today the president and michele obama hosted their last party on the south lawn of the white house. that does it for us. cnn tonight with don lemon starts now. october surprise. or is it? >> there is no pace here. >> this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. a defiant hillary clinton still leading in the polls in spite of e-mails that may or may not be related to her use of a private server. the fbi saying we are unlikely to find out before the election. but that's not stopping donald trump from saying this.

>> we can be sure that what is in those e-mails is absolutely devastating. and i think we're going to find out, by the way, for the first time. >> all with eights days to go until the election and 20 million early votes already cast. let's get right to it. jim sciutto is here. what's the latest on the investigation. >> what's the fbi doing right now. is there any chance voters are going to bet more information before election day? >> really there are two steps now. keep in mind you have thousands of e-mails to look through. they are working hard in quantico and using technology to do it. they are sorting through the e-mails in effect to see how many of them are new. keep in mind, many of the e-mails they believe were found on this laptop of anthony wiener could have been e-mails they have already scrubbed in the previous investigation, things that went through the clinton e-mail server. so they might be duplicates. they can do that with

technology. but the second part, the judgment part, that requires human being to get involved. whether there is class fight information here, whether the various agencies agree that that information is classified. that's judgment call in itself. there is also possibility that there might be evidence -- they have to look for evidence of obstruction of justice, talking about e-mails or how abedin would want to thajd e-mails. that is a judgment that would have to be made by human beings and have to be judgments about that. that means you are not going to have a final judgment on this in the next eight days. >> timing is so important. we are learning the fbi discovered these new clinton related e-mails weeks ago. why did it take so long? >> that's right. apparently in terms of the very existence of these e-mails that something that the fbi director, comey learned in mid october.

as to greater substance, whether there might be something pertinent to the investigation we got that vogs on thursday. and on friday his report reporting he has found out these letters might have some sort of connection and it requires further investigation. really, like so many thing in this case from the very beginning, a judgment call. >> huma abedin responded to a new e-mail review tonight. what did she say? >> we have her statement. i'm going to read for it. one she says she only learned for the first time on friday the same says, from press reports of the possibility that a laptop belonging to mr. wiener, her estranged husband could contain e-mails of hers. she goes on to say while the fbi hasn't contacted us about this, miss abedin will be as she

always has been forthcoming and cofreightive. the fbi hasn't gotten into touch with ms. abedin. there is discussion to complete this investigation the fbi will not only need to look at the e-mails make judgments about classified material but possibly sit down and interview huma ab den again. they haven't even reached out for that. the possibility of those dominoes falling before election day, very low. >> let's talk about the politics of all of this, with just eight days to go, almost just seven days to go, will we even know the full impact this e-mail news on voters before election day? >> we might not. i think towards the middle of this week we might know a little bit more of the impact. i think we'll know sort of state by state whether thing have

taken a turn in any particular state. so far, it seems to me that the polling is still pretty stable. look, this isn't good news for hillary clinton. any say she is talking about herself and talking about this e-mail case and not talking about donald trump is not a good day for her. what she has been trying to do is change the subject back to donald trump's temperament, donald trump's character, donald trump's ability to served a commander in chief. but to say this is helpful to her, they would have to be kidding themselves. they understand these are not god stories for them. but with such a short time left and 20 million people have early voted and the question is still whether this is kind of a baked election at this point and whether people who don't like hillary clinton because of the eems already decided remains to be seen. >> it's hard to get your message

out when you are constantly defending yoours yourself. david axelrod, before the story broke, the electoral map was looking good for hillary clinton and look bad for donald trump. is this story likely to change that scenario? if so, whether do you think? >> i agree with gloria that we really won't know the answer about this when the polls begin to absorb what if any impact the story has had. what we do know is race has been tightening prior to this story. that hillary clinton went out to some really quady leads in some of these states after the release of that access hollywood tape of donald trump. and in all that enshoeing controversy she got a big lead, especially among women. so. have has been eroding as some of the partisan versus come home on

both sides. but a lot of republicans who had drifted from trump were coming home. whether this accelerates that, i don't know. but i think that you can see that in florida the race appears to be tightening up. it's obviously an important state. there is some indication that colorado is a little bit tighter than it had been. remember, the clinton campaign stopped advertising in colorado they were so confident of that state. that seems to be tightening up a little bit. so there is some states where there is certainly tighten. in ohio and iowa where trump has his best chance he may have picked up a point or two. it is still a very tough electoral map for donald trump. clearly this is a positive development for him and negative for hillary clinton if only because as gloria suggested she

can'ting on the attack now. we are not talking about donald trump tonight we are talking about hillary clinton. >> this controversy breathing new life into donald trump's campaign. he talked about it today. look at this. >> the investigation will last for years, nothing will get done, government will grind to a halt, and our country will continue to suffer. heldary's corruption is a threat to democracy. and the only way to stop it is for you on november 8th to show up at the polls and vote. >> gloria he is preaching to the choir, his die hard supporters. is he vincing any undecided voters to come his way? >> we don't he no. i think that's what he is trying to do obvious any the state of michigan. what he is trying to say if you are one of those few persuadable voters left, and you haven't decide this should tip the scales. this should serve as a reminder

of why they didn't like hillary clinton in the first place. that's what donald trump is trying to do. this is his clear shot at it. it has been a gift to him and he is going to try to make the best use of it if he can stay on message. hillary clinton is going to try to get him off message. eight days is a very long time in this race. overnight is a long time in this race. we'll have to see what tomorrow brings here. >> go ahead david. >> i would say two things. i'm not sure trump is hoping to sway voters necessarily from her column to his column. he would be perfectly happy if he didn't vote for voted for one of the third party candidates. his ceiling seems to be mired in the low 40s. so he is trying to knock her down if he can't lift himself up. gloria mentioned we will a see

what tomorrow morning. it may bring controversy about his own finances again because the "new york times" has a story tonight suggesting he used a very exotic tax device to save himself hundreds of millions of dollars back in the early '90s. that for sure, as complicated as it is, the bottom line isn't, which is that he manipulated the system in a way that seems untoward. i'm sure the clinton campaign will have plenty to say about that tony. >> you look at the polling on the e-mails and the polling on the taxing -- they haven't stuck. will they even matter? haven't most people made up their minds. either one of you. >> look. >> the question is -- >> go ahead, david. >> go ahead. >> i was going say, the question is how much of this is

essentially priced into their stock at this point. >> baked in. >> tens of millions of people have voted already. and people have heard an awful lot. this does seem like a preprise f old stories. we need to look at these stories at week end and say if there is an impact. >> gloria, i want to play this before i get your response. >> and -- >> i want to play this and then you can respond. this is hillary clinton addressing the issue today. >> there is a new e-mail story about why in the world the fbi would decide to jump into an election without evidence of any wrongdoing with just days to go. that's a really good question. but i want you to know, look, i've said repeatedly. i -- i made a mistake. i'm not making any excuses.

but i will tell you this, if they want to look at some more e-mails of one of my staffers. go ahead, look at them. i know they will reach the same conclusion they reached when they looked at my e-mails last year. right? it wasn't even a close call. and i think most people have moved on. they are looking and focused on, okay, who is going the next president and commander in chief. >> gloria, in your response, you are surprised to hear secretary clng clinton going on the offensive there, and does she have a choice? >> no, i'm not surprised to see her going on the offensive there. i think what she was trying to do was take a bad story and turn it around into what she wants to talk about. she had to acknowledge, as she did friday night when she was clearly angered by comey's decision -- but she had to

acknowledge today in some way, shape, or form that this story was out there. then she had to turn it around. and what she was doing was offers to all of us, which was, don't judge my charge, look at this guy i'm running against. because she wants to keep talking about donald trump. so look at ills his qualities. can he be commander in chief? can he be trusted with national security? i don't think so. so you are going to see her continue to do that. and if the tax story, as david was talking about earlier -- if the tax story becomes a story again, watch her talk about donald trump not revealing his tax returns y. hasn't he revealed his tax returns? so you will see that coming up over and over again. >> gloria, david, both of you stick around. lot more to talk about with you. you know what matters more than e-mails or the fbi? the 270 electoral votes. we'll talk about who's got the better math. that's next. cathy's gotten used to the smell of

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hillary clinton and donald trump fighting for every last vote with only eight days to go. back with me now, my panel. let's start with the road to 270. trump was in new mexico yesterday, michigan today, wisconsin tomorrow. what's your take on the strategy here. >> do you think he would be better off sticking to battle ground states like florida or north carolina? states that are a little bit closer. >> i think he has to do it all, don. i don't think he has much choice. and when you talk to people in his campaign, they will tell you that they believe that there is some opportunity in some of these blue states. and he he's got to flip some blue states if he wants to win this election. so they believe they have a shot in a state like limichigan, lik

colorado, for example, which most polls show hillary clinton pretty much up. and they believe that it's more of a tie there. so i think he has to go everywhere he can where he believes he can flib and turn a blue state red. the republicans do not have the get out the vote operation that hillary clinton has. and donald trump is a one-man get out the vote machine. what he is doing innist these states because they don't have the nun and the ads that the clinton campaign has up, nor to they have the people on the undergro, they are using their candidate as a way to get voters enthusiastic and to get them to vote, whether it's early or whether it's on election day. >> we also have hillary clinton planning to campaign in arizona gloria, this week, do you think she is turn the state blue despite the e-mail controversy? >> it's really hard for me to know. these state polls are very

difficult to look at. now, again, we have to look towards the middle of the week. they had planned this trip to arizona before last friday's e-mail controversy came out. so it's not as if they are going to change their travel plans and send a signal, oops we are going to stick with the states where we have a better shot at winning, so they are going to go there, but i think the clinton campaign is going to have to reassess in their state polls. maybe she will end up in a state like florida, which is very, very tight right now. donald trump has to cover a lot more terrain than hillary clinton has. she has a clearer path. donald trump has to walk and chew gum at the same time trying to flip states, turn blue states red, as well as keep all the states that romney won. he has more difficult job. >> we are also seeing a close race out of utah, evan mcmullan

is throwing a wrench into trump's foot hold there. what'sor take on utah potentially being in play? >> well, i think it is in play, because evan mcmullon, who is a mormon, and attended big ham young university has close ties to the state. the mormon population, custom is a major part of that state's politics, has been very cold to donald trump. mitt romney, the most prominent political leader from that community has been very hard on donald trump. and evan mcmullen is a good safety valve for republicans who are looking for a way out of supporting donald trump and aren't comfortable with hillary clinton. this could be really a significant story if this race continues to tighten because donald trump could win -- he could win florida, win ohio, he

could win iowa, and close in on the nomination. but if he loses any of the states that romney won, then he is taking a step backward. and so tau is the least of those why you would expect a republican to lose. so this is a story that bears watches. >> david, almost 20 million -- >> a democrat hasn't won urks at that since '646789 it would be pretty historic if hillary clinton won. >> we'll be watching: 20 million americans already voted in this ax election. do you think that may cushion the blow from this so-called brooklyn october surprise. >> certainly these people weren't privy to what happened. again, we don't know how influential is story is actually going to be. but this was not part of the discussion when she is people vote. and you look at this early vote.

it is a little bit mixed. democrats see good news in the early vote. republicans suggest that democrats are doing less well than they did when president obama was running. one thing i want to say about this early vote though that i think is important. and that is that there has been an influx of new hispanic voters in several critical states. many of them have registered in a non-affiliated way, and so they don't -- they are not listed as republicans or democrat. and therefore, when estimates are made of how republicans or democrats are doing it's not quite clear. but you can assume these voters did not register to affirm their support for donald trump. highly unlikely. so there may be a hidden vote for nick in this early vote. >> thank you, david, gloria, much appreciated as wells.

did you want to get a pony inni innii -- get a point in. >> i was talking about how the african-american vote is down and the hispanic vote is up tremendously in the state of florida. he believes that's going to benefit democrats. >> thank you for joining us. when we come back, this may be the nastiest campaign in years. has it poisoned our politics? i'm going to talk to a man who says we have become so partisan, we don't just want to defeat our opponents, we want to put them behind bars. help me! (doorbell) mom, check this out. wow. swiffer sweeper, and dusters. this is what i'm talking about.

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hillary clinton campaigning today in ohio a key battleground statement she is blasting the fi's e-mail review confidently telling reporters there is no case here. meanwhile, trump supporters chant, lock her up. joining me, fareed zachary ya,

and david gegen. hello gentlemen. thank you so much. fareed i'm going to start with you. when you walked into the studio i said can you believe this? we are living in such a piper partisan environment. do you think with the time left we have until the election do you think the fbi director should have dropped this grenade right now, at this time? >> i don't. i think what has happened here is the fbi has placed itself into the middle of something deeply political. the former deputy attorney general for george bush sr. put it well. the key rule for a prosecutor is put up or shut up. comey in a sense disregarded that rule in july. when he decided not to indict hillary clinton, said there was no case. that's all you say. you don't then provide color commentary. he is not the ethics czar of the

united states. hillary clinton didn't handle it well but the job of a prosecutor is not to provide more information. he said he did it because he said i believed the public had a right to know. the public demanded to know. but james comey is not an elected politician to determine the level of transparency. he is a career prosecutor in a non-partisan branch of the federal government called the fbi. once he went down that path i think he unnecessarily implicated himself whether every action of his was going to be treated as partisan. is he investigating russia and its ties to trump? we don't know. is he investigating the clinton foundation. >> we don't know? is he investigating the trump foundation? we don't know. that's the way it should be. if he has a case -- this about if the fbi were to announce

tomorrow that it were investigating a company. that company's stock would crater, go bankrupt, because there would be suspicion or unwent doe. >> david gergen, i want to bring you in. director comey said he won't make any clarifications or giving any updates. do you think he should? >> yes, i do think he should give clarifications and updates before the election. i think it's urgent that he do that. i have respectful differences with fareed where we started on this. he is right it's tradition that the fbi director usually stays out. there are exceptions, but in this case, had they had said we are not going to prosecute, especially after the attorney general met privately with bill clinton there was widespread

skepticism whether it was a fair and impartial decision. the supreme court doesn't hand down decisions, say yes or no. it adds an opinion so you under the context and why the decision was made the way it was. i thought director comey did the right thing when he explained why he and not and why the fbi did not recommend prosecution. i also thought he was cornered in this particular situation with huma abedin's laptop in discovering these e-mails that had he not said ambiguous anything and it all came out after the election there would have been widespread view that we were hood winked during the election. i think he had to come forward. i think he trapped him into that position. but he should have come forward that the nation was so vague that of course he had to clarify it before the election. this is unfair to mrs. clinton and especially unfair to voters

now left dangling through the election with allegations that may be totally meaningless. there may be no wrongdoing here at all. and i think it's unfair to leave the country and the voters in this situation. >> don't to respond. >> i think david is absolutely right. it is a hard case. and hard cases make bad law. part of what's gone on here, and this is a broader trend that david knows well. we have criminalizedle public policy so that -- ever since watergate which was an actual case of high crimes and misdemeanors what we have done is every time your opponent does something that you disagree with there is a hunt for some way to prove that the person broke the law,s that criminal offense, that the person shouldn't be voted out. but should be imprisoned. that's what banana republics do. it the it in the iran contra

situation. with bill clinton. they never found anything wrong in white water. president clinton was impeached for something totally separate, not white water. if a cop tails you for 500 miles, he will find you guilty of something, you will have broken the law. >> fareed wrote this, you said, america's poisonous politicized pat trying to make every mistake or error in judgment a crime. what's the impact on the election? can we judge the impact --? >> i think the one kbarkt i would love to hear what david has to say about this. 20, 30 years of this stuff has

poisoned the atmosphere. people wonder why the public looks at politics and politicians with such disdain, why there is a sense of bitterness, because in every situation it's become a question, can we put this person into jail? imagine what is going to happen if hillary clinton gets elected. there is going to be hearings and s&ps. this is not how we bring jobs back into the country, thousand do health care. that's those are the urgent tasks at hand. >> i agree with everything fareed just said. this criminalization of differences in politics goes back to the watergate era and there was a time in the bill clinton years where you felt every other cabinet officer had a special prosecutor on his or her tail. it was ufl. i felt this the obama years which were remarkably scandal free we got away from that trend

toward special prosecutors. but now we are getting back into it. nothing is more objectionable that if donald trump is president he is going to lock up hillary clinton. all these cries about lock her up, i think are leading us down a bad path. i'm not sure it's going to cost more votes, but it's going to make it much more difficult for her to govern. at the end of the day we need someone who can govern effectively. >> why do some democrats call the fbi's director, james comey, public enemy number one? "whatcha doin?"

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it is not just democrats criticizing fbi director james comey about his disclosures are hillary clinton's e-mails. some in both parties are raising red flags. here paige paid, and richard painter. he served as chief white house ethics lawyer under george w.

bush. i'm excited about this conversation. thoips. right hand i want to start with you. you wrote an natural the "new york times" on sunday on this clinton's e-mails, did fib director abuse his power? in that, you said yes, his letter to congress was an abuse of power. why do you think he broke the law? >> well, the hatch act is a law that has been around since the 1930s that prohibits executive branch officials from using their position for the purpose of promoting a political candidate or influencing an election. and that is not allowed for executive branch officials other than the president and the vice president. they are not subject to the hatch act. but everybody else is. mr. comey, when he sent that letter over to congress knew that that was going to be used

for political purposes within ten ten days of an election. there was just no reason for him to be telling members of congress about investigations underway by the fbi. that is a violation of justice department policy. there is no reason for it other than to further partisan politics. that's unacceptable. >> allan, you disagree? >> fundamentally disagree. we are heave an example of a political grant guy trying to criminalize policies. let's criticize comey if we want to criticize him. but he didn't violate the hatch act. the hatch act requires knowledge or intent. what comey is he thought he had to protect his own integrity. he had no interested, i agree with the president in putting his thumb on the scale. i don't know who he is supporting for the president. he had perfect right to make an announce men. the problem is he mate the wrong

one. he said under the fourth amendment i am not allowed to look into these e-mails. i haven't, nor is any of my agency. we have no idea what's in them. we are going the look to see what's in them but nobody should infer guilty or innocence. we're only going to look at them. that's what he should have said. >> isn't that the problem with the critics, republicans and democrats is they don't know what's in there, paige, they don't know if there is anything that will cause hillary clinton any harm if she is directly connected. and by coming out and doing this now there is the assumption of guilt. do you agree with that? >> i don't blame james comey for those i a summations. the hatch act requires that it's

cr critical to have released something with the intent of influencing an election. i think most americans are a lot more concerned about transparency and truth than internal justice department guidelines and tradition. i think that's what james comey is going at. >> we all like james comey, we all think he is a decent guy. remember who the building is named after, j. edgar hoover. he is establishing a dangerous precedent for future directors of the fbi because they could, one, influence the outcome of elections. we are all saying what a terrible thing it would be if hillary clinton won the election and then it turns to out there

might be negative stuff about hillary clinton. what about the opposite? what if he turns it on. donald trump wins the election and november 7th he anouns all of these e-mails were duplicates of ones we've seen before. sorry folks, but i was just doing my job. >> they have been dropped on his desk, he has to look into them. he could have worded the letter differently. >> he should do it now. >> there is nothing he can say right now that that's going to advance this debate. >> he could say when i made that statement i had no idea what was in hooes those e-mails because if anybody told me what was in those e-mails, they would be violating the fourth amendment. there was no search warrant for those e-mails.

i had a tell knickcal obligation i had -- >> it was not an obligation. if he is looking into donald trump's computer, he you had at to be looking at trump's campaign with the relationship with the russia. there is plenty he should be. but they shouldn't be updating the democrats on the hill what they are looking into. >> donald trump may have committed criminal tax praud back this the '90s when he took major tax deductions from other people's losses based on a letter from his lawyer saying you are probably not going to get this accepted by the irs. into he thinks he should look into ongoing problems, he should look at trump university, problems with russia. he shouldn't be getting this involved in the campaign.

>> he shouldn't be talking to congress. >> page, hold your thought. i'll let you be the first one right out of this he can bra. we'll be right back.

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page pate, you had the floor. you were saying we really don't know if director comey is investigating any of the other things, but he's not commenting on the other things. >> right, and there would be no reason for him to comment on the other things. think in a normal investigation where he's not already come out and said this investigation is complete, we're moving on, there's nothing else to see here, then there's no obligation for the director of the fbi or anyone in the justice department to talk about the details or even the fact of an investigation. >> well, what if congress subpoenaed him and asked him if he's investigating these things, he would probably say, look, justice department policy is not to disclose the fact we're doing an investigation. look, the worse thing to have happened is for comey some have made an announcement when he stopped the investigation of hillary clinton. that's the job of the department of justice. the fbi is not supposed to make policy or prosecutorial decisions, he's supposed to gather the evidence and make a recommendation. >> but where was the attorney general. >> that's the problem. >> exactly that's the problem.

he was left holding the bag here. the last person to make the decision about moving forward or not, that is highly unusual as you must admit. >> that's right. >> normally there's a prosecutor overseeing that decision, but no one wanted to touch it so they left it up to him. now they're criticizing the way he's handling. >> that's correct, and become has to take some of the responsibility. >> and no obligation to tell congress. >> go ahead, richard. >> where does he have the obligation to tell congress? >> he had no obligation. i think it was a reasonable decision he made but he was not required to tell congress. >> it was illegal because he knew how it was going to be used. he knew it would be put up on the internet because all of the members care about is politically attacking hillary clinton. i'm a republican. i would like to see a good republican president and a good republican congress, but this kind of behavior really reflect very badly on the congress, and the fbi got sucked into politics on the eave of an election. that's not what the fbi is there for. they're not there to provide updates to members of congress

on investigations of their political enemies. the same for the president. the president has no right to updates from the fbi on the fbi's investigation of political opponents. i don't want to hear anymore about this unusual circumstances. they were created by this congressional committee continuing to put pressure on the fbi for over a year with respect to this e-mail server. >> but now -- now hillary clinton is putting pressure on the fbi, and i think her campaign is making a terrible tactical mistake. they are goading, they are goading comey into finding something, because what they're saying is, hey, there's nothing, you're going to end up making me lose the election and there's nothing here and you're going to be the villain. if i'm comey and i'm thinking about my legacy and my future, i'm saying to myself, i darn well better find something to justify the statement i previously made. >> right, well -- >> she is making a terrible mistake here. >> and digging himself even deeper. that's kraeds.

>> i don't think comey is worried about his future or the political consequences. i think comey is worried about doing what is right, and that's why i think his decision is reasonable. >> you know, i heard you say that earlier, alan, and why poke the bear, why is hillary clinton going out and saying she should not be, you know, in your estimation and i think in fareed's estimation, fareed said if you send a police officer to follow someone for 500 miles you're going to find them doing something wrong. >> sure. especially if you have incentive because you've been accused of affecting the election without being a basis. there may be no basis but, believe me, somebody will find something to justify his doing this if he's provoked. i think the president got it exactly right. comey is a decent man. he's a man of integrity, but he has to defend himself now because he's being criticized by republicans and democrats alike, by scholars and academics, and he's out there. i'm not going to defend him, says the president, he has to defend himself, and he's not doing a good job of it.

his silence now is unacceptable. >> richard, i want to ask you -- so, richard, on what alan just said, would you like to see the director come out and make a clarification? if so, what would you like him to say? how can erect phi this? >> i think he ought to do his job, which is investigate and not to be talking to the public or to members of congress about his investigations. that's the job of the fbi. they should not be taking donald trump's fbi file and giving it to the democrats or making further statements about hillary clinton. that's just going to make it worse. he's going to dig himself in deeper and deeper, and we have already destroyed the credibility of the fbi over the past few days with respect to this. now there are leaks coming out of the fbi about what they're investigating with respect to donald trump. this is a travesty. >> i respectfully disagree. >> not what we should be doing in an election year. >> having once made the announcement, i think he has an

obligation on the day i made the announcement i knew no more than you did, because to say-so would violate the fourth amendment. so don't infer from anything i said any presumption of guilt or relevance and now i'm not going the say anything else. balls i'm not going to say anything else, i want to leave you with the message i didn't know anything about the content of the e-mails when i made the statement. that's realistic. >> what's wrong with that, page? >> there's nothing long with that. again, think it was reasonable to send the letter since he made the announcement the investigation was complete. it is no longer kmeet. he needs to let congress know because the facts are inconsistent with his earlier testimony. i agree with alan, the letter could have been worded differently. we don't go back and edit it now. the letter alan wants him to send would have been five, six, seven pages and i'm sure both sides would have read more into the paragraph. >> i actually drafted the

letter, it is two paragraphs long. he should send it right now. >> check it out on thehill.com. richard, you agree, you said he should not have sent the initial letter. >> he should say that. there's no obligation to tell congress when you open or reopen an investigation. otherwise every campaign contributor doesn't like being investigated by the fbi. would make sure members of congress hold hearings and get a promise from the director to notify them as soon as there's an investigation. that's not the way the fbi does business. they keep their mouth shut. >> fascinating conversation from three brilliant men. i appreciate it. we'll be right back. >> thank you, don. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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james comey standing firm. the fbi boss thinks he made the right call on clinton's e-mail investigation. >> the clinton campaign crying foul, accusing james comey now of a blatant double standard. >> donald trump and mike pence teaming up. they will be on the same stage together today. good morning, everybody. welcome to early start, special very, very early start. i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. one week to go until election day and a slew of developments in the