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New Day

FBI Chief Stands Firm, Clinton Campaign Cries Foul; Sen. Reid Accuses FBI of Sitting on Explosive Link Between Trump and Russia; Interview with Rep. Chris Collins. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 01, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A blatant double standard. That's what the Clinton campaign calls the FBI's surprise announcement of a probe into her long-time aide's e-mails. The FBI director standing firm on his decision, though also saying he doesn't know what's in the e-mails yet. Hillary Clinton responding there is no case here.

[07:00:19] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Donald Trump facing new questions about how he avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes for almost two decades. There are also multiple uncorroborated reports about his campaign's links to Russia.

There's so much at stake. We're only one week from election day. We have it all covered for you, so let's begin with CNN's justice correspondent, Evan Perez. He's live in Washington. What's the latest, Evan?

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

Well, the big question today remains, will the FBI be able to provide more information about what it's finding so far in this investigation of Huma Abedin's recently discovered e-mails? FBI director James Comey has told officials at this point he doesn't plan to provide any partial updates, and it's unlikely that his investigators will be able to complete their work by election day.

A team of investigators has begun the work of digging through the thousands of e-mails which were found on the computer belonging to Abedin's husband, former Anthony Weiner. Abedin's attorney said she had no idea her e-mails were on this computer. And at this point, FBI forensics experts are still trying to figure out how they got there.

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

Comey's current boss, however, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, checked in on Comey yesterday to see how he's doing. Lynch was opposed to Comey sending his letter to Congress last Friday, but we're told that the conversations yesterday were a friendly chat between two officials under a great deal of scrutiny over the Clinton investigation -- Alisyn. CAMEROTA: OK, Evan, thanks so much for all of that. The Clinton

campaign is going after the FBI chief for what they call a blatant double standard. And a new report has Donald Trump's taxes back in the headlines. Phil Mattingly has it all for us. He's live in Chappaqua, New York, with more.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

Well, look, the Clinton campaign made very clear over the course of the last three days they are going to attack Jim Comey. They're going to attack the FBI. It has been a slow escalation, and right now it seems like it's peaking.

(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.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: 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.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: 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)

[07:05:12] MATTINGLY: And Chris, there's no question Jim Comey's letter to Capitol Hill rattled this race, but the question is how much? Will there be a big drop off in support for Hillary Clinton? Will we see gains for Donald Trump?

Well, one good indicator right now just seven days out of trying to gauge where this race actually is, take a look at where the candidates and their top surrogates are going. Donald Trump today in Pennsylvania for a very big speech on Obamacare With his running mate Mike Pence. Also going to Wisconsin. Now, these are two blue states. He needs to win those to have an opportunity. Hillary Clinton, she's in Florida, a battleground state that, Chris, if she wins, it's over.

CUOMO: All right, Phil. Appreciate it.

Let's discuss the state of play in the election with Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook.

Robby, it's good to have you. I want you to make the case for why the voters should care about Donald Trump's potential connections to Russia. What do you see that they may not?

MOOK: Well, Chris, the issue here is that the FBI has been anonymously leaking information. We're told that they're investigating one of Trump's former campaign managers. We're told that they're investigating a gentleman that Trump himself said was one of his foreign policy advisers for meeting with sanctioned officials in Russia.

But the FBI won't reveal who they're investigating and what they might be finding. And you saw there was a letter from Senator Reid saying they have potentially explosive information. Director Comey felt it was incumbent upon him to announce that the FBI had some information he'd never even looked at, but they won't reveal connections to Russia.

We know that the Russians, based on what 17 agencies have all agreed on, that the Russians stole e-mails from the DNC, they stole e-mails from our campaign, and it was James Comey at the FBI who was trying to block that information from getting released.

CUOMO: All right.

MOOK: So we just want all this information out there on both candidates.

CUOMO: All right. Well, we don't know whether or not Comey was blocking the release of that information. The intelligence community for the U.S. government does seem to be in consensus, pointing at Russia. But that doesn't really mean anything to Trump.

"The New York Times" says that the FBI has found any potential Russian connections too thin and that that's why the director decided not to tip the scales in an election with something that's politically charged if he doesn't have the proof behind it. Your response?

MOOK: Well, but Chris, this is exactly the issue here. It has come out that the FBI was actively investigating whether there was a direct cyber link between Donald Trump and a bank owned by Russian oligarchs in Moscow that, from what we can tell, that investigation has not concluded. But that was an actual open investigation.

What Director Comey did feel compelled to do was send a letter to Republican chairmen on the Hill saying he had some e-mails. We found out later he didn't have a warrant to even look at them.

CUOMO: He says he was obligated to update them because he had promised he would.

MOOK: Well, he was also asked repeatedly under oath in hearings whether he was investigating connections between Donald Trump and Russia. He refused to answer that question.

Yet, he has absolutely no problem whatsoever coming out and talking about investigations against Hillary Clinton. It's a total breach of protocol. That's why former attorneys general from Democratic and Republican administrations have said this was a mistake. We were told he was warned by his superiors at the Justice Department not to do this.

Now that he has opened the door, now that he has weighed into this election, we're saying let's get all the information out there. Let's get the information out on Hillary Clinton that he supposedly might have. Let's get the information out on Donald Trump. The voters are smart, and they can figure this out.

CUOMO: One observation, one question. The observation is, when he made the announcement that it wasn't a close call, I didn't hear the Clinton people going crazy about the breach of protocol. They liked that he had given an end to -- or then an end to this situation.

And the question is, why would you want the FBI to start spilling information out on the voters before they've had a chance to fully process it? I mean, that's why the journalists have always respected the FBI being so frustratingly noncommittal. Because what they have can carry such weight that you don't want to just thrown out on people to process.

MOOK: Well, Chris, this is the point. The FBI has been frustratingly noncommittal, and they don't say a thing when it comes to Donald Trump and investigations against him.

Yet when it comes to Hillary Clinton, for some reason, they're more than happy to talk. And Director Comey, the press conference he gave in July about Secretary Clinton, it was unprecedented. And it was arguably a breach in protocol. We were glad that this investigation had wrapped up, that it had come to an end, and we had an opportunity to move on.

[07:10:06] And moreover, it was well outside the two-month period that the Justice Department typically has for commenting on matters like this during an election season.

CUOMO: That's true. He didn't breach this, like, you know, unwritten rule that you don't influence elections when you get close. Fair point.

But I didn't hear you guys complaining that he talked about the e-mail investigation when he said he wasn't going to prosecute, that there was no close call. And I didn't hear you yelling and screaming that he usurped the attorney general's authority by saying there's no case to prosecute. That's not the FBI's job either.

But when it worked for you, you liked it. Now it doesn't work for you, you don't like it. Fair criticism?

MOOK: No, Chris, that's not fair actually. Because at that time, we were just trying to move on. Right? He came out. He said his thing. It was time to move on.

This is ten days before an election. He's not resolving anything. He's dangling out there that they have some information. We find out he didn't even have a warrant to know what it was. And he's coming out and saying, "Well, I have some information. It might be important; it might not."

CUOMO: So why do you think he did it?

MOOK: Pertinent -- I don't know. I don't know. And what was particularly disturbing was we learned yesterday, when 17 agencies all agreed that it was the Russians that stole e-mails from Democrats, it was Director Comey who said this information should not come out, because it's too close to the election.

CUOMO: Wait. Didn't he say, "I don't want the FBI name on it"? Just so we...

MOOK: Why in the world is it too important -- why is it important to hold back information about Russians, and it's not important to hold back information about a Democratic candidate for president? It is mindboggling, and Director Comey needs to answer this. CUOMO: But Robby, I get it. That's a damning allegation. But isn't

the fact that he said, "If this information is going to come out, I have no say over that. I don't want the FBI added to this list of people doing it, because I don't want to influence the election that way." Not that he tried to stop the disclosure altogether. That he just didn't want the FBI to be part of it.

MOOK: Chris, we just want fairness. He thought it was perfectly fine for the FBI to send a letter to Capitol Hill about information they had never looked at and say, "Hey, we have some information, Republican chairmen. Do you want to speculate on what it might be?"

You know, he knew they would leak that letter. He knew that there would be false headlines. The reporting was breathless on Friday. A lot of what was reported had to be rolled back, because it was mischaracterized by Republicans.

If Director Comey was so concerned about how information would be handled and about the reputation of the FBI, why did he release this letter that was full of innuendo and absolutely no facts? It is mindboggling.

CUOMO: So what do you do? If he's -- by all accounts, they're not going to say anything between now and election day. So do you leave it alone because, as you do accurately point out, we don't know what the heck's in the e-mails. So it's not like you can get beaten over the head with the e-mails themselves, because we don't know what they are. Even the FBI doesn't know.

Or do you keep banging on his door and saying, "Tell us more about Donald Trump," when it doesn't seem that's going to happen either?

MOOK: Well, the letter he released has led to endless speculation by Republicans, which is getting reported. So all that we're asking, so that reporting can be fair, is that the information get released. Release whatever information they have.

And then if you're in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on Donald Trump. Release the information on his connections to the Russians.

Maybe there are investigations now into his taxes now that it's released today. Not just that he didn't pay taxes for 20 years, but that he wrote off losses that other people had. So there's a lot out there on Donald Trump. Again, it was shocking to me that yesterday every time people asked questions about investigations pertaining to Donald Trump, they are tight-lipped and silent. Quote/unquote "sticking with protocol." When it comes to Hillary Clinton, they don't.

We didn't cause this problem. James Comey opened this door, and we're just asking for him...

CUOMO: Robby.

MOOK: ... to make this right and treat everybody the same.

CUOMO: Robby Mook, before we lose the satellite window, why doesn't Huma release the e-mails? They're her e-mails.

MOOK: You know what? Because they're on a computer that the FBI has.

CUOMO: They're nowhere else?

MOOK: She didn't know about this until they announced it. so we're asking them, get the information out there. Let's be fair.

CUOMO: Robby Mook, appreciate you making the case for Hillary Clinton on NEW DAY, as always.

MOOK: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Alisyn.

[07:15:00] CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Let's now get the other side with Republican Congressman Chris Collins of New York. He was the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump.

Good morning, congressman.

REP. CHRIS COLLINS (R), NEW YORK: Good morning. That was quite a conversation, I'll tell you.

He said the letter went to Republican chairmen. How disingenuous is that? He keeps trying and Hillary keeps trying to say somehow the director of the FBI sent this to Republicans.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

COLLINS: He sent it to the Republicans and Democrats simultaneously, same letter. What you just heard Robby Mook say to America with the insinuation the letter only went to Republicans. That's another lie. You can't trust anything that team says.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's talk about the substance of it and get your response to it.

Basically, what Robby Mook is saying is that there is a double standard that the FBI is practicing. They are willing to put out a letter and information about a half-baked investigation that they're doing into Huma Abedin's e-mails. They don't know yet whether or not they're relevant. The director admitted that. But they're not putting out any information on an alleged investigation that they are doing into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Is that a double standard?

COLLINS: Well, they also are not putting out the investigation of the Clinton Foundation, the pay for play, and all of the issues surroundings the Clinton Foundation.

This is a unique thing. The fact that Hillary Clinton caused her own problems by using her personal server, her personal e-mails, and then to compound it 10, 11 days before the election, turns out Huma Abedin didn't turn in a device that she was required to turn in. And they stumble on these e-mails, which no one expected to find.

And they're like, "Oh, my God, we thought that the Clinton folks turned in the devices they were told to turn in. They didn't. Now we've got 650,000 e-mails. We don't know what are on them."

And because Comey back in July said the investigation is closed...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

COLLINS: ... they're saying, well, subject to new information coming forward. The new information was there. That's Huma Abedin's problem, her fault...

CAMEROTA: Well, sort of. I mean, all they knew was that there were Huma Abedin's e-mails. They don't really know what the material is. So let me ask you this about your campaign, about the Trump campaign.

COLLINS: No, let me correct you there. They did determine that several of these were from Hillary Clinton and from the State Department. They did know...

CAMEROTA: I don't know that that's right, Congressman. They don't - I don't know that they know that they were to or from Hillary Clinton, but they did find metadata, to your point, that showed that it went through Hillary Clinton's server.

COLLINS: Right.

CAMEROTA: But the point is, the reason I use the term "half-baked" is because they don't have all this information. He put out this letter to Congress before knowing whether or not there are e-mails from Secretary Clinton.

COLLINS: Well, he did -- he did testify under oath to Lamar Smith, when Lamar Smith asked him the question, "Director Comey, if new information is discovered, are you going to come back to Congress and tell us?"

And he said yes. It's a hypothetical, but if new information comes -- because other than that, Alisyn, people would have gone into the election on Tuesday thinking this was absolutely resolved, the investigation was closed, we weren't going to hear anything more about it. And that wouldn't be right either when, in fact, it was reopened.

So Director Comey was put in between a bad rock and a hard place by Huma Abedin not turning the device in.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

COLLINS: And let's go back to who's at fault here. Hillary Clinton...

CAMEROTA: God it.

COLLINS: ... put our nation's secrets at risk.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's talk about the suggestions -- there's lots of reporting this morning, none of it corroborated yet by CNN, but there are other reputable news agencies that say that there -- the FBI and other investigators are looking into whether or not there is a connection between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.

Here are some of the headlines today. This is from NBC: "FBI making inquiry into ex-Trump campaign manager's foreign ties," meaning to Russia and Ukraine.

CNBC says, "Comey opposed naming Russians, citing election timing." That he didn't want to come forward because of the election, talking about the possible links to the Trump campaign.

"Slate" saying, "Was there a private server communicating with Russia?" Between the Trump campaign.

Are you troubled, Congressman -- if any of these are true, are you troubled by a possible connection between the Trump campaign and Russia?

COLLINS: Oh, I don't think there's any connection. I do agree it would certainly appear Russia is the one that's hacking the Democrats' e-mails. And through that -- and I can't condone hacking, but you have to admit that, because of that and because of WikiLeaks, we're finding out all the dirty tricks the Democrats have. They had the fix in from December 14.

Your own network, CNN, had to fire Donna Brazile on October 14, for getting the town hall questions ahead of time, leaking them to the Clinton campaign.

To me, the irony here is they cheat, they -- they have the fix in, the dirty tricks, and so forth. All of this has come out through these WikiLeaks, which again we can't condone hacking.

CAMEROTA: Right.

COLLINS: But the irony is it's their bad behavior...

CAMEROTA: Sure.

COLLINS: ... that is coming forward. And now they're beside themselves because America knows they're a bunch of cheats and liars.

CAMEROTA: But Congressman, how about the connections between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia?

COLLINS: Well, Donald Trump has said he's never met Vladimir Putin, that he doesn't do business in Russia. He has said that quite affirmatively.

And if the Russians are doing this, they're doing it. If they don't like Hillary Clinton, well, so be it. But the irony is when Debbie Wasserman Schultz has to resign the day of the Democrat convention. Now CNN fires the deputy on October 14.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

[07:20:18] COLLINS: And now we find out the fix was in for Bernie Sanders back to December 14. I mean, this is a cesspool. The Democrats are living in a cesspool. And it's coming out. So they're deflecting. It's plain and simple.

CAMEROTA: Well...

COLLINS: When you're guilty, you deflect.

CAMEROTA: One more question.

COLLINS: What did Huma Abedin say? "I don't know how those e-mails got on my server."

CAMEROTA: Well, they're -- it's actually her husband's laptop. It's not her server. It's her husband's laptop.

COLLINS: With her e-mails on it. So obviously they shared it. They didn't just jump in there on their own.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, one more thing. This is what Senator Harry Reid, a letter that he sent to the FBI this weekend about those possible connections.

COLLINS: What a letter.

CAMEROTA: Let me read a portion of it so that our viewers know what I'm talking about. "In my communications with you and other top officials" -- He's referring to Director Comey -- "in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about the close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public."

Are you saying that Director Comey did not brief Senator Harry Reid about those connections?

COLLINS: I mean, Harry Reid, what a political hack he is. He was bringing up the Hatch Act just the other day. Doesn't even understand what the Hatch Act is. Harry Reid is all politics all the time. He's nothing but a political hack.

And again, they're going after Director Comey in a very inappropriate way, someone they praised back in July.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

COLLINS: So this is political posturing because they're -- they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. And they don't know what to do other than to deflect and point fingers at other people.

CAMEROTA: OK.

COLLINS: Instead of just saying, yes, we did what you said we did, so this is a typical political deflection right here near the end.

CAMEROTA: OK. Congressman Chris Collins, thanks so much for joining us on NEW DAY.

COLLINS: Good to be with you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Quickly, away from the election and into some breaking news in Baltimore.

A school bus has collided with a commuter bus. The buses have heavy damage. At least five people are hurt. The -- the information is preliminary here, but we are told that there is no one seriously injured at this point.

And as you get more pictures, you're going to be see -- look at that bus, that commuter bus. Look at how that school bus angled into it. That is hard to believe. And that will be some blessing, if true. We do not know if there were any kids on that school bus.

We're working on getting more information. We'll bring it to you when we get it.

CAMEROTA: My gosh. Just look at that scene. Scary stuff.

All right. We will update who you when we have it.

So you've just heard from both campaigns about the e-mail controversy facing Hillary Clinton's campaign and the reported ties to Russia of the Trump campaign. Will these issues affect voters? Our pundits take it up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:26:59] CAMEROTA: So we just heard from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager and a top supporter of Donald Trump. They are both talking about the latest e-mail controversies and the swirling questions about Trump's campaign's ties to Russia. A lot of possessives there.

Let's discuss this. CNN political commentator and Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany and CNN political commentator and vice chair of the New York state Democratic party, Christine Quinn. She supports Hillary Clinton. Ladies, thank you for being here.

Kayleigh, let me start with you. If there is an active FBI investigation into whether or not there are Russian -- there are ties to Russia between the Trump campaign and Russia, should that be made public so that voters have all the information they need about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump when they go to the polls on Tuesday?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure. I'm for all information being given to voters. And that includes, by the way, the investigation against the Clinton Foundation. Because Hillary is not subject to one criminal investigation. She's, in fact, subject to another FBI investigation. Four field offices are looking into wrongdoing at the Clinton Foundation.

So -- and Director Comey, when asked about that, notably, in the congressional hearing, did not confirm whether or not that investigation existed. We now have reporting from "The Wall Street Journal" that it does. So that includes finding out if Hillary is not subject to one investigation but two.

And also, I quickly want to point out that it is absurd for Robby Mook to come on this network and say that "We did not cause this problem; Comey did."

You did cause this problem. When Hillary Clinton used Bleach Bit, when she hammered devices, her associates, and when she used an illegal server where she deleted 30,000 e-mails. You did cause this, Robby Mook. And to blame this on Comey is absurd. Take the blame and apologize to the American people.

CUOMO: Well, first of all, she has apologized. Second of all, Kayleigh, you know, I'm sure you learned at Harvard Law School the difference between "but for" causation and "proximate causation." If not for what Hillary did with the server, none of this would be going on. Maybe something else would, but not this.

But what we're dealing with right now is because of Jim Comey, because he hasn't even looked at the e-mails yet. So you do have the original cause, you're right, but the specific cause of what we're dealing with right now, you can't carry everything forward.

But I want to make another point. You've made it, and Mook made it. OK, so I take it to you, Christine.

CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: All right.

CUOMO: Why are we calling for the FBI to dump unprocessed, unfully- investigated information that they may not even want to make a case on? Why would you want to dump that on voters about Trump or Clinton? How would that help anything but prejudice and the lack of information?

QUINN: Well, look, I think in a more traditional campaign cycle, that would be on the list of things you would never call for. But this is far from that. And I think the Clinton campaign and the Trump campaign are calling to put all the information out there maybe for different reasons but at the core for the Clinton campaign, it's because we don't believe there's anything there.

And as we saw on Friday and throughout the weekend, everything changed after the speculation and the kind of immediate craziness of the first couple of hours.

CUOMO: It sounds to me like both sides are asking for a Pandora's box to be opened that will overwhelm people. Because you may say there's nothing there. The FBI may agree. But now you could get a letter from Paul Manafort to some, you know, unnamed Russian -- you know, some guy's Russian name that may be suspicious to us but means nothing to the FBI.