hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. up first, the trump campaign on the attack. and the clinton campaign fighting back over those newly discovered e-mails reviewed now by the fbi. all of this is playing out less than eight days and counting before the presidential election here in the united states. look at this. live pictures coming in from grand rapids, michigan, right now. we're waiting for the start of a donald trump rally there. the trump campaign has pounced on the discovery of more e-mails possibly related to the, to clinton's use of a private

e-mail server. the clinton campaign is blasting the fbi director for disclosing the e-mail review days before the presidential election. we'll hear what clinton has to say next hour. a rally in ohio and another in cincinnati. trump's running mate mike pence is in florida. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta is covering the trump campaign for us. justice correspondent evan perez has the late effort on the fbi investigation. jim what is trump's strategy now to capitalize on this e-mail issue? >> reporter: right, wolf. i think the strategy at this point is reply all. to use an e-mail term. every chance they get. donald trump over the last couple of days, he's been hitting this time and again. you recall it was in las vegas yesterday, he actually thanked anthony weiner, former congressman, for setting it all into motion and at the last come

rallies has been saying that this is only hillary clinton's fault. she only has her to blame. talking to a campaign aide, wolf, tells me in the last few minutes that donald trump will hit that message again today, trying to get the point across, they feel like, inside the trump campaign, critical at this point, this is not jim comey's fault or the fault of the fbi director but the fault of hillary clinton who originally used that private e-mail server. the trump campaign and donald trump will say time and again she is to blame not the fbi director. that's not the only thing donald trump will talk about. talking about obama care at this rally in grand rapids. they thought that was the october surprise gift last week when it came out that premiums under obama care would go up more than 20% next year, but not all october surprises are created equal. and, also, donald trump will be hitting his economic message, i'm told, by a campaign aide, pretty hard at this rally. they feel like that that message

is tailor-made for states like michigan where people are hard-hit during the great recession. the question, of course, wolf, is why is donald trump hitting states like michigan, traditionally democratic states. republicans go for it every four years but just doesn't work out. but they are seeing a tightening of this race inside the trump campaign. obviously our cnn poll of polls shows hillary clinton still leading by five percentage points, but they're saying inside the battleground states looking at individual polls, a tightening of the race, and really, wolf, this e-mail controversy, this new fbi review of these e-mails, that might be possibly linked to hillary clinton, there's no telling at this point how that's going to shake out from a polling standpoint and, of course, donald trump can't win dp he just wins the state mitt romney won four years ago. he has toly. democrating stateses and doing that later on this week, states like michigan. >> evan perez, update us on the

actual investigation, sig gan significance of the search warrant? >> in is very significant simply because the fbi needs to be able to have, needed to have the permission to be able to look at the thousands of e-mails now found on anthony weiner's computer. now, there's a lot of stuff we do not know. we do not know in the end whether this changes anything about the investigation that the fbi concluded back in july, when they decided there was not enough evidence to bring charges against hillary clinton. we don't know whether this changes any of that. we don't know how many of these e-mails might be duplicates and expect maybe a lot will be. we do not the fbi spent several weeks looking at the computer. they looked at some of the mehta data, some of the e-mails they saw and found that there was reason to believe some of those e-mails did go through hillary clinton's private server. that's one reason why they believe it might be pertinent to

this investigation. and here's another thing they know. they know that from what they could see that there were concerns there might be some classified information on some of these e-mails. that's what's triggering this investigation. they're going to spend some time looking at these e-mails. they'll bring in other people to make sure they can determine whether or not there is, indeed, any classified information. again, a lot of work yet for the fbi to do. that's one reason why we are told that jim comey, the fib director, despite all calls from republicans and democrats, to provide more information, is unlikely to provide anything more in the next few days. simply because his agents are still doing a lot of work, wolf. >> evan perez. thanks very much. bring in our panel. our cnn politics eder juana summers joining us. molly ball, political writer forary the atlantic," and gloria borger is here and chief political correspondent dana dash. senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin and former fbi assistant

director, tom fuentes, how does the clinton campaign, gloria, handle this e-mail issue which came up now a week and a day, very, very strongly, before the election? >> as you saw last friday, she first came out and raised questions about what fbi director had done. now they have had their suggest gi surrogates powerfully and in large numbers come out and complain about it including former attorney general eric holder, who while she a friend friend -- he is a friend of comey's said it was a huge mistake. a breach of protocol, shouldn't have stated his opinion of the case back in july. the original sin, and that he, what he did this time was -- was wrong. the justice department needed to be more involved, and as for hillary herself, what she is doing is continuing on the campaign trail. you will see it today, talking about donald trump as if this

doesn't exist, as trying to disqualify him as she does as commander in chief on his temperament, calling him divisive and dangerous, because she does better when talking about donald trump, not about herself. so the focus from her is going to continue to be on trump and try to remind people why they don't trust him to be commander in chief. that's her job, but it's a multipronged strategy. >> jeffrey toobin, is eric holder, attorney general during the obama administration, right? >> this is a unprecedented to have a, the fbi speak out, throw a bomb in the middle of a presidential campaign 11 days out. there is a basic principle in the justice department that in the period -- >> hold on a mohammed, jeff. the white house briefing. josh earn effort, white house press secretary discussing this very issue. let's listen in. >> -- that was not appropriate. eric holder said that was not

the right decision. before getting into the content of the invest which i know you can't discuss, does the president feel it was appropriate for comey to make that public just days before the election? >> josh, i anticipated you wanted to start. i appreciate you noting that over the nearly two years now that i've been answering questions about secretary clinton's e-mail system that i have made clear the white house is going to be scrupulous about avoiding even the appearance of political interference in prosecutorial or investigative decisions. and that is a posture that i won't change, and it is a posture that speaks to the kind of institutional responsibilities that are vested here in the white house. which is preserving the independence and integrity of independent investigations conducted by the department of justice. now, you raised a question about

some of the decisions that have been made to communicate information about those investigations to the public. and what's true is, josh, i don't have any independent knowledge how those decisions were made. i don't know what fooactors wer considered, dating all the way back to july when director comey announced the results of the investigation and spoke at length to the public about his decision not to prosecute secretary clinton. including in that news conference were some rather harsh condemnations of the way that secretary clinton handled that situation. director comey also testified before congress at some length on-camera under oath, and about the investigation, and some of that testimony provided fodder to secretary clinton's critics. over the course of the fall we've seen the fbi move forward in providing other investigative

information 302 forms and other documents, to congress. and the fact is, my lack of independent knowledge about that decision-making prevents me from weighing in. so i anticipate that this is not the only question i'm going to get asked about this today, but i'll neither defend nor criticize what director comey has decided to communicate to the public about this investigation. what i will say is that the department of justice in our democracy is given expansive authority to conduct investigations. the department of justice is given subpoena power. they're allowed to compel witnesses to testify. they are able to collect evidence that's not readily available necessarily. they're even allowed to impanel

a grand jury. those are substantial authorities. it's important in the mind of the president that those authorities are tempered by an adherence to long-standing tradition and practice and norms that limit public discussion of facts that are collected in the context of those investigations. and there are a variety of good reasons for that. and the president believes that it's important for those norms and traditions and guidelines to be followed. >> were they in this case? >> well, again, i think you'd have to -- i know there's been a lot of discussion about this. and by discussion i mean a lot of public reporting based on a multitude of anonymous sources at the department of justice. the president believes that there are a set of significant institutional responsibilities

that officials at department of justice and the fbi must fulfill. the good news is that the president believes director combsy a man of integrity, a man of principle and he's a man of good character. that presumably is the reason that president bush chose him to serve in a senior position at the bush administrational department of justice. these same character traits are what led a strong majority of republican and democrats to agree, and it's a good thing he's a man of integrity and character to take them on. >> you'll concede i'm sure in the absence of any information about this, voters are left to essentially speculate about what might be involved in this, what the fbi might be looking at or not looking at, just before the election. so would the president, in the interests of people being able to not rely on anonymous sources

and the like see the fbi release more information than comedy in that very brief letter prior to election day about what's going on? >> josh, in the same why i'll neither criticize nor defend director comey's decisions what to make public in this investigation is because i don't have independent knowledge of the decisions that are made to release this information. and there are other feel that have the luxury of being able to opine, writing op-eds or serving with reporters to weigh in with their own view. when i'm standing here representing the institution of the presidency, i don't have that luxury. in the same way i'll neither defend nor criticize director's comey's decision what to or no make public, i don't have any comment with regard to what

information should be communicated to the public. >> in the past, including after the fbi announced that it was not proceeding with a recommendation to bring charges in this case, the white house did defend comey and you've defended him a number of times. so is that a substantive shift in the language you're using today, that you won't defend or criticize him? the fact you're not defending him is that a signal to us that there is reason for the white house to maintain some additional distance here? >> well, i think, josh what i have observed in the past is that director combsy a man of inte teg grai integrity, a man of principle, a man well-regarded in senior igss by both parties, served in the bush administrationened got strong bipartisan support when his nomination to be the director of the fbi was considered by the united states senate. so all of those things are true. they speak to his good

character, and the president's assessment of his integrity and his character has not changed. for example, the president doesn't believe that director comey is intentionally trying to influence the outcome of an election. the president doesn't believe that he's secretly strategizing to benefit one candidate or one political party. he's in a tough spot, and he's the one who will be in a position to defend his actions in the face of significant criticism from a variety of legal experts, including individuals who served in senior department of justice positions in administrations led by presidents in both parties. but, you know, that kind of, that i'm just not going to be in a position to, frankly, either defend or criticize. the decisions that he'd made

with what to regard, with regard what to communicate in public. that is separate, josh, from the kind of prosecutorial and investigative decisions made by the fbi and the definite of justice. that is their institutional responsibility. to make those decisions about investigations and prosecutions independent of any sort of political interference and i will defend their right to do that. in fact, it's their responsibility. >> this decision aside, is it concerning at all to the white house that you have the justice department and the fbi basically griping at each other in some form of public or semipublic fashion? i mean, they obviously have to work very closely together to keep the country safe. is there an issue there that needs to be resolved so that the justice department isn't accusing the fbi of not following proper procedures? >> well, josh, you've heard me discuss the president's view of director comey's integrity and

character. let me just tell you that the president's got a lot of confidence in the attorney general of the united states, loretta lynch, to run that department, and she is somebody who spent decades as a career prosecutor. she's not new to any of this. a lot of that work was done when she was the head of the eastern district of new york. the u.s. attorney for the eastern district of new york. that is a, a position where these kinds of decisions are closely scrutinized by the media that's based in the largest city in our country. so she's used to this kind of pressure. and the president's got complete confidence in her ability to handle this situation responsibly and consistent with the institutional responsibilities that are vested with the department of justice. >> and one other question on a top take that i know is difficult to talk about for another reason. the president's half brother

malik obama published an op-ed listing a list of grievances. didn't send condolences after his half brother's sons or children passed away, and he sends saying i will not be humiliated anymore. does the president have any thoughts about that op-ed or about the fact that this family issue is playing out so publicly? >> josh, i have to admit i have not seen the op-ed that you're referring to. you know, if we have an official reaction to it, i can follow-up with you. i spoke to the president about a series of questions you started the briefing with but i had not read the op-ed and did not ask him about this one, but will follow-up with you. >> thank you. >> asia? >> thanks. going back to the fbi. you said that you don't have enough, or the white house does not have enough independent information to either criticize

or, or to come out with a position on comey's letter, but then i guess what do you say to the american people, if the white house doesn't have enough information, to decide whether the letter was appropriate or not, seemingly the american people are then left with questions about what to believe. there are lots of criticism right now from both sides, or lots of calls from both sides of the aisle asking director comey to release more information. do you feel that the american people don't have a right to more information about this probe? i mean, they are going to the voting booths right now and next tuesday? >> well, look, this is an entirely legitimate question to ask and these are the kinds of questions that are being carefully considered at the department of justice right now, and given the institutional responsibilities that are vested here at the white house, you

know, i just don't have a recommendation to make. it's important for them to make these decisions, consistent with their -- let me be more precise here. it's important for officials at the department of justice and the fbi to make these decisions consistent with independent responsibilities. and as i made reference to earlier, those officials at the department of justice and the fbi are given expansive authority and expansive powers to intrude on the privacy of private citizens. and that authority is tempered by longstanding traditions and norms and guidelines that largely avoid extensive public discussion of those investigations. an example i think will -- resonate with all of you based on your day to day responsibilities here at the white house. it is not uncommon for you, when

you call the department of justice, asking them to even confirm that there's an investigation ongoing for them to decline to do that. typically when you report about the fact there's an ongoing investigation, that's not based on official confirmation you've received from an official at the department of justice. it's based on confirmation you've received from an an anonymous official not wereill to speak publicly about the case, because it would be improper for them to can do so. that, in a way that we all -- in a way that reflects the reality of the world we all work in on a day-to-day basis i they underscores the sense tiitivity discussing this information. the other thing there's a tendency to say, with regard to this letter written on friday, to say, well, congress is independent, and they have their

own independent oversight responsibilities to exercise over the department of justice. well, let me say a couple things about that. the first is -- the kinds of norms and traditions that limit the public disclosure of investigations don't supersede the oversight responsibilities or requests that are submitted by members of congress. and the reason for that is simple. congress is, indeed, independent of the executive branch, but far from impartial. congress is made up of 535 politicians. democrats and republicans, and we've already seen just in the last 72 hours the kind of risk that is associated with communicating to them sensitive information. there's one senior republican official who is already indicated, who had previously

endorsed the republican nominee for president who let it slip that his party was considering impeaching president clinton even before she's been elected, if she's elected. that's, i think, a pretty clear indication that congress is not at all impartial. and, you know, that's why many of these norms, longstanding norms, that apply even when we're not talking about someone famous and even not talking an an election being a week and a half away that should apply and the president believes that these norms are important and worth upholding. >> so the president believes these norms are worth upholding, but it seems like in this case, comey, these letters, or what people are saying these norms weren't upheld? we're talking an an ongoing investigation because a letter was sent. so i guess i'm trying to parse out, so where does the white house stand on that, on just as a general issue having an

ongoing investigation that is now being discussed? >> and, look, this is, this goes to the fact that because we have worked to shield this investigation, given the politically sensitive nature of it, frankly, even if it weren't politically sensitive, we would go to great lengths, be scrupulous about insulating that independent investigation from the, from eastern the appearance of political interference. so i don't have any independent knowledge of the investigation or the kinds of decisions that led director comey to take the steps that he did to communicate some of this investigation, or some of the material relevant to this investigation to the congress and to the public. so, again, i'm not in a position to either defend or criticize that decision. that's -- that's -- that's something that officials at

department of jut justice and the fbi have to do. >> so senator reid said that the fbi has some explosive information regarding trump, and russian ties, and there's some -- basically he's accusing the fbi of having a double standard and not releasing information like that, and he and other lawmakers called for the fbi to release that information. does the white house have any position on that? are you concerned that now you have -- you have more kind of accusations going around about fbi probes? >> look, as i mentioned before, you know, the white house has not been briefed on the investigation has the department of justice and the fbi were conducting into secretary clinton's e-mail system. the white house has not been briefed on even the existence of any investigation into the activities or habits of the

republican nominee. these are all questions that should be directored to the department of justice and to the fbi. okay? >> thanks, josh. going back to -- senator reid's letter. he basically accused the fbi director of potentially violating the hatch act and you've said that you believe that director comey is a man of integrity and in the letter that senator reid sent, he said that he once believed that director comey was a principled servient. what is your reaction to that? >> the hatch act should be directed to the office of special counsel. an independent agency filled with attorneys and investigators who among their responsibilities are investigating potential violations of the hatch act. but, again, you'll have to talk to them to even confirm the existence of an investigation

let alone learn more about what they have concluded. with regard to director comey, as i said at the top, the president believes he's a man of integrity. a man of character. he's a man of principle. and he's got very different job. and those character traits i just described will serve him well as he works through the difficult challenges that he faces over the course of his job. >> you said you -- >> there he is. white house press secretary josh earnest speaking about the fbi director james comey decisions. very controversial decision to go ahead and notify congress that his office has been investigating e-mails on the computer belonging to clinton aide huma abedin and her estranged husband anthony weiner. the white house press secretary repeatedly saying he's neither going to defend nor criticize comey's decision. he's in a tough spot, he said. he is a man of integrity and at the same time said there be longstanding, longstanding traditions in the justice

department, in the law enforcement community to be followed. this is institutional responsibilities, presumably referring to this tradition within 60 days of an election you're not supposed to go out and make these kinds of statements. i was talking to jeffrey toobin. jeffrey, it's on the heels of the former attorney general, eric holder, served in the obama administration, saying that comey has committed a serious error with potentially severe implications. a stunning breach of protocol. >> and perhaps more importantly, larry thompson, former deputy attorney general under johnish kro john ashcroft under the bush and r administration. striking about the letter. it's not just democrats attacking it, because this norm that josh earnist was talking about is snag really is ingrained at the department of justice, which is that you stay out of elections. that is something that -- even a lowly assistant u.s. attorney

like me, when we were investigating members of the city council or low-level political officials always under investigation by the justice department is that you stay away from the election time and the idea that director comey would do this when he didn't even have any specific evidence against hillary clinton, when he just said there were these e-mails out there and we don't know their significance, that set off a backlash that transcends just democratic officials. >> tom fuentes, you served in the fbi your entire career and got to the ranch of assistant fbi director. what's your reaction to what we just heard from the white house and we heard from these other officials? >> well, what i'd like to hear are the former department of justice officials comment on is, this really started when bill clinton boarded loretta lynch's airplane a matter of a few days before the interview of the fbi of his wife, the main subject of the e-mail investigation.

and that meeting lasted more than 30 minutes. so it had to be more than hello, how are ya? see ya later. they had some kind of a discussion. they say golf, and children, grandchildren, but it was a more than 30-minute meeting, completely inappropriate. when the attorney general was confronted with the fact it was inappropriate, she makes the announcement, doesn't say, i'm recusing myself from the clinton case, and my deputy attorney general will take over. she doesn't say, the career prosecutors professionals will take over my role in this case. she says, i'm completely deferring to director comey. that's what starts the whole problem is, then that gives comey license to do the press conference on july 5th which i myself questioned as well that he did it, but he did it, and he goes on july 5th to announce that that never would have happened if the attorney general didn't start the ball rolling for him to be in the -- >> did comey do the right thing

going ahead and making this announcement? >> now that you started this thing and testified before congress, when you have an investigation it was closed. it wasn't cloeded. hes is complete and closed and loretta lynch announced shortly afterward the case against all the primary subjects of this are closed also. this is done. when it's finished, you no longer have the restriction of, you can't comment on a pending investigation. not pending. when he testifies to congress and gives a lot of details about the case, wasn't commenting on a pending case at the time and i think that's why he felt compelled to send the letter last week and comey didn't make this public. somebody at congress -- >> he knew as soon as he sent the letter out, it would come out within a nano second. >> and harry reid says comey actually may have broken the lisle, vit aviolating the hatch act? >> talked to a representative of reid. they got the ball rolling on an

attack line through a potential legal fight is they say the way the hatch act is written, you can check this as a legal expert, is it's about intent. meaning, if you are -- in the government, and you intend to do something that is a political action, then that is something that is not legal. when you're in the executive branch like he is, and that by saying what he said in a press conference and on capitol hill, making clear that he didn't think hillary clinton did the right thing, and subsequently by doing what he did now with these e-mails, reopening the investigation, that that -- and not doing anything on the flip side, that that is -- in and of itself political. what they argued. they haven't gone as far as making an actual claim or trying to actually challenge it in a formal way, but that's why they're doing that. look, seems potentially a bit of

a reach. a talking point we're talking about right now and sort of another angle for them to go at. so that's that. i have to say that just on josh earnest, which we've been listening to the past 20 minutes, you don't need a nagifying glass to read between the line what's he was saying. saying i'm nothing got talk about it, but really nice if he would follow the prot call jeff was talking about. can't say more that than, but didn't have to. pretty clear what he's saying on behalf of the president. >> talk about threading the needle? you know? we're staying out this. what about the accepted are nos we're used to abiding by and he didn't abide by it? >> guidelines need to be followed. molly, i want to play for you a clip our other jake tapper had with the clinton campaign chairman john podesta yesterday. listen to this. >> she's still part of the campaign? >> of course, yes. >> working on the campaign? >> yeah. absolutely. she's been -- 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 in advance operation being a confidant to the senior, people in the campaign and traveling with hillary. she doesn't travel every day but travels frequently with her. >> we're talking about huma abedin, longtime aide to hillary clinton. so what's going to be the impact on her in the short term as far as the remaining few days of this campaign and if hillary clinton's elected president does she get to serve in the white house with the new president of the united states? >> there's so much uncertainty here. the clinton campaign doesn't know what's going on. the white house says they don't know what's going on with the investigation. the trump campaign certainly doesn't know and they're not making decisions. we have not seen huma on the plane today or yesterday. they're keeping her out of the spotlight for her sake probably. something we know from the hacked and released e-mails from the state department and her entire career, hillary clinton

tends to be loyal to a fault, to the people she feels she can trust. a very small group of people. a lot of people in various trouble and clintons generally stay loyal to them, generally protect them, if they feel somebody had their back. clinton people that i've spoken to feel like this might hurt her chances of having a high official place in the administration, but in terms of her personal relationship with hillary clinton, that's not seeming to be in jeopardy. >> listen. hold on a second. donald trump just spoke about the fbi director comey and his decision. let me play the clip for our viewers. >> -- and i have to give the fbi credit. that was so bad what happened originally and it took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had trying to protect her from criminal prosecution. you know that. it took a lot of guts. i really disagreed with him. i was not his fan, but i'll tell

you what, what he did, he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. he's got a -- >> what happens if within the next few days comey announced, you know what? nothing there. we're moving on? >> right. >> i don't think there's any problem that donald trump has with saying mutually exclusive things about james comb pip sort of a theme on both sides of this campaign. >> juana, has there been indication of the actual political fallout from this decision on friday by comey to go ahead and inform congress that he was going to review these related issues? >> i don't think enough time passed to really know. we're in the final eight days of the election. more than 18 million americans already cast ballots. we see a lot of polling at this point. it's hard to look at the national polls, and the average we see, our cnn polls of polls tells us this is still a really tight race. right now not a lot of information and frankly the state of where things are now, you saw it in the briefing, too. really raises more questions than it actually answered.

the average american probably doesn't quite understand what it's going on well enough to decide whether or not it will impact their ballot, if they haven't cast a ballot already. >> can i say how shakespearean all of this is? when you talk about huma abedin who is like hillary clinton's second daughter. they're that close. and how painful that must be on that front. and to tom's point. if bill clinton had not sat down on that airplane last summer with secretary lynch, would she have been in a position, or should she still have been, but would she have been in a position to say, huh-uh. the justice department is going to speak on this. not the fbi, and would everything have been differ? >> you forgot the anthony weiner part. >> and the anthony weiner -- i was getting to that. kind of the -- >> on that note, everybody, stay with us. former prosecutor, former justice department officials, they're turning up the heat on the fbi director james comey sending a letter criticizing

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. the fbi director james comey has come irnd lots of fire from democrats and career investigators for his handling now of the hillary clinton e-mail case. senate democratic leader harry reid even accusing comey of possibly violating the law. the so-called hatch act, which says, federal employees "may not use official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the results of an election." peter zeidanberg is a former assistant u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, later served with the u.s. department

of justice public integrity section andalities one of 99 former federal prosecutors and high-ranking justice department officials who signed a letter about director comey saying in part -- is unprecedented decision on what may be an ongoing inquiry just 11 days before a presidential election leaves us both astonished and perplexed. we do not question director comey's motives however the fact remains the director's disclosure invited considerable uninformed public speck lace about the significance of newly discovered material just days before a national election. peter, thanks for joining us. why did you decide to sign this letter? >> wolf, as the letter said, wolf, this is unprecedented, and disturbing. there is a long tradition of not acting so close to the election, and the nature of this announcement just invited speculation and mischief from

the other side. >> because when he announced in early july he was not going to recommend criminal charges against hillary clinton, he then testified before congress and he did say under, during his testimony, to members of congress, if there's a new development, i'll let you know. presumably, he was thinking, i made that promise. i've got to live up to that. >> presumably. well -- i think in retrospect it may have been, it was a poor decision to tell them, i'll keep you updated, because that's not the job of the fbi to constantly inform congress as an investigation is ongoing, but more to the point, wolf, i don't think this warranted an update. this was just too preliminary. once they had done a review of the e-mails and found something, perhaps then if he felt i had made a prior representation that i will keep them updated, maybe at that point there's something substantive to update them on, but simply saying, we found a ton of e-mails, and we're going

to look at them and see what's in them, that's all that -- if the public reports are to be believed, that's all that they know right now. so at that point, what is it that -- that he's updating them on and it allows the public and, you know, people who are partisans to get involved with this and to make way more of this than perhaps is warranted? >> because we have no idea what's in those e-mails, if anything important. so how does he fix this from your standpoint? what should he do immediately, if anything, between now and november 8th, the election? >> you know, i don't know how you put this, you know, unring this bell, put his back in the bottle. it's very difficult. you know, you can't just release all of these e-mails. who knows what's in them? that would be irresponsible as well. i think, you know, it may be warranted to make a statement

that, in fact, there is no there there, but he doesn't know that? >> that he doesn't know there's any there there. >> there may be something there, may not be anything there. they simply don't know yet. >> i mean, that's the case everyday fbi agents or investigators go to work. right? every day something could happen. there could be a phone call. someone could walk in the door with new information. you know, unless you get that information and you vet it, then there's nothing to report. >> peter zeidanberg, thanks very much for coming in. appreciate your perspective. >> happy to. >> thank you very much. coming up, paul ryan faces a tough fight to hold on to his speakership amid turmoil. fellow republicans criticizing his tepid support of donald trump. we'll talk to a republican congressman who says an effort to oust the speaker could be growing. we'll be right back.

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joining us now, north carolina republican congressman mark med dose, a member of the house oversight committee and foreign affairs committee and also a donald trump supporter. congressman, thank you for joining us. >> it's great to be with you, wolf. thanks. >> very quickly, your reaction to what we just heard from josh earnest, white house press secretary. they don't want to criticize or defend comey's decision, he's a man of integrity, they say, but there are long-standing traditions that should prevent guidelines, institutional responsibilities, prevent these kind of statements, presumably, from coming forward just before an election. what was your reaction? >> well, obviously, it's a good

thing that he didn't come out to criticize or defend. there's plenty of people that are going to do both of those things, wolf. really when we look at it, this was director comey following up on testimony that he gave before my committee, where he made a commitment to us and the american people that he would, if anything, substantial change, that he would let us know. obviously, he did that. but even before that, we talk about long-standing traditions. none of this would have happened without a private server, wolf. we somehow forget the nexus between what we're talking about today and what we're really asking the american people to weigh in on. >> the former attorney general during the bush administration, alberto gonzales, he said the fbi director has made an error in judgment in terms of releasing this kind of letter, which really says nothing. i take it you disagree with alberto gonzales. >> well, i disagree with him. i mean, a number of people are going to say, well, this breaks protocol. well, we've never had a nominee

for the highest office in the land that has been under federal investigation at time that the american people have to make a decision. i would like to error on the side of transparency. hopefully, that's what the administration wants to do. and certainly, i agree with the direction that director comey took on this. >> she was cleared of any wrongdoing, criminal wrongdoing, even though the fbi director said she was extremely careless in dealing with classified information. he recommended against any criminal charges being put forward. and they haven't really reopened this case right now. they're reviewing some details that may or may not be related. it's unfair to say right now she's under criminal investigation, right? >> well, i don't know that it's unfair. obviously, they're reopening the case s what director comey has said. look at this additional information. >> he said they're reviewing information, and then they'll -- presumably, then they'll make a decision.

>> you're accurate. >> -- whether or not to reopen. >> you're accurate there. >> i just want to precise. >> i appreciate it. no, i appreciate that. you're a good journalist and so -- >> well, thank you. thank you very much. let's talk quickly about paul ryan, the speaker. are you with him to remain as speaker or not? he's been sort of tepid, as you know, in his support of donald trump, a man you want to be the next president. >> well, you know, his supporter or where he's been on that really is something that the vast majority of the american people are really not focused on. they're focused on one thing, november 8th, who's going to be the next president. and so, as we start to look at that, all eyes, especially here in north carolina, are really on that battleground states, on who's going to be the nominee. so, who's the speaker is really a lower concern to most americans in terms of what is important to them. so, at this point, i know of no one running against the speaker and so it could very well be

that he is running unopposed in january. and really, that's a discussion that will happen long after november 8th, wolf. >> how much disappointment, anger, if you will, within the republican freedom caucus, as it's called, you would like to run, i take it, to head that freedom caucus, if congressman jim jordan steps down, how much disappointment in the speaker has there been? >> well, there's been a lot reported on, it wolf. i'm glad you bring it up because really we've had little, if no conversations. i can tell you most of my conversations have been with jim jordan, as you mentioned, about ohio because it's a swing state. in terms of leadership races, there has not been any official meetings or official discussions as it relates to that. i think everybody has it on hold and wants to make sure that we keep the main thing, the main thing, and that's about getting our nominee elected to the office of president. >> mark meadows, republican congressman from north carolina,

key battleground state. we'll be watching that state together with you very, very closely on tuesday, congressman. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> thank you. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in t"the situation room." the news will continue on cnn right after a quick break.

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again, she's on the defensive about the use of her private e-mail server while her opponent, donald trump, is pouncing. clinton is set to speak this hour in the battleground state of ohio. all the while, federal investigators are poring through what is believed to be thousands upon thousands of newly discovered e-mails belonging to her right-hand woman, a woman who she once referred to as her surrogate daughter, huma abedin.