"meet the press." good morning. i'm kristen welker. coming to you live from the sgraet state of new hampshire. this the sunday before election day. this is the state that holds the first primary. where hillary clinton is going the be later today fighting for the four electoral votes. let's get right to it. this hour before the election we are looking at a battleground map. as they try to shake states loose.

the president in phil mickelson ke florida keeping up the pressure. florida in play. even though it hadn't gone republican since nixon. >> this is our last chance because -- and i'm talking as a country. it's never going to happen again. it's time to cut or ties with the failed politicians of the past. hillary clinton is the candidate of yesterday. can you medical leave this, in just two days, just two days away. we will get the change you've been waiting for for your entire life. >> clinton in pennsylvania, ohio, and right here in new hampshire. the possible tipping point for trump's path to the presidency. she says it's all about holding up the current president's legacy. >> we do see progress. as president obama reminds us, we have made progress. we see it in our daily lives.

this election is about doing everything we can to stop the movement to destroy president obama's legacy. he wants to pass on the baton to me and i'm hoping he will bend down low enough so i can reach it. he's a tall man. >> my fellow warriors are spread out all awe cross the battleground map. before we get to reporters. a look at the state of the race. a new nbc news wall street journal poll shows four point fight. trump could change it by flipping any of these four states. minnesota, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania all have voted democratic for presidents since at least the 80s. minnesota where trump is going today hantd gone to gop since 1972. trump has shifted in the fourth quarter all, but abandoning wisconsin. clinton will play defense in grand rapids tomorrow. sending not one, but two

presidents to keep the state firmly in the blue column. onset with me right here. my colleague and friend covering the clinton campaign, andrea mitchell. peter alexander in pennsylvania. kelly o'donnell in ohio. thanks to all of you for being here. peter i want to start with you. trump is crisscrossing the map. he has five events if five states. the "new york times" has an interesting article. they talk about the fact his aides are trying to rest him away from his twitter account. trying to keep him focused. talk about the strategy in the final 48 hours. >> as a result of what they've done they've taken away from the clinton campaign their best asset for much of this campaign. trump's inability to stay on focus. campaign officials about this. they suggest that donald trump still controls everything within

his campaign, but at least the example that they give is on one occasion on the tarmac in florida he saw the air force one across the way and so upset to see president obama out campaigning he was thinking about a tweet. an aide typed it in and kept it close to message. suffice it to say trump has been very disciplined. been with him and we've witnessed more than anything now. the aides are saying how confident they are right now and focusing on that state of michigan. it's going to be a stop that he makes today. and it's important because it's a state that hasn't gone republican since 1988. notably it's a state that his aides are confident benefits him. they say the upper midwest wiz hit by economic downturn several years ago. more than other states. hasn't felt the same benefits other states have felt. they say the polls show it to be a dead heat. the public poll show it to be a four point race.

also minnesota. the public will show an eight point lead. they say they see a much closer to three points. minnesota that hasn't voted for a democratic since 1988. is noticeable because trump kristen, has not been in that state once this campaign with the exception of a single fundraiser. this will be his first public rally barely 24 hours out from when america votes. >> it is a striking choice. we will be watching very closely. peter stay with me. i want to turn to my colleague. andrea, thanks for being here on a chilly day. we have been watching the clinton campaign and this final stretch and we know she wanted to end this race on a positive note. her campaign talked about that. she started to go negative again in the wake of the comey revelation and now out with this new ad today. i want to play it. and get your reaction on the other side. >> it is with humility,

determination, and boundless confidence in america's promise that i accept your nomination for president of the united states. >> it is a historic night in philadelphia as clinton becomes the first woman to accept the presidential nomination from a major party. >> this is the seven minute little mini documentary that the campaign has put together really to try to shift o a more positive note. what do you make of it. >> this is something they wanted to do, as you well know, long before, at least a week ago. saw them shifting to positive note. wh right after she told us she's not going to be responding to attack lines the fbi letter came. it was a bombshell. heard her going really negative against comey and trying to tone down the criticism of the fbi

and turn it against donald trump. theory being as they were being taken down by trump and the e-mail controversy, they had to go really negative against him. remind the voters everything he said about women, muslims, immigrants and hispanics in particular and try to remind of all the reasonableness they had doubts about trump to offset the doubts about her. >> one of the ways she is trying to end this on a strong note, bringing in a team of surogats. the president and going out to colleague who is waiting for the president to speak any moment now. chris, what are you expecting to hear from the president. he's been trying to energize coalition and getting personal about it. >> because what's happening here is kind of astonishing. if you've been following the numbers, smashed records all over the place for early voting. and what a lot of people are looking at is today, soles to the polls.

will the african-american vote increase significantly, number one. number two, at the end of friday, already 200,000 more hispanics had voted. already this year than in all of 2012. i just talked to steve. you know him, kristen. he's something who has a blog. he crunches the numbers. the voting numbers. the early returnings here in florida. he said what he's been looking for is how big is the split of diversity. this is looking to be the most diverse electorate we have ever seen in florida. potentially the biggest one as well. the president is here in part n inin . they need to increase the amount by which they win the early vote. over the weekend, the democrats are past the republicans, but not by as much as barack obama had in 2008 and 2012. here's why she's still needs to

do that. the democrats still need to do that. that's because the republicans tend to outvote on election day. so he's here in florida to bring up that margin. try to make sure that even if that happens again t republicans outperform the democrats. hillary clinton has enough room and i'll tell you if they don't, it's not for lack of a ground game. just spoke to communications director here in florida. she tells me they have 100,000 volunteers. knocking on door which is making phone calls. literally millions of them. biggest battleground state of all. right now, it's too close to call. >> another nail biter in florida. all right. thank you. now i want to head over to kelly o'donnell who is with clinton in cleveland. she has an event later today. lebron james the king. you heard him talking about the importance of african-american

minority voters. african-american voters are so critical to winning the state of ohio. what are you hearing there. >> well, i can tell you that if there is one person who could be bigger than hillary clinton in a visit to cleveland, it is certainly lebron james. he a native. brought the city a championship that had not been seen in multiple generations. so he brings a lot of star power. he also has enormous goodwill in african-american community. the lebron james foundation a lot of work in education and trying to reach out to young people who might not guilty always have some of tv advantages they need. he has a very credible surrogate in northeast ohio for sure. ohio is important with the 18 electoral votes. we are in public auditorium in cleveland. a block from where the republicans held their national convention in july. the republican haves been fighting hard for ohio.

we know donald trump has shown strength here. african-americans represent a large part of the voting block. hillary clinton is trying to be as persuasive as possible to try to reignite the obama coalition. it's this kind of a place she will often invoke the name of obama to try to power voters to want to turn out. sit the kind of thing where you mings star power. you mix dem gra demographics th key. and the prize. if hillary clinton can keep donald trump from winning ohio. that makes it very difficult for him to get to 270. this is must win for a republican, fortunately hillary clinton, this is got to win. to try to stop donald trump. so it is fertile ground and it's already -- this is the losing you're hearing tour for us. this music is already going an hour before we expect lebron james and hillary clinton to be here.

kristen. >> i anticipate lebron james is going to get the crowd going. thank you. andrea, no surprise, and, of course, we are awaiting president obama and donald trump to speak at this hour. no surprise clinton is in ohio the sunday before election day, but a lot of eyebrows raised when she said she's going back to michigan and so is the president. talk about the importance of that. >> they are playi ing defense there. there's no question about it. michigan does not early vote. they have no data points. really don't know where that stand. don't know where they stand as much in pennsylvania in fact. they know in florida. they know in north carolina what the trends are. they really can't calculate began at all. what they're doing here in new hampshire where we are tonight, another late deciding day of, you know, old fashioned tuesday election day, not early voting, and, certainly, in michigan is playing defense. the fact is she's been to detroit. we saw her in detroit just the other night. she has not been to grand rapids. not done the republican parts of the state.

donald trump making a big play for the labor vote. the auto union vote. whether or not that's succeeds remains to be seen. flint, michigan is the place she's been a lot. that is a big play for african-american votes. she has not gone in the republican white areas of michigan. that's what she is trying to do today. >> the campaign is haunted by the bernie sanders upset during the primary. >> absolutely. in michigan, the upset they did not see coming. they did not see the margin here in new hampshire. new hampshire is an insurance vote. if midwest strategy holds, ohio is tough, but if their michigan, wisconsin, strategy holds and they get pennsylvania which they are pretty confidence about getting. they can lose florida and north carolina, but they need one other state and that state has to be either nevada which is looking good. or new hampshire. new hampshire too close to call. >> all right. andrea, peter, chris, kelly thanks to all of you.

great conversation and great way to start out the show. reminder we are the place for politics. keep your tv on msnbc all day long nonstop coverage beginning 9:00 a.m. result and next the mad dash to michigan as we were just talking about, will the state remain blue? that is the question. can trump change that trend. michigan congresswoman weighs in after a quick break. a live look at florida and minnesota. dueling campaign rallies this hour with donald trump and president obama. we'll keep an eye on all of it as we continue live team coverage from new hampshire. stay with us. when you have a cold, you just want powerful relief. only new alka-seltzer plus free of artificial dyes and preservatives liquid gels delivers the powerful cold symptom relief you need without the unnecessary additives you don't. store manager: clean up, aisle 4.

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we're back in new hampshire where hillary clinton will rally supporters tonight. tomorrow she will turn focus to michigan. donald trump holds a rally in michigan later today in a state where just one month ago, clinton held a solid double digit lead. back in october she was up 11 points ahead of trump. a lead that has collapsed to just four within the margin of error. michigan congresswoman joins me now. thank you for being here. i really appreciate it. >> glad to be here. good break from the campaign trail. good, we're glad to have you. i want to start off by talking about something i was just discussing with andrea mitchell which is that upset that bernie sanders pulled off during the primary. how concerned do you think the campaign is that could essentially happen again this time around, particularly as they see the polls get tighter. >> so this is what i'm going to

say. as you made a call, aen degri p michigan was going to be an upset. i'm out there and in the field and i was concerned at the primary time. i have said all summer long all fall, michigan is competitive. you know, polling can be very controversial. it's a snapshot in time. people's assumptions differ. i've been saying that michigan is competitive all fall. the reality is all the attention now is going to ensure that we're getting voters out. too many people clasomplacency set in. i was nervous the night before the primary. i said to many people, i'm really worried about what's going to happen tomorrow. what i'm feeling now is an energy of people understanding their vote matters and people knowing they've got to go to the polls. >> and congresswoman, as we are talking, i want to update viewers. you can see donald trump's plane arriving in minnesota. ahead of his campaign event

there. grosswoman, when i covered the pray mar primary, one thing that stood out was a lot of folks were saying the clinton campaign didn't have their ground game together. do you get the sense right now that they're ground game is on point, that it's where it needs to be to pull off a win in that state. >> it's the difference between night and day. you know how i felt. they had a two city strategy for the primary. bernie sanders was in my district ten times and i didn't ever see the candidate. i was a little grumpy then. now let me tell you. 35 field offices. yesterday they knocked 200,000 doors. there are more than 20,000 shifts scheduled for the next two days. this campaign did have ready was a ground game. and they needed to have people get attack that complacency that had set in and i really have seen a difference. i've seen a significant difference in the last 48 hours of people saying, hey, maybe my

vote does matter. may i do need to care. i'm a gut politician. i'm in every grassroots placeky be. every place i've walked in in the last 48 hours. people are talking to me. they want to know what i think. and they're talking about this election does make a difference. >> congress woman, we have a little bit of breaking news. let me just get this on air. this is from fbi director james comey who wrote a letter to congress. i'm going to read it for viewers. you'reooking at a tweet that says fbi drir r directs terror just informed us we have not changed conclusions we expressed in july with respect to secretary clinton and i have the full letter in front of me. i write to supplement my october 282016 letter that notified you the fbi would be taking additional steps with respect to former secretary of state use of personal e-mail server. since my letter, the fbi investigative team has been

working around the clock to process and review a large volume of e-mails from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation. during that process we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from hillary clinton while she was secretary of state. based on our review, we have not changed or conclusions that we expressed in july. with respect to hillary clinton. i'm grateful to the professionals doing an extraordinary amount of work in a short period of time. congresswoman, i know this is just breaking as we are having this discussion. as you know, the revelation the fbi was looking into newly discovered e-mails had cast a cloud over this campaign. can i get your realtime reaction to what i read on the air. >> sit realtime. which is why we needed transparency. the timing of making this announcement. i still don't understand why the fbi director did it when he did. i think he was trying to protect himself and the institution, but

the fact a that he d look at all these and we are now telling people they found nothing new is very significant and very important. one of the things i'm the most concerned about is the day after this election, we've got to come together. we are a country that's been divided. i don't like it. i don't like what's happened. i'm going to -- i hope my republican friends rksz democratic friends, we're all going to come together the day after this election no matter what happens and remember we're americans first. >> congresswoman, i wonder if you can weigh in on what the political implications might be of what i just read. in the wake of that revelation, a number of days ago that director comey was looking into newly covered e-mails. we saw these polls get tightener almost every battleground state and nationwide. and a lot of democrats who i've been talking to starting to get very jittery. those revelations could cost secretary clinton the presidency. now learning this hour that the fbi director is essentially

saying that what they found in that e-mails doesn't change his bottom line equation. he's not taking any further action. do you think we could see secretary clint's poll numbers go up. >> i think the next 48 hours, anything can happen. please do not let complacency set in anyplace. it will get others outraged. i'm fwlad to hear him come out and say this. there's been a lot of conspiracy theories again. a lot of people out there saying this will, and, again, clears her of any wrongdoing. that is what is important. and what we're hearing. she had no wrongdoing, but we've got 48 hours ahead of us where no one can be complacent. we all need to go out and vote. we've all got to make sure we understand our futures at stake on election day. >> and we have a little bit more to add to this breaking story. brian fallen, communications director for the clinton

campaign has just put out a tweet. we want to put it up on air. i'm going to read it. tweeting, we were always confident nothing would cause the july decision to be revisited. now director comey has confirmed it. did you know this will be the outcome. did you think they could resolve it. i prayed they would resolve it. i think the fbi had more of a responsibility to do it. all of the false things that started coming out. i'm glad to see it happened. i actually took secretary clinton at her word. she said she made a mistake. she said she hasn't done anything wrong. i've known with woman for 30 years. i've worked with her on so many projects. i know what a good decedent honorable person she is. i'm glad it happened, but it is not give lg me one sense of comfort for 48 hours. we have to be all hands on deck working hard. >> congresswoman, i want to ask you to standby as i bring in ben ginzberg who is one of our

republican analyst. really appreciate you being here to be here. let me just remind our viewers, at this very moment, we are getting a letter from director comey he sent to congress and essentially says they have gone through newly discovered e-mails and based on review have not changed conclusions that we express instead july with respect to secretary clinton. ben kwharks is the political significance of this. as i was just discussing with congresswoman, we saw the polls start to tighten in the number of battleground states in the wake of comey's first announcement. could this be a game changer. >> not much time left in the game. it will change the discussion and the narrative in the last 48 hours of voting. i suspect most voters are locked in now. so a sort of nonprosecution statement from the fbi director may or may not actually be a

motivator to get people out to vote. make no mistake about it, it will change what both donald trump and hillary clinton and the campaign say in the last 48 hours. what more discussion in the last 48 hours about the e-mails will do is basically take the clinton campaign off of its positive message and the trump campaign is going to have to change its motivational message. so this does kind of scramble what the campaigns will be saying. >> and ben, as you and i are having this discussion, we are watching president obama depart. he is getting ready for his big event in florida. he's about to depart. he hasn't gotten off yet. of course this will be welcome news to president obama and to all of secretary clinton's top surogats. there's president obama wearing his sunglasses about to address the folks there in that critical battleground state. ben, identi've been talking to

colleague saying florida going to be a lot nail biter. could this type of revelation that we're hearing from director comey and to remind our viewers, we have not changed conclusions that we express instead july with respect to secretary clinton. having reviewed all of these e-mails. could this make a difference in a state like florida? >> it can make a difference in any state, i suspect. i get flash backs when you start talking about florida. what's interesting is both parties have been driving their voters to the polls in the last week while the investigation was still pending. the clinton campaign was very much talking about how many new people it had driven to the polls while the cloud was sort of over them. what you don't know is all the votes that managed to get banked in the last week, how they'll vote, how motivated they were to

vote for secretary clinton. how motivated they were to vote down ballot for republican senate candidates. so this will be used as a motivational speech to those voters who are still left to go out and vote on election day. >> and ben, i'm going to ask you to standby as i bring in my colleague andrea mitchell. you and i have been tracking the fast moving developments with respect to director comey announcing he is looking into newly discovered e-mails which may or may not have related to secretary clinton's state department. what is your reaction to the revelation that at this hour, director comey sending a letter to congress essentially saying they've reviewed all of the newly discover eed e-mails and nothing has changed. >> just to share with you the spokesman for the clinton campaign tweet saying we were always confident nothing would cause the july decision to be revisited. not comey has confirmed it.

it's a clean bill of health. no matter what the days that they've lost in trying to continue with original plan for a five or six or seven day uplifting closing message now they can as they had hoped resume the closing message. the ads they've done t final campaign sprint. a lot of damage has been caused. there's no question that they've lost their leadere in new hampshire in the last week since the first fbi letter came out from comey. they have lost advantage if they ever had one in ohio. they are scrambling to defend michigan. they're neck in neck in florida. now they can try to reach out to those independent swing voters, particularly here in new hampshire and michigan and other states. the and try to close this down. trump campaign with a very unusually disciplined appeal has been going after her hammer and tongue for the past nine days since the first comey letter

came out. i don't know if this is going to review and cause another swing from trump and his allies going back at comey after declaring him a hero for the last nine days. at least the clinton campaign can try to dloes it down. it's still hangi inin ining ove head. doubts have been raised. we see in our own poll kwhag the word clouds show. the distrust for hillary clinton profound for someone who is this close to potentially becoming president of the united states. >> andrea, as i discussed this with ben, i asked if this was a game changer. he raised the very accurate point there's not that much time left in the game. you have covered a number of presidential campaigns. what is the realtime impact of something like this breaking just 48 hours before election day? i guess the question is, in some of these stateds, could it make all the difference or do you think the cake is baked. >> the cake may well be baked. the 11 days out that letter from

comey had a really big influence. first of all, most of the polling places, early polling places in north carolina had only just opened on thursday and his letter came out on friday. you've had a whole week of damage done to the clinton campaign in a number of states that have early voting. whether or not this news can catch up to those states that are still dng tuesday voting and to those who have not yet voted who are planning to vote on monday remains to be seen, but this is awfully late in the game for the news -- for the good news to catch up with the bad news that proceeded it 11 days out. >> and we are looking at donald trump's plane in minnesota. he is about to disembark. we are going to keep that live picture up. as we do, i want to bring ben ginsburg back in. ben, talk about if you would there's been a lot of discussion about director comey.

and the role that he has now played in this election cycle. the fact he now has this sort of terrorny relationship with donald trump and secretary clinton. he was even quoted as saying might be awkward when there is a new president no matter who wins. how does this impact his roll with the potential next president whether it's trump or clinton. >> well, by him doing what he did both opening the investigation because he thought it was important to do that and to tell people about it, and him having resolved it within 48 hours of the election, but before the election he brought the fbi front and center into this campaign in a way that it never has been before and i suspect they are not particularly happy about being put in the role that director comey thought it should be. let me also make the point we can rest assured behind the doors of the trump campaign right now, there's some very

frenzied activity figuring out what donald trump should say when he comes out. and we should also not underestimate the importance of what he says and what his tone is and how he deals with heart breaking news that does cut against the narrative that he's been -- that he's been using for the past few days. this is going to be a big moment to the extent the cake is not baked in the next 48 hours. >> you raised such an important point because donald trump has been so on message, ben. we have seen a very different donald trump. that's part of why he's closing out the race on such a strong note. what do you anticipate his response is going to be when he takes the podium. >> well, i wish i had the abilities to speculate on that. i mean, he basically has two choices. which is one to go hammer and tongue against the fib reaching the conclusion when he'll say the evidence was so obvious this

conclusion is wrong. the second is to try and take a more state man like approach to say they did everything they could. all this has pointed out the weaknesses with hillary clinton. even if she got a clean bill of health on this, she's still not trustworthy and honest. in other words, reinforcing what people say in the polls, but him trying to take a more statesman like and not bam bostonic approach here in the last 48 hours. that in a sense can be an advantage for him. >> president obama taking a podium in florida. we will watch and monitor to see if he raises this issue at all. congresswoman, i want to go back to you. ben talks about the fact that there are likely discussions going on right now within the trump campaign about how exactly he should respond. how do you anticipate secretary clinton will respond when we hear from her later today.

>> well, everything that's been said so far by the way. i think that she will be relieved, but have known all along that she had been telling the truth and glad to have her name cleared again, and, again. why this has to keep happening, i don't know. i think ben is absolutely -- is what some of us predicted he may be which is emotional. not presidential or statesman like. i think these next few hours are as important for donald trump as they are for anybody. >> we're just hearing from jennifer who is of course the clinton campaign communications director. she is holding a gaggle on the campaign plane. let me just read a little bit of what she is telling reporters at this hour. she has said glad to see director comey affirmed the conclusion that he reached in july and that the matter is

resolved. that might be a preview of what we hear from secretary clinton when in fact we do hear from her today. the campaign clearly breathing a sigh of relief about this. and congresswoman, i think a lot of people are surprised that it was resolved so quickly because there was a sense at least we had shade this is going to take quite some time. might not be resolved by the time election day comes around. talk about the significance and the pressure that the fib was under to get to this conclusion before election day. >> fib was under enormous pressure. quite frankly there are many people who feel it was just irresponsible for the timing and didn't understand it. quite frankly, i heard from many people within the fbi bureau that couldn't understand why they had banned political when they had never been political before. he had a responsibility to do what he did today. he cast dispersion on a character which we're now

learning was unfair. i'm glad it has been. we've seen the truth again. we're moving on and focus on the next 48 hours and the future of this country which is the candidate i'm supporting has tried to do through the campaign. i think we have an important 48 hours before us. there are a lot of people left to vote. we have to make sure everybody knows their vote matters. >> congresswoman, i want to ask you the to stay with us. bring in friend and colleague, katie tur. covering the campaign from the very beginning. remind viewers of the breaking news. director comey sending letter to congress. they looked through the new e-mails. the equation has not changed. bottom line not moving forward with any action against secretary clint. are you marrying frhearing from campaign yet. >> i've made multiple calls to the campaign. so far all the calls are going

pretty quickly to voice mail. hearing right now is the campaign scrambling to figure out how to respond to that as ben ginsburg just noted. i would watch this plane door. we see trump landed. watch this door to see how long it takes him to emerge and to take the stage. we do know from some pretty great reporting from the "new york times" today when this fbi revival of the investigation broke a week and a half ago now, nine days ago, donald trump's team wrestled over how he should respond to it for quite a while inside their campaign, inside their plane, excuse me. before he took the stage in new hampshire. that was good news. they were trying to figure out how best to capitalize on that news. in is not as good of news as that was for the trump campaign. this is everything they were hoping would not happen. they have been talking on the campaign trail.

about how this will likely lead to an indictment. that hillary clinton had something to hide. donald trump keeps mentioning over and over. 650,000 e-mails that were found on anthony weiner's computer and they're probably classified. probably even more classified than classified he said at one point. even more confidential than confidential. he's used terms like that on the campaign trail. they saw that as that i recall smoking gun and a way to really gain some ground going into tuesday and i would note donald trump has had nine days, nine days to sit here on stage and insinuate there could be something wrong here. that hillary clinton could have or most likely in his words did do something wrong. that she was talking about things that she should not have and e-mails with huma. he's used anthony weiner's name on the trail. saying huma abedin was sharing top secret information with her

how he's called her pervert and sleaze husband. that it was dangerous. he's used this to his advantage. gop operatives say this was a real key point he could make to get republicans to come home to donald trump. remember, he was not enjoying and has not been enjoying according to the polls the same republican support that past republican nominees have had. people like mitt romney, john mccain. donald trump wasn't over the 90% mark in terms of getting every republican that he can out there to vote for him. so this enabled them to make the rarmt that do you just absolutely have to vote for donald trump because the vote for hillary clinton would be dangerous. earlier at a trump rally in sourks city iowa. trump said we need a government that can go to work on day one for the american people. that will be impossible with hillary clinton. the prime suspect in a far reaching crimilinvestigation. will he say that again at this minnesota rally? that is unclear.

what i can tell you, is that even though donald trump has talked about a likely indictment coming between clinton or for clinton with involvement in the clinton foundation, even though he talked about president obama yelling at a protester. he kept doing that even after those reports were retracted. fox news retracted report talking about a likely indictment between the clinton and clinton foundation. fox news also retracted report that says president obama was yelling at a poerss. despite both of these things. donald trump has continued to talk about it on the campaign trail and now we are seeing this plane door open and donald trump is emerging. we're going to find out in a moment or two how he responds. >> yes, right. he is deboarding right now. heading to his event. he v it will be interesting to see if he responds at this first event. we have justice correspondent joining us as well.

let me remind viewers this was the letter from director comey about newly discovered e-mails. quote, based on review, we have not changed our conclusions that we express instead july with respect to secretary clinton. your reaction to the fact this has been resolved so quickly. >> couple of things i can tell you according to a senior law enforcement official, fir of all, the review is substantially done. it's in essence done. the reason the director sent the letter today is that the intention was to notify congress of the fbi could get through this work and finish it whenever it did he would send the letter. this is not an interim progress report. fbi says they're finished with review. secondly according to a senior law enforcement official what the review discovered is that nearly all the on the server on

the laptop the anthony weiner laptop were duplicates that the fbi had already seen in its investigation of the clinton e-mail server or were personal e-mails that had no bearing on the question of classification. there were some documents that were forwarding previously known documents that had been considered classified, but this official said the in essence the total number of documents found on the clinton server which if memory serves me was 163, that number hasn't changed as a result of this investigation. so in summary, the fbi simply found nothing new and whatever it did find and they're not giving many details, didn't change as the director says in his letter. didn't change their bottom line analysis or whether anything should be prosecuted.

>> all right. pete williams, thank you. we're going to listen in to donald trump who is starting his remarks in minnesota. let's take a listen. >> back in minnesota today. [ applause ] >> so important for me to come here and campaign for your vote. i've been here many times before as you know. and hillary doesn't even -- i mean, she doesn't even bother to come here. she should be penalized. don't vote for her. she'll be a lousy president anyway, believe me. now she refuses to campaign in minnesota. so do you really want a president who doesn't care enough about your vote that she never shows up. she never came here. she never came here. i'm asking for the support of every voter in the state, democratic, republican, independent, first time voters, which there many, many, many who want to take our government back

from the corrupt political class in washington, d.c. i'm asking for the votes of students and parents and retired americans. union workers, african-americans, hispanic americans and all american who is are tired of a government that works for wall street and the special interest, but not for the people. not for the people. it's time for all americans to you you unite and take back our government. >> we are listening to donald trump speaking in minnesota. trying to energize voters in that state, which has not voted for a republican in years, but he is trying to turn that rely rely bli blue state red.

i want to talk strategy with you in the wake of this revelation. it was going to be tough before the announcement. how tough it is to turn a state like minnesota red. >> it's always tough. it's part of filling them inside straight that he would have to do. i think this is going to take a bit of wind out of the sails in the run up to the election. minnesota is a state that has same day registration. often turnout is a place that can get affected, but what happens in the last 48 hours. so pennsylvania and new hampshire where it's only voting on those days. i mean, those are the key battleground states where if you're donald trump, you're going to have to find a message that reminds people what they don't like about hillary clinton and why he is the best choice for america.

i think that was the populist rhetoric you just heard. >> and ben, a lot oaf people are wondering, this initial letter from director james comey came out nine days ago when early voting was well underway in a number of states all across the country. could it have an impact on early voting and how significant? >> well, sure. i think that votes that have been banged by both parties in the last week do have an impact on that. you never quite know what the impact is. you may have gotten more clinton supporters out because they felt she was being victimized. it may have cut back the people who voted in the presidential campaign who her campaign turned out. may have helped donald trump and republicans turn out more. and it may have had people who supported hillary clinton decide to back republicans down ballot to have a check on. again, we always try to generalize about the electorate,

but it's a lot of individuals making personal decisions on how they vote. >> and do we still have congresswoman to weigh in on this? i believe she was standing by with us as well. as we. >> congresswoman, thank you for staying with us. i want to read something we're getting who again talking to reporters aboard secretary clinton's press plane said we had seen director comey's latest letter to the hill. we are glad to see he has found as we were confident that he would he has confirmed the conclusion he reached in july and we're glad that this matter is resolved. again, it's resolved. it's resolved 48 hours before election day, congresswoman. was it resolved quickly enough for you. >> look, it should never have happened as far as i'm concerned, but we are where we are. the fact of the matter is i always believed that this is what would happen. i think he had a moral responsibility for this to

happen. i'm glad it did happen 48 hours before the election day because when this election occurs on tuesday, it's important that we be moving forward not whole bun theories, et cetera. i'm tired of conspiracy theories. i'm tired of a lot of these innuendos. i'm tired of bad reporting. but swe we still have 48 hours ahead of us. early voting impacted people. her name has been cleared. she had told people she was sorry she used this server. he cleared her once. he's cleared her again. it's done. 48 hours are critical in terms of people making sure they turn out on tuesday and how they feel. >> congresswoman, weigh in on what i was just discussing with ben ginsburg, how much impact you think this may have had on early vote, which is already under way in states all across

the country. >> unfortunately, it could have impacted. i think that's a reality. i think it got people wondering again was something going on, why would the fbi director do this. that was i think one of the most disturbing things about this because they failed to weigh in on the russian issue because they didn't want to be political. so a lot of people didn't understand why he did it. and quite frankly, a lot of people thought there must be something to it. so i'm glad that today we are once and for all again, i pray, once and for all, saying she's cleared, there's no new information. there could have been damage done in the hast two days. but i have to focus on the next 48 hours. turning out the vote, not letting complacency settle in. focus on the country that i love and who i want to see leading it. >> i want to go to my colleague now, kasie hunt.

i know you've been working the phones, working your sources. are you hearing anything from inside the clinton campaign? >> we are heading back from philadelphia where we were with the campaign last night and this morning. i have to say i think there's a sizable lead for the clinton campaign, but that comes with grim determination because i think the reality is they know this and obviously people have covered this for the last week or so. it does have an impact on the sort of contours of the race. the clinton campaign has been very focused on trying to emphasize that the tightening in the polls had come before this news initially broke, that they knew that that was coming and this was not what had caused americans to decide that maybe they wanted to go for donald trump u up decided, who were maybe on the fence one way or the other. but it did have particularly an impact on the tenor of the

clinton campaign itself. you were on the plane. you were at the press conference they threw together in iowa. they had been riding high before that. it was hard to find kind of anyone who thought there was a road for them to lose this election. and it changed after that. ever since then, there's been this sense of grim determination. so my sense from the folks that i've talked to in these initial hours after this -- not even hours, initial minutes, is that, you know, this allows them to move forward and underscore what is they have been saying all along. they expected this -- frankly it needs their request from director comey more information about what happened or at least the resolution of this to be put out before the election. so i think this lets them clear the air a little bit, but i'm not sure it changes the plan or the trajectory necessarily because there is such little time left. there's that one more full day of campaigning before everyone

goes to the polls. >> kasie, great analysis. there have been so many twists and turns in this election and this is yet another one 48 hours before voters go to the polls for a final election day. i want to get you to what kellyanne conway just tweeted, of course the trump campaign communications director. it was in response to what brian fallon tweeted. of the clinton campaign, "we were always confident nothing would cause the july decision to be revisited. now director comey has confirmed it." kellyanne conway then tweeted, then why did you, your colleagues, and your candidate attack comey and his credibility? of course that's something that both campaigns have been engaged in. i want to bring ben jealous of the naacpnto this conversation. ben, thank you for being here. let me just get your reaction to this development and the fact that director comey has s now

saying they have reviewed these newly discovered e-mails and nothing has changed. >> look, there's no doubt that this has done damage. what's critical is the next 48 hours, and folks need to get out and vote. i mean, you know, we're seeing that black voting numbers are up in most states. we're also seeing that black voting percentages are down in several states, and that's because the white vote has surged more. and so, you know, i think what that shows is that folks get that this is very important. what's also clear is that there are several voters who are still teetering about whether they would even turn out to vote. those folks need to be clear that now is the time to turn out and vote. >> well, ed, let's unpack that a little bit because you say there's no doubt it's done some damage. i wonder if you can talk about how much damage you think it has done. do you think it's done damage to early voting? we are seeing in a state like north carolina, african-american turnout not as strong as it was at this point in 2012. so how much damage do you think

this has done? >> yeah, well, look, you've got to dig into those numbers, because what you see is actually the black voting numbers are up but the percentages are down, which means the pie has gotten bigger. and most of that has to do, quite frankly, with white voters turning out who did not turn out in 2012. state voices has a new poll of black voters out there that show that most black votes plan on voting, and actually most black voters think that this race is more important than 2012. and what that really gets into quite frankly is people's fear of trump, you know, and how clear he has made it that he intends to turn back the clocks on all of us. >> and ben we are just getting the first sound from jennifer palm palmieri. i've been reading out what she's been telling reporters aboard the campaign play.

i want to play this and get your reaction on the other side. jennifer palmieri, communications director for hillary clinton. shoo we have seen director comey's latest letter to the hill. we are glad to see as we were -- that he has found as we were confident that he would that he has confirmed the conclusions that he reached in july. and we're glad that this matter is resolved. >> ben, you have jen palmieri saying the matter is resolved, has a smile on her face. i can tell you i was with her and the campaign when they first learned of this revelation that director comey was looking into these newly discoverdiscovered nine days ago. it was a campaign that was knocked on ints heels. to what extent does this give secretary clinton the momentum in these final 48 hours? >> well, look, this gives her a clear path forward to really get back to talking to voters about what's important, to talking about jobs, to talking about,

you know, frankly finally getting our country beyond mass incarceration to, you know, talk about building a country that pulls together and isn't torn apart the way donald trump's rhetoric has frankly already had an impact. whether you see the black church burn eed three days ago with "ve trump" painted on the side or the kkk endorsement or young right suburban basketball players chanting build the wall because they're playing a primarily latino team. she has run a campaign that is about pulling this country together and that's what she needs to be getting back to talking about right now. >> ben, you raise a really important point, i think, which is that the clinton campaign had wanted to end this campaign on a positive note. they were going to talk about issues, they were going to talk about secretary clinton's vision, and after this news broke nine days ago that director comey had started looking into these newly

discovered e-mails, secretary clinton started going on the attack again. now today, yesterday, they released new ads, positive in tone, positive in nature, a seven-minute mini documentary showcasing her entire run for the presidency. does she need to stay on a positive footing in these final 48 hours to really energize not only those african-american voters that we're talking about but latinos and those younger millennials who are such a critical part of the obama coalition and who will be critical if she wins the white house? >> we've got a lot of people of color and a lot of good people of conscience of all colors who are still trying to figure out whether or not they're going to vote. right now what they need to hear are the positive reasons to vote. all of this negative campaigning turns a lot of voters off. we have to get back to talking about what's at stake for our families, what's -- and quite frankly, the big opportunity to

end mass incarceration, to actually spur job creation, to fix health care, and to finally get to a place with we're pulling together as a country after being divided by donald trump's campaign for so long. >> all right. ben jealous, thank you so much. thanks to ben ginsburg, my colleague kasie hunt, pete williams, andrea mitchell and congresswoman debbie dingle for helping us break down all of this breaking news. with that i want to toss it to steven kornacki and just remind our viewers this breaking news we are covering, fbi director james comey saying they have now reviewed those newly discovered e-mails and nothing has changed with respect to secretary clinton. with that, steve, i'll toss it to you. >> kristen welker, thank you for that. picking up our coverage in new york, two days away from election day. we were calling it an october surprise when james comey, the fbi director, as kristen welker was just saying, came out and said new e-mails had been discovered potentially related to that investigation into hillary clinton's prooismt e-mail server. no