Return to Transcripts main page
New Day Saturday
Trump Praises FBI On Clinton Email Review; Sources: Emails Linked To Weiner Sexting Probe; Sources: Part Of Jet Found Half-Mile Away; Iraqi Forces Make Progress In Mosul Offensive; E-mails Linked to Weiner Sexting Probe; Russian Gamers Try to Stop Nuclear War; Historic Game at the Wrigley Field; Aired 8-9a ET
Aired October 29, 2016 - 08:00 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 CANDIDATE: -- the FBI to tell us what they're talking about.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is bigger than Watergate, in my opinion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just put your head in your hand?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. We've been waiting for something like this.
TRUMP: The FBI would never have reopened this case unless it were a most egregious criminal offense.
CLINTON: The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton tried to politicize this investigation by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's in a terrible spot, Anderson, had he sat on this information, he'd be criticized.
CLINTON: It's imperative that the bureau explain this issue without any delay.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning and welcome to Saturday morning. I'm Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to start off with you. Let's talk about what's coming up this hour --
(VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: The NTSB investigating two fiery incidents involving two planes, a FedEx cargo jet in Fort Lauderdale first.
PAUL: That's what you're looking at there, but take a look at this at Chicago O'Hare's Airport. Twenty people were hurt when this American Airlines flight preparing for takeoff caught fire on the runway. We have a live update for you on the investigations in just a moment.
But first, ten days until the election and fresh e-mail controversy for the Clinton campaign. It's not Wikileaks. It's Anthony Wiener's sexting scandal that seems to be coming back to haunt Hillary Clinton. This morning the FBI is reviewing e-mails sent or received by top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. She, of course, is Anthony Wiener's estranged wife.
BLACKWELL: These e-mails are surfacing as part of the investigation into Wiener's sexting and coming from at least one device shared by Abedin and Wiener according to a law enforcement official. Now another official says the e-mail number in the thousands.
PAUL: FBI Director James Comey now says the bureau, quote, "cannot yet assess whether or not the new material is significant," but Hillary Clinton is demanding some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: We don't know the facts, which is why we are calling on the FBI to release all the information that it has, even Director Comey noted that this new information may not be significant, so let's get it out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: In the meantime, Donald Trump is seizing on this stunning news that seems to be possibly breathing new life into his campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is bigger than Watergate. This is bigger than Watergate in my opinion. This is bigger than Watergate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: We've got our political team of experts here to break down all of this this morning. Let's start with Michael Smerconish, host of "SMERCONISH" starting in an hour, CNN political commentator, and we have Mark Preston there with us, shot change for a moment.
Michael, starting with you. You had an interview, sit down with Vice President Joe Biden, and this was scheduled before that letter was sent over to leaders of Congress, so good timing on that.
And when you introduced the idea or what we know now is that Anthony Wiener was the impetus for this discovery, he had a pretty interesting response. Michael? Do you hear me?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH": Victor, yes, sir I can. How are you?
BLACKWELL: Good. SMERCONISH: Very interesting, Joe Biden wanted to make it clear he was no fan of Anthony Wiener. I was curious to ask the vice president because after all he's the former head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I wanted to know does he make of this language.
It's so vague and as you point out we were asking him at a time when the whole story was breaking, he wanted to make clear that he agreed with Secretary Clinton that Comey -- FBI director Comey should put out everything that he's got because voters are now completely in the dark.
More than 10 million Americans have already cast ballots and what are the rest of us to make of it with just ten days to go. So he was perplexed, but he wanted everybody to know he is no fan of Anthony Wiener.
BLACKWELL: Yes, Mark, this would have been one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations. Do we have Mark Preston?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Hey, Victor, good morning.
BLACKWELL: All right, we'll get to Mark in a moment. Let me stay with you, Michael. So, let me put that to you. This would have been a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If they started to look into these potential e-mails and have said nothing until after the election, then of course, Republicans would have said that FBI was covering up for Hillary Clinton.
SMERCONISH: Well, Victor, I think you make an interesting point about the role reversal that has just taken place in the last couple of weeks with regard to how partisans on the left and the right look at the FBI director.
[08:05:06]Because it was the Democrats who very recently were looking at Comey and saying he might be a Republican, but he's a man of integrity.
He looked at all the facts that pertained to Secretary Clinton and her private e-mail servers and he determined that while there was some wrong doing it didn't rise to a criminal level.
All of a sudden now it's the Democrats who are saying how could he possibly have done this? This violates a protocol within the Justice Department of not doing something in the final 60 days of an election.
And it's the Republicans who have been condemning of FBI Director Comey for several weeks now who are saying, hey, there's something to it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have written that letter.
BLACKWELL: So I think we have now this exchange between you and the vice president over former Congressman Anthony Wiener that we didn't have a moment ago. Let's watch it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think Hillary she said what I'm told she said I correct that she released the e-mails for the whole world to see, the whole world to see. They can continue their investigation and the best of my knowledge won't prejudice the investigations, but that's sort of the language the agency always uses and it doesn't mean anything, and so it's unfortunate.
SMERCONISH: I would be remiss if I didn't note that if she had released all the e-mails from the get-go, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
BIDEN: Well, that's true, but I don't know where this these e-mails came from --
SMERCONISH: Apparently Anthony Wiener.
BIDEN: Well, oh God. Anthony Wiener, I should not comment on Anthony Wiener.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Obviously not a big fan there.
SMERCONISH: He is not a fan of Carlos Danger, but --
BLACKWELL: OK.
SMERCONISH: Victor, he conceded the point when I said to him she has herself to blame for this, meaning Secretary Clinton, if she had been more forthcoming from the get-go, if all the e-mails had been released, then she wouldn't be in this fix with just a ten-daytime period to go.
BLACKWELL: Quickly before we let you go, this interview was timely for another reason. The day started before that letter was sent over to congress because Vice President Joe Biden's name was being floated as potential secretary of state if Hillary Clinton wins in ten days. What did you learn about that from his perspective?
SMERCONISH: He put the kabosh on the idea that he would be interested in being her secretary of state. Now, you'll have to come back and watch in 50 minutes because I told him that among my Sirius XM radio listeners there's this consensus that he would be ideal for the Supreme Court of the United States, that if they can't confirm Judge Garland to be Justice Garland, then maybe it ought to be Justice Biden. Tune in and you'll see what he says.
BLACKWELL: Excellent tease. Michael Smerconinish, thank you so much.
SMERCONISH: Thank you.
PAUL: That's right. He knows how to make that happen.
All right, let's talk to CNN politics executive editor now, Mark Preston, who is with us. Mark, good to see you this morning. I want to talk more about what Michael was just talking about. The FBI director and whether these e-mails should have all been released beforehand, because even Tom Fuentes earlier in the show said and I want to quote here, "It's been like a scavenger hunt," meaning trying to get all of these e-mails out of the Hillary Clinton camp.
Who looks worse at this point in time? Is it the FBI director who can't seem to get a break from either party or is it Hillary Clinton?
PRESTON: You know, I think they both do. For two reasons, one, I think that Director Comey has been putting a terrible situation. He has as law enforcement official who is nonpartisan and who has a terrific reputation here in Washington, D.C., has had to navigate these very choppy waters between a very contentious presidential race.
So, you know a lot of people were mad as Michael noted, specifically Democrats when he came out and gave a news conference rather Republicans when he came out and gave a news conference earlier this year and said he wasn't going to press charges.
And then of course, we've now seen the flip where Democrats were saying what is Comey doing, how could he do this 11 days out, ten days out today?
Having said that, Hillary Clinton looks terrible in this and that's why we saw her come out yesterday say and that she wants to know what's going on with this investigation because she knows that this goes at the heart of one of her biggest weaknesses, the honest and trustworthy issue, which has dogged her throughout this entire campaign.
So when something like this bubbles up, they say why weren't these e- mails released? Why wasn't this information released six, 12 months ago, if not two years ago?
PAUL: Attorney Paige Pate who is with us earlier as well made the point that the Attorney General Loretta Lynch would normally be the one who makes decisions about -- final decisions about an investigation like this.
In July, she came out and told Comey, nope, this is on you. You make this decision. How unusual is that for the attorney general not to take that responsibility?
PRESTON: Well, you know, to go back in history, I'm not quite sure when this has happened in the past, but Comey is considered somebody who walks down the middle of the street. I believe he might be registered Republican, but Democrats never looked at Comey and said, well, this guy is very partisan.
[08:10:10]So in many ways when you have Comey doing this himself as the top law enforcement official specifically when it comes to the FBI, you know, in many ways that is very powerful.
But again, I go back to the situation they're in right now, the crossing of wires, the crossing of politics and policy and now law enforcement and arguably one of the most important presidential races we've seen certainly in our life time right now.
So, I'm not quite sure what he should have done. You'll get a whole array of opinions about whether he should be announced this or not. I think he was in a rock and a very, very hard place.
PAUL: Real quickly, do you believe that because he released it when he did that there is something significant there even though he is saying in his statement he doesn't know that there is?
PRESTON: I believe he doesn't know what there is. Look, he found out the day before he announced it. We don't know what's in these e- mails. These e-mails could have been released prior hand and forwarded to Huma Abedin. It doesn't appear there's from Hillary Clinton. We don't know what's in them. Anyone who jumps to conclusions, we know that Clinton -- rather Donald Trump and the Republicans are saying that there is. We have no idea.
PAUL: Yes. All right, Mark Preston, thank you so much for walking us through it.
BLACKWELL: Iraqi forces are making progress against ISIS, reclaiming another city from the terror group just hours ago. We are live in Iraq as troops move closer to Mosul.
PAUL: Also, two frightening incidents involving planes. Look at this. An official says one of these situations could have been absolutely devastating. Yes, there were 170 people on this plane moments before that, what you we'll have that story and more coming up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, it was a clunk, after the clunk the explosion and then the plane stopped real fast, and we all just started exiting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:06]
BLACKWELL: It's 15 minutes after the hour now. Federal investigators are looking into two alarming plane incidents that happened on Friday. Two jets caught fire on the runway. One was an American Airlines flight at O'Hare and Chicago with 170 people on board.
PAUL: That's what you're looking at there. The second was a FedEx cargo plane in Fort Lauderdale. Two pilots were on board. Look at this and listen to that reaction there. Now everybody is OK, which is the most important thing to let you know, but there are obviously a lot of questions this morning. CNN's Nick Valencia is with us as well.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's audible gas just looking at that video as that explosion happens. That was the FedEx cargo plane there in Fort Lauderdale. You had a separate incident in Chicago as well.
Just looking at the video, it's amazing that everyone survived two separate planes, two separate incidents, but everyone is OK.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMERICAN 383: American 383, heavy stopping on the runway.
TOWER CONTROLLER: Rogers, roger, fire.
VALENCIA (voice-over): It could have been absolutely devastating. A plane bound for Miami goes up in flames Friday at Chicago O'Hare International Airport just before takeoff.
AMERICAN 383: Do you see any smoke or fire?
TOWER CONTROLLER: Yes, fire out the right wing.
VALENCIA: The smoke billows hundreds of feet in the air after the plane's right side engine fails. The blasts spewing debris across the tarmac. More than 160 passengers and crew members on the American Airlines flight rushed down emergency slides to escape the flames.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a big ball of red flames blew up from that window. That's all I can tell you. I got out of there as fast as I can, too and we're all moving towards the exits.
VALENCIA: Twenty people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation.
CHIEF TIMOTHY SAMPAY, CHICAGO FIRE DEPARTMENT: This could have been absolutely devastating if it happened later, if it happened farther. There's thousands variables, but again, they brought the aircraft to halt. The tower did a great job communicating with the pilot. Fire that they could see and they got everybody off that plane.
MIKE JACHLES, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA PIO: It was like a fire ball, running fuel fire down the runway leading to the jets.
VALENCIA: The scare in Chicago came on the same afternoon a separate plane caught fire at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. That incident involved a FedEx cargo plane.
Cell phone video shows a large piece of debris flying in the air through large flames near the rear of the aircraft. The plane's landing gear collapsed on arrival in Florida. No one was hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad they're fine. I'm glad they're OK. That's all that matters. I'm glad they're fine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VALENCIA: You can imagine just how terrifying it was for passengers on board, especially there in Chicago. We saw some cell phone video on social media man was evacuating and didn't realize just how significant damage there was to the plane until he got out of there, so a lot of scary moments there. Very terrifying moments for those people on board.
PAUL: No doubt about it.
VALENCIA: The plane in Chicago had actually come from London. It's sitting on the tarmac for a few hours before it took off. Had that happened any later --
PAUL: Oh, sure.
VALENCIA: It could have been catastrophic.
PAUL: No doubt about it. Nick Valencia, thank you so much.
Iraqi troops say they're making some progress in the fight against ISIS near Mosul, but that progress may come at a price as ISIS rounds up thousands of innocent civilians.
BLACKWELL: The GOP ceasing on new details in this Clinton email scandal, banding together against the Democratic Party and praising the FBI. Will this in some way bring the Republican Party together and stop the infighting? We'll see. Let's talk about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:22:04]
BLACKWELL: ISIS is claiming responsibility for suicide bombing in Baghdad this morning. Iraqi police tell CNN two people were killed and eight others injured.
PAUL: Now this comes as Iraqi troops claim to be making progress in reclaiming Mosul, moving even closer to the city. Now, just hours ago, the Iraqi Army says it cleared another town of ISIS militants after an attack there.
CNN's Michael Holmes live for us in Iraq. So the Iraqi troops, Michael, we understand say they're making progress. There were crossed wires between them and the Americans as we understand it. Do you know what happened?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, clearly there are towns and villages like the one you just mentioned there which has to be taken and secured. Then you got around Mosul you have forces that's different, have eyes on Mosul, others are 20, 30, kilometers away.
So a little bit of confusion as you say about the phase of the offensive. We had American officials on Friday saying the Iraqis would pause on some fronts to allow the other units to catch up to consolidate around Mosul. You had Iraqi commanders saying, that's not true.
The U.S. comments were, quote/unquote, "inaccurate." Meanwhile, tough popular mobilization units, Shiite para-militaries announcing that they are entering the fight, launching operations west of Mosul, putting thousands more fighters into this battle, in one area which is important. It's an area that ISIS has control and has been able to cross back and forth from Iraq into Syria and vice versa. Syria, of course, where they have their de facto capitol, Raqqa -- Christi.
PAUL: Michael, we had seen some video earlier, I don't know if we can pull it up if we have it at the ready, but it looked like there was a group of people who were escaping either from ISIS, from Mosul, from one of these towns, but they were walking through the desert, here they are.
Some of them holding just children, little, little children here. If we continue to look at this, there's a moment when they meet two gentlemen and one of the men who was running just falls on his knees.
Help us understand the people who are trying to escape this area, where are they going and what help do they have? Here it is. This is a point where this gentlemen looks like he's going to fall on his knees here. Go ahead, Michael. I'm sorry. I wanted to let our viewers know what they were seeing.
HOLMES: I know the video you're talking about. Emotional stuff, isn't it? Very few people -- I've got to point that out and emphasize that, very few people are getting out of Mosul itself, but as Iraqi and Kurdish forces have been going from town to village to town to village, a lot of those places it's got to be said are empty.
But in others they are liberating, setting free hundreds and in some cases thousands of local people. And you see that relief, that emotion, just imagine you had ISIS roll into town two years ago.
[08:25:02]You have been under that kind of oppressive, brutal, just heinous rule for two years and then all of a sudden you're free and you're able to leave. Your village is your village again.
What's happening with a lot of those people, they are then being taken off for processing. Unfortunately, the reality is some ISIS fighters will shave their beards, try to blend in with these people and be a problem later on.
So they're having to go through and screen everyone. But what you've been seeing in some of these IDP camps, you're seeing kids finding their parents who they have not seen in two years. They parents been living under ISIS rule.
Can you even imagine what that is like, the emotional toll that has taken and the relief that is released when you finally lay eyes on them? Those are things that have been playing out.
PAUL: Thank you so much for walking us through that because when I saw that video and I saw that man fall to his knees and just beg even for water, it seemed like as they handed it to him, it was so representative, I assumed of what these people had been going through. And I had no idea that they are able to reunite children with their parents after that long as well. Michael Holmes, thank you so much, live for us in Iraq. Well, Russian gamers -- as we switch gears -- pretend there is about to be a nuclear war, while Russian officials may be preparing for the actual thing.
BLACKWELL: Yes, how cold war tensions are affecting the real and virtual worlds in Russia.
Also Hillary Clinton riding high until Anthony Wiener resurfaced and now her e-mail controversy front and center pitting her against the head of the FBI potentially. Chris Frates following that angle for us.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. Well, FBI Director Comey's bomb shell announcement that the FBI found more Hillary Clinton-related emails could reshape the race for president. We'll explain it all after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:30:21] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: 8:30 here in the East on a Saturday morning. And we're always so grateful to have your company. I'm Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you.
Just 10 days now until the election, FBI director James Comey announced that the bureau is reviewing a new batch of e-mails related to Clinton's personal server, but Comey is not explaining much about the discovery, only saying these e-mails could be pertinent to the investigation.
PAUL: The sources say the newly discovered e-mails only surfaced during an investigation into Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. Now Weiner, remember, is accused of exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a teenager and a, quote, "considerable number of e-mails were sent or received by Abedin on a device she shared with her husband, Anthony Weiner."
Chris Frates is here with more on these new revelations by the FBI and how each of the campaigns is handling -- are handling the information here.
All right. So what have you discovered this morning, Chris?
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christi, well, look, both campaigns want to see more information released, but FBI director James Comey says the FBI can't yet assess whether the new e-mails may be significant and he didn't know how long it would take to find out.
In a letter to FBI employees, Comey said the FBI usually doesn't discuss ongoing investigations, but in this case he felt an obligation to do so.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FRATES (voice-over): FBI director James Comey informing lawmakers he is reviewing materials related to the Clinton e-mail investigation. Law enforcement officials tell CNN the new e-mails were not from Clinton but were sent and received by one of her top aides, Huma Abedin. They were found on a device shared by Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner, who is the target of a separate investigation into alleged sexting with a minor.
All this three months after the FBI recommended closing the Clinton e- mail probe. Comey wrote to eight congressional committee chairmen saying, "In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of e-mails that appear pertinent to the investigation."
Director Comey continued, "The FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these e- mails to determine whether they contain classified information as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."
In July, Director Comey said Clinton had acted carelessly but not criminally.
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: In looking back at our investigations into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts.
FRATES: And on Friday, Hillary Clinton told reporters the FBI hasn't contacted her.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The director himself has said he doesn't know whether the e-mails reference in his letter are significant or not. I'm confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July. Therefore, it's imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That they have discovered new e-mails --
FRATES: Donald Trump, however, pounced on the news at a rally in the battleground state of New Hampshire.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.
FRATES: Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted, "A great day in our campaign just got even better." House Speaker Paul Ryan until now locked in that public dispute with the party's nominee accused Clinton of mishandling the nation's most important secrets before renewing his call for the director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRATES: Now both the Clinton and Trump campaigns have called on the FBI to release the information they have before the election which is just 10 days away. And that's a clear sign that both sides see a potential political advantage to getting that information out. And it's one of the first times in what's been a really crazy election season that both sides, both Trump and Clinton, seem to agree about anything, Christi.
PAUL: Very good point. All right, Chris Frates. Appreciate it so much. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: All right. Let's talk about it now, bring in Tharon Johnson, south regional director for Obama's 2012 campaign and a Hillary Clinton supporter and Jeffrey Lord, a CNN political commentator, former director for Ronald Reagan and a Donald Trump supporter, of course.
Good morning to both of you.
THARON JOHNSON, FORMER SOUTH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OBAMA 2012: Good morning.
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Victor.
BLACKWELL: And so, Tharon, let me start with you. I mean, we still don't know if there is any here here, right? These could be duplicates. They could be -- there could be no classified information.
[08:35:01] In the letter that Comey sent over to Congress, he wrote that the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not the material may be significant, but what it does is lend itself potentially to Donald Trump's closing arguments and remind a lot of people why they, as we saw in the surveys, really have a problem trusting Hillary Clinton. How does she change her final 10 days? How does she change her message?
JOHNSON: I think she continues doing what she's doing, which is going -- you know, campaigning key battleground states that's going to help her win this race, but the one thing that Hillary Clinton said yesterday that I think was so important for the American people is that she embraced this by saying, hey, you know what, let's release all the information. Don't just put out a letter that's vague and doesn't have any facts.
But the other thing that's happened, Victor, is that you've had two members in the House, two ranking Democrats, Elijah Cummings and John Conyers, on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees that have called on FBI Director Comey to release this information, more information this weekend. And the other thing that we've got to really look at here is that the White House really had no advanced notice and it really kind of looks like that this was something that maybe FBI Director Comey was pressured into doing by the Republicans. But the one thing that I think is just so interesting --
BLITZER: Well, I don't know if there's anything to support that because our Evan Perez reports that this is something he decided to do and didn't go to -- for approval to Loretta Lynch, the AG, but go ahead.
JOHNSON: And the reason why, Victor, is because he received so much criticism from Donald Trump himself, from Donald Trump's campaign and a lot of Republicans. And so I think that at a time where really we need to judge people's conducts off facts. He himself said that there's nothing in that letter that may or may not be significant to the investigation.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
JOHNSON: And then lastly, Hillary Clinton has not been accused of anything wrong. So I think she's going to be fine. I'm one of the millions of Americans that are tired of talking about the e-mails.
BLACKWELL: OK.
JOHNSON: And I'm going to vote for her no matter what.
BLACKWELL: Well, I mean, she -- the expectation was that all the e- mails were handed over more than a year ago, and you go month after month with thousands more that potentially had not been handed over. That plays into the narrative.
Let me come to you, Jeffrey. And I want to get your response that, but I want you to listen to what Donald Trump said yesterday about Hillary Clinton's response to what we heard from Director Comey through this letter. First you're going to hear what he said in Manchester about politization and then you're going to hear what he said at the Republican National Convention. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton tried to politicize this investigation by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director.
When the FBI director says that the secretary of state was extremely careless and negligent in handling our classified secrets, I also know that these terms are minor compared to what she actually did. They were just used to save her from facing justice for her terrible, terrible crimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Suggesting there that maybe Director Comey was part of some cover-up. Didn't he at the RNC do exactly what he just derided Hillary Clinton for potentially doing?
LORD: I'm not sure I understand your point here, Victor. You mean, did he not go after her?
BLACKWELL: Donald Trump said yesterday that Hillary Clinton tried to politicize this investigation by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director.
LORD: OK.
BLACKWELL: Isn't that exactly what he did at the RNC?
LORD: Well, look, this is an issue, Victor. Victor, you know, Hillary Clinton is the only presidential nominee in American history, all of American history, to be twice investigated by the FBI as a presidential candidate. I mean, this has never happened. And I might add, this happens repeatedly to Hillary Clinton from the very first moment she appeared on the public scene as the first lady of Arkansas and there were accusations that she made a profit, a sudden profit of $100,000 for cattle futures, all the way through her time as the White House and now as secretary of state.
Every single time we get into one of these situations, this is in her nature. This is what a Clinton presidency, a Hillary Clinton presidency would look like. The American people have just gotten yet another wakeup call as to what lies ahead if they elect her.
BLACKWELL: Let me get you response to what we're hearing from speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, because this seems to consolidate some of those leaders who were not so close to Donald Trump. This may be a rallying cry they can share. He writes that, "Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation's most important secrets and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling, highly classified information. This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private e-mail server and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators."
Do you expect that this will, I guess, bridge potentially the speaker and the Republican nominee?
LORD: Right. Right. You know, absolutely. I mean, what this is doing among other things is clarifying for Republican leaders who have been in my view unjustifiably reticent to support the nominee of their party selected by their voters, and clarify for them exactly what would be ahead for this country and for them as members of Congress if she is elected.
[08:40:19] I mean, there's no time to waste here. There's 10 days left in this campaign. They need to rally Donald Trump promptly, right away. And I applaud Speaker Ryan for getting on it with.
BLACKWELL: Tharon, how much over that is a threat to potentially to Hillary Clinton if now you have some of the Republicans who are creating some distance between themselves and Donald Trump now sharing this rallying cry that was created by what we heard from the director yesterday?
JOHNSON: I think Speaker Ryan had to do exactly what he did and that is, you know, show that he is against the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. In no way is this going to unite the Republican Party. But let's just -- again let's just point out the facts. This letter had no factual information in it that implicated -- that Hillary Clinton herself or anyone of her campaign had did anything wrong. Yes, they uncovered some e-mails, but FBI Director Comey had to do his job.
I think that he was put in a very, very tough situation because of the scrutiny and the praise that he received from both sides when he came out in July and said that Hillary Clinton had -- did nothing illegal, that she was implicated in this investigation but they found out that she was totally fine and that she maybe had acted in a careless manner but nothing unethical and illegal.
And so this is just something that I think the Donald Trump campaign and Republicans have got to be very careful on because if Director Comey does what two ranking members of the Democratic House Committees have asked him to do which is to fully disclose more information about this over the weekend, I believe that people will find out that there's not much there. I mean, folks are criticizing this FBI director because this is just so unprecedented at a time when we have a presidential election.
BLACKWELL: Understood. And typically the guidance is that you don't release something like this within 60 days of an election but we had the former FBI director or assistant director Tom Fuentes who's a legal analyst on saying that -- or law enforcement analyst, that it's unlikely that we're going to get anything within the next 10 days that answers any of those questions.
JOHNSON: Correct.
BLACKWELL: But of course we'll continue to have the conversation.
Tharon Johnson, Jeffrey Lord, thank you both.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
LORD: Thank you, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Sure.
PAUL: It's the latest craze for gamers in Moscow, preventing nuclear war with the U.S. Now they're just playing a game. But tensions between the U.S. and Russia have some people wondering if the game could become real.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:58] PAUL: Well, 45 minutes past the hour and Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly not ready to resume air strikes on Aleppo. A spokesman telling Russian journalists that Putin wants to give the U.S. a chance to separate terrorists from other rebel groups.
BLACKWELL: Yes. The conflict in Syria is just the latest point of tension between Moscow and Washington, and it's helping fan fears of maybe a new Cold War. In Russia, those fears are evident in both the real and virtual world.
Here is CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Red alert in a Soviet style nuclear bunker for a couple of Russians racing to prevent a catastrophic strike on the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nuclear bombs will be launched in one hour.
CHANCE: The quest, the latest gaming craze in Moscow, is to find the nuclear launch codes and deactivate a hidden red button that's already been pressed by a mad Russian general. Of course it's complete fantasy, but amid the current tensions with Russia, it all feels a little unsettling.
(On camera): Are you worried that something like this could happen in real life?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course.
ALISA SOKOLEVA, GAMER: Actually I'm not. No, I'm not thinking about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am worried because very stupid information from both sides and I know that normal people in all over the world that don't want any war.
SOKOLEVA: Now I know that in school in Russia, they -- they tell to the children the same, that our main enemy is the U.S. and it sounds ridiculous for me and I am totally sure that war isn't possible.
CHANCE (voice-over): But not all Russians agree. National television has been broadcasting a mass training exercise involving up to 40 million people across the country to prepare responses, says the government, for a chemical or nuclear attack.
It's the biggest rehearsal of its kind since the collapse of the Soviet Union and suggests the Kremlin at least wants Russians to take the threat of war very seriously.
(On camera): Of course, all-out conflict between Russia and the West remains highly unlikely, the principle of mutually assured destruction still holds, just like it did during the Cold War. But with tensions growing over Syria, Ukraine and the Baltic States, analysts say a small risk of contact, misunderstanding and escalation between the nuclear super powers has become very real.
(Voice-over): And it's a risk the Kremlin seems keen to spotlight, releasing details of its latest intercontinental ballistic missile being added to its nuclear arsenal. The Satan 2 as it's known will be one of the world's most destructive weapons guaranteeing Russia's place as a top nuclear power.
State television has also upped its hard lined rhetoric. In its flagship current affairs show, Russia's top state news anchor dubbed by critics as the Kremlin's propaganda in chief, recently issued a stark warning of global war if, for instance, Russian and U.S. forces clash in Syria. Brutish behavior towards Russia, declared Dmitry Kiselyev, could have nuclear dimensions.
It is an apocalyptic vision that adds a further sense of realism to the fantasy Quest being acted out by gamers in Moscow. This time the Cold War nuclear holocaust is averted. Hopefully one in the real world will be, too.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[08:50:02] PAUL: All right. A historic night at the World Series, people. Take a look. And there's more to come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: Cubs fans have waited 71 years to see a World Series game at Wrigley Field.
PAUL: Just going to have to wait to see a win a little bit longer.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Look at you, native Ohioan.
PAU: I am, but my husband is from Chicago, so we are a house --
SCHOLES: Ah, a divided home.
PAUL: I'm just happy if the Cubs win, happy for them, but --
SCHOLES: There you go. All those Cubs fans are going to have to wait another night to see -- actually going to have to wait another night to see a run scored at Wrigley Field for the second time this series. They were shut out by the Indians, but Wrigley, I tell you what, was rocking last night for Game Three of the World Series.
And, you know, the forecast was all were like, hey, the wind is blowing out. This one is going to be a very high scoring game. It was not. Andrew Miller, yes, he came out of the bullpen for the Indians in the fifth, lights out again. And then Coco Crisp providing the only offense in the game with his pinch hit RBI single in the seventh inning that made it 1-0, only run scored in the game. Indians closer Cody Allen has been dominant this post season. He strikes out Javier Baez with runners on second and third. That ended the game.
Cleveland, get this, they're now 23-0 this season when Miller and Allen both pitch in a game for them. Indians win game three, 1-0, setting a Major League record with their fifth shutout this post season.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRY FRANCONA, INDIANS MANAGER: That was as close a ball game as you're ever going to find and we found a way to manage to win that game.
[08:55:06] That's -- you know we say it all the time, we want to be one run better. That's what bothers me. True to form as you can get.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: I thought that game was extra special for Indian starter Josh Tomlin. Not only was it's his first World Series start, he got to do it in front of his dad, who almost wasn't going to be able to be there. Jerry Tomlin, he was paralyzed from the chest down in August after a rare spinal condition required emergency surgery. Well, Josh left the Indians to be at his dad's side but he hasn't seen him since. Jerry just released from the hospital last week and he was able to make it to Wrigley Field to watch his son pitch in the World Series.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH TOMLIN, INDIANS PITCHER: It was probably one of my more emotional starts I've ever had in my entire life, career, any situation baseball related ever. It was -- I'm very fortunate enough for him to even be here, so to have him get to experience a World Series game, obviously my first World Series start, it meant everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Definitely happy for the Tomlin family. Game four, guys, tonight, a little after 8:00 Eastern. Cubs need a win to even the series.
PAUL: All right. I'll be depending on you tomorrow to tell me what happens. Thank you, Andy.
SCHOLES: All right.
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Andy.
PAUL: We're going to be right back at 10:00 a.m., in fact, in the CNN NEWSROOM.
BLACKWELL: But at the top of the hour, Michael Smerconish sits down with Vice President Joe Biden and he weighs in on the Clinton e-mails and the possible link -- reported link to Anthony Weiner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, god. Anthony Weiner, I should not comment on Anthony Weiner, I'm not a big fan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
