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Justice Dept., FBI Want to Secure Clinton Aide's E-mails; Clinton Calls for FBI to Release "Full and Complete Facts"; Donald Trump Speaks to Supporters in Las Vegas; Clinton Aide Said She Returned All Devices For Review; Trump Now Praises FBI Director After Calling Him Corrupt. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired October 30, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:05] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. this is CNN on the NEWSROOM. Thanks so much for being with me.I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with new details on the FBI review into the newly discovered e-mails of Hillary Clinton's close aid, Huma Abedin. The U.S. Justice Department and FBI officials are working to secure approval that would allow the FBI to conduct a full search of those e-mails. CNN's Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez, joining me right now on the phone with details on all of this. So Evan, what are you learning?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Fredricka, at this point, the Justice Department and the FBI are trying to figure out how to get approval, how to secure permission that would allow the FBI to conduct a full search of these newly discovered e-mails.

Now, there's a lot we don't know at this point. You don't know whether these e-mails contain any classified information, whether they're even meaningful to the Hillary Clinton e-mail server investigation, the FBI doesn't know that yet. They know that as part of this investigation that the New York field officer of the FBI was doing into Anthony Weiner and whether Anthony Weiner had exchanged sexually explicit e-mails with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina as part of that investigation, they stumbled upon Huma Abedin's e-mails. And e-mails that they immediately realized may be related to the Hillary Clinton investigation and that they appeared to not have seen before.

That's the thing that started this entire new crisis, frankly,for the Clinton campaign and for the FBI. And what is complicating the issue right now is simply that this is a computer that is believed to be belonged to Anthony Weiner and it's covered by a subpoena that was only related to the Weiner investigation, it did not have to do with anything else. So now they need permission to be able to search the computer for these e-mails to make sure that they can review them and see if there's any classified information.

There's also the matter of spousal privilege because Huma Abedin is her wife. And she has some legal protection to it. So they (lawyered) her, essentially working through the weekend, trying to figure this out. We expect at some point the government will go to a judge and get a search warrant so that they can begin the work to review these e-mails.

WHITFIELD: OK. And quickly, Evan, any idea how long that process would take?

PEREZ: I can tell you that we do not expect to get any of these answers before election day. We don't expect that the FBI director, Jim Comey, who started this public applaud by sending (inaudible) congress on Friday, we don't expect that he's going to be able to provide any more insight into this before the election, simply because his own investigators don't know what they have.

So I've got to tell you, the Clinton campaign is hammering the FBI about because they think that the FBI owes it to the public to explain itself, to provide more information. The problem is, they don't have that information right now. And until they get a search warrant, they can't review these e-mails. And so we don't expect that to happen any time soon.

WHITFIELD: All right. Evan Perez, thank you so much for that detail. Keep us posted. Appreciate it.

So we are now nine days away from election day. Both presidential campaigns running on overdrive. You see a live events happening right now, they're holding rallies. On the left, pictures from Wilton Manors, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale where Hillary Clinton is holding a rally right now. And then, of course, on the right Donald Trump is in Las Vegas. Let's listen in right now to Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we're going to have health care that is so good and so much less expensive. Because ObamaCare forgetting about the cause which is ridiculous. It's no good, it doesn't work and your deductibles are so high, you're never going to be able to use it, so. ObamaCare is a catastrophe for your state.

In Minnesota, where the premium increase will be closed to 60 percent, the Democratic governor has just said the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable. Hillary Clinton wants to double down on ObamaCare, making it even more expensive. In fact, much more expensive. My contract with the American voter outlines a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. And I'm asking for your vote so we can save health care for every family in your state and in this country.

Real change also means getting rid of the corruption in Washington. You've been seeing a little corruption, right? You've been seeing. The system is rigged. It's rigged. Little corruption you've been watching. As you've heard, it was just announced on Friday that the FBI is reopening their investigation into the criminal and illegal conduct of Hillary Clinton. Hillary has nobody but herself to blame for her mounting legal problems. Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful.

Hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her criminal conduct from public disclosure and exposure. She's set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk. And put the safety and security of your children at risk. To cover up her crimes, she bleached and deleted 33,000 e-mails after receiving a congressional subpoena. After -- after -- after she gets a subpoena and she deletes and bleaches and nobody even ever heard of bleaching. Did anybody ever hear a bleaching? You know why it's such an expensive process? But it have them go away.

But I have a feeling they've just found a lot of them, don't you think? Huma. They just found a lot of them. we never thought we were going to say thank you to Anthony Weiner. She made 13 phones disappear, some with a hammer. She lied to congress under oath. She lied to the FBI many times. And then, two boxes of e-mail evidence just recently went mysteriously missing. Then you have the WikiLeaks revelations which have exposed criminal corruption at the highest levels of our government.

Hillary put the office of Secretary of State up for sale. And if she ever did get the chance, which we're not going to let her have, she put the Oval Office up for sale also. You have no doubt about that.

Yet now it's reported that the Department of Juice is fighting the FBI that's because the Department of Justice is trying so hard to protect Hillary Clinton. They didn't try to protect our generals, they didn't try to protect a lot of other people. How can the attorney general be involved in this case or tell the FBI what to do when the attorney general violated sanctity of law by secretly meeting with Bill Clinton, the husband of the possible target of the investigation and a possible target themselves in an airplane on the tarmac in Arizona.

Remember, he was going to play golf, remember? But he just happened to be at the airport hanging around and the attorney general's plane drove by, right? And he said -- oh, isn't that her -- oh, yes. Oh, gee, let's say hello. Let's say hello.

Just a -- it was a chance meeting, they said, right? Well, the meeting lasted 39 minutes. And they supposedly talked about golf and grandchildren. So I give two minutes to golf, I give five minutes to grandchildren. But what they probably really talked about was the attorney general's reappointment should Hillary Clinton become president, which I don't think is going to happen.

[14:10:02] Because of this highly inappropriate meeting at best, the attorney general took herself essentially out of the case and put Director Comey in charge of making decisions, you saw that. Decision- making process.

So why is she now allowed to fight so hard to get someone who is so obviously guilty on so many different fronts off the hook? In fact, it was publicly reported that sources close to Hillary Clinton said -- and she actually, I think, said it to the papers, that she was thinking of reappointing attorney general Lynch. She was taking -- she said it. I mean it was a statement she made. And effectively, I guess, you'd call that a bribe, wouldn't you? Wouldn't that be called bribe? How could she say they're going to make a decision on her and you're

talking about you're going to reappoint? She said it publicly, I believe. When I heard it, I found it a little bit hard to believe that she'd say that. This is what we mean when we say the system is rigged. It's rigged.

What makes us exceptional is that we are a nation of laws and that we are all equal under those laws. Hillary's corruption shreds the principles on which our nation was found. When the powerful can get away with anything because they have the money and the connections to rig the system, then the people lose hope and confidence in the future of their country. Corruption is corrosive to the soul of the democracy and it must be stopped and we're going to stop it.

Because we have one ultimate check on Hillary's corruption and that is the power of the vote -- the power of the vote. The only way to beat the corruption is to show up and vote by the tens a millions including millions of people voting for the first time in their lives. There was a great guy on television that I have to tell you about it. His name was Sid Miller from Texas.Oh, they know Sid Miller.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Dueling rallies Donald Trump in Nevada and now Hillary Clinton in Florida. Let's listen in to Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I got to say, any of you see the debates? Well, you know, I stood next to Donald Trump in three debates for four and a half hours proving conclusively I have the stamina to do this job, right?

But a lot of what we've heard him say is part of a lifelong pattern. And here's what "The Washington Post" concludes. For as long as he has been rich and famous, he has wanted people to believe he is generous. He spent years constructing an image as a philanthropist by appearing at charity events and by making very public even nationally televised promises to give his own money away. It was, in large part, a big facade. In a months' long investigation by "The Washington Post" found that Trump had sought credit for charity he had not given or had claimed other people's giving as his own.

Now, of course, because he's refused to release his tax returns, we don't even know if he's ever given anything. But here's what we do know. With Donald, it's always Donald Trump first and everyone else last. He abuses his power. He games the system and he doesn't care who's left holding the bag. And here's what else we know. Donald Trump has a terrible record on LGBT rights. And this election will determine whether we continue the progress we've made or let it be ripped away.

We know Trump has promised he will appoint supreme court justices who will overturn marriage equality. And that he will repeal president Obama's executive actions to protect LGBT people from discrimination. And just this week, a news story came out that tells us a lot about how he treats LGBT employees.

It's a story of a maintenance worker at one of Trump's golf courses. I want you just to think, this guy works hard, works with his hands, probably there 12 hours a day, maybe more when it's the summer season.

[14:15:04] After he told his co-workers he was gay, they started harassing him. They called him names. They even threw rocks and golf balls at him. It got so bad, he ended up in the hospital. Now, his supervisors saw all of this and did nothing. So finally he went to the police for help. He was too scared even to come back to work. and what did the Trump golf course do? They fired him.

Now, this is a heart-wrenching story on a lot of levels. For starters, it's a painful reminder of the harassment violence and discrimination to many LGBT Americans still face every single day. And it's deeply disturbing that instead of stepping in to stop this unacceptable behavior, Trump's business punished the victim for coming forward.

Now, if that's how Donald Trump runs his business, what does it say about how he would run our country? We've made a lot of progress on LGBT rights. But as that story reminds us, we still have work ahead, don't we? There is still no federal law that stops an employer from refusing to hire someone just because he or she is LGBT or a landlord from refusing to rent an apartment to a transgender tenant. And of course, there are still states where you could get married on Saturday, post your Facebook photos on Sunday and get fired on Monday just because of who you are or who you love.

So here's what I will do as president. We will call on the congress to pass the equality act. And we will then be able to protect LGBT Americans from discrimination in all aspects of our lives. We will work together to achieve the aids-free generation that is within our (root). And we will take on homelessness, bullying and violence, particularly youth homelessness which disproportionately hurts LGBT kids. And we're going to end the harmful practice of so-called conversion therapy.

LGBT kids don't need to be cured of anything. They just need to be accepted and embraced and respected. And, yes, we're going to bring people together to reform our gun laws and keep guns from falling into the wrong hands so that what happened in Orlando can never happen again.

Now, some of you know -- Chad Griffin and others know this issue really is important to me. I traveled to 112 countries as your secretary of state. I saw how countries around the world treated lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And I believe with all my heart, America has to lead by example. I want LGBT people in every corner of our country -- because don't forget, you all living in Wilton Manors have moved far away from a lot other places where people are still scared to death, right?

And we're going to elevate this issue. We're going to talk about it. We're going to reach out. So when you vote in this election, remember, it's not just my name on the ballot, it's your future, it's who we are as a country, it's every issue we care about. And make no mistake, LGBT rights aren't at stake. Dignity and respect for every American is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake.

I believe when the middle class thrives, America thrives. And we're going to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century too. And if we're serious about supporting the middle class, we're going to be supporting families. You know, the other day, I was in Pittsburgh and there was a woman there with her young child -- we got some folks Pittsburgh, she was shaking Tim Kaine's hand. And she said to him, I came here hoping I could tell you or Secretary Clinton, I had my baby three years ago and the next day I was fired.

[14:20:01] It had been a difficult pregnancy. I called Ask if I could take a little time to recover and the answer was no, don't come back at all.

Nobody, no parent should ever have to make that kind of choice. But that's also true when we talk about paid family leave, caring for a spouse or a partner, caring for an elderly relative. I want us to recognize the way we live today. It is no longer the 1950s. We need to support people who are part of committed relationships of families, of marriages and give everybody the support you need to actually do what's the most important thing in life and that is caring for each other.

We're going to do everything we can to catch up to the rest of the world, affordable child care, paid family leave, earned sick days, jobs with rising incomes. We're going to raise the national minimum wage. No one who works full time should have to raise a family in poverty. And yes, we're going to guaranteed equal pay for women's work. We're going to make sure that we not only grow the economy but we make it fairer.

And I got to tell you that's such a stark contrast with Trump. He believes if you give the biggest tax cut in American history to the wealthy with trillions of dollars going to the top, that will somehow trickle down. It hasn't worked. It won't work. I believe that we could grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up. And that's exactly what we're going to do. So my friends, we got a guy who won't pay his income tax.I mean, I got to just say. When we learned in the debate that he lost a billion dollars --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Dueling rallies, contrasting messages.Hillary Clinton there in Wilton Manors of Florida, just north of Miami,Fort Lauderdale. And then in Nevada, Las Vegas, you got Donald Trump right there. We've got our team reporting underway. We've got Sunlen Serfaty at the Trump rally in Las Vegas.Phil Mattingly is in Milton Manors.

So Phil, let me go to you first because we hear Hillary Clinton trying to stick with her commitment to the LGBT community at the same time, did she address, you know, the elephant in the room, this FBI investigation review of e-mails? PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred, it wasn't something that was in her stump speech. I don't think it's going to be something you're going to see in her stump speech going forward. And here's why, obviously, in Wilton Manors today, kind of the unofficial capitol of the LGBT community down here in South Florida. She's in Volusia County yesterday at one point, rallying her supporters,her die-hard supporters, the coalition that she needs to come out.

The Clinton campaign kind of figures it this way. If you had a problem with her e-mail practices or these investigations before this letter from Jim Comey went to the Capitol Hill, you weren't going to vote for her anyway. They believe this is already baked in. While the campaign advisers will certainly be out and we've seen them out repeatedly attacking Director Comey for his decision to move with this, what Hillary Clinton's role will be going forward is to campaign, talk about their issues and what they want to do.

Essentially, Fred, almost act like this didn't happen, keep on to their strategy and try and bring out that coalition that they thought they had in place before this all happened and that they still think is in place even in the wake of kind of this bombshell moment that we had on Friday, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So then Sunlen there in Las Vegas, the contrasting message, Donald Trump seizing on the opportunity underscoring this FBI review. What more is he saying?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. It's quite clear that Donald Trump is trying to capitalize on this news and it is clear that he is feeling (pressure bigger) I should say, almost as if new life has been breathed back into his campaign with this news that the FBI is reviewing some of those e-mails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server.

He has been relentless in hammering away at Clinton on this and, today, no exception. He talked for many minutes about that at the top of his speech here in Las Vegas today. And made he a joke, he said that did you ever think that we would be thanking Anthony Weiner for all of this which the crowd hear, of course, (aid up). And now Trump campaign official say this is something that they believe gives them an opening in the final nine days of this election so continue to see Donald Trump bring this up at every turn on the campaign trail.

And I have to say, Fred, I did spend some time before this rally started, speaking to a lot of Trump supporters here. I didn't find one undecided voter here. People certainly have their minds made up at this point. And they all said that the news this week -- they brought up the news about the FBI this week. They said it really reinforced their opinions about Hillary Clinton. They think that if there are any undecided voters left out there that it could potentially sway their opinion in the final days, Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Sunlen Serfaty in Las Vegas. Phil Mattingly in South Florida, Wilton Manors. Thank you so much. All right, still ahead.

[14:25:03] We will hear from John Podesta including his response to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Do you accept the fundamental premise that the reason we're here is because Hillary Clinton and her inner circle, not including you made a horrible decisions to set up her private e-mail server and everything that has happened since then is her fault?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All right. Clinton and her campaign have been highly critical of FBI Director James Comey for his announcement that he would be reviewing the Clinton e-mail investigation or new e-mails with less than now two weeks -- really, we're just nine days away for election day. The campaign says Comey gave zero context for voters. CNN's Jake Tapper spoke with Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: John, yesterday you slammed FBI Director Comey for going, "Long on innuendo, light on facts." But frankly for months, your campaign has been striking a very different note when it comes to Director Comey. Take a listen to vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine just one week ago.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I do know is this that there was an extensive, as you know, (bright) investigation by the FBI under the direction of a wonderful and tough career public servant, Jim Comey. Jim was in the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia when I was the mayor of Richmond and he's somebody with the highest standards of integrity.

TAPPER: Highest standards of integrity, wonderful, tough, career public servant. How do you use those words and then call his actions on Friday into question?

JOHN PODESTA, CHAIRMAN, CLINTON CAMPAIGN: Well, Jake, look, this was an unprecedented action. It broke with policy of Democratic and Republican justice departments, it was done over the advice of senior justice department officials.

[14:30:04] And I think that the Justice Department has had a long tradition of not interfering in an election, coming 11 days before the election and, as I said yesterday, it was long on innuendo, short on facts.

We're calling on Mr. Comey to come forward and explain what's at issue here. So far, there's no charge of wrongdoing. There's no charge even that Hillary -- and the reporting that backs it up coming from anonymous law enforcement sources indicates it might not be about her server. It might not be about her at all.

So I think this is something that has been tossed into the middle of the campaign. We would have preferred that not to happen, but now that it has happened, Mr. Comey needs to come forward and explain why he took this unprecedented step.

Particularly when he said in a letter to himself in the letter to the hill that this may not even be significant.

TAPPER: He said that it was pertinent to the investigation and here's the world according to James Comey's perspective, FBI agents are investigating the husband of one of Hillary Clinton's top aides for allegedly sending illicit material to an underage girl.

In the course of that, they stumble upon emails that seemed to be relevant to the other investigation, the Clinton investigation. Suddenly Comey finds that his sworn statement from September, that the FBI had completed its review, was no longer true. They had more materials.

Now, Clinton didn't follow protocols when she started her e-mail server. Huma Abedin didn't turn over that computer. Weiner was doing what he was doing and you and the Clinton campaign seem to be blaming Comey for being transparent with Congress. What was he supposed to do?

PODESTA: Well, look, Jake, I think he should have done, in my view and in the view of many senior people in both Democratic and Republican administrations, two deputy attorney generals from the Bush administration have already come out. He should have taken further steps.

Yahoo! News reported last night that they haven't even looked at the content of this. To throw this in the middle of the campaign 11 days out just seemed to break with precedent and be inappropriate at this stage.

If they are not significant, they are not significant. He might have taken the first step of actually having looked at them before he did this in the middle of the presidential campaign so close to the voting.

TAPPER: But it's not that they haven't read any of them. Obviously the FBI agents who stumbled upon them read some of them and determined them to be (inaudible) and then realized they didn't have a --

PODESTA: Do you know that? We don't know anything.

TAPPER: I'm telling you, according to the reporting of Evan Perez, our justice correspondent, it's not as though they didn't know anything in the e-mails. They stumbled upon them and found that they seemed to be pertinent to the Clinton e-mail server investigation and that is why --

PODESTA: Might not be significant 11 days before the election, is that something you toss on the table or do you take the time to do what other prosecutors have done in the past and make sure it's so significant that you have to go forward with it. So I don't fault him for taking a look at whatever he's found. We don't really know what that is, but at this stage, having taken the step and he at least ought to explain, you know, if he thinks they are significant or not significant, let him come forward and say why.

TAPPER: So as part of this judicial lawsuit, Huma Abedin had to testify under oath and she said, quote, "I looked for all of the devices that may have had any of my State Department work on it and return gave them to my attorneys for them to review for all relevant documents and gave them devices and paper."

Obviously this other computer was not included in that group. Have you asked Huma Abedin why she did not turn over this computer that is now being reviewed by the FBI?

PODESTA: Look, I think huma has been completely cooperative with the authorities and they've recognized that she's worked with her attorneys to turn over relevant material. But we don't know what this is all about, really. So it's very hard --

TAPPER: John, she hasn't been completely cooperative if she didn't turn over every device that had State Department emails on them and this one computer did.

PODESTA: I think it's clear that she complied, to the best of her ability, to turn over everything in her possession. I don't know anything more than the speculation running wild in the press about what this is about. I've talked to her --

TAPPER: Have you talked to her? Have you asked Huma Abedin what was on the computer and why she didn't turn it over when she said she turned all of the devices?

PODESTA: We don't know what computer Mr. Comey is talking about. You're assuming about a lot of facts that we don't know. As I said, she's been fully cooperative with the authorities and they have recognized that.

[14:35:03]I think that the -- you know, we can sit here and speculate and put facts into the record based --

TAPPER: I'm not speculating, sir. Our reporting is that it was a laptop computer that belonged to Anthony Weiner and they found State Department emails on that laptop. That's reporting. That's not speculation. You have access to Huma Abedin. I don't. Have you asked her how --

PODESTA: I don't think she knows anything more than what we've seen in the press to date. So, you know, I'm sure if people -- the proper authorities want to ask her questions, they will ask her, but she's been fully cooperative in this investigation.

TAPPER: She came off of the campaign trail on Saturday. Is she still part of the campaign? Is she still working on the campaign?

PODESTA: Yes, absolutely. She's played a central and vital role in this campaign and she continues to do that and continues to do her work, running our overall scheduling events operation, being a confidant to the senior people in the campaign and traveling with Hillary Clinton. She doesn't travel every day, but she travels frequently with her.

TAPPER: Do you think if Bill Clinton hadn't gone on to that plane in the tarmac in Arizona and talked to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which caused a big controversy and then necessitated Lynch to come forward and say that she was going to defer to investigators and prosecutors on this matter because of the appearance of the ethical cloud.

Do you think that if he had not done that, that Attorney General Lynch might have had more control of what happened in this investigation?

PODESTA: I can't speculate about that. I think you sort of gave the money pitch there, Jake. She said that she would accept the advice of career prosecutors. The Republicans will spin that up into a conspiracy where there was none. The career prosecutors found that there was no case. Jim Comey himself said it wasn't even close and she accepted that result.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. So still unclear whether FBI Director James Comey will provide details about this renewed investigation into possible Clinton-related e-mails.

In the meantime, the Clinton campaign is trying to clear the air. Just hours ago, the campaign put out this video message trying to explain the nuances to voters. Here's a portion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's walk through what we know. Republicans said at the beginning of this that the FBI case that was closed in July has been reopened, but that's been debunked. And law enforcement sources say that the emails in question were never withheld by Hillary Clinton or the Clinton campaign.

Reports say that the e-mails were not to or from Hillary Clinton or even ever on her server. In fact, it's entirely possible that they are all duplicates of the e-mails the FBI already looked at months ago.

So if that's the case, why send this letter in the first place. You're probably as puzzled and outraged as we are. Former Justice Department officials say this violated protocols intended to prevent action that could be seen as influencing the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, so let's talk more about all of this. CNN political commentator, Ryan Lizza with us. He's also the Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker." Good to see you. Also with me is Lynn Sweet, the Washington bureau chief for the "Chicago Sun Times." Good to see you again. Arty, so Ryan, you first. We know that a search warrant has not yet been issued for these e-mails on this device. What should Comey address and when?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I have to say I agree with the Clinton campaign to a certain extent that his letter was vague and it would be nice to have more information. On the other hand, I don't think there was anything wrong with him updating his testimony and letting the American people know about the status of this investigation before the election.

You know, I'm a journalist. I'm generally in favor of voters and the people having more information about these things rather than less. Frankly, I think it would have been much worse for Hillary Clinton if she wins the election.

She's now president or president-elect and then it leaks out and then that would turn into a monumental scandal. People would say that the attorney general wouldn't allow Comey to reveal this and it would be far worse for her.

WHITFIELD: And so Lynn, the Clinton camp is arguing not enough information, however, was divulged by a way of this letter. The Trump campaign is clearly seizing on it. You saw the rally a bit earlier. How did Comey not anticipate that this kind of mess might unfold days ahead of the election?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "CHICAGO SUN TIMES": I would assume that he didn't anticipate this since this was entirely predictable when you had this kind of a bombshell coming out so soon and while early voting is happening in many states.

That's why the call of the Clinton team for him to explain himself more is reasonable in light of the circumstances having this vague note sent up to congress leads to all kinds of speculations and going much further than any other facts on the table warrant.

[14:40:09]WHITFIELD: So Ryan, is it your feeling that the bit that has been publicized is influential enough now just nine days away from election day?

LIZZA: I don't think so. I think most voters have made up their mind, frankly. If you look at two polls that came out today -- forgive me if I repeat anything that Lynn said. The audio wasn't working so I didn't hear what Lynn said, although, I'm sure it was brilliant.

There are two polls that came out today. One is a poll of the battleground states from CBS and that shows that 71 percent of voters, this doesn't affect their vote one way or the other, didn't change their mind.

ABB News has a similar poll that shows about two-thirds of voters say this makes, quote, "No difference." So I think that it's overheated on both sides about how big of a deal this is. Trump is out there saying this proves everything Clinton did was illegal and she's about to go to jail, which, of course, is not true and I think there's some people, former Justice Department officials that are saying that what Comey did is this incredible abrogation of Justice Department guidelines.

And dangerous to our democracy which two former deputy attorney generals said today in "The Washington Post" and I don't really buy that either, to be honest. I think voters are mature enough to process this information in 11 days and make a decision.

I don't think it's as earth-shattering as a lot of people are making it out to be.

WHITFIELD: Lynn, part of that argument is there's been a tradition that that kind of information wouldn't be revealed less than 60 days before Election Day, but in this case, it came out 11 days before Election Day. What say you?

SWEET: Every reporter who deals with FBI and prosecutors knows that the comment most often get when you asked about cases is we don't comment on ongoing investigations. Certainly the protocols and that call for a comment this close to this Election Day and while balloting is taking place.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ryan, Lynn, thanks so much. Stick with us. We got much more to cover. Straight ahead, Trump's campaign manager weighing in on the investigation and why she says this shows Hillary Clinton should not be elected president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: She has put herself, her campaign and, more importantly, the nation at risk. She's unqualified and unfit to be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:46:19]

WHITFIELD: All right. Donald Trump is praising FBI Director James Comey, following Comey's announcement that the FBI is reviewing newly discovered emails potentially tied to Hillary Clinton's private server.

Back in July, Trump was extremely critical when Comey decided not to prosecute Clinton after the FBI finished its e-mail investigation. Well, this morning on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION," Jake Tapper pressed Trump's campaign manager on her candidate's sudden change of opinion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Donald Trump is now saying that he has great respect for FBI Director James Comey, but take a listen to what Mr. Trump said just a couple weeks ago.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Essentially corrupted the director of the FBI to the point at which stories are already saying that the great, and they are truly great, men and women who work for the FBI are embarrassed and ashamed of what he's done to one of our truly great institutions, the FBI itself.

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TAPPER: So is James Comey still corrupted, Kellyanne, or is he only corrupt when he does something that Mr. Trump disagrees with?

CONWAY: So there are two separate investigations here, first on July 5th, Jim Comey came out and told the world, Jake, that he was declining prosecution of Hillary Clinton based on the investigation. He then proceeded to tell us every reason why he should have indicted her. He should have pressed charges that she was reckless and careless.

Two days later, he testifies before Congress under oath and completely got to his conclusion and undercuts Secretary Clinton's previous statements that there were many devices. Was there classified information exchange, yes, there was. Was there national security information? Yes, there was.

He completely undercut his own conclusion in that investigation that led to tremendous frustration and criticism by many people who thought either put the statement out that you're not going to press charges and leave it at that or if you're going to go public at least let your comments, the evidence match your conclusion.

This new investigation is a completely separate matter in that he was in an impossible spot 11 days before an election, had he sat on the information, one can argue that he also would be interfering with the election by not disclosing to the public that yet again for the second time in a year, Hillary Clinton is under FBI investigation for something of her own doing.

We are only having this conversation today, Jake, because Hillary Clinton went and set up a private server so she can hide stuff from the public and here we are again.

TAPPER: Right. But Kellyanne, isn't this exactly what people, the public, the American people hate about politicians? One day somebody in law enforcement does something and they are corrupted and the next day they are a man of great integrity.

You yourself tweeted that there was zero accountability at the FBI. You retweeted an article that said when combined these moments prove that Mr. Comey gave Hillary Clinton a pass and you wrote your own comments, zero accountability.

I mean, what are voters supposed to think about this when you and your campaign have spent the last few months besmirching the reputation of James Comey.

CONWAY: I never besmirched his reputation. Zero accountability is about the process, and again, had Jim Comey simply came forward, Jake, back in July and said we decline to press charges. The investigation is over. There will be no further charges. Had he just said that, then we would accept that result.

What he did was he went on to explain why his conclusion was wrong. I guess, he was trying to clear his own conscience. Why else be so public?

[14:50:04]I know many prosecutors have talked to them who were confounded that Jim Comey set such a public standard by testifying before Congress, by having that unprecedented statement to the world on July 5th where he was leading up to a conclusion that was different than the one he then announced.

But you know, back to your original point, isn't this what people hate about politicians? Yes, it is. But the politician here is Hillary Clinton. And she's put herself, her campaign and, more importantly, the nation at risk.

She's unqualified and unfit to be president, based on her constantly flouting law and closest advisers not complying and swearing under oath they turned over the devices when clearly they have not. It's they who have compromised our national security.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Let's bring back our political panel to discuss these comments made by Kellyanne Conway. Lynn Sweet back with us and Ryan Lizza. Ryan, to you, is there a feeling that Donald Trump's criticism of James Comey in some way influenced Comey to send this letter?

LIZZA: You know, there is one theory out there, one argument, and I'm not sure if I agree with this, but let's lay it out. That basically since July, since Comey has declined to recommend any criminal charges that Republicans have been hammering him publicly.

Donald Trump has been criticizing him repeatedly. People on the hill, perhaps more important to Comey, who he has to work with for the next few years, Republicans who do oversight of the FBI have been highly critical of him.

Remember, he's a self-declared Republican. A lot of the FBI agents send to be more conservative and lean more right than left historically. So there is some argument that there was a sort of working the refs phenomenon here and maybe that influenced his decision.

I don't know if that's true or not. I will say that on the other side now, the Clinton campaign, which held up Comey as a paragon of virtue and integrity is now, of course, sort of flipped on that.

So both sides are being hypocritical about Comey depending on the actions he's taken and whether it benefited their candidate or not.

WHITFIELD: So Lynn, is it your feeling that Comey was really between a rock and hard place meaning that had he not sent the letter that perhaps he ran the probe that would have been leaked somehow?

SWEET: Sure, he did. But actually he's not between any rock and a hard place. He was confirmed by the Senate in July of 2013 to a ten- year term. So he's going to be there beyond a Trump presidency and beyond any (inaudible), you know, Clinton presidency.

So you give a ten-year term so people are immune from day to day pressure, such as the ones we're describing. So I know that the Justice Department always says that they won't comment on ongoing investigations, especially when it's close to an election and we are close to the election and voting has already started.

That almost speaks for itself and if something is leaked from the hill, you deal with it then, but it only mattered if he sent the letter that got the ball rolling.

After all of this, what we're talking about, the back and forth, it's not the political problem because no matter what we conclude, the Clinton campaign has a big political problem in the closing days in the campaign no matter what you think of Comey.

WHITFIELD: Ryan?

LIZZA: Fred, can I just say one thing?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LIZZA: This information was going to come out before the election no matter what.

WHITFIELD: It would have been leaked no matter what?

LIZZA: Look, when the FBI went and got a subpoena for Anthony Weiner's devices that leaked to CNN. We had a big story about it. "The Wall Street Journal" almost immediately. If they had gone to court in the closing days of this election and sought a warrant or subpoena to look at the e-mails for the Clinton server investigation, it would have leaked. That was one of the main drivers of Comey's decision.

WHITFIELD: And you think if it hadn't leaked you think it would have been worst because if it were to leak, to Lynn's point, the Justice Department, not to involve itself in the political race would simply deny it in time for election day, but you think that would still --

LIZZA: And you have anonymous sources and the speculation would have been the same as it is now. That's one of the reasons that Comey did this and, I think the second reason is frankly, because Loretta Lynch and the people around her were telling him not to.

And frankly because Lynch took herself out of this investigation because she had that meeting with Bill Clinton the optics were so bad, I think Comey said, all right, now I'm being told not to do this.

If that leaks out, then it looks like the whole things was quashed so he's put in this terrible position. He'd already been so public and he did it.

[14:55:06]So I think that's -- you know, a lot of criticism this guy is getting, but you have to put yourself in his shoes and see what he was faced with and see if it would have been worse had he not done this.

WHITFIELD: So an inevitable mess.

SWEET: It's a political mess no matter what, but Comey had a ten-year term starting in 2013. You give these terms so people can be stronger than the day-to-day pressures such as what he's facing now. That's the purpose of a long term so you can see the bigger picture and make your decisions accordingly.

Of course, Ryan, I agree with you, with so few days left, don't you think that there is still less time to do damage for every day that this might not have come out, more people voted, less damage, less time for Donald Trump to try to use as he is on the campaign trail?

LIZZA: You know, we'll see. Everything that happens in this race we speculate that it's going to be a game changer. I know a few weeks ago we are speculating that because Hillary Clinton painted, Donald Trump was going to win the election. People have already forgotten about, we'll see.

Maybe this will continue down right until November 8th, but I imagine we'll be talking about new things, you know, next week and in the closing days.

WHITFIELD: At the rate we are going, things could happen. Yes, nine days, there is still plenty of room.

SWEET: Always something.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ryan Lizza, Lynn Sweet, thank you so much.

All right, the next hour of CNN's NEWSROOM begins right after this.

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WHITFIELD: Hello again. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So both campaigns in a full on sprint to the finish line. Nine days now before the election, the campaigns are both holding rallies in the last hour.

Hillary Clinton is speaking to voters in Wilton Manors, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale. Donald Trump speaking to supporters in the battleground state of Nevada where polls show him locked in a tie with Clinton.

Both campaigns crisscrossing the country this week visiting at least seven states, look at the map. The Clinton map releasing their schedule through next Saturday.