john: tonight, a political noir starring hillary clinton. i am in charlotte, north carolina, where president obama and hillary clinton made their debut on the trail. mark is 160 miles away with donald trump at a competing rally later tonight.

for now, i'm joined by al hunt. the context for both of these events were completely and utterly changed by the bigger news that came out this morning, fbi director james comey announcing the end of his agency's investigation into clinton's handling of classified information. in his public remarks, he offered a harsh, thoroughgoing criminal charges be filed against the democratic nominee. >> 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. eight of those chains contained information that was top secret, although we did not find clear evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues intended to

violate laws governing the handling of classified information. there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly-classified information. although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case. we are expressing our view that no charges are appropriate in this case. john: even down here in charlotte, you could hear the collective sigh of relief from clinton's brooklyn headquarters. the campaign put out a statement it said in part, quote, "we are glad this matter is now resolved." republicans were predictably quick to jump all over the decision, questioning the impartiality of the fbi's probe. paul ryan, the speaker of the house released a statement, "while i respect the law enforcement professionals of the fbi, this announcement defies explanation. no one should be above the law."

charles grassley was calling on the fbi to make all the evidence public. donald trump, of course, turned to twitter, tweeting, "fbi director said crooked hillary compromised our national security. no charges. wow. #rigged system" he also tweeted "the system is rigged. general petraeus got in trouble for far less, very unfair. as usual, bad judgment." al, my friend, what happens now? al: hillary clinton has a second reason to utter a sigh relief and that is because these republicans are playing this so stupidly. what james comey said today was absolutely devastating. she was not only careless, she was reckless and arrogant, but rather than seizing on that, they're trying to suggest there is something rigged here. james comey is a man of

impeccable integrity. no one could question his judgment on this. i'm shocked at paul ryan. i'm not shocked at donald trump. what they ought to do is seize what is out there. because it is different than david petraeus. intent really matters here. david petronius, a man for whom i have a lot of respect, gave classified information to his mistress. if that is not intent, i don't know what is. hillary clinton was arrogant and reckless, and the gop should be making that case. john: i think that's right. director comey clearly understood the politics of this. rather than leading with this, he gave her political opponents a lot of material to work with. i'm sure we will hear a lot of it from now until election day. people fighting comey. but the bottom line, a number of people who have asked me, how do you think this plays for hillary clinton?

talking to her senior staff and my own sense of this, this is a really simple story. the story is binary -- indictment or no indictment. if hillary clinton was indicted, this would be one of the worst days in hillary clinton's life. she might not be the democratic nominee or the president of the united states. as of today, a week after basically being exonerated in the benghazi matter, she has basically been exonerated in this e-mail scandal, this e-mail controversy. this is a good day for hillary clinton. i know there will be a lot of arguments about what you did wrong, she is more or less politically free and clear of this. there has been damage done, but she is free and clear. today is a day of dueling tar heel rallies. after giving a speech to the national education association teachers union in washington,

clinton boarded air force one to a state that obama won eight years ago and lost narrowly in 2012. onstage at the charlotte convention center not far from where i'm sitting at this moment, obama took some jabs at donald trump while praising clinton's experience and, well let's take a listen to that sound. ♪ >> i don't know about you, but we are fired up and ready to go, ready to win this election. please join me in welcoming the president of the united states, barack obama. >> hillary, hillary, hillary. i have had a front row seat to her judgment, and her toughness, and her commitment to diplomacy. and i witnessed it in the situation room, where she argued in favor of the mission to get bin laden.

i saw how, as a former senator from new york, she knew, she understood, because she had seen it. she had witnessed it, what this would mean for the thousands who had lost loved ones when the twin towers fail. this is not entertainment. this is real. this is not a reality show. this is reality. and being president of the united states means you have to deal with reality. but i am here today because i believe in hillary clinton. and i want you to help elect her to be the next president of the united states of america. john: al, we are still waiting to see donald trump, so we can't do a side-by-side comparison of these two events. but we can talk about the clinton obama event.

i was in the room. you watched it on television, which is how most people were experiencing that event. from your point of view in washington, how formidable do you think the clinton-obama tandem looks today? al: pretty darn formidable. bill clinton really helped barack obama in 2012 with that convention speech. and boy, was today pay back plus some. barack obama at a time when hillary clinton, you're right, it was a great day that she escaped indictment, but her trust issue is a real problem with voters. obama now is far more popular than clinton or trump. i think he did it well today. it looked good. north carolina, a state i've spent a lot of time in, i know democrats think that the one mistake obama made in 2012 was not contesting north carolina. he might have won it again. if i had that as of today, i would put it in the democratic category.

>> this is obviously an historic moment and democrats have waited a long time, first having nominated an african-american and elected them president and now about to nominate the first woman to lead the democratic party. to see the two of them on stage, former rivals, bitter rivals in 2008, then partners in statecraft in the administration, now political allies -- the crowd was in love with what they saw on stage, and the clinton people were in love with it, too. seeing this on stage, knowing we will see a lot more of it, knowing how much president obama wants to help hillary clinton, if for no other reason to protect his legacy and take on donald trump and the fact that obama is a convert to her cause. they think that is powerful, that he was once a critic of hers and is now a convert. they think that is a big, powerful political plus that he can bring to the race, and they saw the first sign of it today. al: i think you're right.

but i will bet you privately, at least among bill and hillary, it must rankle a little bit. because they think they are the great political strategists and everything of all times, and they need obama. i'm not going to say he can carry them. that old thing about an eisenhower jacket, there are no coattails. i do not think an outgoing president has much coattails. but he was very important and very effective. john: she needs the enthusiasm of democrats, and democrats love barack obama, and that is a huge political asset for her. when we come back, more reaction to the fbi announcement, team trump, and a supporter. that is coming up right after this. ♪

♪ john: it was, of course, as we have been discussing, a mega-monster-gigantic, godzilla-sized newsday for hillary clinton. we are joined in new york and in our home studio. i'm going to start off with you guys. i ask you this question, there is no doubt as i said earlier in the show, when the question is indictment versus non-indictment, hillary clinton is the big winner today. she did not get indicted and that is a good thing for her. what do you see as the biggest political downside into the way this was announced, the timing, and the things that comey said

in the process of exonerating her from any criminal charges? >> i would agree with your earlier characterization regarding the clinton-obama team, how formidable they look. i think al hunt made the comment as well. i think i saw mark earlier in the day make the case that, to your question, john, director comey talked about some of the things he thought on the part of secretary clinton and some of her team, so there is no doubt some of that will be used. but a lot of this will erase itself, meaning the focus and the attention, as much as mr. trump and others might try to continue to gin it up, we move from it. if barack obama continues this kind of campaigning for secretary clinton and able to reassemble and reconstitute the coalition president obama built in 2008 and strengthened in

2012, it is very difficult for mr. trump and his team because the demographics of the country continued to move in favor of democrats in many key states, and if that turnout level is the same as 2012, it bodes well for mrs. clinton. mark: kelly, you are an attorney and advisor to the trump campaign. what is the trump campaign's posture towards what secretary comey been said? kelly: mr. trump will speak to that. comey certainly impugned her. he agreed with 67% of the country that says she is neither honest nor trustworthy. mark, it is not as if they said we cannot trust clinton because she is under investigation for her private e-mail server, let's see what the fbi would do whether i decide to continue to trust her. americans don't trust her because they believe she lies for a living.

they see it as a fundamental character flaw. that will not go away anytime soon. i would note, in their pep rally down in north carolina today, neither president obama nor secretary clinton did a victory lap on the comey decision. she did not stand up and say, i have been vindicated. she has been very careful. the director's words were very harsh. he's not recommending indictment, but said she was extremely careless. gross negligence. he said she and the people who were sending her e-mails and who were receiving her e-mails all should have known. you are talking about hundreds of e-mails, all should have known that this was wrong. john: kelly, let me stick with you. why not just make that argument going forward? is that the argument that trump campaign manager and the republican party are going to make? or are we going to hear from you that it is a conspiracy, that somehow this is part of a "rigged system"? kelly: i think you will hear all

that. that is a large part of what this election is about. mr. trump got 14 million votes in the primaries. one thing that will not change between now and november is the insider-outsider-establishment-n insider-outsider-establishment-n -- in some ways, this plays right into mr. trump's argument that it is a rigged, corrupt system that always benefits the insiders some way. i think that bill clinton put his wife and attorney general lynch in a very bad position last week. it wasn't like that was ancient history, it was last week. i think finally it is not going to erase the fact that people see her as corrupt. a fox news poll last week showed 58% think hillary clinton is corrupt. i don't remember pollsters asking the word corrupt for a presidential attribute. mark: if someone did what hillary clinton is said to be done and applied for a job at

the state department that required a security clearance, could they get it? harold: i imagine so. i heard mayor giuliani made that comment. i would have to take a look at the application in full but i do not think she did not violate any statutes. he recommended to the fbi, the fbi recommended to the justice department that no action be taken. he made the point that in terms of administrative steps, sure -- mark: we have to go to break. i just want to clarify, if you were attorney general and somebody applied for a job that involved national security, that would not disqualify them in your judgment? harold: we would have to have a real serious conversation, but no, it would not disqualify them. is disqualifying, is poor judgment and it will be a dealbreaker for many voters. john: stay with us. we will pick up this conversation when we come back right after this break. ♪

♪ john: we are back. kelly, you watched as you indicated earlier the clinton-obama event. putting aside the questions of the fbi, did you see a politically potent tandem there on stage in some way or you think it was deeply flawed? kelly: i think today was a great day for hillary clinton. her political career and candidacy could have been over with an indictment. instead she went down in north carolina on air force one and you and i paid for it. anytime yougreat --

can have a two-term sitting president say to voters, give me a third term, ronald reagan did it for his vice president, george herbert walker bush in a matter. people really wanted a third term of reagan. it's not clear the whole country wants a third term of barack obama, but when he was reading from the teleprompter, which was most of the time, it was a great solid, steady call for her to be the next president, and he was dissing donald trump because he can't help himself. but then script he went for long partisan pundit. i thought that was unfortunate. he is still the president of the united states. he has every right to endorse and campaign with her, but there is a line that should not be crossed in terms of how political one becomes. i listen to garden-variety pundits all day long insult donald trump, and they seem pretty petty and catty. so i would expect something different here. >> in fairness, mr. trump has personally attacked the president over and over again.

he still has not put out the fire yet that he doesn't believe that the president was born in the united states. also, mrs. clinton paid her way on the trip today. but i thought it was a formidable piece, and if i were on the other side of this equation, the biggest worry i would have is whether or not the two of them with their supporters can reassemble and reconstitute that unbelievable : should the president obama put together four years ago now. mark: the reason donald trump is here today is not a coincidence. he changed things up to try to step on the obama-clinton campaigning. explain the logic of coming to the same state and what his -- what will his message be tonight? kelly: perhaps, mark, one of the greatest assets of donald trump to the electorate has been that he is unapologetically unafraid of hillary clinton, bill clinton, and all the clinton candidacy needs. that is refreshing. we have had republican nominees pull their punches on any number

of things, so he is taking the case right to them. he is saying i am not giving you one of the swing states in north carolina. the only one of the swing states mitt romney won in 2012. it is a marginal red-blue state. it has a republican governor and senator's, but it could go either way. barack obama won it in 2008. he will make the case against hillary clinton. today, he can quote right from the comey press conference. i think if the trump campaign runs ads quoting where it literally says fbi director comey, she was reckless, careless, so i think he is telling the people of north carolina they we will be back here again and again to make the -- make this state competitive. john: hillary clinton last week with senator warren and today with president obama, later with vice president biden.

is there any risk that she starts to look a little uninspiring next to such a heavy hitting lineup? harold: no, i think it reinforces for voters, the party, and independents, the wealth and diversity and strength of the party. when you look at a president hillary clinton in the white house with whomever she chooses to be vp, combine it with a formidable team in the u.s. senate, i think it signals to the country that here is a president that can work with congress and get things done. you have even heard republican senators even publicly say they could work with her on foreign-policy issues, economic policy issues. even today with president obama, she opened with a lot of electricity, excitement, and substance. then we heard the president underscore how smart she is. i think it only amplifies the

point more that she is not only ready, but ready to work with congress in the process. kelly: today may be her best day with president obama on the trail. as you suggest, maybe over time it will not wear as well and she will be diminished under the writer star power of elizabeth warren or barack obama. we all know that cool is not transferable. her problems are likability and trustworthiness. you can't impute that to someone else. she would do a great job much like bill clinton did at the democratic national convention in charlotte, but she runs the risk of looking like she needs to be propped up, that she can't do this on her own. mark: we have less than 30 seconds. before you joined the trump campaign, you thought tom cotton was donald trump's best vice president of choice.

kelly: that was a parlor game. i love the list. the short list is growing, really serious, formidable people. like the governor of indiana. newt gingrich is still in the mix. and i think he has a very strong list to choose from. and i like the fact that he is meeting with them one-on-one and being somewhat public about it, being very honest about who is being considered. it also shows a unifying of the party that is not mentioned enough in the press. john: thank you very much. sorry to cut you off there. coming up, our take on the vice presidential sweepstakes right after this. ♪ you guy's be good. i'll see you later

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league presidential lineup and baseball lineup and all your fantasy league lineups. this is the final stretch of the veepstakes season. we're seeing action from potential running mates. let's start with the democrats. a handful, hillary clinton's possible number twos, including senators sherrod brown of ohio and perez. they were all dishing out clinton talking points, while dodging questions about whether they would join the ticket with hillary clinton. mark, where do things stand at this moment with hillary clinton's running mate decision? mark: well, i don't know who she is actually planning to pick. but i will say, from talking to clinton people, about half the people are in touch with her about this. about half aren't. they're very happy with the choices. no one is going to make the case that her choices are going to revolutionize the race. the two names i hear the most are the labor secretary and tim cain, the senator from virginia. people seem genuinely happy with those. they'd be perfectly satisfied. my sense is that they don't think she's headed towards a

surprised. i still think she won't pick until trump does. that means maybe not until after his convention, since he may well pick on the eve of his convention. john: right. i think that's one of the key elements here, is the question of timing, when does trump pick? if it's true that trump picks next week, as is being suggested, that will give clinton some time through the republican convention and into the time from when she'd announce, which would likely be on the friday or saturday after the republican convention and try to step on his headlines. you know, i hear those names too. certainly i hear tim cane a lot more than tom perez. tom perez someone who seems to be someone who they want to seem is in consideration rather than someone who is actually in consideration. i still think tim cane is the front-runner and i still think elizabeth warren might be the best choice. mark: the other thing, the name was raised, the agricultural secretary. former governor of iowa. i thought early on that's who

she was going to pick. i would say he's as exciting as tim cain. he fits a governing partner, someone who people would say is qualified, someone she'd like to work with, someone who will be loyal to her. but i'm not hearing that necessarily as -- john: same here. domain case for him is she really likes him a lot and cannot discount how important that is. will be surprised by that. turning now to the question of donald trump, billionaire and presumptive republican nominee, at his new jersey golf club this holiday weekend. trump met with two possible running mates, who until recently have not been widely speculated about. that would be indiana governor mike pence, who huddled with trump on saturday, and iowa senator joanie ernst. she had her face to face meeting with trump on monday. tomorrow we have newt gingrich reportedly campaigning with the

donald in cincinnati. and senator bob corker from tennessee. the same question i have to before applies on the republican side -- where does trump's running mate decision stand in your mind? mark: well, look, one of the funniest things i've ever heard someone from the campaign say about veepstakes was kellyanne conway. the short list is getting longer and acted as if that's a good thing. it is very similar to what happened with john mccain. down to a handful of choices and then saying, you know what? these choices may not be good enough. expanding to pence, to ernst. and i believe the new aids who have come in, in the last two weeks, since corey lewandowski left, looked at the list that trump was honing in on and said, no, no one on that list is actually right. you need to think anew and more broadly. i doubt that he would -- it sounds like maybe they did. i think pence makes a lot of sense, considering the other alternatives. john: well, he's got to solve the problem that he has right now. the big problem he has, which is

getting the republican base, republicans to come home. and pence might be as good a solution on that front as any solution. i think that's the best argument now against putting chris christie on the ticket, someone who i think temperamentally trump is attracted to. but christie doesn't solve the problem of getting republicans to come home to donald trump. so maybe christie is starting to fade from view. i know the clinton people, some i talked to, they still think trump will go with his gut in the end. now, they don't know anything about what is going on internally but they suspect it will be christie or gingrich. but they obviously could be wrong. democrats don't know much about republicans in general and about trump in particular. mark: yeah. i don't know this for a fact. but i have one source suggesting to me that he's been talked out of gingrich, that they'll find another role for gingrich in the administration and that may well be a dead letter. but, everybody says in the end, this is trump's decision. trump may just go with his gut. that could mean anybody. and the young lawyers and older

lawyers working with him, they are under pressure now, just like with palin, to vet somebody in a big hurry, under time pressure. john: that's exactly what happened eight years ago. it was another rocky weekend for trump. you'd think that hillary clinton's interview at the fbi headquarters would have dominated the fourth of july holiday long weekend. instead we're all talking about that tweet that the trump campaign sent out, with what seemed to be -- to almost everyone -- an image of the star of david. some said to the contrary, it may be a sheriff's badge. in case your barbecue grill didn't give you any news updates, here's a quick refresher. >> donald trump, star of david. here's what happened. saturday, trump tweets image of hillary clinton, a pile of money, and a red star. >> many would say that resembles the star of david. >> it's immediately called anti-semitic. its origin is investigated. >> the imagine posted on a white supremacist board. >> then it's deleted. that it is replaced by image of hillary clinton, a pile of

money, then a circle. wait. that circle. enhance. >> the points of the star were still visible! >> a firestorm of controversy. >> on monday, trump tweets it was a sheriff's star. the response, why did you delete it if it wasn't an issue? clinton's campaign calls it lately anti-semitic. trump's campaign says clinton's campaign is trying to divert attention from her issue. >> not every six sided star is a star of david. >> this is a simple star. >> this hand wringing going over a geometric shape is really out of hand. >> it's the star of david over $100 bills. this is not geometry we are talking about here. it's imagery, which is significant to a lot of people. >> on to the next story. >> and it's hurtful to a lot of people. but i do think, to play veepstakes with you. john: so, mark, given the momentous clinton news, is this trump tweet controversy over, basically, or will it linger somehow? mark: i think it's over, because of

the comey news and because of veepstakes and the conventions are coming. but i do think, once again, trump has got to prove himself and his operations, prove himself to republicans. he can't let a story like this fester. if you think it's unfair, if you think the press is out to get you, whatever, you just can't let a story like this fester. i think he's off the hook for this one, in terms of dominating the news, but he does have to prove himself that he won't let these kinds of things happen. he doesn't have a day to waste. john: this is not the first time that donald trump has tweeted things that have their origins in the nastiest, most disgusting corners of the universe and twitter. it's like the sixth time where some image has been sourced to some white supremacist, anti-semitic, racist tweet twitter account. he's gotta cut it out. he's gotta stop it, because if he keeps doing it, people are going to come to the conclusion that he's playing with fire, that he is trying to rile up parts of the republican base that are the ugliest parts of it. and if trump doesn't want that

impression, he can cut it out. he just needs to stop. mark: and even if it was an absolute accident, a total coincidence, he should still take the opportunity to apologize, to be indignant not about hillary clinton but to be indignant about the groups who he's being associated with. and that lack of indignation is hurting him with republicans as well as democrats, no doubt in my mind. john: 100%. the antidefamation league said something that was completely true about this. they said donald trump has had no problem denouncing people he disagrees with in the most clear and unequivocal terms. he has denounced a lot of them. he should be denouncing these kinds of people and these kinds of website sand twitter accounts with the same kind of clarity. all right. coming up, our good friend, al hunt, comes back on the show and weighs in on why he says the fbi was right to not recommend criminal charges against hillary clinton. that is next. ♪

♪ john: we are joined from washington, by our great friend. albert hunt. mr. hunt wrote a column today entitled "hillary clinton needs a dr. no." as i read your column, brilliant as always, it said comey made the right decision but hillary clinton needs help. what kind of help does hillary clinton need? al: she needs someone to say mrs. clinton or madam secretary, you can't do this. she shouldn't have done the e-mail server. someone should have told her that back in 2009. someone should have told her, john, i'm sorry, fine if you

want to give speeches, but you're a very rich person. don't take $275,000 from goldman satchs. someone should told bill clinton, do not go on the airplane with loretta lynch. the clintons have a lot of talent. i think in a time of crisis, you would feel pretty good about hillary clinton. but they also have a sense of entitlement and arrogance. we're somehow good people, so the same rules don't apply to us. she needs someone to tell her, from now on, no, that's not right. john: in the context of going forward, why shouldn't that person be someone you know well? al: i think john is the one who best qualifies for it. he was in the state department. but kind of -- you know, a cautionary flag there, mark, which i wrote about in that column. john left the white house in the early morning of january 20, 2001, convinced that he had persuaded bill clinton, don't pardon mark rich, a sleazy fugitive. and poor john got back after a few hours of sleep and found out that clinton had pardoned mark

richt. so, it is not an easy task. >> al, in hillary clinton's operation of this campaign now, is it possible to put someone in that role? how would it actually be enacted? al: well, i think i'm thinking more of a presidency, if she should win. john is an adult. i think he can do that in the campaign. these other incidents occurred before the campaign. i think she's made mistakes but nothing quite of that egregious nature. but when she gets to be president, she's got a lot of smart people around her, but most of them tend to be real hillary loyalists. it's not that you want people around you who aren't loyal but you want someone around you, who, as i said, will say no. you know, i was corresponding with our mutual friend it today. -- friend today. we said ted kennedy said one time that president kennedy said to him you've got to have two or

three sons of bitches around you. then you have to reward them and let them know that's what you need. that's what she needs. >> i'm apparently a very lucky man because i have way more than two or three sons of bitches around me at all times. my question for you is, you're talking about the dr. no that she needs. right now she's recruiting a dr. yes. we talked about the veepstakes. who do you think makes sense for hillary as a running mate? al: i don't think tom perez does. i don't think the idea of an unelected person should ever be a running mate, as good a labor secretary as he might be. i think the one that makes the most sense is tim kaine, unless she thinks she's in political trouble. then i think you have to go to elizabeth warren. i don't think they want to pick a sherrod brown, a cory booker, someone who does not add that much excitement. youeast in massachusetts have a special election a couple of months later. john: al, you've been writing a lot of columns lately. i remember one recent one where you took to task the sanders supporters. talk about that a little bit.

al: you can say there's a better choice than tim kaine. the two criteria ought to be, number one, can the person be president, and number two, is the president comfortable with them in a campaign sense and also particularly in governing? tim kaine clearly meets those tests. she may decide someone is better. but to say that tim kaine is out of bounds, that this is a guy who has a 90% voting record, has been a committed liberal by virginia standards, certainly and even by national standards, that he's unacceptable, i think would really create a crazy caucus within the democrat party, which was what we used to see some years ago, john. john: all right. al, thank you for being with us twice on this show today. it's always a pleasure. up next, what to expect from donald trump's north carolina rally tonight. mark will talk about that when we come back. ♪

♪ >> welcome back. we're waiting for donald trump to arrive for his first public event. he's going to appear today with a special guest. joining me here to talk about the special guest -- >> another special guest. >> senator coker, who we think is on the list. he's going to be campaigning with newt gingrich. what's going on with these seeming auditions? >> this is a very public tryout. [cheering] [inaudible] >> it's not only how he

interacts with these potential v.p.'s but how the public takes them. how does this crowd react to bob corker? are they as enthusiastic and excited for him as they are for donald trump? also, newt gingrich, is the crowd as excited for newt gingrich? is the crowd as excited for newt gingrich as they are for donald trump? i think that newt gingrich is able to whip up the crowd. bob corker we're going to have to see. governor pence, we're going to have to see. he's out on the campaign trail with him. but this is unprecedented. usually these are very circle the wagons closed-door meetings. you do not hear of these under normal circumstances. >> what's interesting is that trump is a great performer. he knows how to get a great reaction from the crowd. i bet you he watches exactly what you said -- do they move the crowd? because that's such an important part of how he's been a candidate. >> i think, who is going to help you? who is going to help you with a certain demographic?

i'm not sure that's the correct way to look at things, but but donald trump has obviously defied all expectations. i think what we should be looking for is personality-based. does the character match? also, is he somebody that's going to play the role that donald trump wants him to play if they get into the white house? and what i've been hearing is that donald trump might want more of an and mcmahon or a joe biden or dick cheney. >> beyond the tweets trump put out in reaction to the comey announcement, there was a lot of press release. you've read through them. what's kind of the message there from the trump campaign? >> rigged system. rigged system. that's the narrative they've been trying to paint in this campaign now. but they started focusing in on it in the past several months, saying that not only was it hard for him to get the nomination, because it's a rigged system, and that kind of inoculates him from the idea of the delegates taking the nomination away from him in the

convention. but also -- >> we're going to throw it back to you, because they're doing the pledge here. >> thank you for being with us. we'll be right back. ♪

♪ john: one more thing before we go. we couldn't help noticing president obama's many faces while he was sitting behind hillary clinton on stage at that rally here in charlotte. i was kind of amazed by them. in case you missed it, don't worry. we've cataloged some of the presidential facial expressions on display. [cheering] ♪

john: man, i love those things when we do them. kind of fantastic. mark, i want to come back to the big news of the day. comey, nobody expected it. nobody in clinton world expected it today. what's your view about its impact and what happens now in the aftermath? mark: well, what comey did was extraordinary. and i understand why he did it. he felt, given the public's scrutiny, particularly in light

of what loretta lynch did, he needed to have some transparency. but it is an extraordinary step for an fbi director to lay out the facts of a case like that and then exonerate her. again, i know what he did it but some people are questioning that. i think he is now going to have to explain more, and i think people will dig into some of the things he revealed. he revealed new things today about hillary clinton's e-mail practices that either weren't known at all or weren't confirmed. but in the main, not being indicted is obviously a huge political thing for her. but i think, in a weird way, comey laying it out, saying i'm a man of integrity, i know all these facts, yet i still didn't want to indict her, in a weird way, i think that helps her. if they get a few breaks, i think this thing may be behind her and republicans are going to have to look elsewhere. john: i could not agree with you more. i think people from the clinton officials i talked to, they see it that way. they -- obviously their first thought was, we're not indicted. that's great. the second thing was, you know, having comey take her to the woodshed, of course it gives

some republicans some ammunition to fire at her. but it does raise comey up in some ways. and gives them -- they can say, look, comey didn't go easy on us, didn't go light on us. he didn't seem like he was unwilling to recommend an indictment. but he still didn't indict. it's based to his integrity. mark: if he had just done what would normally be done, which is not say anything, and just like clinton's lawyers say, she's not indicted, people would have wondered, what did they look at? was there a political influence? how did it happen? what standards did he use? comey laid it out. i think it's unprecedented, certainly within the context of a presidential campaign. and i think, in the end, this could help her more than some of the alternatives, although it is still a scathing indictment of how she conducted herself. john: as you know, the clintons don't mind. the clintons always think they can survive scathing. what they can't survive is indictment. so, they'll take scathing any day of the week. all right.

mark, i'm gonna really look forward to hearing what you have to say about what happens down there when we next see each other. until then, all of our viewers, everybody, tim jones has a great story on bloombergpolitics.com. it's about a town in vermont debating whether or not to allow syrian refugees to resettle there. coming up this week, will be covering clinton's campaign stop in electing city. tomorrow i will be there. mark will be in cincinnati with donald trump. after that, we'll be with joe biden. coming up, on "bloomberg west," the manager of lockheed martin's judo program. until tomorrow, for me in charlotte and mark in raleigh, we say to you, sayonara. ♪

♪ ofit is wednesday the sixth july. this is "trending business". ♪ angie: we will be a live in sydney and singapore this hour, but first, here is what we are watching this morning. the asia-pacific extends a global selloff. the yen climbs. the pound under pressure after the bank of england warned that brexit is hurting the u.k.