>> i've been fighting for families and underdogs my entire life. and i'm not stopping now. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning. welcome to your new day. a blatant double standard. that's what the clinton campaign calls the fbi's surprise announcement of a probe into her long-time aide's e-mails. the fbi director standing firm on his decision, though also saying he doesn't foe what's in the e-mails yet. hillary clinton responding there is no case here. >> meanwhile, donald trump facing new questions about how he avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in federal taxes for almost two decades. there are also multiple uncorroborated reports about his campaign's links to russia. there's so much at stake. we're only one week from election day. we have it all covered for you. let's begin with cnn's justice correspondent evan perez. he's live in washington. what's the latest, evan? >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. the big question remains, will

the fbi be able to provide more information about what it's finding in this investigation of huma abedin's recently discovered e-mails. fbi director james comey has said he doesn't plan to provide any partial updates, and it's unlikely his investigators will be able to complete their work by election day. a team of investigators has begun the work of digging through thousands of e-mails found on the computer belonging to anthony weiner. abedin's attorney said she had no idea her e-mails were on this computer. at this point, fbi forensics experts are still trying to figure out how they got there. comey's been under attack, including from the three most recent attorneys general. all three find fault with comey's handling of the clinton investigation, particularly for publicly commenting on the latest e-mail discovery just days before an election. comey's current boss, however, attorney general loretta lynch, checked in on comey yesterday to see how he's doing.

lynch was opposed to comey sending his letter to congress last friday, but we're told the conversations yesterday were a friendly chat between two officials under a great deal of scrutiny over the clinton investigation. >> evan, thanks so much for all of that. the clinton campaign is going after the fbi chief for what they call a blatant double standard. a new report has donald trump's taxes back in the headlines. phil mattingly has it all for us. least live in chappaqua, new york, with more. hi, phil. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. look, the clinton campaign made very clear over the course of the last three days they are going to attack jim comey, they're going to attack the fbi. it has been a slow escalation, and right now it seems like it's peaking. >> there is no case here. >> reporter: hillary clinton and her campaign firing back at fbi director james comey. slamming his decision to notify congress of a new investigation into thousands of e-mails found on a computer belonging to the estranged husband of a top

clinton aide, huma abedin. clinton's campaign turning the tables on comey. >> it's impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard. >> reporter: seizing on reports that comey refused to publicly comment on potential ties between donald trump's campaign and russia. on sunday, senate minority leader harry reid accused comey of sitting on explosive information, trump's russia connections, without offering proof. cnn cannot corroborate any of these reports. u.s. officials do tell cnn that russia is behind hacks that could potentially influence the u.s. election. meanwhile, trump is capitalizing on comey's new e-mail probe. >> it took guts for director comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had. >> reporter: comey has only said the e-mails found on disgraced

congressman anthony weiner's computer, quote, appear to be pertinent to the now-closed clinton private server investigation. >> we can be sure that what is in those e-mails is absolutely devastating. i think we're going to find out, by the way. for the first time. thank you, huma. thank you, anthony weiner. >> reporter: abedin's attorney responding, saying in a statement, quote, from the beginning ms. abedin has complied fully and voluntarily with state department and law enforcement requests and reiterated abedin only learned of the e-mails on weiner's computer friday from the press. clinton continuing to apologize for her private e-mail server but issuing a challenge to and i'm sure they will reach the same conclusion they did when they looked at my e-mails for the last year. >> reporter: all of this as "the new york times" obtains documents that they say show trump potentially escaped tens of millions of dollars in federal personal income taxes in

the 1990s by using a tax avoidance maneuver later outlawed by congress. trump's campaign responding to the report in a statement saying, quote, any tax experts that you have consulted are engaged in pure speculation. there is no news here. and chris, there's no question jim comey's letter to capitol hill rattled this race, but the question is how much. will there be a big drop off in support for hillary clinton? will we see gains for donald trump? well, one good indicator right now just seven days out of trying to gauge where this race actually is, take a look at where the candidates and their top surrogates are going. donald trump today in pennsylvania for a very big speech on obamacare. with his running mate mike pence. also going to wisconsin. these are two blue states. he needs to win those to have an opportunity. hillary clinton, she's in florida, a battleground state that if she wins, it's over. >> all right, phil. appreciate it. let's discuss the state of play in the election with clinton's campaign manager robby mook. robby, good to have you.

i want you to make the case for why the voters should care about donald trump's potential connections to russia. what do you see that they may not? >> well, chris, the issue here is that the fbi has been anonymously leaking information. we're told they're investigating one of trump's former campaign managers. we're told that they're investigating a gentleman that trump himself said was one of his foreign policy advisers for meeting with sanctioned officials in russia. but the fbi won't reveal who they're investigating and what they might be finding. you saw there was a letter from senator reid saying they had potentially explosive information. director comey felt it was incumbent upon him to announce that the fbi had some information he'd never even looked at, but they won't reveal connections to russia. we know that the russians, based on what 17 agencies have all agreed on that, the russians stole e-mails from the dnc, they

stole e-mails from our campaign, and it was james comey at the fbi who was trying to block that information from getting released. so we just want all this information out there on both candidates. >> well, we don't know whether or not comey was blocking the release of that information. the intelligence community for the u.s. government does seem to be in consensus, pointing at russia. but that doesn't really mean anything to trump. "the new york times" says that the fbi has found any potential russian connections too thin and that that's why the director decided not to tip the scales in an election with something that's politically charged if he doesn't have the proof behind it. your response? >> but chris, this is exactly the issue here. it has come out the fbi was actively investigating whether there was a direct cyber link between donald trump and a bank owned by russian oligarchs in moscow that from what we can

tell that investigation has not concluded. that was an actual open investigation. what director comey did feel compelled to do was send a letter to republican chairmen on the hill saying he had some e-mails. we found out later he didn't have a warrant to look at them. >> he said he was obligated to update them because he promised he would. >> well, he was also asked reper repeatedly under oath in hearings about donald trump and russia. he refused to answer that question. yet, he has no problem whatsoever coming out and talking about investigations against hillary clinton. it's a total breach of protocol. that's why former attorneys general from democratic and republican administrations have said this was a mistake. we were told he was warned by his superiors at the justice department not to do this. now that he's opened the door, now that he has weighed into this election, we're saying let's get all the information out there. let's get the information out on hillary clinton that he supposedly might have. let's get the information out on donald trump. the voters are smart and can

figure this out. >> one observation, one question. the observation is, when he made the announcement that it wasn't a close call, i didn't hear the clinton people going crazy about the breach of protocol. they liked that he had given an end to this situation. and the question is, why would you want the fbi to start spilling information out on the voters before they've had a chance to fully process it? i mean, that's why the journalists have always respected the fbi being so frustratingly noncommittal. what they have can carry such weight that you don't want to just thrown out on people to process. >> well, chris, this is the point. the fbi has been frustratingly noncommittal, and they don't say a thing when it comes to donald trump and investigations against him. yet when it comes to hillary clinton, for some reason, they're more than happy to talk. director comey, the press conference he gave in july about secretary clinton, it wasn't

precedented. it was arguably a breach in protocol. we're glad this investigation had wrapped up, that it had come to an end, and we had an opportunity to move on. and moreover, it was well outside the two-month period that the justice department typically has for commenting on matters like this during an election seas election season. >> that's true. he didn't breach this unwritten rule. fair point. but i didn't hear you guys complaining that he talked about the e-mail investigation when he said he wasn't going to prosecute, that there was no close call. and i didn't hear you yelling and screaming that he u -- usurped the attorney general's authority. when it worked for you, you liked it. you you don't like it. fair criticism? >> no, that's not fair actually. at that time, we were just trying to move on. he came out, he said his thing, it was time to move on. this is ten days before an election. he's not resolving anything.

he's dangling out there that they have some information. we find out he didn't even have a warrant to know what it was. and he's coming out and saying, well, i have some information, it might be important, it might not. >> so why do you think he did it? >> i don't know. i don't know. and what was particularly disturbing was we learned yesterday when 17 agencies all agreed that it was the russians that stole e-mails from democrats, it was director comey who said this information should not come out because it's too close to the election. >> didn't he say i don't want the fbi name on it? >> why in the world is it too important -- why is it important to hold back information about russians and it's not important to hold back information about a democratic candidate for president? it is mind boggling and director comey needs to answer this. >> but robby, i get it. that's a damning allegation. but isn't the fact that he said if this information is going to come out, i have no say over that. i don't want the fbi added to

this list of people doing it because i don't want top influence the election that way. not that he tried to stop the disclosure altogether. that he just didn't want the fbi to be part of it. >> clips, we just want fairness. he thought it was perfectly fine for the fbi to send a letter to capitol hill about information they had never looked at and say, hey, we have some information, republican chairman. do you want to speculate on what it might be? he knew they would leak that letter. he knew there would be false headlines. the reporting was breathless on friday. a lot of what was reported had to be rolled back because it was mischaracterized by republicans. if director comey was so concerned about how information would be handled and about the reputation of the fbi, why did he release this letter? it was full of innuendo and absolutely no facts. >> so what do you do? by all accounts, they're not going to say anything between now and election day. do you leave it alone because, as you do accurately point out,

we don't know what the heck is in the he mae-mails. or do you keep banging on his door and saying tell us more about donald trump, when it doesn't seem that's going to happen either. >> well, the letter he released has led to endless speculation by republicans. all we're asking, so that reporting can be fair, is that the information get released. release whatever information they have. then if you're in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on donald trump. release the information on his connections to the russians. maybe there are investigations now into his taxes. not just that he didn't pay taxes for 20 years, but that he wrote off other people's losses. so there's a lot out there on donald trump. again, it was shocking to me that yesterday every time people asked questions about investigations pertaining to donald trump, they are tying

lipped and silent. quote/unquote sticking with protocol. when it comes to hillary clinton, they don't. we didn't cause this problem. james comey opened this door, and we're just asking for him to make this right and treat everybody the same. >> before we lose the satellite window, why didn't huma release the e-mails? they're her e-mail. >> you know what because they're on a computer that the fbi has. >> they're nowhere else? >> she didn't know about this until they announced it. we're asking them, get the information out there. let's be fair. >> robby mook, appreciate you making the case for hillary clinton on "new day" as always. >> thank you, chris. >> all right. alisyn? >> chris, let's now get the other side with republican congressman chris collins of new york. he was the first member of congress to endorse donald trump. good morning, congressman. >> good morning. that was quite a conversation. he said the letter went to republican chairmen. how disingenuous is that? he keeps trying and hillary keeps trying to say somehow the director of the fbi sent this to republicans. he sent it to the republicans

and democrats simultaneously, same letter. what you just heard robby mook say to america with the insinuation the letter only went to republicans. that's another lie. >> let's talk about the substance. basically what robby mook is saying is that there is a double standard that the fbi is practicing. they are willing to put out a letter and information about a half-baked investigation that they're doing into huma abedin's e-mails. they don't know yet whether or not they're relevant. the director admitted that. but they're not putting out any information on an alleged investigation that they are doing into the trump campaign's connections to russia. is that a double standard? >> well, they also are not putting out the investigation of the clinton foundation, the pay for play, and all of the issues surroundings the clinton foundation. this is a unique thing. the fact that hillary clinton caused her own problems by using

her personal server, her personal e-mail, and then to compound it 10, 11 days before the election, turns out huma abedin didn't turn in a device that she was required to turn in. they stumble on these e-mails, which no one expected to find. they're like, oh, my god, we thought that the clinton folks turned in the devices they were told to turn in. they didn't. now we've got 650,000 e-mails. we don't know what are on them. and because comey back in july said the investigation is closed, they're saying, well, subject to new information coming forward, the new information was there, that's huma abedin's problem, her fault -- >> well, sort of. all they knew was there were huma abedin's e-mails. they don't know the material. let me ask you this about the trump campaign. >> let me correct you there. they did determine several of these were from hillary clinton and the state department. they did know --

>> i don't know that's right, congressman. i don't know they know that they were too or from hillary clinton, but they did find metadata, to your point that, showed it went through hillary clinton's server. the point s the reason i use the term half baked is they don't have all this information. he put out this letter to congress before knowing whether or not there are e-mails from secretary clinton. >> he did testify under oath to lamar smith, when lamar smith asked him the question, director comey, if new information is discovered, are you going to come back to congress and tell us? he said yes. it's a hypothetical, but if new information comes -- because other than that, alisyn, people would have gone into the election on tuesday thinking this was absolutely resolved, the investigation was closed, we weren't going to hear anything more about it. that wouldn't be right either when, in fact, it was reopened. director comey was put in between a bad rock and a hard

place by huma abedin not turning the device in. let's go back to who's at fault here. hillary clinton put our nation's secrets at risk. >> okay. let's talk about the suggestions -- there's lots of reporting this morning, none of it corroborated yet by cnn, but there are other reputable news agencies that say that the fbi and other investigators are looking into whether or not there is a connection between donald trump's campaign and russia. here are some of the headlines today. this is from nbc. fbi making inquiry into ex-trump campaign manager's foreign ties. cnbc states, fbi's comey opposed naming russians, citing election timing. slate saying, was there a private server communicating with russia? between the trump campaign. are you troubled, congressman, if any of these are true, are you troubled by a possible

connection between the trump campaign and russia? >> oh, i don't think there's any connection. i do agree it would certainly appear russia is the one that's hacking the democrats' e-mails. through that -- and i can't condone hacking, but you have to admit because of that and because of wikileaks, we're finding out all the dirty tricks the democrats have. your own network, cnn, had to fire donna brazile on october 15th, for getting the town hall questions ahead of time, leaking them to the clinton campaign. to me, the irony is they cheat, they have the fix in, the dirty tricks, and so forth. all of this has come out through these wikileaks, which again we can't condone hacking, but the irony is it's their bad behavior that is coming forward. now they're beside themselves because america knows they're a bunch of cheats and liars. >> but congressman, how about the connections between donald trump's campaign and russia?

>> well, donald trump has said he's never met vladimir putin, that he doesn't do business in russia. he's said that quite affirmatively. and if russians are doing this, they're doing it. if they don't like hillary clinton, so be it. the irony is when debbie wasserman schultz has to resign. now we find out the fix was in for bernie sanders. this is a cesspool. the democrats are living in a cesspool. it's coming out. so they're deflecting. it's plain and simple. when you're guilty, you deflect. what did huma abedin say? i don't know how those e-mails got on my server. >> it's actually her husband's laptop. it's not her server. >> with her e-mails on it. so obviously they shared it. they didn't just jump in there on their own. >> congressman, one more thing. this is what senator harry reid, a letter he sent to the fbi this weekend about those possible connections.

>> what a letter. >> let me read a portion of it. in my communications with you and other top officials, referring to director comey, in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about the close ties and coordination between donald trump, his top advisers, and the russian government. are you saying he was not briefed? >> what a political hack he is. he was bringing up the hatch act just the other day. doesn't even understand what it is. harry reid is all politics all the time. he's nothing but a political hack. again, they're going after director comey in a very inappropriate way, someone they praised back in july. so this is political posturing because they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. and they don't know what to do other than to deflect and point fingers at other people instead of just saying, yeah, we did what you said we did, so this is

a typical political deflection right here near the end. >> okay. congressman chris collins, thanks so much for joining us on "new day." >> good to be with you. >> let's get to chris. away from the election and into some breaking news in baltimore. a school bus has collided with a commuter bus. the buses have heavy damage. at least five people are hurt. the information is preliminary here, but we are told that there is no one seriously injured at this point. as you get more pictures, you're going to be see -- look at that bus, that commuter bus. that is hard to believe. that'll be some blessing if true. we do not know if there were any kids on that school bus. we're working on getting more information. we'll bring it to you when we get it. >> my gosh. just look at that scene. scary stuff. all right. we'll update who you when we have it. you've just heard from both campaigns about the e-mail controversy.

will these issues affect voters? our pundits take it up next.

so we just heard from hillary clinton's campaign manager and a top supporter of donald trump. they're both talking about the latest e-mail controversies and the swirling questions about trump's campaign's ties to russia. a lot of possessives there. let's discuss this with our guests. ladies, thank you for being here. kayleigh. let me start with you. if there's an active fbi investigation into whether or not there are ties to russia between the trump campaign and russia, should that be made public so that voters have all the information they need about hillary clinton and donald trump when they go to the polls on tuesday? >> sure. i'm for all information being given to voters. that includes, by the way, the investigation against the clinton foundation. hillary is not subject to one criminal investigation.

she's, in fact, subject to another fbi investigation. four field offices are looking into wrongdoing at the clinton foundation. so -- and director comey, when asked about that, notably in the congressional hearing, did not confirm whether that information existed. we now have reporting from "the wall street journal" that it does. so that includes finding out if hillary is not subject to one investigation but two. also, i quickly want to point out it is absurd for robby mook to come on this network and say that we did not cause this problem, comey did. you did cause this problem. when hillary clinton used bleach bit, when she hammered devices, and when she used an illegal server where she deleted 30,000 e-mails. you did cause this, robby mook. to blame this on comey is absurd. take the blame and apologize to the american people. >> well, she has apologized. if not for what hillary did with the server, none of this would be going on. maybe something else would, but not this. but what we're dealing with right now is because of jim coe maine because he hasn't even looked at the e-mails yet.

so you have the original cause, you're right, but the specific cause of what we're dealing with right now, you can't carry everything forward. i want to make another point. you've made it and mook made it. i take it to you, christine. why are we calling for the fbi to dump unprocessed, unfully investigated investigation that they may not want to make a case on. why do you want to dump that on voters about trump or clinton? how would that help anything but prejudice and the lack of information? >> look, i think in a more traditional campaign cycle, that would be on the list of things you would never call for. but this is far from that. and i think the clinton campaign and the trump campaign are calling to put all the information out there maybe for different reasons but at the core for the clinton campaign is because we don't believe there's anything there. as we saw on friday and throughout the weekend, everything changed after the speculation and the kind of immediate craziness of the first couple of hours. >> it sounds to me like both

sides are asking for a pandora's box to be opened that will overwhelm people. you may say there's nothing there. the fbi may agree. now you could get a letter from paul manafort to some unnamed russian -- you know, some guy's russian name that may be suspicious to us but means nothing to the fbi. >> that may or may not be true, but that train left the station when the fbi director made the statements he made, sent the letter he sent on friday. and before kayleigh brings it up the, i have said on this show that i have great respect for the director and his career. and i think it's sad that one of the things that's going to come out of this race is that reputation being called into question. not by me. who cares what i think about the fbi director. but called in by countless republican and democratic security experts across the country. so we are sadly now in a position, which you're right, could cause more confusion a week out. and why all this confusion is being caused is one of the great

questions to look at after election day. but i think we have no choice because we need information to erase the confusion and get the facts. and it's going to mean a lot of work for a lot of people. >> and one more quick question, christine. how are you so confident that they're not going to find anything on anthony weiner's laptop connected to this? how can you know? >> well, look, the secretary has made it very clear she believes there's nothing there. huma herself, her aide, has made it very clear that they believe there is nothing there. and i take them very solidly, two women i know very, very well personally for a long time, at their word. look, you wouldn't say that if you had any worry in your mind at all. you wouldn't. >> kayleigh, how do you respond to this? >> yes, you would say that, especially if you know that that information can't be let out in the middle of the investigation. you're essentially calling, trying to have director comey call your bluff. he's not going to do that because he's not going to let out -- >> so why did your campaign say

it? >> to say that you take hillary clinton at her word, hillary clinton who said that she could not recall 65 odd times, hillary clinton who could not recall if she had ever used an ipad in her life despite owning several, who said she turned over all work-related e-mails and she did not. there's so much corruption and, christine, i have to say this kind of culture in this city, in washington, d.c., of misleading the american people and being actively contra digited by the fbi director is what led to the rise of donald trump and bernie sanders. it's time to drain the swamp. it's time to bring ethics back to this town and be public servants, not going into congress and personally enriching yourself. >> first of all, let's not associate bernie sanders and donald trump together. i really think that's an insult to bernie sanders, who's standing firmly with hillary clinton. i've known hillary clinton for 25 years, and i take her at her word. but let's talk about people in this race who are holding information back and trying to

cloud the american public's knowledge. that's donald trump. we learned today of another questionable legal scheme he used, one his lawyers allegedly cautioned him against using to avoid paying taxes. maybe we now know why donald trump, the only presidential candidate in history since taxes have been released who won't release his taxes because he has gone through every nook and cranny the back door in legally unadvised ways to not pay taxes and then call americans who do less than intelligent. that's a man who's corrupt. >> i understand you're referring to the front page hit job on "the new york times." that's all speculative. we don't know if this is true, but we're going to put the rumor out there. >> just like director comey. >> let me finish. my didn't interrupt you. i understand that you want to distract from the fact that according to politico, 45% think

that what your candidate did is worse than watergate. worse than watergate. voters will decide next tuesday. they're going to decide on the ethical candidate, not the corrupt one. >> they're going to choose the candidate who cares about them, not donald trump, who we've seen over and over cares about his pocketbook, period. >> ladies, thank you very much. all right. from political talk to something that we're following very, very closely because it's got literally life and death implications. this situation, we're going to get back to baltimore. that bus crash is serious. there's new information and we have it for you right after this break. today i want to show you some internet videos. tv: oh, it's gonna get crazy! this is black friday that is insane. i would never do that. at chevy, you can avoid the chaos and get great deals on the most awarded lineup.

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we are following breaking news for you. this out of baltimore. a school bus has crashed with a transit bus there. cnn affiliate wbal is reporting that police say three people have been killed in this accident. you can see the aftermath of it on your screen there. all of the emergency responders. we do not know if any children were on the school bus or which bus the victims were on, but we are working on getting more information for you. we'll bring it to you as soon as

we have it. >> just one quick thing. a lot of you commenting on these pictures we're seeing and assuming the commuter bus got the worst of it. there's something you have to remember. it's very early. we don't know about who was in each of these buses, but very often these structures are designed to crumple to absorb energy. sometimes when you see something that looks like it's okay, like that school bus, you don't know what that impact did to the people inside. we'll give you the information as we get it. donald trump, back to the election, is hoping the latest development in hillary clinton's e-mails, i guess if you're going to call it a development, we don't really know what it is yet, but he's hoping that whatever it is will help turn blue states red. will it help him get to 270? let's discuss with cnn political commentator and host of cnn's "smerconish," michael smerconish. michael, you've been very careful and repetitive in saying examine the popular vote, look at the polls, but remember this is about getting to 270. so okay, how does this -- and

what we're seeing in movements in the polls, reflect the reality of that path? >> well, my starting premise is to look at that big blue wall. all those states since 1992 in presidential elections have gone democratic. if the pattern for the last sx k cycles repeats itself, she starts out at 242. if you add florida on to the big blue wall, she gets to 271 and it's over. so you're looking at his travel schedule, and i'm looking at his travel schedule and you're saying, does this really make sense? because he appears to be traveling into relatively secure blue states. i think he needs a hail mary. i think the popular vote shows one thing, which is a narrowed gap, but when you look at those swing states and the electoral college map, it's a much more decisive edge for her. if i could say one other thing, it would be this. sam wong runs the princeton

election consortium. in the last cycle, he called 49 of 50 states in the presidential race. when i interviewed him on the radio this week, he said i know there's a lot of noise out there, but statistically speaking, it has been a dull election. chris, dull is not a word that we have used to describe this cycle. right, alisyn? >> he's talking about standard deviation within each number. >> they say it's a constant. it's been on a pretty steady trajectory. >> but michael, help us understand that. because we see the national polls fluctuate. i understand national polls at this point are not as significant as the battleground states. however, we've even seen florida fluctuate. he's been winning florida at some points. i think he may be still. so the national polls have him up -- well, a couple of them, one of them certainly -- up by a point. how can that be dull? seems like a roller coaster ride. >> because of the range. >> because so many of those folks who are decidedly for him

or decidedly for her are concentrated in particular geographic range and in particular states. when you do a national survey, you're taking everybody in without discounting the fact, well, they're all in california. not all of them, but a significant number are in california. we know california is going blue for hillary in this particular cycle. or there's a similar red state out there that's definitely going to go for donald trump. i mean, i think he still needs the long ball. that's what i'm saying. >> it's the range. i mean, you've seen that in these different areas, they perform within a certain, you know, margin of error within each other. so your trajectory has been kind of the same. but you're now in a situation where you're in a week out. david frum put it very well. you have some voters, maybe not a big slice, but you're not going to need a big slice to make a difference in this race, who are kind of waking up to the reality that they have to make a choice. so you have that effect. michael, what you hear right now first and what you may hear right before you go in the polls could make the biggest

difference. >> i agree with that just so long as we keep in mind that already 20 million-plus americans have gone to vote. that's something new to the modern era. if we were having this conversation 20 years ago, that wouldn't be the case. >> but you're expecting about 130 million, right? >> no doubt. a lot of folks still to come, and most of them on that day itself because of states like my own in pennsylvania where unless for cause, you only get one shot at it. and by the way, chris and alisyn, this is why i think that the comey situation is good for both. because i don't think any minds are being changed. i've been talking about this on the radio, taking phone calls and seeing what people think. it's energizing each of their bases, but i've yet to hear from that voter who says it has changed my mind. >> you know, michael, chris and i were just talking about this yesterday. we've never seen an election, and maybe you can weigh in on this, where there are so many so-called controversies.

one after another. i mean, the news cycle in this election is dizzying. from the billy bush tape to anthony weiner's laptop, i mean, two sort of different sex scandals, different e-mail controversies, russia connections. every day there's something. i mean, have voters just had to turn it off at some point and the things that would have disqualified somebody or wildly swayed an election are just not counting this time around? >> i think that's absolutely true, and that's why there's a week left on the clock and i'd be the last one to say it's over. i'm knnot going to say that because who knows what's to come. just a few days ago when we did have this conversation, we never could have foreseen that we would be talking about fbi director comey's letter and that which came forward on friday. i think part of it is attributable to the 24/7 cycle. everything gets covered. we don't miss a beat. but also, it's just an unusual election. >> yes, it is. you can take that to the bank

from michael smerconish. michael, thank you very much. >> see you guys. all right. iraqi forces are now at mosul's doorstep. the pentagon says the fight against isis is going as planned, but donald trump calls it a total disaster. which one is right? we take you to the front lines of the fight next.

for every day that's left in this race, here at "new day," we want to examine the candidates' different positions on issues that are important to you. today we look at terrorism. so pentagon leaders say that the campaign to retake mosul the from isis is proceeding as planned and so far, isis is losing. but donald trump disagrees. he continues to say that officials are sharing too much operational information. >> about three months ago, i started reading that they want to get the leaders. and they're going to attack, also. whatever happened to the element of surprise? okay? if you look at what's happening, much tougher than they thought. much, much tougher, much more dangerous, going to be more deaths than they thought. but the leaders that we wanted to get are all gone, because they're smart. >> okay, so --

>> so when it comes to fighting terrorism, donald trump places a very high value on secrecy, promising to bomb the hell out of isis and the oil fields the terror group controls. that's okay to say. how he's going to do it, he says, needs to be kept secret. that's a great defense to specifics, because he won't reveal any details of his plan. he once said that he had a secret plan that he came up w h with, but that seems to have faded away. >> despite saying in the past that he knows more about isis than the generals, he has said on day one of his presidency, he'll convene his top military officials and give them 30 days to submit a plan to defeat isis. >> and he says the u.s. should focus on taking down isis trarn toppling assad's regime in syria, suggesting that the u.s. government would benefit from working with russians. >> let's look at hillary clinton's positions on this. she has a different approach nationally when it comes to russia and support for assad. here's hers. >> syria will remain a hotbed of

terrorism as long as the civil war, aided and abetted by the iranians and the russians continue. i'm going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within syria, not only to help protect the syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees, but to, frankly, gain some leverage on both the syrian government and the russians. >> so you heard her there. she has a proposal for a no-fly zone, which stands actually in contrast to the obama administration, and beyond that. she has a three-point strategy for defeating isis. she says, that reflects her current policy. >> and people may be surprised that trump always talks about being strong, but really, clinton is by disposition more hawkish than he. her plan involves crushing isis on its home turf, by intensifying air strikes, disrupting the terror network on the ground, and online, and hardening the u.s. state's defenses at home. >> clinton has also said that putting any troops on the ground in syria is, quote, off the table. trump said in march that he would deploy up to 30,000

americans to fight isis if necessary. so now, let's get to the current battle in the war on isis. iraqi forces are reaching the outskirts of mosul. the country's prime minister promising to, quote, chop the head off the snake of isis. cnn's senior international correspondent, arwa damon is live near mosul with the facts from the front lines. >> reporter: and just take a look at the weather. before, you could see a few streets down on the horizon behind us. now there is a sand storm that is sweeping in. and this is what the battlefield looks like. this is what on the ground, the war against isis looks like. what is behind us is a town that is less than a mile away from the outskirts of mosul. and we are with the country's u.s.-trained elite counterterrorism unit. throughout the course of the day, there have been sporadic clashes, artillery exchanges of fire, rockets, and the ongoing buzz overhead of fighter jets.

what isis does tend to do is circle around and send small pockets of its fighters to try to then counter attacks. this has also been happening throughout the day. and the visibility now, of course, the impairment of it is going to add an extra layer of challenge and difficulty, because already, it was difficult to see, because isis has been burning these oil lines around the outskirts of mosul, because of the ongoing air strikes. the challenge they're facing here, that is only going to be amplified once day get to the city of mosul is the civilian population. that makes the calling air strikes and all that more difficult. >> that is scary, especially with that added problem of visibility. arwa, please stay safe and thank you for the reporting. so for weeks, donald trump has been saying the situation in mosul is, quote, a total disaster. how does he know that? we're not really sure. but many military experts disagree, including our next

guest. joining us is the former dean of the army war college, retired colonel, jeffrey mccauseland. good to see you, sir. thank you for being with us. i was watching your face when we were going through the competing points from these two candidates about what to do and the summation of donald trump, that what's going on in mosul is a total disaster. you winced. why? >> well, first of all, because i watched arwa damon, that sand storm, and having sat through sand storms in iraq, it is just virtually impossible to do anything. but back to the point of the matter, about mosul, so far, at least, by all reports i've seen, the advance on mosul is progressing fairly well, fairly as expected. having said that, i think it's important, chris, to emphasize, military success in mosul is one thing, but what really has to happen is political success. and that is up to the iraqi government to establish governance in the aftermath. so we'll wait to see about that. but so far, at least, it does seem to be progressing well. and this whole notion that mr. trump has advocated, that we could achieve strategic surprise, as i've said a couple

of times, is just not possible, nor is it necessarily the proper way to go in terms of military strategy. >> when he criticized for his understanding of the military, he says, i have a hundred or more former commanders and generals and people who are fighting today who back me. does that give confidence to his position? >> somewhat, i guess, it does. but at the same time, it's been worrisome for a guy like me who's been working in this area for the last 45 years, that back in august, we've seen 80 people that i've nope for years, really the brain trust of the republican party and national security affairs, people like michael chertoff, tom ridge, brent scowcroft, eliot cronan, all repudiate trump and say he is, in fact, not qualified to be president of the united states. >> surprise. he's talked about patton and mcarthur, rolling in their graves because we just say everything that we're going to do before we do it. you disagree? >> i totally disagree. because there's a political imperative around the attack on mosul, as well as a military imperative. you know, there's an old

strategist, widely quoted, war is politics by other means. so for the iraqi government, there was a political imperative from the very onset to say, we're going to liberty the second largest city in our country, now occupied by isis for two years. and say that repeatedly. and oh, by the way, 99.9% of the forces involved are iraqi. back to the historical metaphor. by the spring of 1944, the germans knew we were going to invade france. it didn't take a genius. and they were, in fact, preparing beach defenses correspondingly. in the pacific, in the spring of 1945, the japanese clearly understood we were going to go after oak nkinawa and iwo jima fortified those spaces. and we have may have up to a million civilians in that city. so we reassure them they are going to be libertied. give them some guidance on what they can do to protect themselves and their families.

it's imperative back to that political solution that we limit collateral damage to the maximum extent possible. it's really sad, chris, we have a very macabre comparison possible here. we don't want mosul to look like aleppo. >> right. right. and you know what, people still don't know what aleppo looks like. and one of the things that's going to happen immediately after this election, you'll see us getting over there and showing what life looks like on the ground, and how much harder the day after the military war ends than what's even going on right now. lastly, oil. trump said, i've been saying we should have taken the oil and that would have cut off isis' money small and i would have sent in a small little group, not a big deal, and all the oil would have been ours. you disagree on several fronts. why? >> totally agredisagree. first of all, that is illegal under international law. and i would say the vast majority of international officers would have denied those orders. >> he used to say, the winner got the spoil.

>> it used to be, back in feudal times, but in modern times with the advent of international law, that is no longer the case. but putting that aside and the possibility for a crisis of civil military relations, how many soldiers would it take to secure the iraqi oil fields? does anyone really imagine that the iraqi population of 26 million people are going to stand idly by while their country is being looted of the only major resource they have? and even if you can secure those oil fields, notwithstanding how many casualties you're going to take, how many additional troops is it going to take to secure the oil pipelines, so you can get that oil to some place that's going to be exported. we had an unbelievably difficult time doing that in support of the iraqis while we were there, as we were trying to get that oil out in terms of recovering the iraqi economy. >> colonel mccausland, thank you very much for your service, to the show. appreciate it. there is a lot of news going on. two buses just crashed in baltimore. we have the latest t.

let's get to it. a lot of you may be asking what this new e-mail story is about. >> thank you, huma. thank you anthony weiner. >> there is no case! >> these are not the hallmarks of a responsible investigation. >> i have to give the fbi credit. it took a lot of guts. >> one u.s. senator's shocking comments caught on tape. >> i'm a little bit shocked. >> this is one of those make or break moments. >> to all americans i say, it is time for real leadership. >> it truly is in your hands. >> this is "new day," with chris cuomo and allison camarata. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day." up first, a blatant double standard. that's what the clinton campaign calls the fbi's surprise announcement of that probe into huma abedin's e-mails. clinton says, quote, there's no case here, while the fbi director is digging in on his decision. >> and what a difference a day makes. yesterday was all about the e-mails.

now, donald trump's campaign has got problems. new problems. okay, he didn't pay his taxes, but how did he get around paying his taxes? "the new york times" says maybe he did it in a way that was cheating new reports. there are also these multiple uncorroborated reports about his campaign's potential links to russia and what the fbi may know about that, but not saying. we're only a week away from the election. we have it all covered. let's begin with cnn justice correspondent, evan perez. evan? >> good morning, chris. the big question today remains, will the fbi be able to provide more information about what it's finding so far in this investigation, of huma abedin's recently discovered e-mails. fbi director james comey has told officials that at this point, he doesn't plan to provide partial updates, and that it's unlikely that his investigators can complete their work before election day. a team of investigators has begun its work to dig through