witt. "morning joe" starts right now. 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 light of the kind of opposition he had where they are 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. i will tell you what, what he did he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. he's got to hang tough because there's a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing and what he did was the right thing. i'm sure a lot of you may be asking what this new e-mail story is about and why in the world the fbi would decide to jump into an election with no evidence of any wrong doing with just days to go. that's a good question.

i am not making excuses. i said it was a mistake and i regret it, and now they apparently want to look at e-mails from one of my staffers, and by all means they should look at them x i am sure they will reach the same conclusion they did when they looked at my e-mails for the last year. there is no case here. good morning. it's tuesday, november 1st. welcome to "morning joe." >> how are you doing today? >> i'm okay. >> i was just talking to willie and the kids are getting crazy out there. >> did you have halloween? i didn't have any trick-or-treaters. >> george was ghostbuster and lucy was lebron james, and she had a tat sleeve. >> there was three knocks at my

george. >> my daughter was olivia, and my son was an astronaut. >> kate is 13 so she's pushing the envelope, and then you know the poster, the world war ii, the yes we can, yeah, we went as that. >> cute. that's great. >> jack went as sort of like a cam c camouflaged -- it's like weeds, he could roll up in a ball and -- >> when the snipers go out. >> i had seen that in "call of duty," but never in real life. >> you were sort of something? >> i asked where that came from -- >> yeah, i was john travolta

yesterday from "pulp fiction." i feel good about it. >> you should feel really good about that. >> you were good. >> thank you. >> somebody has to take the credit. >> the kids, though, outside of halloween going crazy. you put up polls there, and u go, nice, nice spend, and i was listening to "wings over america," trying to get away from it all while i was working, and i heard this mccartney song, always loved it and dedicated it to his dad, and i tweet it, and everybody is saying, how dare you, what are you trying to say?

the trump people are, you are throwing trade at trump -- >> no, i like "wings over america. >> a week from election day, and it's peak fever time. people are really feeling like -- >> maybe my neighbors are all republicans. >> what would be wrong with that? >> nobody came -- >> i was standing there with a big basket of candy, i must have spend $90 on candy. >> so many organized things for halloween, and no longer -- >> i have to say, we were over in row eight and that is usually packed, packed, and there were not a lot of kids out there last night. i don't know why. >> in milwaukee, managing

editor, mark hal treuperin is w us. >> i went even as sidney phaupb freed or cole. >> the democrats are killing, and hillary clinton -- >> yeah, they are demonizing. >> and mark, they have to destroy -- absolutely destroy comey this last week and reduce him to a pile of ashes. >> that seems a little hypocritical. >> but that is the strategy, and robby said it basically and in other swing states to spend the last ten days attacking comey and not donald trump? >> well, she's also attacking donald trump. i think this is right out of the clinton playbook from bill

clinton and the way he used to do politics. you talk to consultants in both parties, should she be at a war with the fbi and comey? i think they decided this was going to be the headline and nothing else was going to be in the news and they need to get the headline putting comey on the defense or it would all be about hillary clinton and the wikileaks, and they are preaching to a sympathetic media. >> yeah, house clean something behind you to clean it up,a. >> we have new polls, it's a weekly nbc tracking poll that shows the numbers have not moved an inch, at least in this one poll. what do you think the impact is of this one story? >> well, there's two ways to measure the impact. one is what is in the discussion and dialogue, and it has had a

huge impact there, and this is the story still right now, and there's trump stories we will get to. in looking at polling data, i don't see any big national impact. if you go state by state, there's some tightening in some states but that was already happening, so this is not right now a cataclysmic event affecting the race? >> i have not seen any shows that suggest a tightening because of this. it may take three or four, five days, and maybe midweek and people said that when it came out, we might not see it through midweek but the only poll tightening was already tighting, the abc poll went from 12 to 4, 2 -- >> all eyes are on the fbi as the country waits for more

developments in looking at hillary clinton's server. the justice department promised it would work close with the fbi and take appropriate steps as swiftly as possible. an automated process will narrow down the once that were nate clinton and then searching for e-mails that were not previously seen by investigators for classified information, but there are still complaints about director comey revealing these developments. >> the president believes director comey is a man of integrity and a man of principle and good character. these are tough questions, and so it's a good thing that he is

a man of integrity and character to take them on. the president doesn't believe that director comey is intentionally looking to benefit one candidate or one political party. he's in a tough spot. 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 and administrations are led by presidents in both parties. >> okay, wow. that was about as ringing an endorsement of james comey as barack obama could give. >> i think that's bad news? >> what do you mean?

>> it seems like the strategy is to demonize him, or calling him out for making an appropriate decision, and it's hard to do when everybody is on record before this, everybody, saying what a great decision he made, and how up standing and what great integrity he has and he already made the decision, and he called her irresponsible for the e-mails but no prosecutor would go after this case and everybody is changing their tune except for president obama. herald? >> just because they think you have good character on tuesday and thursday, and then thursday and friday they do something -- >> i think -- >> he just made a big mistake. >> how would eric holder know because he is not sitting in

comey's seat right now? >> mika is making a different show. i sat on the show and said there were people for years that believed this man has this, and i still think he's a man of integrity and i think he made a mistake? >> how do you know? you have not seen anything. >> just because somebody does somebody right monday or tuesday doesn't mean they can't make a mistake on thursday and thursday. >> he has such a good record of making good decisions, and you have no idea why he made this decision. >> none of us do. >> and who criticized james comey has come out to be critical -- >> don't make me do this. >> what do you mean? >> do what? >> don't make me fight you on this because you are deflecting. >> i am not fighting with you, but i am only laying out a

perspective that enhances you. >> do you still think he is a man of great integrity and -- >> yeah, i think he made a mistake. >> when robby goes on a conference call and they tear him to shreds, and the president comes out and says he's not trying to affect the election and he's a man of character and that is not music to their ears. at the same time the republicans are being critical of comey of this decision. a lot of republicans. >> yeah, grassly sent a letter detailing why it was the wrong thing to do. and donald trump was saying that james comey was part of a rigged conspiracy with loretta lynch to fix the election by not suggesting the prosecution of hillary clinton, so there's terrible hypocrisy on both sides. this election has brought out

the worst in a lot of people. >> how does the clinton campaign work around -- the thing about the irony of it all, the freedom caucus coming out being critical -- >> jim jordan. >> and you have the white house saying we don't think he's trying to influence the election and we think he is a man of great integrity. >> so much going on in the decisi decision comey made, nobody has questioned his character but his judgment. >> that's what i have done as well. >> and the aspect, what is spelling in the sense they are going to continue on past this week is clearly director comey said what he said and issued the letter that he issued because he was fearful of losing further control of the fbi apparatus beneath him. >> you started talk about this yesterday and then we saw it in

the wall street journal story, he had a rebellion underneath and people thinking they were whitewashing the clinton foundation store gee ay and thi, right? >> they had the new york office and little rock office and agents felt they had compelling evidence to proceed further in the investigation of the clinton e-mails, and there was a sense among the agents in the field offices that the brakes were being put on prematurely out of washington. >> by the justice department? >> yes. >> and do you think it's possible the white house felt a need to be more aggressive in support of comey because of the wall street journal article that strongly suggested that barack obama's justice department was killing the clinton foundation

story? >> i don't know the answer to that question, joe. i do know there's a feeling within justice they have an attorney general out of the loop on this because of the plane meeting with loretta. >> law roretta lynch's, hanging and chatting with bill clinton before she is making a decision -- >> who knew half an hour on a tarmac in arizona would have such an impact. and comey did not want them to sign on to the letter of homeland security that suggested that russia was meddling into the hacking, and he said we

should not be signing on to the letter because we should not be part of something that would influence the out come of the election. >> we can talk about that one. that was single sourced. i saw a lot of people talking about this, including, i think -- including somebody that runs the show in primetime here, that is single sourced by an x o -- ex-official. >> there's not two sources on this as least in that story. >> that has to be part of director comey's reason for issuing the letter because he knew somebody like barrett who we had on yesterday was completely sourced in the story and he didn't want to see a story on the front of the wall street journal and would see the leaked version.

>> do you think it is safe to say if comey had not written that short bland letter, is it not safe to say that the wall street journal would have had that story exsphroet midweek or thursday or friday before the election, that there was a cover up and it was rigged. let me ask it could you this way and i want people to think about this, what are the odds if comey had not written that letter the "wall street journal" would not have run that story by midweek? >> that story was going to run. mark halperin, do you agree with me? that baby was going? >> and if it ran, it would run, mark, then with the bow on top of the justice department and fbi were covering up an

investigation into 650,000 e-mails? >> i am purely speculating here. i am not so sure they would have run it. that story was super well reported and it clearly had been in the works for a while. my suspicion, just pure speculation, is that they were not going to run it before the election and they did because of the comey letter. that thing was not turned around from friday to monday. >> can i ask you a question, joe, i happen to agree with mark, but none of us know, and the question i have, what is more important, mr. comey's representation, and he could defend that by saying we are looking at this or democracy, our presidential election and tilting the outcome, and i happen to think the latter, and a strong and compelling argument can be easily made, and if a single source story is correct it races more questions than just mr. comey's judgment, and

it would raise questions about his character if you can triple source the russian government, and mr. comey saying he did not want -- >> what is your question? >> who is more important, somebody's reputation, or the democracy? >> my job is my job. i can't -- i am not the insurer of american democracy and i am not the insurer of the constitution all by myself, and i am the insurer of my integrity reputation, and my agencies representation, and that's the decision i make. apparently comey -- >> but he has hurt the fbi? >> that's what you say, and i'm sure that comey would suggest, and i don't know because i have been very critical of comey myself and i think the news conference he ran after not

indicting her was outrageous, and you either indict or don't indict and if you don't indict you shut up. so i have been very critical of comey, but we don't know. i personally think the fbi's representation, the justice department's reputation and the reputation of the obama administration would be far more damaged if this had been held back and released a week after the election, because i suspect, i just suspect none of us know anything, and the difference between people on twitter and reporters and me, and i will tell you what we just said, because you are like me, we don't know. the lawyer holding the files knows. the one thing i suspect, there may be relevant information in here and if that had been held until after the election, there's nobody here and nobody watching on tv that can speculate accurately as to what would cause the fbi more damage. >> i think there is likely there

has been information here from everything you know about comey's record and everything that has been said about him, and everybody looks at this as some attack on hillary clinton and they are setting it up as an attack on hillary clinton, and it all starts with the server. the fbi's integrity is in jeopardy, and the justice department's integrity is in jeopardy, and her campaign is in jeopardy. >> i can say something, he came back and said they believe, they want time to go and investigate this. >> because it was not supposed to be a private server. >> but he cleared her of that, and if you want to go back and retread that, that's fine. >> they found new information. >> mr. comey has already said after investigating this, her

server, there was no prosecutor that would move forward. >> now he has found something. >> let me finish my point, and he said we found new e-mails and we think it has been investigated and we don't know what is there. >> he said may be pertinent to the investigation. >> which you and i both know means may not be pertinent to the investigation. >> herald, i understand -- calm down. nobody is fighting you. we're on the same page. >> you know better than what you are saying, and that's fine. >> no, herald, you were on here as -- you are acting like a campaign operative, and we are trying to get to the bottom of this. >> likewise. >> we are not putting horns on jim comey, and we just want the fact. >> neither am i. >> the most compelling aspect of the story to me, and this is just to me personally is how the public reacted to it, and they

are so locked into both candidates this story has not moved the needle beyond these tv studios. >> right. >> has not moved the needle because people accepted the disturbing aspects of both candidates's characters and personalities and campaigns and they are rolling with it. >> it's baked in the cake. >> if you look to mike's point, it's almost purely a partisan issue. 85% of -- excuse me, 93% of republicans think it's a big story and only 17% of democrats, and it's a flipped issue. >> if this is a one-point race, than this matters because republicans come home and it changes swing states, but it's not a one-point race now unless you believe abc news, and everybody else has it four, five, six, seven eight. if it's a one-point race it matters, and it's not a

one-point race. >> do you believe 68% of independents think it is something and is that something that should worry either side here? >> if it's a one-point race. doesn't feel like a one-point race. >> the eternals in the clinton campaign ten days ago had a four to 7% margin and today it's between 2 and 4. >> i heard from the clinton and trump people that they saw it moving it one to three points. that's the margin of error. still ahead on "morning joe," senator claire mccaskill joins the conversation. republican haley barbour, and ed rendell, and bill weld join us, and howard dean who says fbi director james comey is putting himself on the same side as vladimir putin. >> he's also going to talk about

cocaine. 6 company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

prge! a manufacturer. well that's why i dug this out for you. it's your grandpappy's hammer and he would have wanted you to have it. it meant a lot to him... yes, ge makes powerful machines. but i'll be writing the code that will allow those machines to share information with each other. i'll be changing the way the world works. (interrupting) you can't pick it up, can you? go ahead. he can't lift the hammer. it's okay though! you're going to change the world. intercom: the library [ kis now closing.] ok kid, closing up. goodnight. the hardest part about homework shouldn't be figuring out where to do it. through internet essentials, comcast has connected over 3 million people in need to low-cost internet at home. welcome to a brighter future. comcast.

what i do know is this, that there was an extensive, as you know, brett, investigation of the fbi under the direction of the wonderful and tough career public servant, and somebody with the highest standards of integrity. >> i think director comey could not have been so exhaustive. >> this is a great man. we are very privileged in our country to have him be the director of the fbi. >> nobody can question the integrity, the competence. >> i don't know if your family is here, but i hope they are as proud of you as i am. >> i love that part, willie.

i hope -- they are -- i can't even say it. >> that kind of love is unconditional, no matter what happens. >> it's a love that a mother has for a child. that's a love that endureth for every. that is actually more moving than when redford and streisand saw each other at the end. and harry reid, oh, my god. >> i didn't know you had such deep feelings, harry. >> you know, it's locked in. >> they simply choose to forget. >> yeah, i know. >> we were talking about a lot of things and offset you said something fascinating. you went down to north carolina, and you were talking about hillary clinton's on the ground

operation. >> it's unbelievable. >> reminded me, a friend of mine who never voted democratic in her life, who has privately said she is not going to vote for donald trump, told nobody because she would be embarrassed with all of her republican friends in her republican neighborhood has had the clinton people knocking on her door every day for the past week, asking her -- she's, like, going, how do they know? it's pretty unbelievable their operation. >> i have a antidotal to ask, do you think her vote will change in light of the comey stuff? >> it doesn't appear. >> interesting. >> she can't stand hillary clinton, and she can't believe she's going to vote for hillary clinton, but she's not going to vote for donald trump. again, the story, though, that

is so unbelievable is the clinton people know -- >> well, this is actually -- >> -- her vote when her own family doesn't. >> when i got to the dnc in 2008, the republicans had created this segmentation platform, so they know what magazines they reads and where she shops and she knows all this stuff and now both parties have an enormous database, and what you do, let's assume she has not told anybody which i think is reasonable and they have a great profile of her, not that she is college educated and all this business, but this is what both parties have and this is enormous data banks, and they could segment it down to five houses they should knock on. >> this person is unlikely to vote for donald trump, go knock on their door.

>> yeah. >> in the year 2011, everything changed when a group of people from silicon valley were putting together the kind of -- >> that was done by the republicans before i got to the dnc, and they did it in the 2004 race. >> whatever they did was certainly enhanced. >> the obama people made it into an art form. >> in 2004, it changed everything, and for the first time they started to look at magazine subscriptions and started looking at what they ate and they broke it down to nine-digit zip codes. it was an extraordinary microtargeted and that's why john kerry lost the race, and the obama people took what he revolutionized in 2004. >> in my own interest, there was a step left out there. when i got to the dnc, i hired

all the kids that worked in my campaign and created all that internet and put them in the dnc, and they built that and then obama hired them in 2006. >> there you go. we left out the most important step. >> for people listening and saying howard is patting himself on the back, and yes, he is, and the day you took over the dnc, you were talking about we will no longer give up over half of america and we are going to fight in all 50 states. >> we have a ways to go before we do that. >> but it did lead to some democrats. >> i take the credit to all the 23-year-olds that created all this in my campaign, and obama applied organization and discipline, that i somewhat lack. >> did you have a love affair with comey before you didn't, too? >> i never said anything bad

about comey -- >> you have said anything good about him in the past couple of weeks? >> james comey got on my radar when he did not want to sign something. >> it speaks to his character. >> he got word that some of cheney's people would get ashcroft to sign off on a torture thing or something like that and he was in a hospital bedpost operation, and comey t literally, and ran and got in a cap before the vice president's people and stopped them from getting his signature, and that was comey that did it, and i don't believe you can say he is partisan, and i think you can discuss his judgment which you already did for 20 minutes. >> how can you when nobody knows what he has seen? how can anybody say anything

about his judgment when they have no idea -- >> i have an answer to that question. the problem is that he didn't know what he had seen either, and that's a big problem. >> what do you mean by that? >> he himself self we are going to look at these, and we don't know what is in there. >> he may not have seen it but his agents saw enough. what i am saying is, a judge is not going to let you go into a fishing expedition into a third party's laptop without having information. >> he's not a judge. >> i know, and i am talking about the judge that allowed the search. so i am saying comey may not have known and his agents, though, the new york agents, they know, the judge got the information to allow the search to go on. this is not as blind as a lot of people on the internet over the

weekends would have us believe. >> i don't think it's blind. i think he just made an error in judgment. >> but how do you know? you don't know. >> my point exactly. this is the fifth day we have been talking about it. there is justice department rules about not doing this right before the election, and they have a pattern of rules that say you do not go into any election and indict somebody or create a press storm. >> like walsh did in 1972. >> i think he got out ahead -- >> i think the problem is, and people can say well we have this precedent, but the problem is and mika brought this up yesterday, there is no precedent for a major party nominating somebody under fbi

investigation, and a lot of republicans and a lot of press get it wrong on friday saying they have re-opened the investigation, and they didn't re-open the investigation, the investigation with the fbi, it remains open. if you get more information, it comes in, so there is no precedent to this unless you go back to '92 with lawrence walsh, and then again there is no precedent for a major party under fbi investigation. >> she was never under investigation. what was under investigation is what was on her laptop and who put it there. >> i will not get engaged in a game of semantics. if that helps you two sleep, yes, she is not under investigation. is that better? >> governor, pretend for a moment you were not supporting

hillary clinton, would you be concerned about a potential president with this cloud over his or her head? >> i know a lot about this, and i don't know anymore than anybody else, but, no i would not. i never thought it was a big deal, and i just disagreed with a lot of the stuff people have said. >> you never thought it was a big deal and hillary clinton's own people thought it was a horrific deal. and some of her top aides said whoever set this up, and -- >> did anybody understand the extend of this. >> do you think clinton's campaign people were wrong for thinking it was a big deal? >> i know how one could slide into this, and i obviously don't know what was going on there, but you start it out as a matter of convenience. i don't think there was some big conspiracy to hide all this stuff. i truly don't. i think they did it as a matter of convenience and it blew up in

their face. >> i think they did it because they were paranoid and -- >> i don't think they thought it was serious. >> i don't think that's the most alogical assumption to take that you have a good reason to be paranoid. i don't think it was convenience, but i think it was paranoia and it blew up in their face. >> don't yell at me alex -- >> he's yelling at me. >> okay. we have to go to break. i am a republican and i have seen this, and the clintons always skate, and nothing will happen to them. >> possibly because they have not done anything wrong. >> no, that's not where it is. that's not actually it. and here's the important question for america, and if hillary clinton is elected president of the united states, has she learned her lesson? >> that's a great question. >> have the clintons learned their lesson w. foundations and

hundreds of millions of dollars and with the paranoia, do you think they have learned the lesson so she can go in and be a great president and not be dogged by self inflicted wounds? >> self inflicted wounds are also inflicted by the press and you have no control over those. >> self inflicted wounds are actually self inflicted wounds. >> that's an assumption. >> why isn't barack obama had these types of problems? because he stays far away from the line that clintons don't. never would barack obama enrich himself while he's president of the united states or allow his wife to enrich herself leveling -- please, this is not about democrats or republicans. the question is, this is not the press's fault or the republicans's fault, and this is

hillary's horrific judgment, and the question is will she learn or keep blaming the other people? >> i continue to disagree here, and i think hillary clinton will be a great president assuming she wins on tuesday, and the reason is she's very smart and puts scenarios together that make sense, and the facts matter and it's not an ideological president, and my biggest hope for her presidency is she will work with republicans. i hope she sits down and starts to do something again. >> you didn't answer my question. >> i disagree with the premise of it? >> you don't think she has learned because she doesn't think she did anything wrong, and that's disturbing to a lot of people. but i agree with you, i hope she works with the republicans. >> we're back in just a moment. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one.

with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? my advice for looking get your beauty sleep. and use aveeno® absolutely ageless® night cream with active naturals® blackberry complex. younger looking skin can start today. absolutely ageless® from aveeno®.

we're opening more xfinity stores closer to you. visit us today and learn how to get the most out of all your services, like xfinity x1.

we'll put the power in your hands, so you can see how x1 is changing the way you experience tv with features like voice remote, making it easier and more fun than ever. there's more in store than you imagine. visit an xfinity store today and see for yourself. xfinity, the future of awesome. did you like the way we were? seriously? >> no. >> now, butch cassidy and the sundance kid. oh, my god. >> you know, originally the roles were reversed, and paul newman was going to be sundance. i've never read the script.

>> you were involved in "the verdict." you have ever seen it? >> yes. >> a lot of people have forgotten "the verdict", and i don't know if it's on netflix or apple tv. "verdict," and one of new phupb's best roles. it's dark. up next, the findings on the presidential race. >> plus -- >> jack warden. >> oh, my god. >> in the words of one voter, deciding which arm to cut off, one of two deeply disliked candidates will soon be president and we break down the implications ahead on "morning joe." we have a special edition of "morning joe" lined up. wednesday, november 9th. >> i will be dressed in a gilley suit. crawl in and you won't be able to see me. >> we will be live from the

historic studio for complete coverage of the presidential results. [baby talk] [child giggling] child: look, ma. no hands. children: "i", "j", "k"...

[bicycle bell rings] [indistinct chatter] [telephone rings] man: hello? [boing] [laughter] man: you may kiss the bride. [applause] woman: ahh. [indistinct conversation] announcer: a full life measured in seats starts with the right ones early on. car crashes are a leading killer of children 1 to 13. learn how to prevent deaths and injuries by using the right car seat for your child's age and size.

♪ ♪ >> i think this is not over by any means. i think there's a hidden donald trump vote like there was a frank rizzo vote, and i think that's going to persuade a couple of hillary clinton's voters and democratic voters to say, well, what do i have to stand in line for an hour for, and if i were the clinton team, i would be desperately worried about that kind of talk. >> frank rizzo, who would admit to voting for him, right? >> oh, my. >> he was huge in philly. >> i was just joking.

>> sounded the alarm to the clinton campaign. the former dnc chairman joins us just ahead on "morning joe." after brushing, listerine® total care strengthens teeth, helps prevent cavities

and restores tooth enamel. it's an easy way to give listerine® total care to the total family. listerine® total care. one bottle, six benefits. power to your mouth™. [music] jess: hey look, it's those guys. shawn: look at those pearly whites, man. [music] bud: whoa, cute! shawn: shut-up. jess: are you good to drive? shawn: i'm fine. [music] [police siren] jess: how many did you have? shawn: i should be fine. jess: you should be? officer: sir, go ahead and step out of the vehicle for me. shawn: yes, sir. bud: see ya, buddy. today, shawn's got a hearing, we'll see how it goes. good luck! so, it turns out buzzed driving and drunk driving,

they're the same thing and it costs around $10,000. so not worth it. but dad, you've got...tes are probably gonna double. allstate. with accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. indeed. it's good to be in, good hands.

joining us now, ceo social sphere and director of polling, and a columnist at "washington

examiner," and they are co-host of the top-rated podcast, the bolste bolsters. there was something saying things may be tightening for millennials? >> i think it's naturally to come together one last time. the message, i think, which is important about the generations here is if folks over the age of 35 were the only ones that could vote, trump is up by a couple points, and it's the difference of the election is millennials, younger voters, 18 to 29-year-olds, and whether she is up by 29 or 34, she has a high lead in the high 20s and that really is the difference right now between who is president -- >> president trump or clinton. >> we have been looking for

change in any polls since the news broke on friday. i have not seen any evidence and i don't think anybody around here have seen evidence of the polls moving. have you seen anything? >> on our podcast yesterday, i believe they put polling out with you on nbc, and this is the sort -- this is the sort of story that is already baked in, people already know, and hillary clinton has problems with her e-mails and has problems with all of this, and this is a story that they don't want in the headlines, and meanwhile donald trump has his own issues, whether it's the allegations about russia, and these stories have been in the news for so long, and peoples' opinions are fixed and the real question is does it affect turnout and this story broke on a friday, and right before early voting on weekends, and did it make anybody decide, maybe i will just vote next weekend.

>> so much of this is baked in the cake, i think which is why you have seen in our initial weekly tracking poll the story about comey and the e-mails have not moved the meter at all in our poll at least, and are there still persuadable voters out there, and we have known these candidates for 25 or 30 years, and is there still a subset of people making up their minds? >> there's always going to be somebody making up their mind still, and what is different, you have a higher level of engagement and people are paying more to the news, and at the same time they are feeling overwhelmed by the news, and overwhelmed by the election, and we spoke to walmart moms last week and i came on the show and gave you a preview of what we would be talking about and people said they could not sit in the same room with their spouse to watch the news where they felt like they were choosing between a psychopath and an idiot, and it was painful

to hear people talk about the election, and that's a small group of people. i want to caution folks from thinking that's everybody. when you see those high and unfavorables, most people are favorable to one candidate. there's a sliver that is unfavorable to both. >> what should we look for over the next seven days? >> i will be looking at overall enthusiasm with young voters. here's something i want you to consider. among half of young voters who think the country is off on the wrong direction, only a third of them are voting for donald trump. amo ayear ago 70% of them were voting for mitt romney. he needs to continue to engage and he needs to engage young people specifically, and i think around economics and terrorism, and it's not too late for him and she needs to strengthen her base and make sure she turns out, and this election will be won or lost, i think, by

20-somethings. >> and there's a fear in washington for quite sometime this would be a bloodbath for all republicans up and down the ticket. are you starting to sense in washington a feeling from the senate, from senate campaigns they think they may just dodge a bullet here? >> there's some folks that feel like they are getting a bit of a reprieve, and as the presidential race tightens a little bit, it's still not putting donald trump in a strong position to win the white house, but is it saving people a little further down ballot. on the other hand, pat toomey, the republican candidate for senate was not running as far ahead of trump as he had in the past so the candidates may need trump to make it really, really close in order for them to survive. >> all right. thank you all very much. >> thank you, all. it's the top of the hour right now and let's get to the

news. all eyes on the fbi as the country waits for more developments in the investigation of hillary clinton's private e-mail server. and in letters responding to complaints from tkefpldemocrati lawmakers, and the investigators made a duplicate of the hard drive from a laptop computer belonging to anthony weiner, and are now going through it. an odd mated process will narrow down the e-mails. there are still complaints about director comey revealing the investigation on the second to the last weekend before election day, but white house spokesman, josh earnest, said the president has complete faith.

>> he believes comey is a man of principle and good character. these are tough questions. it's a good thing that he's a man of integrity and character to take them on. the president doesn't believe that director comey is intentionally trying to influence the outcome of an election. the president doesn't believe he is secretly strategizing to benefit one candidate or political party. he's in a tough spot. he's the one that 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 and administrations led by presidents in both parties. >> with seven days remaining hillary clinton planned to finish her election on a

positive note, but comey has caused the nominee to scuttle those plans. instead of giving the country something to vote for as she promised clinton went back to the well of what served her best, whacking donald trump hard on whether he is responsible enough to control the nuclear codes and highlighting the erratic personality of trpls and stirring anxiety about the threat he would pose to the entire world order if elected president. and sam stein reports clinton is left with one option, to go after comey and points out that that option may not even work. sam writes clinton's campaign against comey comes with pitfalls and there's the risk of looking craven, because people in and around the campaign praised the fbi director's conduct in past moments and there's the risk of ae long

gating the story that the campaign would have go away entirely, and stein also points out the risk of blowback. one worry is the fbi will leak information to justify the investigation. >> mike, you are shaking your head? >> i wouldn't poke the bear. >> at some point, somebody, oh, you want evidence. okay, here. we will give "the new york times" evidence, right? >> yeah, that's a potential problem. a real problem. >> even if she were exonerated before the election, voters absorbed the initial headlines and her critics will point to that exoneration as a system rigged against trump. >> you are agreeing? >> i agree with what sam wrote. >> in what way? >> that risk is real. >> as far as going after comey

hard? >> it bolsters mr. trump's point that this is rigged. the damage has been done in other words. >> you don't know what anthony weiner's part in this is. >> what is truly stage, at this stage of nearly every presidential election in my memory, where one candidate or another offers inspiration about the direction of the country, and there's none of this this year, and has not been any this year, and this is a continuation of the awful, awful series of stories right through the beginning stages of the next presidency whoever the next president is. >> all self inflicted on both sides. >> self inflicted on both sides, and unfortunately, mark halperin, now, if this is not resolved before election day, we have this to worry about moving forward. yesterday the big guessing game in washington, and manhattan

was -- i had so many calls from so many people and i just sat there and didn't even answer the question, if it's bad will barack obama pardon hillary clinton? everybody is asking the question, and i don't even want to go there. it's just exhausting, even after the election is over, and the american people are going to have to endure more ugliness? >> i don't like to go 25 minutes without whacking jim comey so i will do that. he did something so inappropriate, and i don't care if he has a picture of her of her in the library with a candlestick, he shouldn't be -- i don't think she had any choice to do this and i agree it's dominating her message now and if she wanted to close with inspiration, that's out the

window, at least with the two next news cycles, minimum. if they let that stand out there, they would be letting the fbi director control suspicions about her, no matter what she did. it's totally inappropriate. >> what should comey have done? >> well, he shouldn't -- as i understand it, his explanation for this is he promised the hill he would keep them posted and she should not have spoke about whether she would be indicted or not, and having done that, again, i totally take mika's point, we don't know what they have and we know they did not have an indictment and that's the only way the justice department and the fbi should seek? >> i will ask again, what should jim comey have done? >> he should have urged his investigators to be aggressive and look for wrong doing and recognize that, and i don't think he should have brought an

indictment before the election if he was not fully ready to bring it, and they should not rush it and if they were not ready to indictment, he should have been quiet and told investigators investigate where the evidence leads. >> what would you have said and what would "the wall street journal" editorial page have said and what would 50 million voters have said if they found this evidence a week after words and a week after words he indicted hillary clinton, a week after she was elected president of the united states, and then you know we all would have rightly pounced on him and asked how long you have had this information, and how many e-mails did you have? did you not think this might have been relevant -- i am not defending and i think he's in a no-win situation and you seem to think it's a little more black and white and i think we would have killed him either way. >> if it was not for "the wall street journal" story that ran sunday we wouldn't know at this point all the investigating that

had gone on with some controversy in the fbi and justice department about the clinton foundation. this is not some new and interesting problem. prosecutors deal with this every election season and the right thing to do according to justice policy, if you have an indictment bring it and if you don't stay out of politics. it's so dangerous. a prosecutor involved in politics. >> all i have to say is, really quickly, mike, to that point, first of all, yes, this does happen every two years but a major party candidate has never been under investigation by the fbi, first of all, and secondly an fbi director has never promised the chairman of the judicial committee he would keep him advised, and that may have been the original sin. i think comey gets killed either way? >> but mr. halperin just put his finger to the biggest vulnerability that director

comey has and acquired all by himself in the process and you would understand this more than anybody here, and you have been in court, not as a lawyer but as a defendant -- >> thank you, mike. >> i saw him staring back at you like, no, i have not been in court. >> jim comey is the director of the fbi, and in july when he made the statement -- >> which he should not have made. >> and last week in issuing that letter, he behaved like a prosecutor, not like the director of the fbi. that's his biggest vulnerability here. >> joe, one other thing, where the republicans are justified to be annoyed and angry about, as we know now they had this stuff for a while and should have been investigating it aggressively and not taking their time until ten days before the election, oh, by the way, we should have looked into this. >> mark, they were and that's

part of the incredibly complex situation that we know little about. they were investigating it but did not tell jim comey until ten days ago. >> they should have. >> they were also getting stepped on by the justice department? >> yeah. >> being frozen out of the clinton foundation. >> we have to let jean in. >> this is not an indefensible behavior. the only point i make, i think mark and mike have made it, and i believe if the question is his reputation with congress versus the outcome of a presidential race with no new evidence, and what they found is new e-mails that could lead to wrong doing -- >> you know it has been eyeballed. can i just ask you something. >> you can't say -- when you say they know -- >> you can't say you know they have not been. you can't. >> you said they know --

>> i want to ask you a question, fbi agents in weiner's apartment and they find the laptop and they realize other stuff, and do they go, i must close this laptop and walk away at this moment? >> mika, you can't put words in my mouth. >> i'm not. i am just telling you to look at the situation with a little reality. >> wherever the evidence takes us we should go there. they learned about this in early october, and they should have been investigating it, and they found something, and then you would send to congress, we found a set of e-mails. >> one thing we learned from "the wall street journal" article, there's so much in-fighting and probably the last thing they were going to do is tell mccabe or comey because they did not want to get killed. >> i would not poke the bear. >> you -- this is a bureau at

war internally and also at war with the obama/lynch justice department, and they believe rightly or wrongly have killed investigation into the clinton foundation. we will know months from now why they did what they did, but i suspect there's a lot of bureaucratic infighting that made them get all their ducks lined up in a row -- >> joe knows this happens in the justice department, the infighting and the piecing together, and they did not have a subpoena to study the e-mails according to pete williams at nbc, and they have not been investigating the e-mails once they learned about them in early october. >> i am not going to say anything -- >> i am piecing together what we have seen in the press. i don't know. >> they didn't -- let's get the white gloves and we are not going to look -- >> not going to look. >> one thing we all know is this is not going to be resolved in

the next seven days and that adds to the exhaustion people feel, and now what is ahead, and if hillary clinton is elected, do we have four and eight years of investigations of finding a resolution to this. we have that. and pulitzer prize winning columnist, gene, you have had strong words about comey's latest actions. what are they based on? what do you know that we don't? >> i know what i have read and i know what has been reported. i am with halperin on this, and i think comey made a mistake back in the summer and just made another big mistake this time, and that's where we are. to your point about whether or not the fbi agents have been through this material, at least the reporting that i have seen

indicates that either they haven't or shouldn't have or can't acknowledge they have because in fact they didn't have -- >> by the way, jegene, i would choose number two or three. >> it could be number two or number three, and the tell in these e-mails apparently, the metadata that indicated it may have touched the forbidden server at some point and now they have to look at the stuff. well, we'll know, look, first off, i want to say good morning to everybody, and happy day. one more week, right? we just got one more week of this to get through. and then things will be different. whatever happens, i think, you know, my guess is that hillary clinton will be elected and will be elected the first woman as president of the united states and i think, you know, i think at that point we will recognize that as a very significant moment, and i am not as down

about the prospect of the future as others might be. who knows? you know, there's always a sort of feeling of newness at the beginning when we have a new president elect. we will see what happens. >> have you seen anything over the past couple of days that suggests friday's bombshell has had any impact on polling? >> i will give you one, and again, there is a lot of polling so one thing you have to be careful of, washington post abc news tracking poll shows enthusiasm for hillary clinton's candidacy starting to eb away as compared to where it was a week ago in the tracking poll. donald trump voters more enthusiasm. and think this is not going to be -- i don't think something

where suddenly donald trump goes eight points and hillary goes down five points, and enthusiasm of the bases to vote, democratic enthusiasm, if it does dip -- again, it's the washington post poll so i will defend it. >> what is the number this morning? >> i believe we have it up -- hillary up one. i was looking at the enthusiasm -- >> trump is up one. >> so alex if we could get a full screen. donald trump is up one. >> look at the enthusiasm numbers. >> go into that more. >> you will not be building a graphic out of that right away, and look at her enthusiasm. how enthusiastic are you to vote for him and how enthusiastic are trump voters to vote for him? enthusiastic polls matter, and

even a point or two, republicans more enthusiastic to vote for him and democrats slightly enthusiastic voting for her, it can matter on election day. and you were talking about if it's a four or five-point race, nah, and if it's a one-point race, that's something. if she is winning by eight points, doesn't change, and if she is winning by two, it does. >> chris just said in a abc washington post poll trump is up one? >> up one natalionallynationall. >> and prior to this, it was 42, 45, clinton. >> it has gone from plus 12 to plus 4 on friday, to plus 2 and plus 1, and trump is now up 1. mark halperin, what is your takeaway from the poll? any movement that you think

matters or are we still within -- we are still tied, basically, right? in at least this poll. >> still tied, but look at trends, that's a rolling poll, so that means trump had a good night to go from down one to up one. the trump people are alerting they were catching up and in a position to win even before this, and i have no idea whether it's true or not and i have seen other republican data for senate candidates that he is within striking distance of the electoral votes, and if we had a chance to win before this story broke, his chances of winning are better, and i don't see the number unless he's going to michigan and colorado because he has a chance to win. >> let's start with north carolina. i say again, even if everything goes trump's way, and if trump gets to the 265 or 260 or whatever, i still think north carolina is the dagger in the

heart of the campaign -- >> of the trump campaign? >> of the trump campaign unless they do something to change it. north carolina, again, colorado, demographically are just fascinating states with the changes. >> a great big blue tar heel wall. if they can beat him in north carolina, he's going to have to win michigan or wisconsin or colorado and can break his back on that one state. >> gene, here is trump's problem. usually you would say, oh, geez, minorities really flooded into the state and that's why the republican -- no, these are the people that voted for marco rubio in the primary, and if marco rubio could have just run in north carolina in the general election and minnesota in the primary, he would have been in good shape. these are highly educated white

and hispanic and black people with advanced degrees coming in, and the research triangle, a lot of it companies, and north carolina is really, really demographically -- >> it's not trump's north carolina. >> no, not at all. and it's difficult to imagine those people who are going to make the difference in north carolina, and are making the difference in colorado and it's hard to imagine those people reconciling with donald trump, and there's a whole record there of donald trump over the last year that they have rejected, and if they decided and made the decision, you know, i may love hillary clinton i may not hillary clinton, but this other guy, i know he should not be president, and that's a difficult thing to turn around and so if they come out and

vote, and the democrats have a machine to do everything it can, to make sure they come out to vote, then that's a really, really tough hurdle for the trump campaign to cross. >> thank you. look at the number. put that number back up. the abc poll. that's pretty jarring. trump 46, and clinton 45. our own poll, the nbc news survey monkey poll has it at six. >> this is a tracking poll and it was done last night. >> rolling over three days if i am not mistaken? >> it's jarring especially given where it was not long ago. we thought that number was too big, that spread of 50 to 38. it's closed there, but i think we all agree it's not a one or two-point race if you look at most national polling. if he doesn't win north carolina or steal michigan or wisconsin

and one of those places that remains long shots for him. >> i think both campaigns think it's a three-point race. last week it was a six-point race and both campaigns are quietly saying it's a three or four-point race. >> in the clinton campaign, they will tell you basically, north carolina, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, colorado, which one of those states is donald trump going to win? >> i will give you three. pennsylvania, virginia, north carolina. pick one? >> he's not going to win one. >> there's still a pathway even with him losing pennsylvania, and there's no pathway if he loses virginia and north carolina. >> virginia is gone. >> virginia is gone. >> national polls don't matter, and that poll is meaningful because he never has been there. >> it's a tracking poll. he has been there. it's a jump ball tracking poll.

>> i hear you. you will have ed rendell that talked about the rizzo affect and you look at a number like this and you have to wonder if some folks are saying, pence wants them to come home. tom brokaw, and hallie jackson and steve kornacki, and ed rendell weighs in on the state of the race. >> kornacki is throwing things. >> he's the rage. ng bonus cash o complicated? they limit where you can earn bonus cash back to a few places... ...and those places keep changing every few months. the quicksilver card from capital one doesn't do any of that. with quicksilver you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. leave complicated behind. what's in your wallet?

[rock music playing] [music stops] [whistle] [rock music playing] [record scratch] announcer: don't let e. coli mosh with your food. an estimated 3,000 americans die from a foodborne illness each year. you can't see these microbes, but they might be there. so, always separate raw meat from vegetables. keep your family safe at foodsafety.gov. ...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and... ...even deep wrinkles. "one week? that definitely works!" rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. "see what's possible."

you have listened to him, and he has more things to say and i am running out of things, but i will tell you one thing, in a donald trump administration there will be no bull [ bleep ]. thank you very much. >> tom brokaw, that is bobby knight for you. >> that's our guy. >> that was in michigan. >> he takes his coaching style to the political arena. >> joining us, steve kornacki,

and you are going to have to help us here, and in philadelphia, former chairman of the democratic national committee and former governor of pennsylvania and an nbc political news analyst, ed rendell. >> tom brokaw, in case of emergency, i break a glass and ask you to come on set and i will tell you why. this weekend everybody's hair was on fire. last week, everybody's hair is on fire. the race is over and this person is going to win, and that person is going to lose, and i go back and say everybody is freaking out, and i am reminded of the entire political world, and i mean the entire political world, declaring the tuesday morning of the new hampshire primary, hillary clinton was down in double digit polls, and tom brokaw said, let's let the

people vote. and the more pundits there are the more pollsters there are the more predictions the more people are saying, your vote doesn't matter, the race is over. >> the commentary, which i have been listening to for the last four or five days, and i have been traveling around the country, in the rocky mountain states and baltimore, and there's not nearly that kind of breathless excitement of what is likely to happen, and people are looking at the measure of it all, and there's not a lot of enthusiasm once you get past the circle for both candidates, and for both campaigns and for the hillary campaign, they have an amazing get out the vote apparatus, and romney found that out four years ago and they were stunned on the republican side how they got blind-sided by the get out the vote, and we are talking about comey and making

his decision and if he did the right thing or the wrong thing. i think the big issue is whether mrs. clinton can pull millennials into her side. i saw one of them yesterday and she said i was a bernie sanders guy, and i guess i will go for hillary. there's not a lot of enthusiasm. the excitement we all felt as we were growing up about kennedy versus nixon, or ronald reagan coming online, and people got ginned up about all that, and now people are backing in. >> ed rendell, i heard your interview this weekend and i thought it was fascinating. all of clinton supporters in the commentariette were saying this race is over, and you gave a great warning, and you said hey, it's not over until people vote,

and you brought up the late, great, frank rizzo, and said you never know if there are not going to be some under votes for trump. can you explain that? >> well, being in philadelphia whenever frank rizzo ran for office he always polled three or four points less than on election day and there were people because of his tphrapl boyance and racial overtones and people would vote for him in the booth, and the question remains is there that trump under vote, the hidden trump vote. there may be, and it's something we have to be wary about. i think tom is right, though, it's counter balanced by the turnout operation. there's no turnout operation you can see for the trump people in pennsylvania. there's an incredible turnout operation in this state. we have the clinton people, 300 paid staffers and a great local

state campaign manager, and i think those two will cancel each other out and if i have to pick advantage i pick a slight advantage for the clinton turnout operation. i think people are going to the polls, and this has been such a riveting election in terms of attention, and i think people will go for the polls, and some have a determination not to be donald trump be president. >> there's an eight-point swing towards trump in the new hampshire poll, and clinton is down to 46%, and trump climbing to 39% with a week to close a seven-point gap in a pretty important state for him. in indiana trump has rebounded to a significant lead in the phaupb mother university poll.

trump is headed to pennsylvania today where hillary clinton is up two points, a-- a few points. >> we have not seen a wig swing in donald trump's favor since friday, and then saw a new poll out showing trump up, plus one, and our nbc survey monkey poll has trump down six and this one has trump up one, and what is your take? >> if you look at the numbers, and it's a question about enthusiasm or lack there of, and it looks like what happened in the nbc news where trump is now ahead by one, and they measure the pool based on enthusiasm, how likely are you to turn out and likely vote, and how enthusiastic are you about voting for trump or hillary clinton.

neither are getting a good score. and it's 53 for trump in this poll, and it's 48 for hillary clinton, so what has happened here, and maybe it's connected to the comey news and maybe it's connected to the e-mail news and maybe something else, but that enthusiasm number for clinton at least in this one poll dropped below the enthuse number for donald trump, and they are both low to begin with and clinton got lower and that's creating a result where the pollster are looking and saying the trump people are likely to come out. >> people are back into the voting booth. tom, do you look at what is happening with the e-mail and comey if hillary clinton is investigated where we are left as a country, through all the ugliness in the last year and a half, could this be hanging over the president's head in the first one or two years of her administration if she wins? >> i think it's a huge issue, and i have been saying from the beginning the biggest issue for this country is how you put it

back together again after the election, and we have to have some common goals everybody can agree on, and the red state senators will come in and get in the bunker and say we are not going to go along with her and if trump closed to be within reach of her and it does become a close election i think that will be exaggerated. the only thing the democrats and comey can agree on if he wants to send anthony weiner to gitmo. >> you would drive him down, ed? >> i have not driven a car in 22 years, and i would get in and drive him down. >> and the criticism of comey, how do you feel about it? where do you stand on it? >> i think he had to do what he had to do because of the leaks, but what he didn't do and should have done, he should have put a

sentence in that letter that says we have not had a chance to review these e-mails and nobody should infer anything other from this action other than we are doing our job. >> hold on. >> i don't think he should have done even that. >> i want to say, ed rendell, i think it's telling that you say that. tom doesn't think -- >> i want to make it clear, if he had an investigation under way, but the way the fbi operates we will do the investigation and we will talk to you when we have something to report back to you. >> but as a d.a., though, i am just saying it sounds to me like you have actually split the baby the best way it could be split, which is you know the leaks are coming and you know it's going to come out and if you are a d.a. worried about your office and backside, then maybe you do put a statement out, but with the clarifying language that was not there, i would even go so far as to say anybody that assumes that this suggests guilt

or, you know, any additional matter, is making an assumption. >> that investigation is going to take months. that's what he should have done. >> hold on. the initial summation he made about her was very clear about how he felt, about different actions that were studied in their investigation, so why are we assuming he should have done that and somehow failed to do something? maybe he didn't want to do that for a reason. why are we judging -- >> but the fact of the matter is the fbi is an investigative agency and not a public commentary agency, and all the fbi directors in the past have gone ahead and conducted their investigations out of the sight of the press and the political interests they may have felt the country had until they had something that they could have come up with and they can say we

can recommend to the justice department in our dialogue with them about what should be done and it's up to the justice department to make a decision about whether or not they are going to go forward with it. he has been all over the map and it's quite surprising to me because of the way he came in, and he was a tower of integrity, and now he has been back and forth and all over the map. >> i don't think anybody is suggesting he's not a tower of integrity now? >> he gets beat up by "the wall street journal," and everybody tpael feels they have to say something time after another, and what worries me is damage done to institutions and we don't want people to have a continuing suspicion about the integrity of the fbi or justice department. >> ed rendell, and it seems like you are in a perfect position to talk about this, not because i agree with what you are saying, but because you have been on the prosecutor's side, and you have been on the politicians side,

and you understand and if you could could explain for everybody what comey is dealing with here and that he has got an fbi that is at war with the mccabe, and he's got an fbi at war with the justice department, and he's got people inside his office that are leaking to the wall street journal about how the justice department has obstructed the investigation of the clinton foundation, and he has workers in there about to go crazy over the latest find. talk about all of that. this is not a normal situation for jim comey and he finds himself in an extraordinary situation and he is balancing a lot of things, including the integrity of the fbi, and does it get spilled out all over the front pages of the wall street journal before or after the election? >> i think you are right, joe.

as a prosecutor, generally i would agree with tom, and there's no place, and we never released anything having to do with an ongoing investigation for somebody running for office within two months of the election itself, and comey knew there were going to be leaks so if he let the leaks occur, not only would the fbi be hurt, but i think hillary clinton might have been hurt worse because there might be like an intent to cover-up and what i would have done is something along the lines you or i just said, get ahead of the leaks and release the information and say nobody is to take any inference to this, and we have not reviewed them and it will take months and if you draw conclusions you may be wrong, and these may not not pertinent or they may be tk duplicates to what we already have. >> tom? >> many want to write in a vote,

and a republican i know, he doesn't like, and he said it's illegal in south dakota to write in, and you would be stunned the number of states where it's illegal to write in your desire, and you are denied -- >> it's illegal? >> i hope it's not illegal in connecticut or i am in trouble. >> i am going to write in tom brokaw. >> the supreme court ruled in '81 you could deny people the right to write in a vote for president of the united states, and the states then are able to exercise that. this is a federal election. this is for the presidency of the united states. so secretaries of state and however large or small a state can make a decision and i will deny your right of a choice. i think that's one more example of how we have got to clean up the system and make it more transparent and make people have a greater confidence. end of preach.

love it. two decades ago, the republicans cut their nominee loose to focus on winning congress. >> we cannot afford to have bill clinton re-elected with a blank check that if he is re-elected, and i hope he won't be, it's crucial the check he have be a republican congress to keep a check on the kind of policies he pushed the first two years. >> we will talk to the man you just saw there, former rnc chairman, haley barbour. you ch. with beyond, you have a natural pet food that goes beyond telling ingredients to showing where they come from. beyond assuming the source is safe... to knowing it is. beyond asking for trust...

to earning it. because, honestly, our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. the market.redict but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price... ...we've helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. call us or your advisor. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

(ee-e-e-oh-mum-oh-weh) (hush my darling...) (don't fear my darling...) (the lion sleeps tonight.) (hush my darling...) man snoring (don't fear my darling...) (the lion sleeps tonight.) woman snoring take the roar out of snore. yet another innovation only at a sleep number store.

coming up next on "morning joe," donald trump and mike pence barnstorm on the trail, and we have a look at what trump will be focusing today, and it's not the fbi investigation and clinton's e-mail server. we have a poll coming out of virginia that shows a tightening race there. that's all i have to say. i like those flags. (friends gasp) the app where you put fruit hats on animals? i love that! guys, i'll be writing code that helps machines communicate. (interrupting) i just zazzied you. (phone vibrates) look at it! (friends giggle) i can do dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs... you name it. i'm going to transform the way the world works. (proudly) i programmed that hat. and i can do casaba melons. i'll be helping turbines power cities. i put a turbine on a cat. (friends ooh and ahh)

i can make hospitals run more efficiently... this isn't a competition!

what has been it, 35 years or something like that, no republican has won since, like, reagan, since many years ago, and i said i love michigan, and i saw numbers -- no, no, i also said, look, i am the one like i

predicted huma and i predicted take the oil and i predicted a lot of things. you have been saying it. hillary has bad judgment and instincts, so i thought i would come here and they all say, don't do that, 32 years, 35 years, and i said i am going to win michigan, i'm telling you. >> i don't know what i predict to take the oil means. >> doesn't mean anything at all. >> it's a war crime. >> that was last month. >> let's talk about michigan quickly. >> you say democrats should be a little concerned about michigan right now? >> yeah, you have to be concerned about getting turnout in and around up around detroit, and it sounds like there's swollen support for him in some of the republican areas, and -- >> the leaders you talk to say -- >> it's not going to be a cakewalk. and you have data about that. >> and this week, doubling down. >> look where the trump campaign

is doubling down, and yesterday he had a couple events there, and donald jr. and ivanka there tomorrow, and they are pushing hard in michigan. >> they should get the candidate betterpoints. >> i think the candidate says what the candidate says when the candidate wants to say it where he wants to say it. >> talking points? >> mark halperin, an interesting quote in the "wall street journal" from the former chair of the michigan republican party. >> yeah, longtime chair in michigan and involved in the republican national committee has a great quote. he says trump has not run a traditional campaign from the beginning, nor is he going to end with a traditional campaign. i could see him losing 40 states or winning 40 states. it goes to the uncertainty in the race that a lot of people see because of the enthusiasm question and because trump is trying to win with a different

coalition. if you look at the data, the democrats' inherent electoral college advantage, you would say the race is clintons now in a solid way. trump doesn't have a path to 270. but there's that uncertainty factor. you have democrats in michigan who are worried. some democrats in new mexico are worried. the clinton campaign says they're not worried about any of those states. that's partly expressing confident, and for a guy to be in a position to win or lose 40 potentially tells you what you need to know about where things are. >> if you look at it from 30,000 feet, la week, both campaigns believed this was about a six-point race. this week, they believe it's about a three-point race. the question is, and trump's people said a week ago, we have to pick up three a week. they had two weeks out. the question is do they close at the end? if they do, it's a lot closer race. right now, three points. >> joining us new york city, nbc

correspondent hallie jackson covering the trump campaign. what's the focus today? >> hey, guys. i wanted to touch on what you're talking ability. what we need to do is look at where the polls are starting maybe on thursday or so. you're starting to see some indicators from the campaign side, from the internal republican side, maybe the intensity is starting to tighten up. you're looking at where college educated white voters are going. that's an area trump has struggled and there's sign i'm told maybe that is started to swing in trump's favor and that's not reflected in the polling yet. as for what donald trump is doing today, interestingly, not hitting hillary clinton on the fbi news. he's focused squarely on obamacare. he's headed to king of prussia to deliver a policy speech because his campaign believes this has been one of the most effective lines.

they saw some tightens because of the focus on rate hikes. mike pence is going to be the one to deliver the nuts and bolts, the meat and potatoes, to slap another cliche on that. he'll be joined by other members of congress, including regnawne ellmers. trump will stay on the message he wants to deliver, which is on the affordable care act. >> hallie jackson, thank you very much. coming up, libertarian vice presidential nominee bill weld calls the fbi director's letter about the newclipten e-mails, quote, disgraceful. and, quote, totally off the reservation. he joins us here on set. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

[baby talk] [child giggling] child: look, ma. no hands. children: "i", "j", "k"... [bicycle bell rings]

[indistinct chatter] [telephone rings] man: hello? [boing] [laughter] man: you may kiss the bride. [applause] woman: ahh. [indistinct conversation] announcer: a full life measured in seats starts with the right ones early on. car crashes are a leading killer of children 1 to 13. learn how to prevent deaths and injuries by using the right car seat for your child's age and size. [aand i've never seen a rocketge ship take off like this. [owner] i'm lindsey. i'm the founder of ezpz. my accountant... ...he's almost like my dad in this weird way. yeah, i'm proud of you. you actually did some of the things i asked you to do the other day (laughs). [owner] ha, ha, ha. [accountant] i've been able to say, okay... ...here's the challenges you're going to have.

and we can get it confirmed through our quickbooks. and what steps are we going to use to beat these obstacles before they really become a problem. [announcer] get 30 days free at quickbooks.com

joining us now, two-term governor of massachusetts, bill weld. very good to have you on board. >> always a pleasure. >> you say comey went off the reservation. i would like to understand why. we have been debating this all morning. >> well, i think the director felt he was between a rock and a hard place because he told congress he would keep them updated. on the other hand, you know, you really shouldn't come in ten days before an election with something that's a nonstory. >> what would be -- how do we know it's a nonstory? >> because they haven't read the e-mails yet. all they have is a laptop with umpteen,000 e-mails on them, and that investigation properly is not going to be completed for

months. so he might have said, i agree with ed rendell, he might very well have said, there's nothing here yet. that would have been very helpful. >> are there any other possibilities? >> i don't think there's anything there. i think the chances of that are 1 in 1,000. >> can you see the other side, people saying if he had come out in two weeks or a month or two months and said we have been looking into this. we found all these new e-mails that trump people, even people who weren't voting for trump would say, why didn't you tell us this before we voted? >> he's subject to criticism. that's why they pay him the big bucks. he should have been willing to shoulder that risk and not have taken an action that, you know, stirs up the pot ten days before the election. >> do you think he would know this action would stir up the pot and create a great firestorm as it has? is this a man who is able to understand that that would happen? >> one of the ironies here is that jim comey is, you know, a towering figure. he's got a great reputation in

the justice department. i think he had a bad day. it's a judgment call. it's not the end of the world. i mean, my analysis here is doctored to the situation is we should all dial down, recognize that this is going to take months, and say, well, you know, right now, it's a nothing. and get back to the election. >> when you're in the criminal division in justice during the 1980s, would the idea, the concept of a local field office, fbi agents coming into some conflict with washington, would that be so strange to you? >> no. it happened all the time. >> yeah. >> and the director would, you know, bput his foot down on tha. >> what are you reading? >> i have a copy of george orwell's 1984 here. >> that's a good one. >> well, you know something. i want to read three sentences from it, if i may. >> we would love that because, you know, willie and i, we don't do a lot of reading anymore.

we play video games. >> big brother is running the country in george orwell's "1984." and every day, he beams two minutes of hate into the minds of everyone in the country. >> right. >> so here's the three sentences. before the hate had proceeded for 30 seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. in its second minute, the hate rose to a frenzy. people were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the top of their voices. the horrible thing about the two minutes hate, that was the name of the exercise, was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. and yet, the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blow lamp. sound like a trump rally? >> or a kanye west concert.

>> welcome to donald trump's america, everybody. >> you think he's injected a poison into the political system. >> sure do. i sure do. i think his whole campaign has been full of dog whistles and stirring up resentment and not too strong a word, hatred. >> is it unprecedented? an unprecedented level in american politics? >> yeah, i do. you know, huey long kind of stirred up the pot. father coughlin in the '30s stirred up the pot. that was before even i was born. >> so why should americans, if they're looking for another choice, vote for you and gary johnson? >> well, the argument for the libertarians is that we would stir up the pot in a good way because the democrats and republicans in washington have had a monopoly for too long. kind of like tom brokaw was talking ability, it's illegal to vote for somebody without the r or d. that's the argument. but i think the main thing is that -- >> who are you going to vote for? >> i'll vote for my own ticket.

but i think the most important thing for the country is that donald trump not be elected president. >> all right. former governor bill weld. thank you for the reading. >> thank you. >> enjoy it. >> the next hour of "morning joe" starts right now. we begin with more on the fbi investigation into clinton's server. here's clinton on the trail yesterday. >> i'm sure a lot of you may be asking what this new e-mail story is about. and why in the world the fbi would decide to jump into an election with no evidence of any wrongdoing with just days to go. that's a good question. i'm not making excuses. i have said it was a mistake and i regret it. and now they apparently want to look at e-mails of one of my staffers, and by all means, they should look at them. and i am sure they will reach the same conclusion they did when they looked at my e-mails for the last year. there is no case here.

>> all eyes are on the fbi as the country waits for more developments in the investigation of hillary clinton's private e-mail server. in letters responding to complaints for democratic lawmakers yesterday, the justice department promised that it will work closely with the fbi and take appropriate steps as swiftly as possible. investigators made the duplicate of the hard drive from a laptop computer belonging to anthony weiner and are now going through it. an automated process will narrow down the e-mails that are not clinton's. then down to the ones that were created while clinton was secretary of state. and then, searching for e-mails that were not previously seen by investigators for classified information. but there are still the complaint about director comey, revealing these developments on the second to last weekend before election day. white house spokesman josh earnest said the president has complete faith in comey's ability to do his job. >> the president believes that

director comey is a man of integrity. he's a man of principle. and he's a man of good character. these are tough questions. and so it's a good thing that he's a man of integrity and character to take them on. >> 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 secretly strategizes 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 positios s in administrations that were led by presidents in both parties. >> okay. wow. that was about as ringing an endorsement of james comey as barack obama could give.

mika, what do you think of that? >> i think that's bad news. >> what do you mean? >> pause it seems like the strategy is to sort of demonize him or call him out for making an inappropriate decision. and it's kind of hard to do when everybody is on record before this, everybody, saying what a great decision he made. how upstanding, what great integrity he has, and he's already made this decision. you read it, he called her irresponsible for the e-mails but there is no, you know, prosecutor would go after this case. now all of a sudden things are changing and everybody is changing their tune except for president obama. harold. >> i think just because someone makes a really good decision and the decision you think is based on principle and integrity on monday or tuesday, and they do something thursday or friday that defies that, that doesn't allow them to escape criticism. >> when you call someone a man of integrity. >> i think eric holder said it best, he said he's a man of

integrity, a decent man. he just made a mistake. >> eric holder doesn't really know because he's not sitting in james comey's seat right now. >> none of us are. mika is making a different point, we were are saying -- i sat on the show and said there were people for years who believed -- i think he's a man of integrity, but i think he made a mistake. >> how do you know? you haven't seen anything. >> i'm saying i think he made a mistake. just because someone does something right monday or tuesday doesn't mean they might not make a mistake on thursday or friday. >> causes concern when someone with such an upstanding reputation for making such good decisions makes a decision like this. you have no information as to why the decision was made. >> none of us do. >> he does. >> harold, to be fair -- >> and chuck grassley, who criticized james comey, has come out to be critical of not his decision to do this but his decision not to provide more information. >> don't make me do this. >> what do you mean? >> don't make me fight you on this because you're like --

you're deflecting. >> mika, i'm not fighting with you. i'm only laying out a perspective that i think enhances yours. >> you still think he's a man of great character and integrity. >> i think he made a big mistake. >> i think democrats weren't saying that. willie and mike, when the president of the united states comes out, and robby mook goes on a conference call and they tear him to shreds and the president comes out and says he's not trying to impact the election and he's a man of great character and integrity and this and that and the other, that certainly is not music to their ears. by the way, at the same time, republicans are also being critical of comey for this decision. a lot of republicans are. >> yeah, chuck grassley sent a letter to comey yesterday detailing why it was the wrong thing to do. the same thing could be said for the other side. donald trump was saying that james comey was part of a rigged conspiracy with loretta lynch to fix the election by not

suggesting the prosecution of hillary clinton. so there's terrible hypocrisy on both sides. this story and i would argue this election has brought out the worst in a lot of people. >> it's horrible. >> how does the clinton campaign work around -- the irony of it all, you have the head, i think, of the freedom caucus coming out yesterday being critical of this. >> jim jordan. >> jim jordan, right. you have other conservative senators being critical of this. you have the white house saying, we don't think he's trying to influence the election. he's a man of great integrity. >> i mean, there's so much going on within this decision that jim comey made. first of all, i don't know anyone who has questioned his character. everyone has questioned his judgment. >> which is what i have done as well. >> you separate those two. the other aspects of the decision that are not only interesting but compelling in the sense that they're going to continue on past this week is clearly, director comey said what he said and issued the letter that he issued because he was fearful of losing further

control of the fbi apparatus beneath him. >> you started to talk about this yesterday. and then we saw it in the "wall street journal" story, that he had a rebellion underneath him. people thinking that they were white washing the clinton foundation story and this story, right? >> he had two or three field offices, the washington field office, the very prestigious new york field office, a field office in little rock, arkansas, all with what i think is i'm told is agents felt they had compelling evidence to proceed further in the investigation of the clinton e-mails. there was a sense among the agents and field offices that the brakes were being put on prematurely out of washington. >> by the justice department. >> yes. >> now, can i ask you this question? >> yeah. >> do you think it's possible that the white house felt a need to be more aggressive in support of comey because of the wall street journal article that

strongly, strongly suggested that barack obama's justice department was killing the clinton foundation story? >> i don't know the answer to that question, joe. i do know that there is a feeling within justice that they have an attorney general who is just out of the loop on this because of that plane conference she had with bill clinton. so that adds to the further confusion of this. you have jim comey out there, all by himself on this. >> this is what usually happened, willie, except for loretta lynch's horrific judgment, right? >> yeah. >> to sit down and hang out and chat with bill clinton right before she's making a decision on whether hillary clinton's indicted or not. >> who knew a half hour on a tarmac in arizona would have such an impact. >> she actually should have known. >> i guess they both should have known. >> yeah, he did. >> one other layer, cnbc had a report that jim comey privately didn't want the fbi to sign on to the letter from homeland security and the office of dni that suggested russia was

meddling in the election with wikileaks and hacking into the dnc and podesta's e-mails. he said we shouldn't sign on to that letter because we shouldn't be a part of something that might influence the outcome of the election. and yet, he had no problem on friday sending that letter that threw out this vague accusation. >> we could talk about that. really quick asterisk on that one. that was single sourced. i saw a lot of people talking about this, including, i think, including somebody that runs the show in primetime here, was single sourced by an ex-official that wasn't even working inside the fbi. >> you have to have two or three sources. >> there's not two sources on this, at least in the cnbc story. >> that has to be part of director comey's motivation for issuing the letter because he knew someone like devon barrett who we had on yesterday was completely sourced on the story and he did not want to see a

story on the front page of the "wall street journal" with the leaked information, so he took control. >> do you think it's safe to say that if comey had not written that short letter that, is it not safe to say that the "wall street journal" would have had that story explode midweek or thursday or friday before the election, that there was a cover-up, that it was rigged? let me ask it to you this way. i really want people to think about this. what are the odds that if comey had not written that letter, the "wall street journal" wouldn't have run that story by midweek? >> that story was going to run. >> it was going to run. >> that story was going to run. mark halperin, do you agree with me on this? a sourced story like devon barrett's story, that was going. >> if it ran, it would then run, mark, with the bow on top that the justice department and the

fbi were covering up an investigation into 650,000 e-mails? >> i'm purely speculating here. i'm not so sure they would have run it. that story was super well reported. it clearly had been in the works for a while. my suspicion, just pure speculation, is they weren't going to run it before the election. and that they did because of the comey letter. it just -- that thing was not turned around from friday to monday. >> can i ask you a question? i happen to agree with mark, but none of us know, but i happen to agree with mark. question i have, if that's the case and that was a worry on the part of mr. comey, the question i have is what is more important, mr. comey's reputation, and he can defend that by saying we were investigating this, looking at it afterwards, or democracy, our presidential election, and perhaps tilting the outcome? i think the latter. i think a strong and compelling

argument could easily be made the latter. if indeed the single source story is correct that willie raised, then it raises more questions than just mr. comey's judgment. it would then raise questions about his character if indeed you can double or triple source the story regarding russia and its involvement in trying to influence our election and mr. comey saying he did not want the fbi to sign on to that. >> i forgot your question now. >> what's more important? >> okay. >> mr. comey's reputation or democracy and the outcome of the election. >> that seems to be an easy choice, does btd it? >> presidential election. >> let me answer. jim comey, my job is my job. i can't -- i'm not the insurer of american democracy. i'm not the insurer of the constitution all by myself. i'm the insurer of my integrity, reputation, and my agency's integrity and reputation. and that's the decision i make. apparently, comey is that type of guy. >> he has hurt the fbi. >> that's what you say. i'm sure that comey would

suggest, and i don't know because i have been very critical of comey myself. i think the news conference he ran after indicting -- not indicting her was outrageous. you either indict or you don't indict. and if you don't indict, you shut up. so i have been very critical of comey. but we don't know. i personally think the fbi's reputation, the justice department's reputation, and the reputation of the obama administration would be far more damaged if this had been held back and released a week after the election because i suspect, i just suspect none of us know anything. the difference between a lot of people on twitter and reporters and me is i will tell you what you just said, because you're a lawyer like me. we don't know. >> right. >> the lawyer holding the files knows. but the one thing i suspect there may be some relevant information in here. and if that had been held until after the election, there is nobody here and nobody watching

on tv that can speculate accurately as to what would cause the fbi more damage. >> i think there's likely there's relevant information here, from everything you know about comey's record and everything that has been said about him, and here's the bottom line. everyone looks at this as some sort of attack on hillary clinton. they're setting it up as an attack on hillary clinton. it all starts with the server. the fbi's integrity is in jeopardy. the justice department's integrity is in jeopardy. her campaign is in jeopardy. because of the server. and hundreds of thousands of e-mails that should not have gone in and out of that server. there's nothing you can say. there's nothing -- that's where it begins. >> i can say something. he came back, mr. comey came back and said they want time to go in and investigate this. they have not found -- >> because it was not supposed to be a private server. >> mika, but he cleared her of that. if you want to go back and retread that, that's fine. but i won't engage you -- >> they found new information.

>> but mr. comey's already said after investigating all of this, her server, he decided there was no prosecutor that would move forward. did he not say that six weeks ago? he's said now -- >> they found something. >> he said we have found a trove of new e-mails which we believe need to be investigated. we want to let you in congress know. we don't know what's there. that's what he said. >> what's he supposed to do? >> may be permanent to the investigation. >> which means it may not be pertinent to the investigation. >> well -- >> this is right before an election. >> harold, harold, i understand it's right -- calm down. nobody's fighting you. we're on the same page. >> you know better than what you're saying and that's fine. you know as better as i do. >> you're on here -- you're acting like a campaign operative. we're just trying to get to the bottom of this. >> likewise. >> okay, and so we're not putting horns on jim comey, and we're not putting a halo on jim comey. >> neither am i. >> we just want the facts.

mike barnicle. >> the most compelling aspect of this story to me, just to me personally, is how the public has reacted to it. they're so locked in to both candidates that this story hasn't moved the needle. >> exactly. >> beyond these tv studios. >> right. >> hasn't moved the needle because people accept, you know, the disturbing aspects of both candidates' characters, personalities, campaigns, and they're rolling with it. >> it's baked in the cake. >> locked in. >> if you look, to mike's point f you look in our nbc poll, it's almost purely a partisan issue. 85 first of republicans think it's an important, big deal. excuse me, 93% of republicans think it's an important story and only 17% of democrats. it's a complete flip. a partisan issue. >> i said it yesterday. i'll say it today. if this is a one-point race, then this matters, because republicans come home, and it changes swing states. but it's not a one-point race now. unless you believe abc news.

everybody else has it four, five, six, seven, eight. so that's it. if it's a one-point race, it matters. it's not a one-point race right now. >> joe, you really think the fact that ska68% of independent believe it's something, should that worry either side? >> it's a one-point race. but it doesn't feel like a one-point race. >> the internals in the clinton campaign ten days ago had it a four to seven percent margin. today, they have it between two and four. >> still ahead on "morning joe," former governor haley barbour joins us to give us a view of the political landscape just one week from election day. >> here's bill karins with a check of the forecast. bill. >> we are watching the temperatures in the southeast very warm. record highs. we had numerous locations like four days in a row. it doesn't feel like november. the strong high is pushing the warm air to the north. that's great news for the cleveland fans. mild and warm and what a party

win or lose. as far as the streak of records, four days in a row, birmingham, same with montgomery, atlanta, three days in a row. that's a record every day in a row. there's a good chance we'll do it again today. there's the forecast highs and the records. an incredible streak. and the drought continues in the south. it's getting worse by the day. the forecast for today, 74, chicago. unbelievable. minneapolis still has yet to end their growing season. this is the longest they have ever waited to dip below 32 degrees. d.c. at 63 today. i mentioned the world series game six, should be fantastic. 68, partly cloudy. a chance of rain tomorrow night for game seven at the end of game, but who knows. maybe we won't get there. should be fun tonight. new york city, times square, still cool. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ching momen? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace

the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you are being treated for an infection or have symptoms. or if you have received a vaccine or plan to. inflammatory bowel disease can happen with taltz. including worsening of symptoms. serious allergic reactions can occur. now's your chance at completely clear skin. just ask your doctor about taltz. but the best place to start is in the forest. kubo: i spy something beginning with..."s" beetle: snow. kubo: no. beetle: snow covered trees. monkey: nothing to do with snow. narrator: head outside to discover incredible animals

and beautiful plants that come together to create an unforgettable adventure. kubo: wow! narrator: so grab your loved ones monkey: don't even. narrator: and explore a world of possibilities. kubo: come on, this way. narrator: visit discovertheforest.org to find the closest forest or park to you.

he's the drug company big shot who raised the price of a lifesaving pill by five thousand percent. said he wished he'd raised it more. prop sixty-one targets drug company price-gouging to save lives. the drug price relief act will save californians nearly a billion dollars a year. join the california nurses association and aarp and vote yes on sixty-one. the drug giants won't like it. and he'll hate it.

coming up on "morning joe" -- oh, boy. i'm nervous about this one. >> we're going to be joined by senator claire mccaskill. does she think she'll be gaining a democratic colleague in the missouri delegation. >> and does she think cleveland will put it away tonight? >> she's going to kill me. >> why, you're not allowed to tell the truth? claire doesn't get mad at you if you tell the truth. you're allowed to thel the truth. >> i know she's likes hillary, but you're allowed to tell the truth. before danny got what he was dreaming about for the holidays. before his mom earned 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ dinosaur growls ] and his dad earned 2% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs. yeah! even before they earned 3% back on gas. danny's parents used their bankamericard cash rewards credit card to give him the best day ever.

that's the joy of rewarding connections. learn more at bankofamerica.com/getcashback. ♪ well, if you want to sing out, sing out ♪ ♪ and if you want to be free, be free ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to be ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪ and if you want to be me, be me ♪ ♪ and if you want to be you, be you ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to do ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪ hillary clinton: far too many families today don't earn what they need and don't have the opportunities they deserve. i believe families deserve quality education for their kids, childcare they can trust and afford, equal pay for women, and jobs they can really live on. people ask me what will be different if i'm president? well kids and families have been the passion of my life and they will be the

heart of my presidency. i'm hillary clinton and i approve this message. i am a first responder tor and i'emergencies 24 hours a day, everyday of the year. my children and my family are on my mind when i'm working all the time. my neighbors are here, my friends and family live here, so it's important for me to respond as quickly as possible and get the power back on. it's an amazing feeling turning those lights back on. be informed about outages in your area. sign up for outage alerts at pge.com/outagealerts.

together, we're building a better california.

(ee-e-e-oh-mum-oh-weh) (hush my darling...) (don't fear my darling...) (the lion sleeps tonight.) (hush my darling...) man snoring (don't fear my darling...) (the lion sleeps tonight.) woman snoring take the roar out of snore. yet another innovation only at a sleep number store. listen to me. i am captain of the track team, and if i'm late... she doesn't really think she's going to get out of here, does she? be nice. she's new. hello! is anyone there? rrr! wow. even from our standards, you look awful. oh, sweetie, what happened? girl: me? my friend becky got to talk to this super-cute boy, and i tried to act like i wasn't jealous, but i so totally was, and then, out of nowhere, this concrete barrier just popped up. maybe it was a semi. you mean you were driving? yeah. i mean, i know the whole "eyes on the road" thing. but this was a super important text.

maybe you have to know becky. texting? great. but it was only, like, 5 seconds, and i'm a really, really fast texter, so it wasn't even a big deal. actually, has she texted me back yet? [squishing sound] wow, i get, like, no bars in this place. i wonder if they have wi-fi here.

the world is full of surprising moments. they're everywhere. and as a marriot rewards member, i can embrace them all. the new marriott portfolio of hotels now has 30 brands in over 110 countries. so no matter where you go, you are here. join or link accounts at members.marriott.com. that's why we need ron johnson, to cut the crap and keep hillary clinton and the washington politicians from running wild. >> if hillary clinton is elected president, arizona will need a senator who will act as a check. not a rubber stamp for the white house. >> we need claudia tenney. she'll stand up to hillary clinton like she's always stood up to governor cuomo. >> several republicans are

running as if president hillary clinton is a foregone conclusion and they're the last best hope of reigning in her policies. 20 years ago, the gop took a similar tack against another white house contender named clinton. >> what would happen if the democrats controlled congress and the white house? been there, done that. remember? the largest tax increase in history. more wasteful washington spending. a government run health care scheme. >> haley barbour was the party's chairman at the timer as many republicans look past their nominee, bob dole, in an effort to control congress instead. and haley joins us now. >> how are you feeling right now, governor, about the republicans' ability to hold on to the house and the senate even if they lose the white house? >> well, first of all, i think it's very hard for the democrats to win a majority in the house. i think the republicans are very likely to keep the majority in the house. with the senate, 24 republican seats up and only 10 democrat

seats. regardless of the presidential election, that's a real challenge. ate of those seats, 8 of those 24 republican seats are in states obama caried both times. but our people are running very good campaigns. they have good records. really close. and the presidential election today is really close, as you may have said, because i haven't been able to watch all the program. "washington post" poll this morning, their tracking shows trump up a point. >> are you surprised that at least over the last couple weeks that trump hasn't been as much of a bleed on the senate candidates as many people were expecting months ago? >> i think it's a tribute to these candidates, they're running campaigns about the u.s. senate, about their records, about their policies. about the opponents' policies and records, that they're not letting this election being about who's going to be president or who's going to be governor or who's going to be anything else. they're making the election

about the senate. the candidate on our side and the candidate on the other side, that's what the public wants. that's the way it ought to be. >> mike barnicle. >> governor, it's pretty much acknowledged that you were like, with youth for coolidge you have been in politics so long. we were just showing a clip earlier today about the candidate for president, donald trump. he's on the stump and talking about things a week before the election that he predicted, the huma abedin stuff, the anthony weiner e-mails. he predicted that we should go get the oil in iraq. does it bother you in terms of the leader of your party, the head of your ticket running for president, instead of addressing what he wants to do for the country, he's basically spending all this time talking about himself? >> let me tell you, i have only been doing this 48 years. i was a little too young for youth for hoover. but look. i think the news media and both

campaigns are to blame that so little of this campaign has been about policy and about issues. about obama's policies and the poor results of those policies. that hillary clinton would do the same thing. she said virtually that she would be a third term for obama. that trump would do something different. i think any time we're not talking about issues, results, conditions in the country, what we do different, i think we're not talking about what we ought to be talking about because that's the most important thing on american people's minds. what are we going to do about the weakest recovery since world war ii? what are we going to do about the first president's policies that will be the first time since herbert hoover, to mention your favorite president there, that herbert hoover was the last president, didn't have 3% growth in one year in office. this is what bothers people. the economy and jobs, crime, front page of the paper today, chicago's got more murders than

in more than a decade. people are worried. they're scared. and yes, they're mad. but we still ought to be talking about issues. >> governor, it's willie geist. you're in a position, it seems to me, the voice of a lot of republicans that i have spoken to and a lot of people in this country who don't want to vote for hillary clinton. won't vote for hillary clinton, but have serious reservations about donald trump. so you may or may not want to disclose what you're doing, but i think a lot of people reluctantly are going to pull the lever for donald trump or write in a third party candidate. what do you do if you don't like either candidate? where does that leave you? >> i already voted. i won't be in my home county next tuesday, so i voted absentee. my mama taught my brothers and my growing up that life is a series of choices. if the choice is hillary clinton or donald trump, i'm going to vote for donald trump every time. i don't know what donald trump is going to do on every issue by a long shot, but i do know what

she's going to do. more government, more taxes, more regulation, more deficits, more dent. it's going to be four more years of what we had the last eight years. and two thirds of the american people think our country is going in the wrong direction. they want change. and hillary clinton being the candidate of change is like me being the spokesman for weight watchers. i mean, it has no chance of any credibility. >> governor -- >> now, you look great. just stop. my goodness, very handsome. >> governor it did sound like you had to grit your teeth, given all the things you said about donald trump over the last year or so. >> look, he certainly wasn't my first choice for our nomination, but either hillary clinton or donald trump is going to get elected president on tuesday. that's the choice. and i voted for the one that i think is the better of those two choices. >> what do you say to republicans who are still in the

never-trump camp and refusing to do what you're doing? what's your message to them? >> i mean, they're going to help make hillary clinton president. and again, we're going to have a continuation of the lurch to the left that we have had the last eight years, and of the bad results it's perusroduced, joe. that's the thing. there's a reason two thirds of the american people think our country is going in the wrong direction. they look at the economy and jobs. they look at national security. they look at terrorism, they look at crime. they look at the national debt. it took us 230 years to get $10 trillion of federal debt. and in eight years, obama has given us another $10 trillion or right at it. we can't continue to go in that direction. and that's why i made the choice i made. >> all right, haley barbour, thank you so much. >> thank you. up next, she says the fbi director shouldn't have, quote, opened his mouth about the newly

discovered e-mails in the clinton case until he knew all the facts. senator claire mccaskill joins us next. keep it right here on "morning joe." remember here at ally, nothing stops us from doing right by our customers. who's with me? i'm in. i'm in. i'm in. i'm in. ♪ ♪ one, two, - wait, wait. wait - where's tina? doing the hand thing? yep! we are all in for our customers. ally. do it right. [baby talk] [child giggling] child: look, ma. no hands. children: "i", "j", "k"... [bicycle bell rings]

[indistinct chatter] [telephone rings] man: hello? [boing] [laughter] man: you may kiss the bride. [applause] woman: ahh. [indistinct conversation] announcer: a full life measured in seats starts with the right ones early on. car crashes are a leading killer of children 1 to 13. learn how to prevent deaths and injuries by using the right car seat for your child's age and size. it begins from the the second we're born.er. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting

every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier we're here to make healthier happen. we heard you got a job as a developer!!!!! its official, i work for ge!! what? wow... yeah! okay... guys, i'll be writing a new language for machines so planes, trains, even hospitals can work better. oh! sorry, i was trying to put it away... got it on the cake. so you're going to work on a train? not on a train...on "trains"! you're not gonna develop stuff anymore? no i am... do you know what ge is?

joining us now from st. louis, democratic senator claire mccaskill. >> good morning, guys. >> let's talk about the important thing first.

what do you think? >> on cleveland and chicago? >> like i said, the important thing. what happens? >> i think we got two great managers. i would think you guyed would have a soft spot in your heart for tito. i think that cleveland will win, but i think it's fun to have two teams in the world series that we haven't seen for forever. >> one of the biggest reasons to live teata francona is the other evening, after game three or four, in chicago, tito couldn't sleep, and at 3:30 in the morning, he ordered from room service $44 worth of ice cream and ate it all by himself. >> this is a guy i love. now i'm for sure want cleveland to win. >> have you guys heard that curt schilling story? you heard it, right? the fireworks guy. >> oh, yeah. >> so tito takes over the phillies and he's not respected by the team. he's a young guy. he goes to take kurt, puts curt

schilling in. he gives up like three home runs. fireworks going off all over the place. tito walks out to the mound to talk to him, and schilling is screaming at him, back off. stay away. back off. get out of here. a lot of expletives. tito gets up there and schilling screams you're not taking me out of the game. tito goes, i wasn't. i wasn't planning on taking you out of the game. i just feel sorry for the fireworks guy. i'm giving him a breather. fireworks every time they hit a home run. >> you want one more tito story? >> yeah. >> sean casey, playing for the red sox. great guy, all time great guy. very slow but a pretty good hitter. hits a ball in the center field gap in fenway parx, senator. anybody else, at minimum, a triple. sean gets thrown out at second base. he walks back to the dugout and he's ashamed of what happened. he's at the far end of the dugout and sees tito francona summoning. he walks down slowly thinking tito is going to yell and scream

at him. he lookt at him and said, case, have you ever been tested for polio? >> oh, my gosh. that's a terrible story. >> awful story said on tev. let's move on. so let's move on. >> i'm going to just jump in. >> you jump in. >> claire, you're a former prosecutor. i'm scared you're going to bite my head off, but you know what, if you do, that's great. i want you to be right here. but you're a former prosecutor. you said that comey should not have opened his mouth. a lot of people are saying that, and that he broke every protocol and went off the reservation. the only thing that that makes me think is that you're actually re-enforcing the premise that there's something there because this is a man of great integrity, according to everybody who works for hillary clinton on down. he's not partisan. you look at his role in the ashcroft story years ago, yet he broke protocol.

doesn't it lead you to believe that maybe there's a problem? >> no, here's the bougttom line. when you're a prosecutor, you know that you have or the head of the fbi, you have unbridled power to ruin people's lives. so the only thing that you can really handcuff yourself to are the facts. and you're taught as a prosecutor, marry the facts, that's the only way you'll find justice. do not let political pressure put weight on you. do not let anything weigh on you. and don't talk about it until you're sure you have the facts. there's one thing we know for sure, mika. when he wrote that letter on friday, they had not seen these e-mails. they had not read these e-mails. so he had no way of knowing what the facts were. that is my beef with comey. he can have integrity and make a big mistake. a lot of people with integrity make a big mistake. this was a big mistake. he made some other mistakes frankly in how he handled all this because i think he was

trying so hard to show his integrity, to show his openness, and he realized this was a big deal. but to do what he did on friday is unconscionable and damaging to the institution of law enforcement in this country. >> so yesterday, i asked republican congressman trey gowdy for his response to those questioning the timing of comey's decision. and here's what he had to say. >> not a single one of the facts at hand is directly attributable to director comey. he didn't tell her to set up her own private e-mail server. he did not tell her to mislead the public about whether or not she sent or received classified information. he did not tell huma abedin, hey, don't turn over all your devices, and god knows he didn't tell anthony weiner to sext with underaged girls. none of that is jim comey's fault. the timing is a direct and natural consequence and probable consequence of decisions secretary clinton made years ago. >> claire, is the blame

misplaced? >> i think gowdy goes better. he knows you do not talk about an investigation until you have the facts. period. no matter who the subject of the investigation is. and there's one thing that we do know. we know the fbi, with literally, i was told close to 200 special agents, worked for over a year combing that server, going through every e-mail, thousands and thousands of them, and then he said it wasn't even close in terms of any criminal problem. and he also said, which people forget, that every agent who worked on the case unanimously agreed. so you go from that set of facts, where there's been a thorough investigation, to him throwing this letter out, and turning this election -- i mean, look at what's come out on trump in the last few days that nobody is talking about. we have him lying and deleting e-mails and committing fraud in lawsuits. we have another big expose this morning about his tax schemes. we have all these issues besides

the fact that he is temperamentally unfit, and can't get change done in our democracy because he can't work with others. so it's really upsetting to me, and i think to a lot of people that comey did this. i hope that everybody takes a deep breath and gets back to who do you want role modeling for your children for the next four years? >> it's willie geist. good to see you. i have a couple earl weaver stories but they're not good for tv. we'll talk about those later. >> i have a good one. >> i'm sure you do. >> and then maybe whitey herzog stories. >> if this is as clear cut as you seem to believe it is, and many people who have come on this morning believe it is, why do you think james comey who in july every democrat thought was smart and a great guy and ethical, why do you think he did this? what would be his motivation because he knew the letter to congress was going to be leaked immediately and this was going to become a huge story that could impact the campaign? why did he do it? there there may be hubris

involved. one thing he did this summer was the press conference where he opined about how he thought hillary clinton had handled things badly. that's not typically what the head of a law enforcement agency does. what the head of a law enforcement agency does is report to the prosecutor, here's what the facts are. now you apply the law and decide if charges should be filed. in this case, loretta lynch told him to decide because he's a former prosecutor, as to whether or not the facts when you apply the law meant that a crime had occurred. and once he did that, when he went off and began doing press conferences and giving his opinion, it made everyone uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, there was confidence the investigation had been thorough and it was complete. >> why did he do it this time? >> i think he was worried about how he would look. and by the way, he's got the big job, and let me just tell you one thing. anybody who has been a prosecutor in a major

metropolitan area will tell you this, or even in a small community. these decisions are hard. but that's why you have to stay married to the facts and keep your mouth shut until you're sure you know what they are. >> but you understand, though, better than any of us, how hard your job was in kansas city, and is there any part of you that has sympathy for james comey and the decision that he had to make and how he was damned if he did, damned if he didn't? >> there's no question. you have decisions like that all the time. you have people who have been victims of crime and you have communities that are up in arms about a crime that has been committed, but the facts do not support the filing of a criminal charge. and you know, the political implications are very difficult because popular opinion may say one thing and the facts may say something else. but let's make sure that

everybody understands here, all of the investigations that have been done of hillary clinton, unprecedented investigations of hillary clinton over decades, there has never been facts that have surfaced that have supported any criminal activity. and the fact that donald trump says that over and over again is just underscoring his irresponsibility and why he has no business in the oval office. >> why is there an investigation here? >> because the reason there's an investigation is because they found on this computer metadata that indicated the server was on this computer. so out of an abundance of caution, they want to take a look at it. i have no quarrel with that. what i have a quarrel with is announcing to the american people in a way that could impact who is president of the united states that they are embarking on this investigation. you don't do that. >> right. i meant the overall investigation. why does it exist? >> the overall investigation exists because there was a

legitimate question as to whether or not hillary clinton had done something against the law as it related to classified e-mails. and i believe that investigation was very thorough. now, they have a few more e-mails to look at. by the way, they have almost 14,000 fbi agents and a budget of $8.5 billion. seems they could get busy and look at these and tell us by the end of the week. >> right. that would be good. >> exactly what's in there. and that would be a good thing to do, because i believe that what they're going to find, and you know, the other thing that's weird about this, they have never contacted huma abedin. she would have given them these e-mails. she's cooperated fully. she's been interviewed for hours. they have never even talked to her. now that's weird. >> that really is. senator claire mccaskill, thank you very much. >> thank you, claire. >> okay, guys. >> next time she's on we have do the stories. >> we don't want any of your stories, no, no. >> i still wonder what the anthony weiner angle is on this in a worried way.

>> what do you mean? >> don't make me answer. >> you can't say it twice. >> i just wonder what his role in this is, if there is one. >> other than the laptop. >> everyone is surmising there's nothing in the e-mails. >> are you suggesting that maybe anthony weiner cut a deal with federal prosecutors? >> we have to go to break. i have no idea. it's just -- i don't know. we'll just wait, i guess, until the fbi perhaps gives us more information. >> willie, i don't know -- >> did hillary clinton get debate questions ahead of time during the primaries? the latest revelations from wikileaks is next. appen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula. ...to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®.

[music] jess: hey look, it's those guys. shawn: look at those pearly whites, man. [music] bud: whoa, cute! shawn: shut-up. jess: are you good to drive? shawn: i'm fine. [music] [police siren] jess: how many did you have? shawn: i should be fine. jess: you should be? officer: sir, go ahead and step out of the vehicle for me.

shawn: yes, sir. bud: see ya, buddy. today, shawn's got a hearing, we'll see how it goes. good luck! so, it turns out buzzed driving and drunk driving, they're the same thing and it costs around $10,000. so not worth it. that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe...ood to knowing they are.

going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. so, it ends up, mika, we're supposed to read this story about donna brazile, wikileaks shows she ended up giving two questions to the clinton campaign from cnn, and they fired her. we like donna brazile, so we're not going to talk about that. you know, i just -- i want to talk about baseball. i like donna brazile and i like baseball. lupica, the series is great for baseball. i'm hearing more people talk about baseball than i have heard in a really long time. >> joe, maybe it's because of the presidential election. it's like -- >> a great distraction. >> a relief and a respite. it's two great cities, two great waiting periods. two great stories. there's nobody not to like on either team. >> ari emanuel is freaking out. he's so freaked out, he said he was --

>> it's focused -- >> let's talk about game six tonight. do the cubbies take it to seven? does cleveland shut them down? >> i have no real rooting interest in the game. i want this to be a memorable world series. it can be in six, but i hope it goes seven. >> okay. mike, who's going to win tonight? >> i think the cubs are going to win tonight. they have jake arrieta on the mound. the young cubbies are going to be much more free, loose, playing in cleveland than they were in chicago. >> i was there for game two. >> what do you think, willie? >> the vibe of the series is so good. no-lose for america. you had eddie vedder during the seventh inning stretch at wrigley field, playing a world series game, shouting out david ross, who is going into retirement. all good vibes. >> vince vaughn the night before. who wins tonight? >> arrieta shuts them down tonight. game seven, toss-up. >> game seven with kluber back on the mound. what a game seven. quick question, what was the last pitcher in a world series to win three games?

>> i think it was randy johnson. >> no. >> mickey lolich. the tigers and the cardinals. he won game one, four, and seven. and was he the tiger -- >> the left hander. >> the one who hit the home run? i think lolich hit a home run. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thank you, mika. randy johnson, i'm going to say one of the best baseball names ever. good morning. i'm stephanie ruhle. we have breaking news. state of the race. a new poll has donald trump leading nationally while others show clinton holding on to her lead. we're going to cut through that noise. and breaking overnight, oppo dump. a flood of bad stories for donald trump. the fbi looking into his former campaign manager's ties to russia. the "new york times" digs deeper into his taxes, alleging he, quote, used