An overall review by CNN Politics Nightcap
By Eric Bradner
FBI’s Comey in harsh spotlight of 2016 campaign
Suddenly, the figure at the center of the 2016 presidential race isn’t even running for office. James Comey’s revelation Friday that the bureau is reviewing newly discovered emails that might be linked to Hillary Clinton’s private server made the FBI director’s unusual actions the focus on Sunday news programs and on the campaign trail.
Here’s John Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, venting at Comey in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” this morning: “He might have taken the first step of actually having looked at them (the emails) before he did this in the middle of a presidential campaign, so close to the voting.”
Then there’s the Donald Trump campaign’s view of Comey’s actions. “I think what you see here is an example of real leadership,” Mike Pence, the GOP vice presidential nominee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” He cast it as correcting the FBI’s July decision not to recommend charges against Clinton. “It was just incomprehensible this summer, when the director of the FBI came out and he literally indicted Hillary Clinton in the press and then said we’re not recommending that she be indicted,” Pence said. More in my story.
Today’s development: The FBI discovered the emails on Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s shared computer weeks ago, per CNN’s Evan Perez and Pamela Brown. The Justice Department has obtained a search warrant to begin going through the emails on the computer.
President Barack Obama’s message to Clinton volunteers, on a conference call today: “There’s going to be noise and distractions over the course of the final days of this campaign. We knew that was going to happen. It always does. But you just have to not be distracted and fight through it.”
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Clinton tries to shift focus to Trump Foundation report
The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold — who’s spent a year exposing Donald Trump’s charitable foundation as largely a facade — published his magnum opus this weekend. “Throughout his life in the spotlight, whether as a businessman, television star or presidential candidate, The Post found that Trump had sought credit for charity he had not given — or had claimed other people’s giving as his own,” the story said.
Hillary Clinton picked up on the report today in Fort Lauderdale. She slammed Trump for creating what she called a “facade” of being a generous supporter of charities, saying: “With Donald, it’s always Donald Trump first and everyone else last.” She also said at the campaign event that Trump “abuses his power, he games the system, and he doesn’t care who’s left holding the bag.”
The Post’s report began with the story of Trump attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony in New York in the 1990s for a new nursery school for children with AIDS. Trump showed up at the event unannounced — even taking a spot in the VIP seating — despite having never donated to support the building of the school, according to The Post, surprising and agitating other donors who were in attendance. Clinton told this story to supporters here on Sunday. “Now, really. Who does that?” Clinton said. “Who pretends to help kids with HIV and AIDS in order to help themselves look good?”
President Barack Obama met Davy Crockett in Bulls Gap, Tennessee, a year ago. Two weeks later, Obama came through with what Crockett — who suffers from multiple sclerosis — wanted: help with Social Security.
CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich and Chris Moody went back to the picturesque Tennessee town to find Crockett. He said Obama had come through.
Perhaps most interesting: His take on the 2016 race, and how he’d been turned off Donald Trump due to Trump’s mocking a reporter’s physical disability. “I was mad,” Crockett said. “Donald makes fun of people that have the stuff like I have. I said to myself, I said, ‘I don’t want to vote for this man’ and I said ‘I hope Hillary gets it.'”
Why is Trump in Colorado, New Mexico and Michigan?
From John King’s “Inside Politics” forecast: Donald Trump’s campaign’s odd use of its candidate’s time — visiting states like Colorado, Michigan and New Mexico — is puzzling some Republicans, The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin said on “Inside Politics” today. “You’ve got Donald Trump going to New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan — three states where if you called the top strategists in both parties, in those states they would almost all say those states are sure to go to Hillary (Clinton). Yet Trump is spending his valuable final days in those three blue states,” Martin said. “Hillary has a much different view of reality, much more conventional view of reality. She’s going to places that she is trying to protect like Ohio, which is a little bit tougher for her, and places that she’s trying to get, like Arizona.”
Poll: Clinton leads Trump nationally, 46% to 45%
Hillary Clinton holds a slim lead over Donald Trump, per a new ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll. The survey released Sunday showed Clinton ahead 46% to 45% — narrower than Saturday’s 2-point Clinton edge. CNN’s Poll of Polls now has the race at 47% Clinton to 42% Trump.
Other polls out:
North Carolina: An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist University poll found Clinton ahead, 47% to Trump’s 41%. The same poll found Clinton ahead 48% to 43% in early October.
Florida: An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist University survey shows a dead heat — with Clinton at 45% and Trump at 44%, a 1-point drop for Clinton since the same poll’s last results in early October, when Clinton led 46% to 44%.
Florida: A New York Times Upshot/Siena poll found Trump ahead — 46% to 42% — in Florida. The same poll had found the candidates even at 43% apiece in September.
