halloween politics, let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews. in washington, fallout from fbi director james comey's bombshell announcement reverberated on the campaign trail today. on friday, comey told congress that fbi learned of new e-mails that appear to be pertinent, appear to be pertinent to the investigation into clinton's use of a private server. today, donald trump praised comey for his guts. hillary clinton called the decision to go public this close to an election pretty strange. nbc news reports that since sunday night fbi officials have been going through the e-mails, which belonged to a top clinton aide, huma abedin. the e-mails were found on a computer belonging to her

estranged husband, anthony weiner. eric holder and alberto gonzalez criticized comey, and holder wrote i'm deeply concerned about fbi director's e-mails potentially connected with political interest. that was incorrect it. violated long-standing department policies and tradition, and it encountered a guidance i put in place four years ago laying out the proper way to conduct investigations during election season closed quote. gonzalez had this to say today. >> i didn't understand it. i didn't understand what he was saying, what he was trying to say. i didn't understand the purpose of the letter. to me, it was very inconsistent with the protocols that presently exist at the department of justice. >> you typically do not comment on investigations, on ongoing investigations and that protocol was breached this past summer when director comey gave that

press conference talking about the investigation. >> i really worry in this particular instance, the fbi director has made -- has made an error in judgment in terms of releasing this kind of letter which really says nothing. >> also today, nbc news reported the fbi has been conducting a preliminary inquiry into paul manafort. of course donald trump's former campaign manager. for his business ties overseas. it's called an inquiry, not a full-blown criminal investigation. manafort said he never had dealings with putin 'government and said he was not aware of the matter. and tim kaine knocked comey over a cnbc report, that fbi director didn't want to name russia as meddling into an election, according to a former reporter. it would have been interfering in an election and might violate justice guidelines. pete williams joins us. what a day, too much news but

you're the guy. does the report that came out friday evidence any indication that hillary clinton is guilty of anything besides what everybody else may have thought generally before? any evidence of criminal misbehavior by her because of this report? >> reporter: no and it couldn't have because at the time the director wrote the letter, the fbi had not analyzed the e-mails on the laptop belonging to wiener because they didn't have the legal authority look at them in detail. now they got that on sunday night and for the last 24 hours or so, they have been going through these e-mails, but we don't know what the results of that are yet. they had hoped, chris, they could perhaps say something in the next day or so. there was some optimism about that sunday and this morning but that's fading a little bit, but no one is for sure how long it's going to take. we just don't know they have found anything new in this

collection of e-mails, and that's the critical question. >> since the process is now public, that they're looking through the 650,000 e-mails to try to isolate those that would have been sent during her term as secretary of state. >> right. >> i assume there would be a way of quickly getting down to the subset of those important documents. since that's the doable job, it's a task at hand, could we have by the end of the week a progress report that says so far we've found nothing troubling or nothing criminal or something like that, that contains the possible consequences of this report last friday? >> yes, i think the answer to that is yes if ty're done. that's the question. and that's the -- that's the fbi's goal, is to do what i just said, to say what they can say. the justice department fully concurs. they sent a letter today to members of congress who had written to comey and to the attorney general on friday, and they said now they're committed to moving as expeditiously as possible.

the last big news window before the election. >> i know you're going to be leaning over their shoulders like a helicopter mom. >> let's watch donald trump since friday talking about the news. >> the fib would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense. hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding criminal conduct from public disclosure and exposure. we all know about her legal mounting troubles that she's brought on to herself with her willful, and deliberate criminal misconduct. this is the biggest scandal since watergate. hillary is the one who broke the law over, and over, and over again.

we can be sure that is what is in those e-mails is absolutely devastating. >> let's bring in kellyanne conway, thank you so much, i've known you forever. >> hi, chris. >> does donald trump know anything beyond from what he heard from the director of the fbi? does he have any independent information about the criminality, if there is such criminality by the former secretary of state? >> no, we do not, but i was completely confounded hillary clinton today at a rally said why in the world would the fbi do this investigation, interfere with the election if they have no evidence and she knows that's a misstatement. i know she and her staff are very fond of the fifth amendment, but they also to refresh on the fourth amendment. you know you can't get a search on anything without any evidence. >> what is it? >> we don't know. the fbi knows. >> how would i know? >> chris, you cannot get a search warrant under the fourth amendment, that justifies you to

get a search warrant. if the clinton people really want to know, then and comey to reveal the moving affidavit or reveal the search warrant. >> but the investigation of hillary clinton's possible misuse of or mishandling of information is an ongoing investigation. isn't that investigation got authority to continue and to get the necessary warrants to compete it? why would it have to show criminal information since the investigation has never really been called off, it's continuing, why would it need evidence of criminality to continue? that's what i don't get. it's an ongoing investigation. why would it require evidence or proximate cause of criminality at this point to proceed? >> to retrieve somebody's lap to be, who failed -- who actually violated the law and failed to turn it over. >> they have the laptop, they've been investigating with regard to the alleged sexting by the former congressman.

>> alleged, we've all seen the pictures. >> additional warrant. i don't think that requires evidence or proximate cause of criminality because it's an ongoing investigation. do you have a response that? >> my point's good, too you wouldn't under the fourth amendment be able to get these search warrants without further evidence. i read the same reports you read and the reports i read over the weekend claimed that when perhaps fbi agents started reading through these e-mails, closed them up and said there's something there, because they're investigating anthony weiner's pedophilia. to the electorate, it doesn't matter and you know it. those undecided voters are decided about one big thing. they don't want to vote for hillary clinton. if they did they would take the person they've known for decades and they said i think your experience is the right kind of experience and i represent the right kind of change. i can look past your serial lying of many decades and you know darn well they're reluctant to vote for her. it's going to hurt her in the

polls. we were 12 points last week, the state wide polls are tightening. we're going to win pennsylvania. >> if you do you may win the election. let me ask you about the egregious -- he's not just saying some evidence to justify investigation or proximate cause, he's accusing her of egregious criminal behavior. the charges are -- he said it's worse than watergate. it sounds like it's impeachable already. what evidence does he have she's committed crimes that are impeachable? >> he didn't say she was impeachable? >> he said it's worse than watergate. >> so, it is. perhaps it is. we don't know that yet, but we know -- >> he does. he says it is. >> he's not under investigation let alone two of them by the fbi in the same year so let's keep our eye on the ball here. who the heck is under fbi investigation -- >> the charges are not incredible at this point. >> your we having this

conversation in the first place, chris? >> because the fbi said it's continuing an investigation, yes, go ahead. >> no, this is her fault. she -- she set up a home brewed private server she was not allowed to have. she was lying from the beginning about it. she did it to hide e-mails. she bleach bitted 33,000 e-mails to hope they would be permanently deleted. 17,000 others never got turned over. i mean come on. this woman lies about lying and now we have another investigation to see if her lying about laying perhaps is on somebody else's laptop in an unrelated investigation because her closest advisor, the woman she calls surrogate daughter for god sake is sexting pictures to a 15-year-old north carolina girl. >> how you can blame the two women for the behavior of the men in this case -- or the man? >> chris, i didn't blame them. hold on and you know it. i didn't blame them for their behavior of the husbands.

you're saying it's because of donald trump. i'm telling you donald trump didn't text pictures of himself, didn't set up a private server as secretary of state. he didn't break with protocol. he didn't use the state department as a conscierge. >> you're doing a great job kellyanne. let me and you about paul manafort. nbc news is reporting tonight that fbi has become what they call a preliminary inquiry, not a full-scale investigation of paul manafort's relations. what's your thoughts? is that reason he left the campaign? how's that for a question? >> mr. manafort served ties in august and i saw that same nbc news report you're speaking of and i saw paul manafort quoted and he said there's no investigation and he thinks it's a complete distraction. >> okay. thank you. kellyanne, you're always welcome on this show. your candidate is especially welcome. we'll talk later on the phone. >> you got it. >> thank you, kellyanne conway. >> thank you. >> campaign manager for donald trump. any way, hillary clinton seemed

to question the motives of james comey today. she's getting very tough on the fbi director. let's watch. >> 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. >> let's go to democratic supporter in mors and supporter of hillary clinton. you know the law and how these prosecutions work. what did you think of the announcement on friday, senate? >> technically i wasn't the attorney general, i was the elected prosecutor in kansas city and an assistant prosecutor for a number of years, spent a lot of time prosecuting cases in the courtroom, and here's what i was taught as a prosecutor, the facts are your friend when you're seeking justice, and until you know the facts, keep your mouth shut. and what happened here is comey opened his mouth when he didn't know what the facts were. it is clear they have no idea

what these e-mails are, but yet breaking every protocol and precedent, and when you have chuck grassley, republican chairman of the judiciary committee writing a letter saying you're not being fire secretary clinton that is verbiage out of chuck grassley's letter that gives you sense of the outrage. >> we're shooting in the dark because the fbi announced they're look ago the reporting has said that, and the question is whether they had metadata, did they know where these e-mails were coming from, were they coming from the former secretary of state, to huma abedin, and found their way to anthony weiner's laptop. if they all happened isn't that evidence they should be looking at? shouldn't they be looking at that evidence? >> it's fine they're looking at the evidence. >> okay they just reporting that's what they're doing. >> but he should not be telling anyone about an investigation

and process 11 days from the election. >> they needed a warrant apparently. >> it doesn't matter. they didn't need a warrant and they did get a warrant because they probably could have worked out a way to get permission, although it was a little tricky because it was on weiner's computer. point is when he wrote the letter he had no facts, and he's got the resources to tell us what's in those e-mails. he's got over 13,000 fbi agents and a budgets of over -- almost $9 billion. >> okay. what do you want to do now? you can't have him stop what he did friday. do you want him to report by the end of the week or the next 24, 48 hours? >> absolutely. >> if there's no evidence of criminality, say so? >> absolutely. all hands on deck. all hands on deck because i think -- when you look at the -- the breadth and depth of the investigation they conducted, dozens, and dozens, and dozens of fbi agents and comey tuesday

wasn't close in terms thereof being any criminal conduct and all of the people who investigated the crime agreed there was no criminal conduct. that took a year and they looked at a lot more e-mails that are supposedly relevant on this computer. >> senator i have great respect for you. i have for a long time. do you think of the enemy of your party? is it the republican party led by jason chaffetz in the house? is it the rnc? statute candidate trump or is it the institutional of the fbi? it's the fbi as i said on friday night, it's not the peace corps. they have an attitude about who they think are bad guys. so my question is what is driving the fbi director? why did comey do that, according to your thinking? >> i think he probably tried too hard to do more than what the fbi ever does. in the summer when he -- you

know, did the press conference to somehow appease the people, because the facts dn't support criminal charge so he wanted to make them feel better and once he started going down that road he had a hard time figuring out how to stop going down that road so i think this is his error in judgment. it is his mistake, but let me be very clear about who the problem is here, the problem is a man running for president that we don't want our children to want to be a role model. >> okay. >> it's a man running for president who brags about grabbing women's genitals and calls women dogs and has stiffed contractors, lied in lawsuits, committed fraud, and by the way, has never laid out a real plan to make things better for americans families. >> i have heard the critique and i sometimes share it. if he's that bad, how could he former beat the secretary of state next tuesday?

how could he win? how could he possibly beat her? >> i don't believe he can. but hillary clinton has a problem and she wears the scars of decades of public service, and those scars were delivered by a republican attack machine. >> okay. >> that has chain saws for hands, and time, after time, they have come after her and i think the american people need to take a deep breath and look and see what a fighter she is. it doesn't matter -- >> okay. >> -- if the fbi has done something outrageous or there's another accusation that is without merit, she will for americans families and she'll win and be a great president next tuesday. up next the deep red state where donald trump may have reason to worry, and later my election diary for this halloween night. now just a week before election day. and this is "hardball," the place for politics.

we've got a tight race in the deep red state of utah and for that we check the "hardball" scoreboard. take a look at the new poll from the salt lake tribune, 32% for trump, and mcmullin, 30%, and clinton is at 24%. a win for mcmullin win in utah, makes 270 a bit narrower. we'll be right back.

election diary monday, october 31st, 2016. it's halloween, the goblins are out and every house is getting toilet papered. sorry, i was describing the presidential campaign in its last dying week. i just checked and offered to you the unfavorable numbers from the presidential candidates, trump, 59%, unfavorable, and hillary clinton, 59%, unfavorable.

this is the score you get that's been composed largely of the nasty. for trump, lyin' ted has given way to crooked hillary. just keep seeing it to every voter, every day of the year. and as it has in one wars one tactic have been copied by the other. hillary clinton is in the stretch of a stop-trump campaign and this is not to say both candidates would be equally bad that. would be absurd. trump has been nothing more than a personal assault on his rival. the tragedy in this eight days before the election is people have so little reason to feel good about what's happening in this, the greatest represent of democracy in human history and that's us and happy halloween. that's "hardball." thank you for being with us. join us tomorrow night at 7:00 eastern see you then. wildlife rescue workers

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"all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. happy halloween. new revelations about the role of political considerations in the fbi. the fbi has been conducting a preliminary inquiry, not yet a full-blown investigation, into former campaign manager paul manafort's foreign ties. also today, a report from cnbc sourced to a former fbi official