away from cameras and when you think nobody is listening is instructive about your overall approach as a senator, you know, in the United States.

And by the way, separate from that but also disturbing is to make a promise to completely obstruct our Democratic process of having the president fill a Supreme Court vacancy, which is why we have elections in this country, so that president choose to fill those vacancies in the way they see fit.

So I don't think that he's showering himself in glory here in a tight race.

CUOMO: And that is no throwaway comment. We know that Ted Cruz is going to try and make that manifest in a very real way. We thought we've seen obstruction so far. We probably haven't seen anything yet if Hillary Clinton becomes president.

But let's talk about why this matters. It's because of why it happens, OK? It's a throwaway comment. He's talking to volunteers. He didn't know that it was going to get this broad an audience. All true, true, true.

But the reason it's not a quip is because a quip is something that's clever and witty and funny. This is none of those things. But it is effective. And it becomes a subconscious when you're politicking, that you get a feel for what's going to work and what isn't. You don't say, "I'm surprised she didn't have a target on her," if he was talking about something he felt would offend, that could hurt him.

What does that tell you about what the feelings are about what works with that base? BUMP: Yes, I mean, this is a GOTV rally. This is a get-out-the-vote

rally. He's out there, he's trying to get his folks excited; he's trying to get them invigorated to talk to voters and get them turned out. It's an incredibly stupid thing to say. It's a dumb joke. It doesn't make any sense. For...

CUOMO: Got a good laugh in the room.

BUMP: Sure, right. Because, you know, there is -- to an extent, this is a microcosm of what you've seen with Donald Trump, feeding off the audience, saying whatever you want, because it gets a good cheer. Donald Trump does that all the time.

CUOMO: But with that audience. I've been to tons of GOTV rallies, growing up in that stupid business. I never heard anybody say, "Maybe we go shoot that opponent."

BUMP: No, right. Exactly. But I mean, you think that paired with the Supreme Court thing shows how politics has changed in the past few years. Right? I mean, the fact that you're talking about the Supreme Court obstructionism and, at the same time, feeling as though it's appropriate to your own base to make a joke along that line suggests that something is very different.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, let's talk about sexism. There are lots of people, women primarily, who think that the criticisms against Hillary Clinton just smack of sexism through and through, that they wouldn't be the same criticisms used against -- if she were a man running.

So last night, Samantha Bee on her comedy show brought this up with her guest, President Obama. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA BEE, HOST: If and when Hillary is president, what do you think will be the female equivalent of "You weren't born in this country"?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF HE UNITED STATES: That's an interesting question.

BEE: Thank you. I have a lot of those.

OBAMA: I think the equivalent will be she's tired, she's moody, she's being emotional.

BEE: There's just something about her.

OBAMA: There's something about her.

When men are ambitious, it's just taken for granted. Well, of course they should be ambitious. When women are ambitious, why? That theme, I think, will continue throughout her presidency, and it's contributed to this notion that somehow she is hiding something.

BEE: What a nasty woman. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The first spin of this interview that I read this morning was "Obama says Clinton's ambition a problem as president."

CAMEROTA: "Obama says Clinton's a nasty woman."

KUCINICH: Although, I will say, the nasty woman, the Hillary Clinton campaign has taken that and owned it. And you see it on shirts everywhere around the country. So they've sort of...

CAMEROTA: They've turned it into the Janet Jackson version.

CUOMO: Look, Trump had a moment -- Trump had a moment of emotional honesty up there. That's what came out of him. When he hears a woman kicking his buttinsky on television, that's what comes out of him: "Boy, she's nasty." Because that's not what he expects.

KUCINICH: Right. I think it depends on what issue you're talking about. If you're talking about she's emotional and some of the things that were just brought up in that interview, absolutely. That is looking at it through a lens of sexism.

But I've also -- but on the same token, I've also heard her criticism of the e-mail server and some of the things that happened at the State Department as being sexist, which just isn't the case.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you. Great to talk to you all.

Up next, the future of the Supreme Court. If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, will Republicans try to keep the court at just eight justices? We discuss how that would be possible next.

CUOMO: Quick advance, the answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)