week ago on huma abedin and anthony weiner's shared computer. obviously relief from clinton campaign is good just two days from elections day. communications director just after the news broke. >> we have seen director comey's latest letter to the hill. we are glad to see as we were -- he has found, as we were confident he would, conclusions he reached in july and we're glad this matter is resolved. >> so the frustration from her campaign as well. there is possibility of political damage endured by the campaign last nine days. spokesman brian fallon tweeting, "we're glad this issue is resolved but for the record this could easily have been learned before the first letter was sent. that was sent october 28th, threw this campaign into chaos. donald trump's campaign manager

kellyanne conway joined us just after this letter was sent out. we will bring you her reaction, what she and her campaign are saying about all this in just a few minutes. let's start first with nbc's kelly o'donnell in cleveland. clinton just wrapped up a rally with lebron james. kelly, that was supposed to be the headline. king james, hillary clinton, big rally, swing state ohio. pretty much overshadowed this news. what is the reaction from the clinton campaign. is clinton herself going to be addressing this you think? >> i've fwn talking to senior advisers. do not expect her to talk about this. do not do this here. i was told she was informed about this latest letter her reaction was, quote, understated. i guess that's left open to interpretation what that means but understated was the word used. instead advisers say hillary clinton is trying to focus on her closing argument, trying to

turn some of her connection with voters to look past tuesday. you've got a bit aviles partisan message, tal about working together, talking about dealing with gridlock and how that can be undone. sort of reaching past to a time when the country could come together if she were elected. in this room when lebron james was here and about 4,000, according to the campaign, were in attend absencancettendance, in the moment experience. it was not something buzzed about with fbi letters. they know it's been talked about. you'll hear her surrogates, staffers talking about this issue but don't expect her to address it in the final days. couple of reasons. they want her to be looking forward. they think there's nothing to be gained by her addressing this especially with this better news for them that there was no change in comey and department of justice assessment that there would be no charges filed. no reason to reach back for that. she has seshl lots of surrogates

who can do that steve, we're already seeing how there's reaction with lawmakers and other campaigns at the congressional level, lots of pecking at this latest generation of fbi comey drama. some say it's rushed. others say it's a relief. this should not have even been brought forward and it all, of course, falls on party lines. steve. >> kelly o'donnell out there in cleveland. thu for that. here on set in new york with us some of our road warriors, kasie hunt, hallie jackson. kasie, let me start with you. you first reported this, middle of the day. >> i don't want to talk about it. >> so much has happened since then. james comey said then newly discovered e-mails threw this entire campaign into chaos. donald trump have had the last nine days to cast all sorts of new aspersions object hillary clinton. what does this do now to the final two days of this campaign. >> i'm interested to see honestly how it affects hillary

clinton herself as a candidate. i think this is actually something they feel -- something they needed. being on the campaign trail with them they feel they will win the race but it's a grind. it's about letting the machine they have been building do its work. the numbers have been pretty encouraging as a whole but mood in the campaign after this news broke just completely nose dived. one week she was going to an adele concert in miami. you couldn't figure out a question to ask the aides along a negative line a that suggested this. everything switched after this news came out. all of a sudden the question is could you lose new hampshire, all these questions about michigan. the mood changed to one of grim determination. they were determined to grind this out. i think this gives them a chance to spend the last 48 hours of the campaign on a high note. they were starting to get there last night in philadelphia they

had kind of all of the clinton alumni, they invited them over to the hotel for a reception with hillary clinton. there was a lot of reminiscing. people starting to feel, hey, the end of this is pretty near, we're upbeat, we think we're going to pull this out. at the same time there's nerves there that weren't before. while the clinton campaign will start to argue they were seeing tightening in the polls before this news broke, i think there's no doubt it had a significant impact if nothing else on the moral of the campaign. i do think they don't have very much time but it has a potential to help her. >> what's the flip side of that, katie. if nine days when it broke moral changed, talk of donald trump playing offense, is this state in danger, that state in danger. now the reverse is happening. fbi again and politically is delivering good news for clinton, politically a blow to trump's campaign.

what does this do to trump's message, his closing? >> nine days ago they were absolutely giddy over this. you could see donald trump come out on stage in new hampshire when this news broke and say i've got a major announcement. hillary clinton is under investigation. the whole crowd just cheered and chants of lock her up erupted. it did give new life. it gave a way to stop talking about donald trump's negative headlines, most notably the allegations surrounding him about these women who said he inappropriately touched them. also questions surrounding his relationship with russia. that was out of the headlines. donald trump was staying on message, staying on prompter and everything was focused on hillary clinton and this fbi case, what was it going to uncover. the campaign certainly helped to feed into that -- it could be anything. it's probably going to lead to an indictment, though, narrative that was out there. after this broke, i mean, it's hard to see how the campaign

could be feeling good about it. kellyanne conway a moment ago said the campaign isn't really run by the fbi investigation. they are trying to focus on the jobs message. the reality is they have been talking about hillary clinton being corrupt and this fed directly into that and enabled republicans who were unsure of donald trump to come home. it was hopefully going to get other democrats who didn't like hillary clinton to stay at home. now they don't have that. again, we're two days until the election about, i gus, right? >> a little earlier in northern new hampshire, that tiny location voting midnight monday into tuesday. we are going to play, by the way, exactly what kellyanne conway has to say about this in a second. the reaction we're getting from hillary clinton. this news breaks. she's scheduled for this wrally with lebron in cleveland. she knows everything that's happened when she takes the stage in cleveland and she doesn't address it. >> strategy. her campaign as kasie knows,

kristen welker knows, look, we don't think this will change the landscape. maybe a hope and a prayer. hey, now that this came out this proves us right so she doesn't need to talk about it. the same way donald trump incorporated it into his speech in rallies didn't make it the profile centerpiece as far as the headline. it wasn't the first thing he talked about. he talked about it in the sense of talking about her corruption, obama care. here is the thing, donald trump started this campaign defiantly, and he will end it that same way defiantly. it doesn't matter what the fbi has said. he could potentially talk about this fbi investigation. >> he is still talking about it. >> in minnesota he came on stage 20 minutes after the news broke and continued to say the same line he's been saying. what i think this has done for the past nine days donald trump learned a lesson his aides wanted him to learn for the last seven months if he does stay on message his narrative would start shifting as his campaign

would see it, more favorable. you heard himself give the pep talk. you heard a reporter yell, stay on script, donald. you see the polls tighten. the last 48 hours reinforce the message to him if he talks about hillary clinton he'll move in the right direction. >> we saw after the development, fbi said, hey, no charges. donald trump didn't stop using it as political weapon. it's just the possibility there would be something more to this story. now the fbi is saying that's not happening either. we will end with trump still using as a weapon. kasie, hallie, thank you. speaking of how the trump campaign is handling this, the reac, what they are going to be doing because of this, his campaign manager kellyanne conway just in the last hour sat down with me. i asked her about her reaction and what this means for her campaign. take a listen. kellyanne conway, look, when this story broke, friday october 28th, donald trump reacted and said this is bigger than

watergate when it was announced there were newly discovered e-mails the fbi was going to be taking a look into. is it safe to say from your stand point now this issue is closed. >> some things haven't changed at all. fbi comey said under oath to congress is the same. she was reckless and careless in her handling of the information. she lied. there was not classified information. he said there was. she lied. she only used one device. he said under oath she used multiple devices. we know she left classified material at a hotel in china. we know as of this morning we come to find out she ask her housekeeper to print out classified information for her at home where she's got the private server to begin with, i guess. the reason so many americans have a problem with hillary clinton's honest y, trustworthiness and veracity does not change. i find it deliciously ironic

democrats jumped all over james comey and completely attacked him for what he thought was doing his job, went so far afield calling into question his credibility, he should resign. he's interfering with an election. do they feel like fbi director james comey is dealing with the election today, two days before the election, i wonder. >> let me ask you what you think of that. i've heard mixed messages from your campaign. over the summer when he initially made the announcement he wasn't recommending charges i heard from supporters trump himself, an example in trump's words rigged against him, greased the skid against him. when he made the announcement, donald trump said, look, i have to give him credit. i think he's doing the right thing. how are you interpreting comey's intervention. two days before he sends a letter to congress. what do you think of his action? >> steve, i thought he's mishandled it from the beginning.

this proves it geb. in other words, why the dribs and drabs. the investigation is over, no it's not, just kidding. not pressing charges but let me go to congress two days later and testify all the things she did wrong that might lead a different prosecutor to pressing charges. that was the frustration and, indeed, the consternation for many people including donald trump and his campaign in that if she just did all these things and folks have done far less, general cartwright, the associate in the submarine doing far less they either have or may face jail time -- >> kellyanne, i want to stop you. whatever side you're on it's rather extraordinary what played out over the last nine days. you had the fbi director saying, whoa, newly discovered e-mails. all the drama that ensued from that. do you think now that it is appropriate for him to pvide this update two days before the election?

i know politically this may not be good news for your campaign. do you consider this appropriate given what happened nine days ago that he provides the update he just provided? >> first, i don't believe it's politically good or bad information for our campaign. we have not made this the centerpiece of our messaging even though we're asked about it cob stanley. donald trump is out there talking about obama care and talking about job creation and he's at a rally right now doing exactly that. this has not been front and center of our campaign. >> he did call it when these e-mails were discovered, he called it bigger than watergate. that suggests a central role in your message. >> let me ask you something. do you think they went through hundreds of thousands of e-mails in a week? that may strike a lot of americans as unusual. i don't know if i have the capacity to do that. i don't know if i would wan, as a taxpayer, fbi stopping every single thing they are doing to focus on that and i doubt they did because they are responsible men and women. >> let me be clear, in terms of the reporting here when we say hundreds of thousands of e-mails we're talking about just the

total number of e-mails that existed only computer, not the total number -- this was a personally used computer, not the total number relevant to this case. do you doubt this review was thorough? >> i sure hope it was thorough. it didn't change my mind that the investigation has been mishandled from the beginning. why did we find out today the housekeeper is printing out confidential information? why did we find out in the course of the investigation that hillary clinton lied about whether she exchanged confidential information. james comey said she did. why did she use one device when they were up to 13 of them. why did she lie she did everything by the book and colin powell told her so. no, she didn't. lie after lie. less than 60% of american already say they don't trust her and slightly lower number don't like her are going to change their mind because of this, it's folly.

they are not. some of the facts are still the same. she was reckless, careless, selfish. there was no reason to set up the sebber in the first place. no reason for us to have wasted all these resources of our federal government to track down her petty, peevish selfish interest, setting up the server, lying about it. congress having to investigate it, fbi, doj. poem will still make up their minds when they think loretta lynch and bill clinton discussed on the tarmac. what the electorate is thinking tuesday, i don't see a change in a new and different direction, new direction, 0% these not going to change because the fbi director came back out. i think it's ironic they threw an anvil on top of james comey's head the moment he did this, including the president, saying

he doesn't want him to work on innuendo in the election and now he's a hero. >> speaking of innuendo, donald trump just today in iowa, he said in reference to this he called hillary clinton the prime suspect in a far reaching criminal investigation. so now we find ow that this newly discovered trove of e-mails. nothing changed from where we were over the center. is it fair to say from your standpoint millions of votes cast over the last nine days. donald trump got to spend nine days saying things like i read back to you prime suspect in wide ranging criminal investigation. is it fair to say you guys got an advantage here based on actually nothing happening? >> that's not true, something did happen. the fbi director said he was relaunching an investigation or reopening the old one, i saw it

differently. that has nothing to do with us. our campaign doesn't tip his hand. we certainly didn't criticizes hill and persecute him the way others did. now they are saying we knew he wouldn't change his conclusion. let's be fair about what his conclusions won't be changed. those conclusions include the fact she was reckless and careless, she lied about the server, lied about classified inform achlgs the fact she put yours and my security at risk doesn't change. didn't change october 28th and doesn't change today. look, for all the advantages this woman harks the machine she built, the fact she starts out with 240 electoral votes and the so-called blue wall and she can't get those other 22 electoral votes and we're forcing her to dip into the 248, playing follow the leader, forcing her all over the electoral map. they are in michigan, wisconsin, living in pennsylvania. let's go back to new hampshire. all blue states that president obama carried twice. and it is our campaign that has

them on the run in those states. that won't change. you won't need to go to michigan today. we'll probably win because director comey yet again inserted himself into the electoral process today. that's not going to change. the fact people don't trust this woman and she can't get above 50% in any of these states and stay there won't change today. >> again, donald trump's campaign manager kellyanne conway. that was her first television interview since comey's announcement this afternoon. here now on set with us msnbc correspondent ari fleischer. i'm dizzy on each campaign changing its mind. when it broke today newt gingrich said comey bowing to partisan pressure putting this letter out. hillary clinton said he bowed to political pressure when he put the first letter out. what do you make of his actions then and now? how do you make sense of this? >> those responses are credible. why they have the rule, like a 60 day rule not to get into the

heat of campaigns. i thought the second letter today was extraordinary, unusual, and reflects clearest evidence that jim comey misfired in the first letter. the first letter didn't say i'll be back in nine days with an update. it was written to sound like the end of something for a while and it wasn't. let's look back at that first letter and remember what we've learned. the first letter said, look, fbi learned of e-mails that appear to be pertinent but cannot yet assess whether it's significant to translate the legal jargon. we found something but we don't know what it is and what it means, if anything. nine days later what the fbi is saying and it's significant when an fbi commits a letter like this to update, he's saying, never mind. nothing here. to pivot off what it didn't say or did say. what's important when we look at this coverage, it's now clear fbi director comey got the process wrong, made a procedural

mistake and that's why he's basically had to have a do-over. whether the substance is wrong is what they care about. the original investigation with all its research come to the right conclusion of no charges or wrong conclusion and folks can debate that from the outside. but the notion that a few more stray e-mails from a person, huma abedin, who was part of the original inquiry, were going to change that conclusion was always unlikely. >> ari melber, our chief legal correspondent. >> thank you. coming up, we are, of course, talking about what the political fallout of this latest letter could be. where does the race stand right now 48 hours until election day. nbc news "wall street journal" poll, we'll take you through all these numbers. we're going to take a trip to the big board and show you where the all important race to 270 stands. much more on the reaction as it continues to roll in. we had an october surprise, now a november surprise. stay with us. redid you say 97?97! yes. you know, that reminds me of geico's

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critical breaking news announcement. the fbi has just sent a letter to congress informing them that they have discovered new e-mails

pertaining to the former secretary of state hillary clinton's investigation. this is bigger than watergate. this is bigger. than waterigate. in my opinion. >> that was nine days ago. donald trump in new hampshire reacting to what we call the october surprise. that was the the news nine days ago that fbi director james comey had written a letter to congress saying e-mails possibly linked to hillary clinton's server had been found on a private laptop belonging to anthony weiner and huma abedin. nine days later a very different story with second let tore congress from fbi directory james comey. let's bring in senior editor of politics nbc news. teresa kumar, msnbc president -- contributor. we had the president of nbc,

that would be interesting. president and ceo and msnbc contributor and founder of "washington post" "the fix" chris cillizza. beth, the news broke nine days ago. donald trump had a rally. as you just saw he led the rally with what he saw as breaking news. he a rally this afternoon after the second letter with james comey came out did not lead the rally with news. does this take the wind out of the sails in the final days of the campaign or is the damage done with hillary clinton. >> i think a little of both. he had a great run, put hillary on the defensive after a strong october, most of october. but things have been petering out a little bit. we've seen him flying all over the place with no apparent strategy lining up 270 electoral votes he needs. you said he was in minnesota giving an address. what does he do in minnesota. that state never in play, never has been. they have gotten a little sense

of desperation and randomness in how they are approaching final days. this did take even more energy away from him, this revelation. however, the damage definitely is done. we saw this last week. hillary clinton was not the same kind of buoyant, upbeat, ready for victory candidate that we'd seen even just a day or two before. she's just grinding it out, grinding it out, trying to get to the end of this. we'll see what happens tuesday. she's favored in our national tracking poll, "washington post." it's not the same kind of buoyant end she had hoped for. >> maria, can you see the voter, is there a profile of voter today who gets this news and was torn between the two with clinton -- was with trump and now with clinton. does this move people at the end. >> this happened, had he come out five days before early voting, yes. a lot of early voting has already taken place. i think people right now as beth mentioned want it to be wednesday. they want tuesday to be over so they can go back to their lives.

they are already baked in. the difficulty if you saw mike pence, mike pence today even though this came out with comey he was doubling down saying not trustworthy. those people solid in the trump camp. the fact he's going around the country speaks more to the fact he doesn't have organization, doesn't have a ground game with rnc. there was recently an article that came out this morning that said folks in rnc you work all night and work on a campaign, they are leaving at 5:00 going to happy hour like they want it to be done. >> chris, let me ask you. i think this was in your poll "washington post" daily news tracking poll when that first letter was written by comey nine days ago, the next day it looked like in that poll the bottom fell out for hillary clinton. more recently it sort of stabilized. but i'm wondering if there was a big negative effect for her in that daily tracking poll when that first letter came out. are we maybe going to see the reverse in the final hours of the campaign because of this letter?

>> i think marginally so. i think we have her up five, steve, which gels closely with nbc "wall street journal" poll as well. look, i tend to k that the influence on this when it came and sort of how it's resolving it's self this close to the election is much more among the bases of the party than a swing voter. to your question, i can't imagine there would be someone thinking, okay, now i'll be for her. i feel like much of this is baked in. to me the way it really hurt her and hurt down ballot democrats, quite frankly, is to sap a little bit of enthusiasm. as beth pointed out, there was less energy and excitement on the campaign trail around her the last week because it was sort of like, this again. she will probably be more buoyant, more sort of optimistic in these last 48 hours. but i do think it can -- even a point or two of enthusiasm lost in the base does matter. organization can make up for a

lot of that, and i think you're seeing that in early vote in nevada and florida in particular for clinton. the broader point being, i don't know that this was ever going to change vast number of swing voters' minds. ic its impact was on enthusiasm in the base. i think she has a big enough lead to withstand that but the race will probably be closer than we -- it might have been if this never came up nine days ago. >> that's been one of the questions here, too. we're looking a couple weeks ago at polls that show close to double digits, double digits, came down to clinton two, three, four. was that inevitable? how much of this story is that? >> almost a little more of the same. the only place she seems to be getting her enthusiasm is when she's right now in the middle of clouds with latino community doing markets and actually speaking to cubans. cubans haven't voted for a democrat since the 1960s. with the idea they are giving her juice, that's the kind of

thing we're seeing. one thing that's remarkable and talks about how we've been basically gone above politics, nobody is talking about the history she's making if she were to become the first woman president. that's secondary to this narrative. >> it's really true. the other thing i would add to that and to add to chris's point, really the lasting damage on this, and if she's to win, we don't know, she's ahead right now, this hardening of the notion she's a secretive person who has got things she's hiding. how much of that is going to follow her into the white house. you're right. she's making history as a first woman candidate. there should be incredible buoyancy around that and there is among certain people. but this is a shadow cast over her that she unfortunately has to deal with. >> ingenuity gingrich today, before this broke newt gingrich saying, look, investigations will continue. >> we heard that from people in congress. >> chris, let me ask you a bottom line question. if you're a trump voter who for

the last nine days who says this, this e-mail thing, this fbi news carrying my candidate over the top, in light of this letter today, what should that trump -- is there anything for the trump voter to latch onto? >> the message wouldn't change there. unfortunately the way we are in politics now, the message from republicans will be, of course, they pressured him into saying that, the same way message from democrats nine days ago, the fbi and james comey doesn't want her to win. the unfortunate thing is we can't point to any institution, fbi, congress, reporters, the church, banks, whoever, and say i have confidence in this group to make decisions that are not colored by politics or personal views, so my guess is the trump voter will conclude and donald trump will probably say to the extent he addresses it, of course that's what the fbi did. after all they worked for attorney general loretta lynch. you know who her bs is, barack obama. of course it leads exactly what you guys are talking about, a

hardening of partisanship that will not end on november 8th. everyone points to tuesday as though this is the be all end all. yes, it's the end of something but it is not the end of i think what trump has sort of represented. thattes not going to disappear win or lose or god forbid draw, the worst thing ever. that's not going to disappear any time soon. i think we're in for more of the same rather than something different. >> the flip flopping from both parties and whether they consider james comey to be a man of integrity or partisan attack will probably continue. thank you. up next, where the race stands two days out. we have brand-new numbers. nbc news "wall street journal" poll. our final look at the electorate before tens of millions of americans go to the polls on tuesday. as we head to the break president obama campaigning for hillary clinton in florida reacting to a report that

staffers on trump's campaign now have taken control of his twitter account. >> this was just announced, i just read it. i can't confirm it's true but apparently his campaign that taken away his twitter. in the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control, they said we're just going to take away your twitt twitter. now, if somebody can't handle a twitter account, they can't handle the nuclear code. g 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 ♪

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all right, folks. this is it. can you blef it's here. we are on sunday before election day 48 hours from now tens of millions of americans will be out at the polls casting their ballots. tuesday night we will count them all up and we will have a winner probably. with that in mind, where exactly does this race stand in the final homestretch of this race. we've got our final look before tuesday's vote. the final nbc "wall street journal" poll on the state of this presidential race. what do we have? we see hillary clinton with a lead here of four points, 44-40 over donald trump.

so clinton ahead. again, we were talking two, three weeks ago, there was talk a blowout race. some talk she could pull away. it has tightened but clinton still ahead. there's a couple of reasons why hillary clinton has the lead over donald trump we can dive into them. one is this, this was the problem republican party identified for it's self after they lost four years ago. they said one of the reasons we lost four years ago, one of the things we have to address is our party's support with latino voters. four years ago mitt romney running against barack obama lost latino vote by 44 points. republicans, at least republican national committee said after that election never again. we're not going to let that happen again. hillary clinton leading 45 points among latino voters. in our poll and the numbers we're seeing the problem republicans had with latinos it has not gotten better. it's the possibility it's not just hillary clinton winning by 45 points among latinos, is the

latino turnout rate going to be higher. that could compound the problem. there's also this. we're seeing a split among white voters we've never seen before. check this out. whites with college degrees, suburban whites, four years ago a group mitt romney won. never in modern times has a democratic candidate for president won this group of voters. hillary clinton leading by serve in our poll. flip side blue-collar white voters, white voters without a college degree, donald trump up by 32 points. that would be better than mitt romney did with that group four years ago. a widening split among white voters. what does this mean to the race to 270. check this out. right now hillary clinton pretty good in states equaling 268 votes. donald trump far off that pace. if you're donald trump, you're his campaign there's two things you're looking for here. first of all obvious path would be you win everything that's gray on this map. everything that's a toss-up now,

you have to win every single one of those gray states, florida, georgia, carolina, ohio, iowa, nevada. you've got to get that congressional district in nebraska, congressional district in maine. if you slip up in one of those states hillary clinton over, ball game. narrow path. that's an exceedingly narrow path. the trump campaign knows it. when we talk about donald trump being in surprising places that have people scratching their heads, that's why. they know if they lose a north carolina, lose nevada, they have got to find other states to replace them. so where are they looking? we've seen donald trump in michigan, donald trump pennsylvania, donald trump today in minnesota. what is it that the trump campaign sees in these places as at least a possibility of having something happen. we just showed it to you. blue-collar white voters, rural white voters. the idea of trump running up next we haven't seen rural

areas, blue-collar areas, in minnesota, iron range of minnesota they see a potential there to do something republicans haven't done before. they see it in rural areas, northern michigan. there's blue-collar mccomb county outside detroit. they see possibilities there. obviously everything in pennsylvania away from philadelphia in the suburbs, in not pittsburgh, pretty much everything else. they see possibilities there. again, what we've seen in the polls in these states still says hillary clinton has the advantage in all of them. one of the reasons again suburban white voters. in the rural areas, they could be offset by the problems he has, unprecedented problems he has in suburban areas. of course also where is hillary clinton going to be with barack obama, with bill clinton, with joe biden tomorrow night right before the election, going to be in philadelphia. barack obama won philadelphia by half a million votes four years ago. if they can get that kind of energy, the democrats out of philadelphia again no matter

what trump does in rural areas may not be enough to offset it. donald trump call it a hail mary pass in blue state america that is what trump is thinking. if they can't swing toss states they have to get a miracle in blue states. for trump he's set to take the stage in michigan, one of those blue states he's looking for a miracle win. this is his third of five rallies on the schedule today. nbc's jacob rascon joins me from the rally. donald trump trying to set up something no republican has done in michigan since 1988 and blue states in general. he's looking at the last minute to change this map. >> yeah. talk about head scratchers. we're in minnesota just now. it was an enormous crowd, in fact, one of the more energetic we've seen recently. one of the things that stuck out i would say in that rally, that came 20 minutes or so after the

comey letter, new comey letter. it was strikeing to me that nine days after that other letter he mentioned fbi in every speech probably several times. in this speech in minnesota, he doesn't mention fbi once even though he did say hillary clinton he said would be under investigation for a long time. he didn't actually say fbi. it was to me a stark omission. again, one of those blue states he said it will be an upset there. now we're going to michigan that you've been talking about. michigan tomorrow as well, in fact, is where he will end the campaign. he just add add very late 11:00 rally in michigan. right now we're about 30 minutes away from sterling heights, just a suburb of detroit where he will hold a rally there. we expect him to hit his core messages of obama care again. jobs as he always does when he's in michigan. we're all waiting to see if

he'll talk more about the fbi. as you know, kellyanne conway, their central message. i would note i was, as others were, a little surprised right after the initial comey letter he didn't talk more about the fbi. he spent all of four minutes in that in addition press conference and subsequent press conferences did not spend all his time or as much as we thought he might. his message continues to be about corruption, jobs but that omission of not saying the fbi we'll see if he repeats that here as he looks to expand the map. the campaign says internal polling says michigan will ab big surprise. >> okay. jacob rascon on the road on the way to the trump rally. up next, how many times have you heard that word in connection with the presidential race.

unprecedented. we've seen things, we're going to try to put them in perspective. stick around.

welcome back. recapping breaking news all this afternoon and this evening, the november surprise. fbi director james comey sending to congress this afternoon a letter saying he and his bureau finished their review of the newly discovered e-mails linked to the private server hillary clinton used as secretary of state. comey also telling lawmakers

that the review does not change the conclusion he reached back in july. that is when he said that hillary clinton should not face charges in this matter. the justice department agreed. she was not prosecuted. the clinton campaign said she's happy the matter is resolved. bring in presidential historian michael beschloss. michael, nine days ago when that first letter went to congress from james comey we started looking, when have we seen october surprise in presidential election. >> sure did. >> thought back to 1992, weinberger indictment on the eve of the election, bush dui. now the added twist of the story nine days later producing a second surprise. this really does feel unprecedented. >> look at the timing. the most recent one of these things was 2004 when john kerry was running against president george w. bush friday before the election. there was an osama tape that reminded people of the danger of terrorism, helped bush a lot.

as you remember george w. bush just lost ohio or that flipped, j.k. would have been president. as you mentioned in 2000, the dui arrest of george w. bush in 1976 was revealed midweek before. in '92 the weinberger indictment which did hurt george h.w. bush by the special prosecutor suggesting he knew more about the iran contrascandal than he suggested. but those were four days before. here we are two days before. but steve, the thing i think is going to be astounding to people we've got nine days the voters voting under the spell of this comey letter. in those earlier cases i talked about, there wasn't anywhere near the spread of early voting that we now have in 2016. an awful lot of people during the last nine days have been voting under the misapprehension because of that first letter that hillary clinton was in trouble, flames that were fanned by donald trump. i think what this really is

going to suggest in the future is that people are going to have to look at do we want to have situations in the future where however well intentioned he may have been, an fbi director can have this much impact on our political process at the last minute. >> i also wonder, too, we talk so much about polarization and partisanship and how that changed and sort of evolved over the years, where if you had a story like this maybe in the past, maybe the motives of the fbi director wouldn't have been in all cases in the story wouldn't have been questioned and challenged by each side as much as they have been. it's sort of the erosion of authority, how polarization and partisanship, whether it's from the news media, whether it's from the fbi director, there's that erosion of authoritative voices in our politics. >> you are so right. we'd love to think we can trust the fbi and consider its director above politics. the main reason we should feel that way is because for decades

the head of the fbi was j. edgar hoover notorious meddling in politics black mailing politicians. 1964 lyndon johnson's most important thing bringing civil rights to the country, civil rights act and later on voting rights. at the same time he had a maverick fbi director j. edgar hoover who was personally leaking damaging information to reporters on martin luther king, who was lbj's greatest civil rights ally. those were the times we had a right to think we were long past. >> michael beschloss, presidential news historian. we say unprecedented. it's always good to put it in some perspective. >> we're all trying, steve. coming up donald trump has repeatedly claimed the election is being rigged. he said that in connection, obviously, with this fbi and its handling of this case. we are waiting to see what his reaction is to this latest

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i'm calling it the november surprise. october surprise was comey's first letter, november surprise the second letter. we've been talking about the politics of this. let me ask you one of the things reported in the last nine days as we sort of absorbed the first

one all the infighting taking place within the fbi, maybe fighting between the fbi and the justice department, all of these different factions. if there was a situation where comey at the end of october found out that there was about to leak, that the idea there were these new e-mails, they involved anthony weiner, huma abedin, that was about to leak to the press. if it leaked to the press, there would be this whole story, is comey sitting on damaging information, doesn't the public deserve to know. if he knew that, had a sense that would happen, was there an obligation to come forward and get it out on his terms first? >> not legally. weakness is provocative. if your attitude insubordination is to be weak and give into them before they occur then you obviously are strengthening the threat of what is sectionally a rule breaking in your own agency of leaking. who knows if it would have leaked or not. it's not a good defense on his part. if people are wondering at home, okay, ari, let's be realistic

could be a legal problem. sure, you memorialize it. you have a memo, here is what we're doing. the review to tensionally nine days, we'll act on it. something leaks before then we'll act then. this was to update congress when we knew something not before we knew something. >> what is long-term fallout for james comey. if hillary clinton wins the election. he's in there. he's going to have to deal with him, the next administration have to deal with him as fbi director. you've had democrats calling for his head, some of them over the last nine days as this plays out. are there long-term ramifications comey, how democrats would treat him after the election. >> quite possibly for comey and fbi as well, a question about the bureau's role and how political it should be. i will note this, jim comey by most legal experts and people who know about this, put partisans aside, he has only been accused of poor judgment. he has not been accused of any

ethical breach or integrity. indeed, i've followed his career for a long time. his integrity has always stood out. the question is why he thought he should break with procedure and normal rules to try to make an announcement he thought would help but ultimately hurt. how do we know that, the nine days letter, attempted do-over suggested he saw there was something he needed to clean up. i don't think he has an integrity problem. i think he has a reputation problem. he's got to get ahold of a leak from the fbi. >> ari melber, a very busy afternoon, early evening. not slowing down at all. that's going to do it for this hour. our coverage just under way. up next, "hardball with chris matthews" continues. our special weekend election coverage 48 hours until election day. of new customers. i know. can you believe we're getting orders from canada, ireland... this one's going to new zealand. new zealand? psst.

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fbi to hillary clinton, you are innocent. let's play hardball. good evening, i'm chris matthews in new york. with just hour to go until election day breaking news from federal bureau of investigation. director james comey late today told every member of congress that fbi has found no evidence of any wrongdoing by presidential nominee hillary clinton. she is clean of any possible

charge, innocent after fbi has looked at all the e-mails on anthony weiner