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New Day Saturday

Jay Z and Beyonce Headline Clinton Rally Concert; Final Days: Race Tightens, New Battlegrounds Emerge; More Clinton Emails Released Ahead of Election; FBI Reputation Questioned Over Handling of Email Probe; Russian Media: U.S. Election is Failure of Democracy. Aired 7- 8a ET

Aired November 05, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Constantly think positively and persevere. Those are things that eventually become the fabric of who you are as a person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't have to bring J. Lo or Jay-Z. I'm here all by myself.

BEYONCE: We have to think about the future of our daughters, our and that is why I'm with her.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have unfinished business to do. With your help, a glass ceiling to crack once and for all.

TRUMP: I'm asking you to dream big. You will get the change you've been waiting for for your entire lifetime.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, happy Saturday. Thank you so much for sharing your morning with us as we come to you from D.C. this morning. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this morning.

Three days, folks, just three days left. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, they are putting all on the line in the final weekend in this campaign this morning. The polls are tightening. There are new battle grounds emerging as well.

PAUL: Hillary Clinton is slipping just a bit in our latest electoral battleground map. She is below 270 for the first time. Donald Trump is above 200, a first on this electoral map.

The biggest shift, Ohio. It is now moving to lean Republican. And take a look there in New Hampshire, as well. It has moved from lean Democrat to toss-up. BLACKWELL: Well, the candidates and their surrogates are on the move.

Let's start with Hillary Clinton blanketing the battleground state. She will kick off the day in Florida and then head north to Pennsylvania.

PAUL: Donald Trump making four stops today -- Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado.

BLACKWELL: And here is our updated CNN poll of polls this morning. Hillary Clinton now with a five-point lead nationally over Trump, 47- 42. Now, Donald Trump, to get to the White House, he essentially has to run the table on the battleground states. That includes Ohio, which, in this latest CNN map has moved now to lean Republican.

PAUL: Hillary Clinton isn't giving up on that state, of course. Listen to this star-powered introduction here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY Z, HIP-HOP STAR: I would like to introduce to you the next president of the United States.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That's last night there in Cleveland. Clinton was introduced by, yeah, you see them there, the power couple, Jay-Z and Beyonce. Her campaign hoping that they could help tip the state in her favor.

CNN's Martin Savidge is live there for us in Parma, Ohio.

How big was this crowd, Martin? Is there a good gauge?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: About 10,000 people, I believe, Christie. Good morning to you.

They were on hand, the tickets were free. This concert was given, of course, by Jay-Z. Beyonce was there as well. And it was designed to send a very strong, very political message, which is get out and vote, because your vote this time really, really matters. It does.

Cuyahoga County, which is where we're located, and the city of Cleveland have a very interesting play in this state. Number one, of course, it was Cleveland that was host to the Republican National Convention, where Trump became the nominee for the property. Cuyahoga is crucial if Hillary Clinton wants to win the state of Ohio. It is a Democratic stronghold. It is estimated she needs about 200,000 votes, that margin of victory she will need if she wants to stave off all the other votes that are expected to go Donald Trump's way farther down state.

So, that's why this county is so crucial. It is heavily Democratic and about30 percent African-American. Early voting will again begin today. It starts actually about an hour from now. And the early indications have been troublesome for the Democratic Party, because it appears that the voters are not coming out with the kind of numbers that have already said.

So, this is crucial. This weekend will be vital for Hillary Clinton -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All righty. Martin Savidge, appreciate it so much. And welcome home briefly there to Ohio. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: The latest CNN electoral map shows the advantage for Hillary Clinton. The path for Donald Trump has opened up. Some progress there.

Let's talk about this with CNN politics reporters, Steven Collinson and Eric Bradner.

Good to have both of you back with us this morning.

Let's start with this new map here where Clinton now is below 270, but still, just two points away. A pickup of a single battleground state there puts her over 270. Trump as I said has to run the board and then some.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Right. Donald Trump has to win every state on that map. And that includes the main second congressional district. There is not a single electoral vote to spare there. And it's going to be hard. The early vote data we're seeing out of some of these key states -- I was just crunching the numbers on Nevada.

[07:05:04] It looks like Hillary Clinton is outperforming President Obama four years ago. And he won that state fairly handily.

So, he is going to need a real surge on Election Day to catch her in that state. Florida and North Carolina are key states to watch. And the question that I'm watching right now is African-American turnout. In North Carolina, we have seen indications that it has fallen off. 2012, perhaps not entirely a surprise. But part of this is because there have been fewer early vote locations open, at least especially early in the process.

But there are other states with between 15 percent-20 percent African- American electorates. Michigan is one of them that Trump is sort of hoping to put on the board at the very last minute. Florida is another key state. So, that's a question I'm watching this week.

BLACKWELL: We also know Republicans do better on Election Day and Democrats better in early voting.

PAUL: But if we talk about who is voting, Stephen, one of the key elements that have come in is the Latino vote here and how much stronger it is this year than the past.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: That's true. If you look in Nevada, massive turnout just last night. That's clearly a good sign for the Democrats. That could well be reaction to the tone of Donald Trump's campaign. You know, his rhetoric about Hispanics, his positions on immigration. We are also seeing very heavy turnout of Latinos in Florida. This is

not a good sign for the Democrats, because they are seeing, as Eric was saying, the African-American vote is down in Florida, in North Carolina. But in Florida, it looks like that could be compensated for an increase in the percentage of Latino voters and the wider population of Florida voters. So, those are good signs for Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump's campaign is looking at New Hampshire which seems so tightened up. It looked like it was a clear Hillary Clinton win a few weeks ago. The polls are deadlocked in New Hampshire, perhaps a result of the Comey situation with the e-mails. They are also looking at Michigan.

There are some polling that shows the race has tightened. Hillary Clinton was double digits ahead about a month ago. Some polling suggests it could be four or five points. Donald Trump needs to put a Democratic state on the table to give himself some insurance, especially if it looks like he's going to lose somewhere like Nevada. So, the Trump campaign is certainly going to target Michigan in the next few days.

BLACKWELL: Can we talk about these huge rallies we saw yesterday with Jay-Z and Beyonce for Hillary Clinton? And Donald Trump we showed in the open said, I didn't bring J. Lo, I didn't bring Jay-Z. I'm here all by myself.

As compared, though, to the ground game, the Democrats clearly have the advantage in the battle ground state. The Trump campaign believing that his being there and those rallies are motivating people to get out. He's in four states today starting there.

Are we seeing evidence that Trump alone out there is equally in any way what we are seeing for the Democrats?

BRADNER: Well, no. That's why you see the surge in Latino turnout. That's something Democrats have been working on for not just months but more than a year now. Hillary Clinton built a ground game starting in early 2015. It is impossible for the RNC and Trump's campaign to match that.

But that's where you see Trump with such an aggressive schedule. He is not just trying to counter the Democratic strength on the ground. But also Hillary Clinton has tons of surrogates. She has the president, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, et cetera.

BLACKWELL: Joe Biden.

PAUL: Joe Biden is out there today. Yes, Bernie sanders.

BRADNER: But Donald Trump is trying to do this himself. He has people like Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie sort of hobbled by recent controversies. So, he has to be everywhere. He has really no choice to outwork the Democrats and sort of just to keep pace at this point.

PAUL: Steven, last word? COLLINSON: Yes, you know, crowds are interesting barometer in the

last few days. When you are on a campaign, you see big crowds and you think, wow, there's real momentum here. Mitt Romney had in 2012. I remember being out with John Kerry in 2004 campaign who's getting massive crowds. Those are real feeling, look, we've got momentum, this means we're going to win the election.

But, often, you know, it is a sign of enthusiasm but not necessarily a sign of turnout. These things can be deceptive in the final play.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And you've got to wonder how many of those people came out to see Jay-Z and Beyonce really are going to vote.

All right. We'll see in the numbers just a couple of days now, three days.

PAUL: Gentlemen, thank you so much.

BRADNER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: As we said, four rallies in four states today for Donald Trump. He is leaving it all out on the field. This, as the Clinton campaign, of course, is working to get out that ground game. We will break down the homestretch strategies, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:13:06] BLACKWELL: Take a look at these lines. Record breaking turnout in Las Vegas yesterday. Voters crowded at polling places for the last day of early voting there. And they set a record for single day early voting turnout.

PAUL: More than 50,000 people voted early yesterday in Clark County, Nevada, alone. That brings the total number of early voters in that county to nearly half a million.

Now, in these last few days, we have seen Donald Trump staying on message. He is reading his teleprompter and what's on it.

BLACKWELL: Although sometimes his surrogates are not. We will talk about that in just a moment.

But Hillary Clinton, although we have heard her use the first ladies mantra of, when they go low, we go high, she has been on the attack painting Trump in many cases as a racist.

All right. Let's chat about this. CNN political commentator and former Hillary Clinton campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle is here. CNN political commentator Paris Dennard, and, a Donald Trump supporter, and CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, all joining us this morning.

Good morning to all.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. BLACKWELL: Let's start with you, Patti, because I want to talk about

the way Hillary Clinton is ending her campaign. It was telegraphed that she was going to end on a high note as most do. But in the last several dates, she has been talking, linking him or mentioning the KKK and talking about the Central Park Five, serious issues, but this is not the way she expected to end her campaign to wrap it up.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I think when "The Crusader", which is the KKK newspaper endorses you, have to acknowledge that it endorses your opponent, you have to acknowledge that.

Also, these last few days are about getting out the vote. African- American turnout has been low in several states, or lower than it was in 2012, in 2008. So, she needs to rev up that base and reminding voters that Donald Trump has been endorsed by the KKK, by David Duke.

[07:15:01] It probably helps him in that area.

BLACKWELL: But is that -- that's the best calculation, that's how you get black voters out?

DOYLE: No, of course not. No, no. Of course not. No.

She is talking about what she's going to do also at president. She is talking about the economy. We've got some great jobs numbers out on Friday.

Look, the original sin here is Donald Trump basically saying offensive things about African-Americans, about Hispanics, women. And certainly, you want to remind voters about all the things that he has said.

BLACKWELL: Right over your shoulder, I see Paris' eyebrow going all kinds of directions here.

PAUL: And he's shaking his head.

PARIS DENNARD, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: This is a campaign of desperation. At the end of the day, she is doing these scare tactics because she knows that the only way she can communicate to black voters is to remind them of some false narrative about Mr. Trump being racist.

She should at this point, to your original question, she should be ending strong, talking about her record, talking about what she is going to do for the economy.

Look, that jobs report came out, and it was 8.6 percent black unemployment, which is up from 8.3 percent from last year. You can applaud that if you want to. But I think that's a horrible statement upon what Mr. Obama, as the president, has done and what she will continue to do.

And so, when she does these scare tactics, when she talks about him being a racist or talks about David Duke or the KKK, instead of talking about her record, she has to stop and tell black voters, look, this is what I'm going to do. This is what I have done.

But when she's not doing that, there is an absence of that. That's why you see enthusiasm. That's why you see turnout, not being as strong for her as it was for President Obama.

PAUL: All right. So, Brian, why is it that the negativity sticks with people more so than the positive?

STELTER: Wow.

PAUL: And is that way -- I mean --

STELTER: You might have asked the most important question of the whole campaign, right?

PAUL: But I mean, everybody is saying, I am voting for who I dislike the least. That's what it has come down to for an awful lot of people going to the polls.

STELTER: And I do wonder if that will change come Tuesday when the rest of the folks are going to the ballot box who face this historic choice between the first woman president or the first billionaire businessman president, it's historic in either direction. When they are in that voting booth, in the privacy voting booth, maybe it will feel more uplifting and not so depressing.

But, yes, I do think that we have seen reams of research that shows that the negative does stick more than the positive. That's why campaign ads toward the end tend to be negative on both sides. Donald Trump yesterday releasing a two-minute long ad that the campaign says is positive but seems awfully dark and bleak. It's a closing argument message about the global elites that are corrupt, he says, the establishment that is damaging America.

He would say that's a positive message. He wants change but the message of the ad is actually very bleak. It is very dark. It is from a speech he gave a few weeks ago.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you, Paris, we were talking about potentially the surrogates not staying on message. Do we have the sound from Governor Sununu? Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN SUNUNU, FORMER NEW HAMPSHIRE GOVERNOR: Do you think Bill was referring to Hillary when he said, "I did not have sex with that woman"?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Trump is staying on message. This doesn't help. I can't imagine it helps.

DENNARD: At the end of the day, everyone who is a Trump supporter is extremely happy that Mr. Trump is staying on message, taking this last --

BLACKWELL: So, you are just going to speak over Sununu if I didn't just play that sound bite.

DENNARD: I mean, listen, Governor Sununu can make these comments. And he's a surrogate. They say these things. Is it particularly helpful? No. Maybe to the base he was talking about, they may like that red meat.

STELTER: I think it might help.

DENNARD: Yes.

STELTER: Get out the vote motivation to remind people why they don't like the Clinton.

DENNARD: Right. But at the end of the day, we want Mr. Trump to stay on message. We want to see him articulate this positive message of what he can do and how he can change. Surrogates may do that. But I'm glad that at the end of the campaign, Mr. Trump is the one that is on message and on the mark.

STELTER: At least for the last ten days.

PAUL: So, the look I just saw on your face before when Patti was speaking I just saw on Patti's face when you are speaking. We are going to get to that in a moment.

BLACKWELL: All right. Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:22:37] BLACKWELL: All right. In what will be a sign of a very tense election, Donald Trump's campaign office has been vandalized again. This is the second time in a series of just 24 hours.

PAUL: Yes, in the latest incident, a rock was thrown through the window. You see it there. And earlier in the day, words describing Trump in derogatory terms were painted on a wall at that office. Police do have a possible suspect in custody. But beyond that, they haven't said much.

Yesterday's incident, the latest in a number involving property associated with both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton being vandalized.

And our panel is back with us. CNN senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, political commentator and former Hillary Clinton campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, and CNN political commentator, Paris Dennard, a Donald Trump supporter.

Thank you all both for sticking here with us.

I want to get to some sound from Donald Trump as we talk about strategies, how they're making their final calls, and urging people to try to get to the polls. Listen to what he's focusing on here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right now has multiple open criminal investigations going on Hillary Clinton. Lots of bad things are happening. Lots of really bad things are happening.

But I'll tell you what. You are going to be amazed when it is all finished and you look at how it is all flushing out. The system is a beautiful system when it works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: The system is a beautiful system when it works.

Paris, it seems to me there that he is inferring that you don't want to have somebody in office who is at the end of the day, he says, going to be involved and distracted by an investigation. Is that the right conversation to be having in these final hours?

DENNARD: I think if Mr. Trump is trying to message to independent voters, to those voters who haven't yet made up their mind whether or not they are going to vote for Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump, I think that is the right message because it reinforces a narrative that says Mrs. Clinton, Secretary Clinton, is not trustworthy. She is dishonest. There is something she is trying to hide.

And if she did -- if the average American did what she did or members of her campaign did, they would end up in jail.

PAUL: But there is no investigation into her -- I mean, there's nothing to say she is going to be investigated. He is speaking about something that has not happened.

DENNARD: What he is also speaking about is the fact that the FBI came out and is saying, there is something that they need to look at.

[07:25:02] And that is unprecedented for somebody who could be the next president of the United States.

BLACKWELL: This morning in his weekly Republican address, he mentioned that there is a potentially pending indictment of Hillary Clinton. Bret Baier from FOX News who initially introduced that term walked it back, not just a walk-back but a reversal apologizing for that.

DENNARD: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Why is Donald Trump still using that language?

DENNARD: I think at the end of the day, you can speculate as to what's going to happen. Secretary Clinton speculates --

(CROSSTALK)

DOYLE: You cannot speculate. DENNARD: Secretary Clinton speculates about what will happen under a Trump administration all the time. This is one thing that you can infer or you can conclude about with respect to -- if the evidence, if the FBI and the Justice Department does what we think they should do, an indictment should be around the corner.

DOYLE: It is irresponsible to speculate about an indictment about an FBI investigation. We don't know anything. And frankly, I think it's a bit rich when Donald Trump has 70 lawsuits against kind of language.

DENNARD: When you are a successful business person, you have lawsuits.

STELTER: The sub text of this conversation is that she is a crook. As Trump has said, she should be behind bars. She should be locked up. The chants of "lock her up" at rallies are so -- we have normalized so much. Things that shouldn't be normal. Things that are only normal in third world countries.

This kind of suggestion -- these terrible suggestions that we are going to criminalize the other side. I am not going to say that Trump is the only one doing that. Some on the left would say that Trump is a criminal for various reasons. But this criminalization of our politics is something we are going to regret after election day and I hope it's an aberration. I really hope it's not the new normal.

DENNARD: But deleting 33,000 e-mails and taking a hammer to devices and lying about it is criminal. And those are things that we hope should not have happened. So, I think these are narratives and questions that you should be asking.

BLACKWELL: Excuse. Let me move on to Rudy Giuliani, because yesterday, when he was on with Wolf Blitzer, I think he made a bit of news in this exchange if he got advanced notice of this announcement that was coming from Comey. He said he spoke only with former FBI agents. Do we have the Lars Larson sound available where he was on a radio show and said something different?

OK, he was on the Lars Larson radio show in which he said he had spoken about a few of the active agents. There is a call potentially for an investigation or at least an inquiry of Giuliani.

STELTER: Clinton allies would like to see an investigation into these FBI leaks, how these leaks are happening, why are they happening? I don't think we are going to get the full story of this FBI rebellion until after the election.

BLACKWELL: We've got the sound. Let's play it from the Lars Larson show.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NYC MAYOR: The other rumors that I get is a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI about the original conclusion being completely unjustified and almost a slap in the face of the FBI's integrity. I know that from former agents, I know that even from a few active agents who obviously don't want to identify themselves.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, Rudy Giuliani contradicting what he told Wolf Blitzer yesterday. That he had not spoken with any active agents there. He's saying that he has spoken with just a few. Would you support an investigation and inquiry into that?

DOYLE: Look, I think this is just another blemish on the FBI, frankly. Never have we seen the FBI play a role in the political process like this. I think they need to do some cleaning out of the FBI.

I wouldn't support an investigation of Rudy Giuliani. I do think the politicization of the FBI is bad for our country and our democracy. The department of justice is one of the -- are the two agencies that need to be, you know, unbiased. So, I think that's the real problem.

PAUL: Obama spoke to that when he talked about that. Brian, I know you know what I'm talking about as you are nodding your head, saying that, look, we don't work on innuendo. But both the CIA and FBI cannot be politicized.

So, what does that say based on what we are seeing now and what we are hearing from Giuliani, who does the public look at and trust? Do they trust these campaigns? Do they trust the FBI and the CIA? How much damage are they doing?

STELTER: I think it shows that there is no institution in America, there's no piece of the government that's coming away unblemished or unstained as a result of this election.

PAUL: Is it realistic to ask somebody not to have a political view and use it, I guess? Especially for folks in the FBI and the CIA, who work here amongst all of these people.

BLACKWELL: You hope that any variable here would be nonpolitical or a political, it would be the FBI. But this has been the cycle of the leak from the "Access Hollywood" video to WikiLeaks to now what we're seeing in that last few days.

STELTER: It is the leak election.

PAUL: It is a leak election.

DENNARD: Drain the swamp.

BLACKWELL: All right. Patti, Paris, Brian, thank you so much.

PAUL: It is the e-mail scandal that has been plaguing the Clinton campaign, of course.

[07:30:02] And now, the State Department has released what's likely to be the last batch of e-mails. They have done so just days before the election. We are three days and out, folks. We'll have details for you straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Mortgage rates were mixed this week. Here's your look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It is good to see you bright and early on a Saturday morning from D.C. no less. A little bit of different backdrop.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: A little chilly. We're making it though.

PAUL: I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, crisscrossing the battleground states making those last ditch appeals to voters, trying to pick up, if there are still some undecided voters out there. And Trump is in Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado. Clinton starting the morning in Florida and pinching up in Pennsylvania.

PAUL: And here is the news this morning. There has been a record number of early voters, particularly in the Las Vegas area. In Nevada, more than 57,000 people cast their ballot in Clark County yesterday. That broke the single day record there. It had been at 48,000. And it's bringing the total number of early voters in the county up to 500,000.

BLACKWELL: All right. The State Department has released what's likely to be the final line of Hillary Clinton's e-mails before the election. No big headlines there but this drip, drip, drip of e- mails, a consistent reminder to voters of this FBI probe and this internal investigation there at the State Department.

[07:35:08] PAUL: Let's bring in CNN correspondent Phil Mattingly and CNN politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson.

So grateful to have both of you here with us.

Listen, as Victor said, no bombshell, so to speak, in this one. But the fact that it's still coming out three days prior to the election, how does that drive voters? Is there any gauge for that?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think if you talk to Clinton campaign advisors, and Hillary Clinton actually this herself, when the Comey letter was first sent to Capitol, they believe this is baked in, right? If you had a problem with the e-mail issue, you weren't voting for Hillary Clinton before now. This late drop isn't going to help.

But I do think this feeds into the narrative the Trump campaign has been pushing, it feeds into the narrative that has really kind of spiked over the course of the last couple days because of the Comey letter to Capitol Hill. And it also, look, there's a poll that came out yesterday from McClatchy and Marist, 51 percent of poll respondents thought that Hillary Clinton had done something illegal.

The Trump campaign can continue to push this issue out, push headlines out that make people she's done something wrong. Will that bring voters to Trump? No, but it might suppress voters for Hillary Clinton. It's interesting to see whether or not that will come out. That's how the Trump campaign feels like this. The Clinton campaign, they just feel like it is already baked in.

BLACKWELL: But is there evidence it isn't baked in? Because if that is their estimation, that this is baked in, if you have a problem with the e-mail controversy, you have already made that decision.

After the Comey announcement, we saw the momentum moved toward Donald Trump. Our map has changed. Four states moving at least to the battleground to maybe lean Republican. And his adds now focusing on this and he's seeing a narrative that is working for him.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I think what happen was it got Hillary Clinton off her stride. She had to spend the first four days this week, you know, pushing down the story, talking about Comey. The Clinton campaign had wanted a much more positive final argument to this campaign. Hillary Clinton bringing forward the things she would do for Americans if she was elected president.

This walked all over that. I think you could say perhaps the timing of the polls in New Hampshire, where voters -- you know, character is always a big issue in New Hampshire elections. That's possibly something to do with this. But I think the other effect of this is the Senate.

If it is true that voters are sort of looking at Hillary Clinton with a more suspicious eye, that could have an impact in down ballot Senate races where the Democrats need, you know, a high share of the popular vote to prevail and win back the Senate in some of these close races.

MATTINGLY: And I think, guys, just from top to bottom, from the presidential and down ballot, where have you seen the movement in the polls over the last five or six days? Republicans are coming home. This basically clarifies or validates everything they have been thinking about the Clinton campaign. They had wondered away for a good period of time.$, that was what was behind Clinton's very large lead.

As they walk into voting booths and make up their minds, make up their -- kind of come to their final decisions, this leads them back to Donald Trump. Is what we've seen in the polling, I think.

PAUL: When we talk about polling, let me ask you a question. I have heard a lot of me say, they are writing people in. We've got closet voters we are talking about. We don't know what may be driving them.

They might say, oh, I am not going to publicly say I'm voting for Donald Trump. Once they are in there by themselves, it is just them and their conscious.

COLLINSON: That's the big hope of the Trump campaign. These voters that aren't being picked up by the polls or perhaps are not telling the truth. You have heard Donald Trump say, you know, this is going to be Brexit on Tuesday. He is talking about the U.K.'s euro referendum.

The polls are very close. Some said one. Some said the other. There were these voters that at the last minute voted, like you said, with their conscience. That was decisive.

I think the parallels can be overdone. The differences between the two owe electoral systems, a clear yes or no vote. We have people voting on [party lines.

Donald Trump needs 10 Brexits through the battleground states if he is going to get the same kind of effect in this election, as we saw other. But that's, you know, if you are behind, those are the things you look for.

MATTINGLY: One quick thing. I think it is to note, keep in mind, that could happen on the flip side too. You pointed out the Clark County numbers -- 57,000 people. That's people that Republicans aren't modeling for, probably weren't prepared for. That is a record number on a single day of early voters.

There might be the Clinton campaign, people think millennials, African-Americans and Latino voters might be the secret voters that hadn't been identified before here. It is going to be really interesting to watch play out.

BLACKWELL: All right. Phil, Steven, thank you.

PAUL: Thank you, gentlemen.

The FBI being criticized for influencing the election. Is the bureau's credibility tarnished? We will talk about that with CNN political commentators on both sides of the aisle. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:23] BLACKWELL: Well, amid rumors of infighting, questionable timing and political influence, some are accusing the FBI of meddling in this election after the release of really vague details about e- mails linked potentially to the Clinton campaign.

PAUL: We want to talk about this with Doug Heye, CNN political commentator, Republican strategist and former communications for the RNC, and Patti Solis Doyle, CNN political commentator and former presidential campaign manager for Hillary Clinton.

Patty, we want to start with you. There is so much unfavorable emotion around Hillary Clinton in terms of her trustworthiness and in terms of whether she is somebody that can lead in that regard.

If the FBI is tarnished as some might say it seems, how do you make the case that Hillary Clinton is the one to fix it when her trustworthy numbers are still low? PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I certainly

-- certainly, the e-mail server hurt her trustworthy numbers. Has a record of once she is in office, once she is governing, of really getting things done, of rolling up her sleeves, putting her nose to the across the aisle, working with Republicans and moving the country forward.

Whether it was as a senator, whether it was as secretary of state, even as first lady, she worked in a bipartisan fashion. So I think, if anybody could do it, it's Hillary Clinton.

BLCKWELL: Doug, let me come to you. It doesn't matter who is elected. Let me change this.

Regardless of who is elected on Tuesday, the future president, the president-elect will have some challenges dealing with the director of the FBI.

[07:45:05] He's got seven years left on his term.

At some point during his campaign, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have each been very critical of him. Donald Trump calling him out in his RNC address, saying that he was covering for potential crimes. How does he work with an FBI director if he is elected president?

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he is going to have a very hard time doing that as Hillary Clinton would. The reality of what we have seen from the FBI regardless of if you are a Clinton supporter or a Trump supporter -- like me, I wrote in Paul Ryan, because I don't think either I a good option -- is that nobody looks good in this.

Republicans condemned Comey earlier this year in the summer. Now, we have seen Democrats condemn Comey. It's very difficult for the FBI moving forward. There is a taint from their actions regardless of which side you take. It's going to be difficult for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump moving forward and especially difficult for the FBI.

PAUL: So, how would Hillary Clinton handle it then, Patti? Because (INAUDIBLE) how difficult it is. I mean, you don't have control of everybody around you. You only have control of yourself.

SOLIS: Right, look, politics is politics. And this has been a very bruising, awful campaign season to say the least.

PAUL: As we all smile through it, because that's about all we can do.

But once you are in office, if she is so lucky to get elected president, once she is in the office, she is going to work with the director.

Now, look, it is unfortunate that the FBI director, Comey, has taken a real hit this election cycle. It has not only been bruising to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump but it has been bruising to Director Comey. She is going to have to work with them. She would be the president of the United States. He will be the FBI director and they are going to have to come to some sort of, you know, working arrangement.

HEYE: I think -- as Patti knows, it is not just administration, the White House working with the FBI, you also have Congress. We don't know exactly where the Senate is going to be yet. We certainly think that House Republicans are going to maintain control. They are promising investigations into Hillary Clinton obviously. It is going to be very difficult for there to be not only any big pieces of legislation next year if Clinton or Trump is President, but it is going to be harder with that oversight that Hillary Clinton is guaranteed to get from the house.

PAUL: Let me ask if I could, please, because we have the chairman of the oversight and government reform committee, Jason Chaffetz, who says he will continue to investigation Hillary Clinton whether she wins or not. So, what kind of position does that put both of these candidates?

I mean, obviously, does it talk to Trump's narrative that she is criminal as he says, even though there were no charges? Or does it speak to her as I'm an overcomer and I'm going to be able to make this work across the aisle?

DOYLE: Well, first of all, I think it's sad to hear this from our elected members of Congress. You know, you want to hear, no matter who wins, we are going to work with the president of the United States of America to move this country forward. That's what you want to hear.

Instead, we are hearing this very divisive rhetoric from our elected officials. But having said that, you know, look, there is no one who has been more investigated than Hillary Clinton. Whether it is the eight investigations on Benghazi, whether it is going back to the Clinton years.

They have never been -- nothing r has ever been found. She is a fighter. She will persevere and she will get her work done as president of the United States.

BLACKWELL: You know, there are many Republicans that would take issue with you're saying nothing has ever been found. But let me -- well, I am just saying, there is some that will say nothing has ever been found. Of course, there is nothing criminal from Director Comey.

One of the characters in this saga that has been relegated is Loretta Lynch, because of meeting on the tarmac with the former president, she has been silent here in the last several weeks.

HEYE: Yes, it's absolutely been telling, as much as we have talked about James Comey, that Loretta Lynch seems to have disappeared.

But Patti said something I think is one of the real truisms, is politics is politics. And right now, in the closing days of the campaign, you don't want to be talking about what you don't want to be talking about. You want your opponents to talk about what they don't want to be talking about. Hillary Clinton for the past week has been talking about something she

doesn't want to be talking about, the e-mails, the investigations, it's part of why we've seen -- a big part of why we have seen her really be stagnant in the polls in the past few days.

BLACKWELL: All right. Doug, Patti, thank you both.

HEYE: Thank you.

PAUL: All righty. Million of Americans, they have already voted. You know what? More are heading to the polls on Tuesday. U.S. officials saying Russia could still be trying to influence the results. We'll talk about that and what we've learned this morning. Stay close.

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[07:53:26] BLACKWELL: Well, just three days now until Election Day, but there are still concerns that Russia is trying to interfere. U.S. officials are worried hackers could leak more documents targeting certain campaigns or tamper with voter registration systems.

PAUL: Yes, if you look at any of the Russian media coverage, it's no secret which candidate they want to win.

CNN's Clarissa Ward traveled to Moscow to find out why Donald Trump is so popular.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American dream is dead. Bing, bing, bing. Bong bong, bing bing.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia's media is relishing every minute of this U.S. election, presenting it as a failure of the U.S. democracy.

And it's not hard to see who the favorite is here. The Republican candidate is presented as a maverick underdog, political outsider who speaks truth to power. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is cast as a dangerous Russia hater, whose election could lead to World War III.

Russian media frequently labels her a witch, with one tabloid even calling her evil incarnate.

State TV anchor Sergey Brilev says it's a response to Clinton's aggressive attitude.

SERGEY BRILEV, ANCHOR, RUSSIAN STATE TV: The mentality on the street, of course, is that Clinton is hostile to Russia, because while she's been hostile., she's done all those anti-Russian statements, be it about hacking, or Putin, or Russia, just read her statements.

WARD: President Putin dismissed allegations that Russia is playing favorites in this race. [07:55:02] But as the polls have tightened, Russian media is now suggesting that the election is rigged and that the establishment won't let Trump win.

One channel has predicted bloody unsocial unrest if Clinton becomes president followed by the overthrow of the corrupt regime.

KONSTANTIN VON EGGER, RAIN TV: It's a very effective message for Russian audience. Russia is very suspicious of American democracy and western democracy and someone who rebels against this system definitely looks very good in the eyes of Russia.

WARD: Which is why media here is happily milking this propaganda value it can get.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: Some Russian media channels even suggested that American authorities might try to assassinate Donald Trump to prevent him from becoming president.

Really, Christi and Victor, this gives you a sense of just how ugly the Russian coverage of the U.S. election is. As I said before, they're capitalizing on the propaganda value on it, really tries to cast America as a country that is dysfunctional, dangerous and divided, but also, of course, this provides a very welcomed distraction from Russia's own problems here at home -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: Clarissa Ward, we appreciate it so much. Thank you.

And three days to go now until lot of people go to the polls, but boy the early votes numbers are pretty impressive.

BLACKWELL: Yes, more than 30 million across 38 states. We'll talk about that and much more when the next hour of NEW DAY. It starts right after a break.

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