Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Director Comey Announces FBI Investigation into Clinton Emails Closed; Presidential Candidates Campaign in Battleground States; The Road To 270; Clinton And Trump Make Closing Arguments To Voters. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 7, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: There is nothing there. There will be no indictment of Hillary Clinton with respect to e-mails. What does Clinton say? Surprisingly, almost nothing. She wants to move past this with the big decision just tomorrow.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump still says the system is rigged and he's asking the American people to, quote, "deliver justice at the polls." Both candidates launching battleground blitzes in the final day of campaigning, just one more day until Election Day. And we have it all covered for you. So let's begin with CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown. She is live in Washington. What's the latest, Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, we have learned FBI agents worked around the clock to review the thousands of newly surfaced e-mails, and key to this effort was technology that had been refined from its previous use for the initial Clinton private server investigation. And it turns out most of the e-mails involving Hillary Clinton were personal or duplicate e-mails that had already been reviewed by the FBI.

Director Comey was briefed on the findings yesterday and made the decision he would not change his July recommendation of no charges against Clinton. The FBI has been under intense pressure since Director Comey sent that letter to Congress, saying new e-mails had surfaced relevant to the private server investigation. The probe is considered over for now when it comes to Hillary Clinton.

Now, as for the others who were part of the probe, including Huma Abedin, the FBI is still working on remaining aspects of the review, including determining how the e-mails ended up on her estranged husband's laptop in the first place. Abedin's attorney says she doesn't know why these emails were there because this wasn't a computer she used.

This morning, though, questions continue to surround Director Comey, including why he made the decision to alert Congress with less than two weeks until the election before understanding the substance of these e-mails. No matter who wins the election tomorrow you can bet Comey will be in a tough spot. Back to you.

CUOMO: No question about that. Pamela Brown, thank you very much. So the Clinton campaign breathing a little easier after the FBI director's letter to Congress yesterday. But is it too little, too late on this issue? CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us now. Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, one of the big questions is what is the Clinton campaign going to do with this good news just a couple days before the election. The answer is nothing at all. There is a good reason why. The Clinton campaign has maintained throughout they win, their numbers go up, when they are talking about Donald Trump. And so even though Clinton held two rallies yesterday, one in New Hampshire and one in Cleveland, Ohio, after the letter was sent, no mention at all of the letter. Instead Hillary Clinton talking about what she brings to the table. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love our country and I believe in our people. And I will never ever quit on you no matter what.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And guys, also taking a number of swipes at Donald Trump today, the last major day at least scheduled for so far for Clinton on the campaign trail. And when you take a look at where she is going you get a sense of where the Clinton campaign stands. A first trip to Michigan. She's been there a couple times. Multiple of her surrogates have also gone there. That's a big story, because that is a traditionally blue battleground state. But also a late night rally tonight in Raleigh, North Carolina, a true tossup that if the Clinton campaign can secure, they would be in pretty good shape.

But the headline of the night, the primetime event, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia rally outside Independence Hall, first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, and two pretty big guests, I think you could say, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi. That is the image the Clinton campaign wants leave voters with as they head to the polls. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: So "Born to Run" we're going to hear maybe, applies to both. "Living on a prayer."

MATTINGLY: Just a few potential options.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Phil. We'll see what happens.

Trump, meanwhile, is again saying the system is rigged and that the FBI's decision not to prosecute Clinton is proof of that. He now wants voters in his words to, quote, "deliver justice at the ballot box." CNN's Sunlen Serfaty joins us now with more. What does that mean, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, Donald Trump is sure not letting go of this line of attack that he thinks Hillary Clinton is guilty of federal crimes. At his rallies last night he continued to bring up that she has been the subject of an FBI investigation, but notably, very notably leaving out that the FBI review is now over and that she has been in essence cleared of wrongdoing. And the Trump campaign, Trump is really casting doubt on the FBI director's conclusions. And keep in mind, this is only about a week since he praised the FBI director for announcing the review of the e-mails. Here's Trump last night in Michigan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can't review 650,000 new e-mails in eight days. You can't do it, folks. Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it. The FBI knows it. The people know it. And now it's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:00] SERFATY: And Trump today has another flurry of campaign events. He is trying to find the pieces he needs to put 270 electoral votes together. He is campaigning in the must-win states of Florida and North Carolina. Then it's on to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Michigan. His last rally tonight, a late night rally in Michigan that is a late in the game add and a new focus by the Trump campaign. This is a state that has not gotten Republicans since 1988. As Clinton there is trying to play some defense, the Trump campaign clearly sensing opportunity, Chris, to potentially flip the state.

CUOMO: All right, Sunlen, thank you very much. Let's bring in Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy. He supports Donald Trump. Always a pleasure, Congressman.

REP. SEAN DUFFY, (R) WISCONSIN: Hey, Chris, thanks for having me back on.

CUOMO: Absolutely. So how do you feel about your party's nominee saying that Jim Comey is corrupt and that the FBI knows that Hillary Clinton is guilty but not saying it, and that the FBI essentially is lying about having reviewed the e-mails on Anthony Weiner's laptop. How do you feel about that?

DUFFY: First of all, I don't focus on what Donald Trump says or does. If we are talking about e-mails, we are talking about Hillary Clinton and the corruption of her having private and secure e-mails on her private server and the fact that she was extremely careless with top secret information. That is the conversation that I think so many Americans are thinking about as this new letter came out from Jim Comey.

I think Donald Trump is frustrated, though, Chris. I think he makes a good point. The FBI reviewed 650,000 e-mails in nine days is pretty remarkable. But from my perspective, I take the FBI at their word. I think they are trying to do the best job that they can. And I think only later on, whether it is through the FBI having a hearing with Congress or if it comes through leaks through FBI agents are we going to find out what information the FBI had and will we be able to judge Director Comey and the decisions he has made during this campaign.

CUOMO: Congressman, the reason I would suspect you take the FBI at their word is because of two things. One, you are being a responsible public official, and two, you don't have proof otherwise. You are backing a man for president who does not act on those bases. He will spread that FBI is essentially lying. He has no proof, and he will spread that doubt about one of these critical institutions of our democracy for his own political gain. And you say you don't focus on what Donald Trump says and does. Don't you have to if you want him to be president?

DUFFY: Chris, if I will be surly with you this morning, I would say, hey, Chris, you are supporting someone. But I won't go that far.

CUOMO: You just did. Did you learn that from Trump?

(LAUGHTER)

DUFFY: You are supporting someone who actually took top secret information and put it on a private server. You are supporting someone who destroyed 33,000 e-mails with a BleachBit and then smashed her phones. And the FBI said she is extremely careless. So to look at Donald Trump and say Mr. Trump, he has had some issues with the FBI, that is maybe one offense. But comparing that to what Hillary Clinton did with regard to top secret information, there is absolutely no comparison between those two. And so if Americans are evaluating Donald Trump in regard to e-mails and the FBI and Hillary Clinton, hands down Donald Trump will win.

CUOMO: But how is that the comparison? I am going to assume for the sake of our friendship that you are being rhetorical when you are calling me out as for Clinton. That's OK, you just gave food to all Trump supporters. But look, there is no question that the e-mail thing was wrong. It was unusual for Comey to say "extremely careless." The FBI doesn't usually talk that way. But certainly he echoed the way a lot of people feel.

I'm not asking about that. I'm saying Comey says there is no crime. Your candidate for president, the nominee of your party says yes there is. He is lying. There is a crime. Comey says we looked at the new e-mails and I can't advance the case. Your nominee says he is lying. They didn't really look at all of the e-mails. Is that responsible behavior from someone who would be United States?

DUFFY: So, first up, Chris, I think prosecutors, and I was a prosecutor for 10 years. I know you're a lawyer. I look at Trey Gowdy and Trey Gowdy's comments in regard to the hearing. There is some disagreement about whether the FBI could actually prosecute Hillary Clinton for having these top secret e-mails on a private server. No doubt about it. And in fact, she came to Congress and said she didn't send or receive classified information, but then Director Comey came out and said no, no, actually she did. She had classified information on her server. She sent and received it from that server and therefore she lied to Congress, as well.

So I don't buy the idea that she couldn't be prosecuted. I will see the point that FBI chose not to prosecute her. And that doesn't mean she hasn't committed crimes or committed bad acts and endangered American national security. Those things all happened.

[08:10:00] Now, I think Donald Trump is frustrated. I think a lot of Americans are frustrated with how this investigation happened. Think back to Bill Clinton meeting on a tarmac in Arizona with Loretta Lynch. That stuff just doesn't happen in a legitimate system. And I think there is a lot of people who are scratching their heads this morning, saying why are the Clintons treated differently in these investigations? Why does the spouse of a target get to meet with the head of the Department of Justice?

And I think the DOJ and the FBI and the Clintons have brought a lot of scrutiny on themselves. I don't disregard your point, Chris, that Donald Trump has been a little bit aggressive in his pushback on the FBI. He has. But make no mistake, he is channeling a lot of frustration and angle that is seething within a lot of Americans that there is one standard for all of Americans and there is a different standard for the Clintons, and they don't like it. We in America think that we all should follow the same rules. It doesn't matter how wealthy you are or how powerful you are. We all get treated equally and fairly under the law. You know old lady justice with her blindfold on and her scales of justice. That is our vision of American law, and we don't feel like, a lot of Americans don't feel like that has been the case with regard to Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: It's a good thing lady justice is blindfolded so she didn't have to watch the election the way the rest of us have. Sean Duff, thank you for making the case for Trump on NEW DAY as always. I can't believe you took a personal shot at me. I can't wait to see you again.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Be well, Congressman. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, let's get the other side with the governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper. He is a Clinton supporter. Good morning, governor.

GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER, (D) COLORADO: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: So, governor, how much damage you think was done between the time of the first Comey letter to Congress saying that he was basically reopening the investigation based on what he had seen on Anthony Weiner's laptop and yesterday with him saying he is closing the investigation and there would be no further probe into Mrs. Clinton's e-mail?

HICKENLOOPER: Well, it certainly changed the momentum in a significant way. But I think the more important part is that Donald Trump has revealed himself again and again -- everyone is a liar if they don't agree with him, and if he thinks someone is guilty he is going to make sure they go to jail. He's basically bragged about what can only be called sexual assault, and then denied he ever really did it. His problem with coming to grips with the truth is just every single day, and I think that is what comes out again and again in this issue, is that he can't keep his mind on one path. He says one thing one moment and one thing another. That is what to me is the most revealing. The whole issue is it is always rigged if it's against him. He praises people who agree with him. That's no way to be president.

CAMEROTA: Governor, I can't help but notice that you pivoted away from talking about Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. And I'm wondering if that's the strategist for these last 24 hours, if the Clinton campaign surrogates and the campaign are just going to talk about Donald Trump's negatives mostly?

HICKENLOOPER: Because otherwise we would have to attack Comey. Clearly he made a statement 11 days ago that this could be relevant. He created all this expectation that there had to be something significant in this large collection of emails. And they went through and sorted through them and found the ones that had to do with Hillary Clinton and went through them and there was nothing. Again there was nothing.

So either we go and attack someone who -- the FBI, maybe they are not perfect, and I think in this case James Comey really wasn't perfect, but they are our government. They are doing the best they can, I think the vast majority of those guys. It's not rigged. I don't this he was out there trying to take down Hillary Clinton. I think he made a terrible mistake, I really do. But I don't want to go dwell on it. I would rather talk about the crucial stuff, which is -- again, no one in the campaign gave me instructions. I haven't talked to anyone in the campaign the last 24 hours. No one said, here's what our line is. But I think anybody with decent eyesight can say this is the future of the Trump presidency would be, and it is unacceptable. There is no respect for the truth.

CAMEROTA: Governor, so given that is your stance, let's talk about what is going on in your state because the polls are neck and neck. Look at the latest poll. This is the University of Denver, Colorado poll, Clinton 39 percent, Trump 39 percent. How do you explain what is going on in your state?

HICKENLOOPER: We're a purple state. So we have almost equal numbers Republican, Democrat, and independents. We have had more turn out early in the election by Democrats than Republicans compared to 2012. So I think that is encouraging. But the polls definitely tightened up.

I will say I went out yesterday to a number of the call centers and where the candidates come together and talk to these young -- they're not young. They're young, they're middle aged, they're old, all types of people, and they were so fired up. It was one of those beautiful fall days. And in a funny way, despite all the negativity of the campaign, I walk out of one of these places and I looked at the sky and I smiled and I said this is amazing. These people are fired up.

[08:15:00] They are going to go knock on their neighbors' doors and make phone calls to make sure everybody votes. This is America. We may complain and say we have been bludgeoned, but this is democracy in action.

As ugly has parts of it have been, getting the vote out. I think in Colorado you will see Hillary Clinton's team so determined and fired up to deliver the first female president of the United States, who I think without question the most prepared person ever to run for president.

They will deliver that vote. Colorado will be the state that decides the election. That is what they hoped.

CAMEROTA: Wow, and I mean, Governor, I like your optimistic rosy view of where we are today. Of course, in the United States, we also have freedom of speech and this weekend there was a Sanders supporter who took that opportunity and grabbed the microphone at an Iowa what was supposed to be a campaign rally for Secretary Clinton, but instead he launched into a criticism of her until he was ushered off of the stage.

Do you think that the Clinton campaign has done enough to kind of woo Sanders supporters or do you think that they will be a fly in the ointment tomorrow?

HICKENLOOPER: No, I think the Democratic Party is a big tent. If ever there was one it is a big tent and there are people from all kinds of religions and backgrounds. When I went out and encouraging people to get out the vote yesterday, it was like looking at a cross section of America, young people, old people, African-Americans, Latinos, all these different people coming together and involved in our democratic process.

There are always going to be out liars. People get upset. You know, Bernie Sanders was very passionate, but I don't think -- Bernie Sanders has come out again and again. He wants to make sure Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States.

CAMEROTA: Governor John Hickenlooper, thanks so much. Great to talk to you today.

HICKENLOOPER: You bet, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, so you have Clinton and Trump making their closing arguments to voters in competing op-eds this morning. Does the FBI director's 11th-hour move change anything? We will discuss with a really good panel next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:20]

CUOMO: Hello. The FBI is clearing Hillary Clinton again after reviewing newly discovered e-mails. Does this change how either candidate makes their closing arguments?

Let's discuss with CNN political commentator, Hilary Rosen, a Hillary Clinton supporter and a Democratic strategist, CNN political commentator, Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's former campaign manager, CNN political contributor, Michael Nutter, a Clinton supporter and of course, the former mayor of Philadelphia, and CNN political commentator, John Phillips, a Trump supporter and a host at KABC Radio.

What do say, Lady and Gentlemen, let's do the voters a favor and let's keep the emphasis on why your person is good and keep it off the other person as much as possible. We have heard enough negative. Everybody gets it.

Mr. Mayor defer to you and your case for why Hillary Clinton is the right leader for this country right now. Why?

MICHAEL NUTTER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: It is about experience. It is about a record of service. It is about her ability to get things done, work with a wide variety of people. The relationships that she has developed over about a 30-year period of time, first lady of Arkansas, first of the United States, United States senator and secretary of state. As President Obama has said himself the most qualified person to run for president in modern times.

CUOMO: Hillary, is that what we will hear from Hillary Clinton in these closing 24 hours? Her own resume? Her own positives or will she continue to talk about Donald Trump's negatives?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think we have started to see it already in the last 48 hours on the campaign trail. She has been almost all positive. She is talking about how she wants to be president of entire country. She wants to work with Republicans. She's reaching out to independents.

Her advertising the major buys in advertising in the battleground states for the last two days and for the next 24 hours are positive ads about where we want to go as a country.

You know, I think the FBI clearance puts a spring in her step, but I don't think it changes anything. I think she would head down this path anyway. She has been positive. I have to contrast that to Donald Trump who's just --

CAMEROTA: (Inaudible) but there were many days where she was just talking about he's disqualified --

ROSEN: It is about the close, right? It is about now we are getting down to the Election Day and what kind of country do we want to be. This is my vision and I think that she if you look at her speeches for the last two days, and if you look at where their money is going in advertising she is going to bringing this country together and healing these divisions.

CUOMO: So Corey, when you hear about the length of Clinton's experience, you acknowledge it and say, yes, I agree, all this experience. That is why there is such a call for change because people want the system to be different. What would Donald Trump do to make our reality different? COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think there is a couple of really important factors. First reforming the VA, we know that the veterans have had a bad deal not just in this administration, but the last 20 or 30 years.

Donald Trump has put a plan forward that says if I'm the president of the United States and you are a veteran you can go to any hospital in the country to get your health care. That something that should have been done a long time ago.

And unfortunately, Congress has failed so you need true leadership to do that. You want to reduce the deficit and bring trade deals and renegotiate our bad trade deals and bring manufacturing jobs back to our country.

I fundamentally disagree with the premise that we need someone who knows Washington, D.C. inside and out to make a change. I think the American people have tried that. They have tried it for 30 years.

If you look at the right track, wrong track of our country, 50 percent say we are moving in the wrong direction. What Donald Trump brings is fundamental and wholesale change not beholden to special interests, not accountable to the special interests.

He's put his own money into the race. He'll be accountable to the American people and that is his close. His close is I will work for you, the American people, not anybody else.

[08:25:05]We need to go and fix a broken Washington, D.C. I think a lot of people agree with that.

CAMEROTA: My question to you, John, so is he making that close or is he still talking about possible impeachment and his vice presidential nominee talking about possible charges?

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: People have lost faith in institutions in the country. They've lost faith in the government. They've lost faith in corporate America and the media. To have a different direction come to Washington, D.C., to really change the temperature in the room, you need an outsider. Donald Trump is that outsider.

He doesn't come from that world. I also think it is important that he is ala carte with politics because I do believe that that's where the American people are.

You can't be the most liberal person in the world on gay marriage yet very conservative on crime and punishment. He is coming in as a Republican against TPP and the war in Iraq. I think that the American people are yearning for something like that because that's where they've been for quite a while.

CAMEROTA: You are saying we are going to hear a positive in these next 24 hours. He is not going to talk about Hillary Clinton?

PHILLIPS: I think it will be a mixed bag. Little of Column A and Column B.

NUTTER: It is impossible for him not to talk about Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: Just to be clear, I have never heard Donald Trump say he is in favor of gay marriage.

PHILLIPS: No, no. I said it's possible to --

CUOMO: But that's not where he is. So then you have the character. We've been calling the character contest and basically you have that Hillary Clinton has a cloud over her head. May not be illegal but doesn't mean that it is wrong.

And in that category goes her decisions with classified information with her server, what has gone on with the foundation, what she promised would be a bright line between the foundation and the Department of State that didn't appear to be a bright line that speaks to her being proof of the status quo, which is you have to give to get and people want it to end, fair criticism.

NUTTER: I think she has made it abundantly clear that the server issue was a mistake. But at the end of the day, the FBI as you indicated twice now has said that nothing criminal took place. She knows she made a mistake and admitted it publically numerous times.

In terms of the foundation, which I think is a different investigation, it remains to be seen what comes out of that. But I understand, look, if you're around for 30 some odd years in a variety of different capacities, you will have instances where, A, some people won't like you, B, there might be a cloud or something from the past.

But I think you want to look at the totality of someone's record and their history, and on that score Hillary Clinton is a great leader.

ROSEN: But she has shown some humility on this issue, right, and she deserves credit for that. She has said we are going to wind down the foundation and funding sources and the like. So that she recognizes that she has to start this administration fresh that people have to --

It is doing really good work. There are opportunities to keep doing that good work, but the issues that people have raised about donors and the like will be gone.

So I do think what you get in Hillary Clinton is somebody who grows with the American people, learns from her mistakes, is willing to admit a mistake which is something we haven't seen much from Mr. Trump.

And that's why when you go forward, you know, she can feel positive about it because she will do it differently.

LEWANDOWSKI: I think when you look at when Hillary Clinton was testifying to become secretary of state in front of the Senate Finance Committee, John Kerry said you'll be judged on your actions, not in your words and there should be a clear delineation between the Clinton Foundation and your time as secretary of state. And what we have seen from a number of documents now is that either 80 percent of the people who met or got a favor from the Clinton Foundation outside of government were donating --

CUOMO: All right, I will give you that. Now deal with your own side. The guy is going on trial for fraud in a class action suit a couple weeks after the election. That's going to happen. It's not theoretical. It's not a probe. It's a case. You have dozens of people all over this country that say they got taken by Trump University. It's one of the slew of lawsuits. Why is he changed that's positive?

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, 98.5 percent of the people (inaudible) at Trump University gave it the highest rates possible. So of the tens of thousands -- pressure to what? You fill out your own survey.

CUOMO: He said to stop calling itself an educational organization.

LEWANDOWSKI: But 98 percent of the people who attended Trump University gave it a positive grade. The tens of thousands of people that went through the program, one half of 1 percent of the people who didn't have a good experience, does that mean anything, of course not. I would think one half of 1 percent of the employees of CNN probably unhappy sometimes too. That happens --

CUOMO: Untrue.

LEWANDOWSKI: One half of 1 percent.

NUTTER: They probably have to file a lawsuit.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing all of your perspective. It will be interesting to talk to you all tomorrow and Wednesday. Thank you so much.

Stay with CNN all day and night tomorrow for complete Election Day coverage. Can you believe it? We have made it. We will have every race and every result covered for you.

CUOMO: I do not see your confidence in this being over. I like it. I depend on it.

CAMEROTA: I will move the finish line after tomorrow, but it is happening tomorrow.

CUOMO: All right, now we have a really sobering reminder of why this election matters so much.