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FBI Clears Hillary Clinton Again in Email Review; Clinton Campaigns in PA, MI, NC Today. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 07, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's a rigged system, and she's protected.

[05:58:30] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton cleared by the FBI once again.

JENNIFER PALMIERI, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: We're glad that this matter is resolved.

TRUMP: It's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There's a lot of anger in this election, but anger is not a plan.

TRUMP: Just think about what we can accomplish in the first 100 days of a Trump administration.

CLINTON: It all comes down to you, my friends. Our progress is on the line.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, November 7, 6 a.m. in the East. Hillary Clinton getting a late break in the final hours of the campaign. The FBI director coming out, sending another letter to Congress, and this time he says, "We looked at all the newly-discovered e-mails. There is nothing there." There will be no indictment of Hillary Clinton based on the e-mail scandal. The cloud of suspicion, though, is still over her head.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and Donald Trump is still saying that the system is rigged and asking the American people to, quote, "deliver justice" at the polls.

Both candidates are barnstorming battleground states in the final day of campaigning. Just one more day until the election.

Let's begin with CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown in Washington. Good morning, Pamela. PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you,

Alisyn. FBI investigators, under intense pressure, worked around the clock to review the large volume of e-mails that surfaced, according to sources.

And key to this effort was software that was refined from its previous use for the initial private server investigation. As one official said, without this technology, this would have taken a lot longer. And it turns out most of the e-mails were personal or duplicate e- mails that had already been reviewed by the FBI.

So, the probe is considered over for now when it comes to Hillary Clinton, with the FBI sticking to its initial recommendation of no charges. Though with not all of the deleted e-mails recovered and not all of the devices in the FBI's possession, it's always possible, of course, something else could turn up that would require more review.

Now, as for the others who were part of the probe, including Huma Abedin, the FBI is still working on some remaining aspects of the review, including determining how the e-mails ended up on this laptop. We're told a ten-year-old laptop, an older one in the first place.

Now, Abedin's attorney have said she doesn't know why these e-mails were there, because this wasn't a computer she used. So the expectations remain that investigators will have to talk to Abedin, again.

And just to point out, it isn't uncommon to come across new evidence after concluding a probe, which is what happened here in October. Normally, investigators take a look to see if anything changes in their conclusions, and it's not a controversial issue.

But, of course, this case isn't a normal case, given the election and the stakes. Now, all the focus is on Comey and his decision he made to send that letter in the first place alerting Congress -- Chris.

CUOMO: Well, his decision in July started all of this. There's no question about it. Pamela Brown, thank you very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

CUOMO: So how are the campaigns reacting to this FBI director's surprise announcement, just 48 hours before the election? The Clinton campaign breathing a sigh of relief, but they're staying pretty quiet about it. That is not the take of Donald Trump.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us with that.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris. Quiet for a reason. This is ostensibly very good news for the campaign. Good news that Hillary Clinton doesn't want to talk about right now on the campaign trail. And here's why.

When it comes to this campaign, when it comes to the message the Clinton campaign thinks gets them over that line of 270 electoral votes on election day, it is a message that needs to be about not the FBI, but Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): With mere hours left on the campaign clock...

CLINTON: This election is a moment of reckoning. It is a choice between division or unity.

MATTINGLY: Hillary Clinton hitting the ground in Ohio and New Hampshire, making no mention the FBI director's conclusion that she should not be charged in the latest e-mail probe. Instead, Clinton focusing on uniting a divided nation.

CLINTON: I'm asking for the support, not just of Democrats, but also Republicans and independents in this election.

MATTINGLY: Clinton aides tell CNN questions still linger about whether the damage has already been done.

PALMIERI: We are glad to see that as we were -- that he has found we were confident he would, that he has confirmed the conclusions that he really reached in July; and we're glad this matter is resolved.

MATTINGLY: Clinton trying to rally voters, deploying yet another big name to get out the vote. Cleveland Cavaliers star, LeBron James.

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS PLAYER: President Hillary Clinton.

MATTINGLY: And in New Hampshire, Khizr Khan, the Gold-Star father who gave a rousing and emotional speech at the Democratic National Convention.

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF CAPTAIN HUMAYUN KHAN: Thankfully, Mr. Trump, this isn't your America.

MATTINGLY: Clinton also penning an op-ed in "USA Today," listing her top four priorities for her first 100 days in office, saying to voters, "We have to decide who we are."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And Alisyn, if you want to know the priorities for the Clinton campaign, just take a look at where Clinton is going to be today. That tells you everything. On defense in Michigan, making a stop in Grand Rapids and then off to Pennsylvania, a huge rally in Philadelphia in front of Independence Hall with President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, former president Bill Clinton, all there, trying to get that primetime final primetime moment for voters. Then heading to North Carolina. A final midnight rally in Raleigh.

If she can defend Michigan, defend Pennsylvania and flip North Carolina, guys, she will be in very good shape -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Phil, when you want to close the deal, you call in the boys from Jersey. OK? That's what she's been doing with Springsteen and Bon Jovi. Thanks so much, Phil. Donald Trump, meanwhile, going into attack mode against FBI Director James Comey again, saying that his decision to clear Clinton is proof that the system is rigged. Trump now calling on voters to, quote, "deliver justice" to Clinton at the ballot box.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty joins us with more. Good morning, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn.

Yes, that's right. Donald Trump is sticking to this message that he thinks that Hillary Clinton is guilty, and that, of course, is in defiance with what the FBI director now says, that this is now, in essence, a closed matter.

And Trump is now casting doubt on the broader conclusions of the FBI as part of his closing message, telling voters it's up to them to bring justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: She's being protected by a rigged system.

SERFATY (voice-over): Donald Trump trying to undermine the FBI's announcement that they have cleared Hillary Clinton, again.

TRUMP: You can't review 650,000 e-mails in eight days. You can't do it, folks. Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it. The FBI knows it. Now it's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot.

SERFATY: But law enforcement officials tell CNN they worked around the clock and that the e-mails were mostly personal and duplicates of what had already been reviewed.

Trump's reaction: a complete 180 from the praise he once expressed for the FBI director.

TRUMP: There's little doubt that FBI Director Comey and the great special agents within the FBI will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against Hillary Clinton.

SERFATY: Now facing the final day of campaigning, sprinting to the finish, Trump traveling across a whopping six states on Sunday alone, keeping up his attack on Clinton, culminating his push in blue states with a midnight rally in Virginia.

TRUMP: Hillary right now is fast asleep.

SERFATY: Trump publishing his closing argument in a new op-ed in "USA Today," offering his contract with the American voter, outlining what he calls a 100-day action plan to clean up corruption and bring change to Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Trump has another marathon day today, campaigning in the must-win states of Florida, North Carolina. Then it's on to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan for him. And his last rally tonight in Michigan, this is a late-in-the-game ad and new focus by the Trump campaign. This is a state that has not gone Republican since 1988.

The Trump campaign, as Clinton is clearly playing some defense there, sensing some opportunity to flip this state -- Chris and Alisyn.

CUOMO: Let's discuss. We have our political panel: Ron Brownstein, Errol Louis, Jackie Kucinich.

Errol Louis, are you surprised that Director Comey once again decided to breach protocol and say something that will impact this election?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I think one of the big post-election stories is going to be what, to me looks, as an outsider -- I think for all of us -- looks like chaos within the FBI: leaking like a sieve, obvious dissension, statements from people like Rudy Giuliani, saying, "We've got something up our sleeve. I'm hearing from people in the agency," and then this sort of back and forth, where it was completely unnecessary, as far as we can tell.

It seems like some of this is being driven by Comey trying to get ahead of leaks out of his own agency, of which he has clearly, at least lost -- at least partially lost control.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He really did make it about him. He had an insurrection this summer. Agents who feel that the Clintons are a criminal family, and so he felt that he had to come out in July and explain why he wasn't recommending charges. Then went completely breaking protocol, said nobody would have charged her. It was not even a close call. But then also criticized her, starting something he couldn't stop.

And then he kept putting his thumb on the scale, nine days ago putting out this letter when if it was all hands on deck we can look at this and make a determination, then why publicly announce the probe? And why allow yourself to be part of this campaign.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: But he had to come out and do this -- but he had to come out and do this last announcement, because if he hadn't and they had found that...

GREGORY: I don't know about nine days ago.

KUCINICH: No, no, no, no, no. Not the original. But I'm saying, you know, coming back yesterday, putting out a letter saying, "Hey, we didn't find anything," I think they had to do that because they came out with the first one.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The fact that they were able to go through it so fast with the advanced technology they had makes it more inexplicable and indefensible that they put it out in the first place, without going through it and determining whether there was any relevance. The only explanation is, in fact, that he felt that he was going to be

kind of blindsided by leaks within his own agency if he did not do it. But it is really an indefensible kind of series of decisions that has -- 41 million people have voted already. We updated the number, we talked about it in the last hour. And they voted during -- while this cloud was out there that he introduced into the campaign. It's just an extraordinary moment.

CAMEROTA: So Errol, any idea what effect it has had or will have on the election, all of this Comey effect?

LOUIS: Well, we've seen some of it already, right? I mean, it seems to have made it difficult for candidates that are down-ballot, not just for Hillary Clinton, where her momentum was clearly sort of hampered, but the entire sort of brand, the Democratic brand took a serious hit so that people were thinking about splitting their vote or crossing party lines and maybe had some hesitation. Who knows what those tens of million people did while all this was hanging over her.

BROWNSTEIN: In Florida alone, over 6 million people have voted. I mean, this is an incredible number. You kind of wrap your head about it, and they were all voting with this kind of nonevent kind of...

CUOMO: But you had 40 million. If we take your number, 40 million, all right? Forty-one million. All right. You're going to have at least twice that vote tomorrow. We're good with that?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CUOMO: With the numbers, if Ron is not on your side, you've got a steep fall.

So, the last image that they're going to have of these two people, in Trump's case, is him having forwarded bogus accounts of an indictment coming. Whether or not he believed them or not, he ran with them. And now he has gone back and forth about Comey based solely on whether or not he likes the outcome.

What can that do if you're one of those people who are like, "Look, I'm a GOP. I don't like -- I don't like cheating on my team. But this guy, I don't know if I have a role putting him in a seat"?

If you see this behavior right before election day, can it matter?

GREGORY: I think it can. One of the things you saw prior to nine days ago, that Comey letter coming out. This campaign was all about Trump's fitness for office. His greatest vulnerability that most Americans don't think he's qualified or temperamentally fit to be president. It then, in turn, became all about her.

In the last 48 hours, we're seeing Trump frankly talking like a tyrant, again, right? I mean, this is a guy who said, "I'm going to jail my opponent. I may not accept the election results," and now his vice president saying, "Oh, no, she committed a crime by mishandling classified data." In contradiction to what Comey said and he's saying, Trump is saying that this is all rigged again. Again, this is not somebody who sounds like he loves America and loves American institutions. It can remind people what they found unhinged about him.

BROWNSTEIN: That's the thing. The last few points in this election, the difference between when she's up two, three, four or five, six, seven...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: ... are voters who believe both that she is not honest and trustworthy and Donald Trump is not qualified and doesn't have the temperament to be president. What Comey did was shift their focus, I think, more to their doubts about Clinton. Now she has an opportunity to have, maybe, that flow back to their concerns about Trump, but a lot of damage.

GREGORY: And she also has recovered some from the hit she took from Comey. We've seen in the past few days to pull out from that and gain an advantage.

CAMEROTA: I don't know, Jackie, we might be looking at this in way too nuanced a way. Don't some people -- aren't there a whole batch of voters who think e-mails equal bad? That's it. They've just made up their mind. All this stuff, all these different nuances with Comey. They've already decided something bad is -- something stinks.

KUCINICH: Well, a lot of those people are probably voting for Donald Trump, or they're voting for Gary Johnson, or they're voting for Jill Stein.

GREGORY: They made that decision a long time ago.

CUOMO: They're not going to decide the race. That group.

KUCINICH: There is a reason that she did not bring up the e-mails after this happened. She didn't go on stage and say, "I was vindicated again," again.

GREGORY: Didn't break the law.

KUCINICH: Exactly. Exactly. High fives all around. Still not crooked.

CAMEROTA: The reason she didn't bring it up is because -- why do you think she didn't?

KUCINICH: She doesn't want to remind people.

CUOMO: It's got to be bad. Who determines this election. People who think "e-mail equals bad" aren't going to determine the election. That's really the issue. Who's going to come out? Who feels the most motivated? If people feel aggrieved who are Democrats, she got a bum rap here. Maybe they're extra motivated to come out.

We're talking about the surge among Hispanic voters around the country. Such high enthusiasm, a lot of that driven by the economy, increasing wages, seeking immigration reform, the Trump effect there. So, I mean, but there is part of her coalition that may feel like, "Yes, we've got to get out there because of how this is all..."

CUOMO: Or Errol, or it's voters who are saying, "Look, I'm a GOP. I back my team. I can't back this guy." And then hearing that, wow, he was so wrong about this. He said an indictment was coming. He had Rudy saying it, and they were just dead wrong.

But I mean, that makes it even worse. If he's still saying, "I'm still right. They couldn't have gone through the e-mail. They're still a crime." You know, if you're one of those people, do you stay home?

JOHNS: This is what Clinton and, more to the point, her surrogates, including the president of the United States, have been pounding home over the last week or so, which is that, you know, this is somebody whose facts are wrong, whose temperament is off base, who can't be trusted with the nuclear codes, you can't do this. This has been the disqualification game that she's been playing, really, from the convention on.

CAMEROTA: All right, guys. Stick around.

CUOMO: You're going nowhere, not for about 30 hours.

Coming up on NEW DAY, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook $ump's senior communication adviser, Jason Miller. The battle of the spin begins.

CAMEROTA: Also some breaking news overnight, former attorney general Janet Reno has died. Her sister tells CNN that Reno had battled Parkinson's Disease for 20 years. She was the first woman ever to hold the post of attorney general, becoming one of the most recognizable and polarizing figures in Bill Clinton's administration.

She faced criticism for her handling of the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, which killed 80 people and the Elian Gonzalez custody saga. That 5-year-old were taken by armed federal agents, you'll remember, from his Miami family home to be returned to his father in Cuba. Reno ran unsuccessfully for governor of Florida in 2002. She was 78 years old.

CUOMO: All right. So, tomorrow, it's all about how you get to 270. What would a Clinton win look like? What does Trump need to do to win? We're going to show you the paths to victory for both. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREGORY: Thank you Chris. Very exciting. I think there's three themes to look at here as we look at this race to 270. Is there enthusiasm, momentum for Donald Trump? The distinction between the white and the nonwhite vote and the fact that Hillary Clinton has so many ways to get to 270. Look where she is in our projection right now. She's already at 268. So it gives her a big advantage as she tries to put states together. If we just look at Clinton here, so much focus on the big battleground

states. She doesn't really need them. How about just holding onto Nevada? It's done for Hillary Clinton. If she wants to expand that map, she's got New Hampshire here where she's looking good at the polls. She's at 278. We're talking about white/nonwhite votes. Perhaps historic turnout among Hispanics. Maybe that helps her down here in Arizona. Maybe it tilts the balance in battle state North Carolina. Highest percentage increase of Hispanic voters in North Carolina. That gives her a very comfortable margin, at 333.

For Donald Trump, you look at it differently here. And that is, he's got a much steeper hill to climb. So we talk about the battleground states. He's really got to run the table. So if he's got momentum, he's got to be able to do that.

[06:20:08] You've got to give him Nevada. He's got to hold Arizona down here. You have to win Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire and then he's only at 269. So that's where, if he's really got momentum, he can go to states that are largely white, have non-college-educated voters like a Michigan. That could put him over the top. If not Michigan, then Pennsylvania. Maybe too steep a hill to climb, but that's what he's got to be able to do to get to 270.

CAMEROTA: OK, David. Thank you very much. Come on over. Let's talk about...

BROWNSTEIN: Don't forget that second CD in Maine, though, David. That could be his 270.

GREGORY: That's true. That's true.

BROWNSTEIN: Maine and Nebraska, one of the two states that.

CUOMO: Those are the two that -- they never have.

BROWNSTEIN: They never have. The second district is rural, more rural, you know, not as urban and there are -- there are certainly Trump fans who have your 269 plus Maine; and you're at 270, and they get there.

All right, Errol...

GREGORY: I set you up for that.

BROWNSTEIN: Totally. Totally.

CAMEROTA: Leave an opening for Ron to dive through. Very nicely done. Is there really some scenario, or is this just a wonk's dream of 269/269?

GREGORY: Well, I mean, look, the whole point is trying to think through the dynamics that would lead it to one outcome or the other. But the reality is, I don't think it's -- I mean, 269. You know, we've all sort of played with that. They were doing that with Obama in 2008. Hoping that Omaha, the district in Nebraska that might -- it's -- right, exactly. We've talked about all those scenarios, too. I think, though, the real question is, is there going to be sort of a

long-term realignment? You know, does Arizona go Democratic for the first time in a generation? That's an important question. Does North Carolina, which, remember in '08, it was Democratic. In 2012, it was the closest state, but it went Republican. Does this now go back to the Democratic column? Those are important questions. That is going to sort of lead to questions about what the party stands for, who their main constituents are, what's the Clinton coalition, win or lose, going to look like? Is it a viable path to victory for the Democrats? Likewise for the Trump campaign.

BROWNSTEIN: The answer to your question is clearly yes. I mean, the geography is following the demography. And the demography is going to going to produce some of the starkest advisory we've ever seen.

The NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll had Trump leading among non-college whites over Clinton by the same margin that Ronald Reagan did against Walter Mondale on his 49-state landslide in 1984.

On the other hand, as we've seen, he is facing historic resistance from minority voters. Maybe historic turnout from Latinos. And he is also at risk of becoming the first Republican to lose college-educated whites in the history of polling. And what that means is the Rust Belt states that been reliably Democratic over the past 20 years in places like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, a less Ohio and Iowa. They are really at risk.

Those are the states where the Trump coalition is powerful. And he is just battering on the doors. On the other hand, his weakness with minorities and college whites are strengthening the Democratic possession in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida in the southeast; Colorado and Nevada in the southwest; and then adding Georgia and Arizona one step behind.

So there is an historic reversal under way in this election, even if many of these states don't tip. The fact that he gets very close to Michigan, as she gets very close to Arizona, is a forecast of where we are going in the next 12 years or 15 years.

GREGORY: Let's just remember, everything in the Trump even is the precipice of accomplishing is still smacked in the face by the future of this country demographically. And everyone who has looked at this in politics, particularly Republican politics, does not seem like a way forward that is Trumpism, in the shrinking of the party, making it a whiter coalition. They see about how to take conservatism and expand its reach into a new America and gaining a larger share of non- whites and gaining a l.

CUOMO: Let's put the numbers up that we've seen so far in early voting with the Latino population in the key states. You've got Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, which has been pink.

So, you see Ron says the Florida number's low that he's read, that it's about 900,000. So you've got a 100 percent change.

So, Jackie, these numbers are as of Saturday night. So when you look at this, is this enough to offset the white anger of legitimately frustrated working class people that Trump has become a proxy for. Numerically, it hasn't. But in terms of the outcome tomorrow and what actually shows, is that an even trade?

KUCINICH: The outcome tomorrow. The country is going to be in the same place, no matter who's president. There's still going to be people who are angry and feel disenfranchised. There's still going to be, you know, people who don't, who feel like, you know, their guy didn't win.

So, the -- whoever is going to be president has a lot of work to do. You know, from the get go. But I just want to talk about Florida for a minute. Even the Hispanics that would normally go Republican, Cubans, Univision poll. They're not all in for Trump. It's split. I think it's like 49-43. And they're usually reliable Republican votes in the state of Florida.

CUOMO: Huge family values people, though, the Cubans. You know, very strong Catholic community. They take values and lifestyles very high on their list of priorities. Maybe it's working against them.

[06:25:03] BROWNSTEIN: You know, to your question, though, Chris. I mean, you have two dynamics on each side. For Trump, you have the possibility that he will, obviously, improve among the blue-collar whites in all of these states but lose ground among the white-collar whites.

So that's kind of one offset. The other one is that Clinton seems to be benefitting from an increased Latino turnout. She may suffer a little bit of a dip in African-American turnout and how those kind of two offsetting dynamics play will decide places like North Carolina and Florida in particular, where you have all four of these factors in -- kind of in motion.

CAMEROTA: Errol, let's look at where the candidates are today.

CUOMO: What a day. We think we work hard.

CAMEROTA: So Trump is going to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan. Wow. Hillary Clinton is going to Pennsylvania, Michigan and then North Carolina. What do you see here?

CUOMO: Pennsylvania and Michigan are because they are not early voting states. So you've really got to sort of, whatever you're going to get, you have to get it today for tomorrow being election day.

North Carolina seems to have been sort of a sentimental favorite, I think, for the Obama folks. They were really upset about losing it narrowly last time. The president himself has gone there repeatedly, as has Michelle Obama. Hillary Clinton wants that state, as well. It's kind of a dagger through the heart of her opponent in this particular case, and it sort of portends well for the future. It's also got, you know, some state legislative races. It's got an important Senate race there. There's a lot of reasons for her to be in North Carolina. GREGORY: I think it's interesting to look at Pennsylvania versus

Ohio. If these are states that both of them, with white working-class voters, that should be a target of opportunity for Donald Trump. If you are -- if you're a Democrat, you can overwhelm nonwhite turnout in Philadelphia on election day. Maybe you can't do that, as well, in Ohio. Because it's...

BROWNSTEIN: More college whites in Pennsylvania. The suburbs of Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia are the difference why Ohio is tougher for a Democrat than Pennsylvania.

CUOMO: The Smerconishes. He always says, "The people who live where I live say..."

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much.

All right. Stay with CNN all day and night tomorrow for complete election coverage. We have every race covered for you and every result.

CUOMO: Trump and Clinton. As you just saw, they are leaving it all out on the field. How's it shaping up for each candidate? We're going to take you to the key battlegrounds and get a feel on the ground, next.

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