This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," October 28, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE KELLY FILE": Breaking tonight, new developments on a bombshell that could reshape the 2016 race as we know it. As the FBI delivers an October surprise unlike anything we have ever seen.
With just 11 days until the election. Welcome to "The Kelly File." I'm Megyn Kelly. We're awaiting new remarks right now from Donald Trump in Iowa. This will be the first time he's spoken since Hillary Clinton held a news conference around 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time answering questions about the FBI announcement that the bureau is taking a new look at Mrs. Clinton's email scandal. The story broke around 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time when FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress saying the FBI learned of emails that could have a bearing on the Clinton probe.
The emails were discovered in a separate investigation. Law enforcement sources are telling us that there are thousands of messages at issue here. They were being sent to or from Huma Abedin, Hillary's top aid. The emails themselves were reportedly found on one of the computers belonging to Anthony Weiner. You cannot make it up. He is of course Abedin's estranged husband and he is the subject of a federal investigation for reportedly sexting with an underage girl. That is how they got on to these documents.
With less than a week and a half to go now until the election, the Clinton camp now has a huge new headache to deal with. Here is a little of her news conference just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, D-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately. The director himself has said he doesn't know whether the emails referenced in his letter are not significant or not. I'm confident whatever they are will not change the
conclusion reached in July.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: In two big "Kelly File" exclusives, we will be joined by Congressman Trey Gowdy who investigated Mrs. Clinton as the House Oversight Chair and we will speak with House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. He is one of the Congressional leaders who received the letter from Director Comey. Trump's communication advisor Jason Miller is also here tonight to explain how the Trump camp plans to deal with this. And Judge Andrew Napolitano who has been raising questions about the original FBI investigation for months will join us in moments with reaction to the breaking news.
But we begin this evening with our chief national correspondent Ed Henry who is live in Washington. Ed.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Megyn. I've spoken to several law enforcement officials tonight who is questioning how thorough the original FBI probe of Hillary Clinton was. If they did not find these emails, thousands and thousands of Huma Abedin emails in the first place. Remember, she was questioned by the FBI, had to come in with a deposition. A senior law enforcement official though is telling me that the FBI Director James Comey, felt he was in an impossible position.
His agents investigating Anthony Weiner in that separate matter found a probe of emails connected to the Clinton probe. If they waited until after the election, Republicans would accused them of holding back. Move forward, Democrats tonight are furious. They think it may tilt a close race. Remember Comey said in July no charges would be pushed against Clinton but that there was evidence of a potential violation of law. Team Clinton thought the worst had passed. Under fire again tonight, she just issued the challenge to the FBI director.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: So we don't know the facts which is why we're calling on the FBI to release all of the information that it has. Even Director Comey noted that this new information may not be significant, so let's get it out.
HENRY: But as she says, let's get it out, remember what we learned from WikiLeaks just 24 hours ago, as the email story first broke, March of 2015 as Trey Gowdy was actually subpoenaing her to keep all of those records and preserve them, campaign chairman John Podesta was writing to Robby Mook, the campaign manager, quote, "Did you have any idea of the depth of this story?" Mook, the campaign manager responded, "Nope, we brought up the existence of emails and research of summer but were told that everything was taken care of."
So Hillary Clinton was keeping some of her own top aides in the dark and a former FBI official told me tonight, if Clinton is worried about the timing around the election, she should not have kept the existence of her server secret for so long -- Megyn.
KELLY: Wow! Ed, thank you.
Joining us now in a "Kelly File" exclusive, Congressman Trey Gowdy, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, member of the House Oversight Committee and the former chair of the Select Committee on Benghazi. Great to see you tonight, sir. Thank you for being with us.
REP. TREY GOWDY, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Yes, ma'am.
KELLY: Your reaction now to this news about the FBI.
GOWDY: Well, I think Director Comey did the right thing in supplementing his testimony. Remember Megyn, the Commissioner Koskinen is in trouble because she did not take the step in supplementing his testimony. But beyond that, his letter are pretty cryptic. It's an unrelated investigation. He's not confirmed that's the Anthony Weiner sexting investigation and he hasn't confirmed yet that the information is significant. So, I appreciate the fact that he updated Congress but other than that, I'm going to let the bureau do their job.
KELLY: How extraordinary is this?
GOWDY: Well it's pretty extraordinary because Secretary Clinton has an extraordinary email arrangement with herself. And she's the author of her own destiny.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
GOWDY: Everything that's happened since then is the natural probable consequence of deciding you're going to have a rogue email system. So, I understand she's upset and understand she doesn't like the timing but she need look no further than herself.
KELLY: How is it possible in your view, as you know, a former prosecutor, that Huma Abedin who was under subpoena would not have produced her home computer or directed the FBI to that device as relevant when they were seeking all of her documents?
GOWDY: Well, you can even go back beyond that. Remember the State Department allegedly went back to all of the top aides to Seventh Floor and Principle, said the State Department to try to recreate the record. They missed it as well. I'm reluctant to speculate because I don't like to do that as a former prosecutor. But it may have been emails that were deleted. Remember, Secretary Clinton said she turned over all work related emails. We now know that thousands were deleted. And for all I know these -- may have been among those that were deleted and therefore the bureau did not have access to them originally.
KELLY: Because you cannot get any closer to Hillary Clinton than Huma Abedin. I mean, it's her right hand person, it's her closest aid. They're like family. I mean, this would be -- one of the first places you would look when you were turned on to the fact that there was a secret server to find the relevant documents. It's seems conceivable to me that the FBI did not ask her for it and if she knowingly withheld the disclosure of this device or failed to search it, there are all sorts of issues there.
What's going to happen next? Because, you and I both know this thing doesn't get resolved in 11 days, did Comey need to come out and say more about it as Hillary is demanding and if he doesn't, what happens over the next 11 days?
GOWDY: Well, she's welcome to tell us what would be on that computer. I mean, Director Comey is not the only person who would know what's on Anthony Weiner's computer. I mean, Secretary Clinton is welcome to hold a press conference tomorrow and say, you know, it may be this because Huma and I discussed this. So, he cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. That's DOJ rules. And Secretary Clinton knows he cannot produce the information in the middle of an investigation.
KELLY: Uh-hm.
GOWDY: So, it's a little bit, to me, Megyn, it's just the same person who said, I neither sent for received classified information, the same person who said I turned over all of my work-related emails, only had one device, my lawyers went through everything. That's the same person that now wants all of this public disclosure, the same person that went to great lengths to make sure that these emails were private and now all of the sudden wants it all made public. It's just too rich.
KELLY: She denied it. I mean, she dodged it tonight when she was asked, have you spoken with Huma? And I mean, you know how it is. I have a right hand woman here too. And if my right-hand person, my assistant found herself in this position because of my decisions, I'd say, hey, Abby, what the hell is on your computer and then I would come out and explain. Because it's only 11 days to the election. I mean, this is a dodge. You raise a good point. Hillary and Huma are in charge of that information. And they do know. At least her right-hand person knows what was on her home computer and they can't just point to Comey saying, you need to disclose more. I'll give you the final word, sir.
GOWDY: Well, I mean, it's easy to ask people you know cannot disclose things to do so. I mean, that makes her look transparent. But if it's a day that ends in Y, you can rest assure she's talked to Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills. She knows exactly what was on those computers. Just like her lawyers know what was deleted from the Platte River Network. And if she's dying for us to know what she and Huma Abedin were doing on Anthony Weiner's computer, she's welcome to tell us.
KELLY: Just tell us. Congressman Trey Gowdy, great to see you.
GOWDY: Yes, ma'am. You too. Thank you.
KELLY: Also with us on the breaking news, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte. Great to see you, Mr. Chairman. So, you received this letter today. Were you stunned by this?
REP. BOB GOODLATTE, R-VA., JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I was stunned by this and very appreciative of the fact that the director had the current to step forward and say that after he said this investigation was concluded new information, perhaps thousands of emails related directly to communications between Secretary Clinton and her chief of staff, we don't know yet, but are indeed going to be further look at by the bureau. It's absolutely important.
I actually agree with Secretary Clinton that the director to the extent he's able without compromising this investigation should make as much information available as possible to the American people before this final vote occurs on November 8th. Many people are already voting around the country.
KELLY: Why did he have to do it though? He's coming under fire already predictably, right? From Hillary and her supporters for doing this at this time and he was -- I mean he was in an impossible position, if he didn't do it, he waited until after the election, the Republicans could have killed him. And so, why did he have to do it in your view right now?
GOODLATTE: I think that he had already taken the mantle of this problem on his shoulders when he announced back in July that he did not find evidence sufficient to prosecute her when many other people, including many members of the Judiciary Committee thought when he held his news conference, he said she violated this, she did this wrong, she did this wrong, a lot of us thought we were going to hear therefore there's going to be an indictment.
Instead he said, however, there's not going to be an indictment. So now we're in a situation where having taken this on and having found new evidence and having been criticized for a number of aspects of how this has been handled, I think he has the responsibility thing of saying, we have new evidence. I assume that there's some significance to it because it were just a few random emails, you wouldn't do this after these circumstances. But I think this is probably more substantial and that is why he has put it out now.
KELLY: But let me ask you this.
GOODLATTE: It's important --
KELLY: Yes. To add more information. If she gets elected on November 8th, this isn't going away. So what needs to happen, special prosecutor? She can't investigate herself as the president elect.
GOODLATTE: Well, first of all, we have said from the outset that the House Judiciary Committee would follow the truth wherever it leads and we have done that throughout the summer asking a number of questions about how this investigation by the FBI was being conducted. We will continue to do that. We don't know what's going to happen now. We don't know what's going to happen after the election. So it's pure speculation what will happen afterwards.
A special prosecutor remember is appointed by the Attorney General of the United States. So, you have to decide whether that's going to be a fair investigation than the one being conducted by the FBI under the direction of Director Comey right now. And the Judiciary Committee will certainly stay engaged in this and continue our investigation.
KELLY: Wow. Mr. Chairman, thanks for being here tonight.
GOODLATTE: Thank you, Megyn.
KELLY: Well, our next guest has been suggesting for a long time now that not only were FBI agents seriously upset at the way the Hillary Clinton investigation was handled within the FBI but that the bureau had been, quote, "Too cozy with politics" as of late, this is the charge by someone at the FBI.
Joining us now with more by phone is our Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano. Judge, I mean, what, first, just your reaction at 1:00 today when you saw this across the wires.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: Well, my reaction is there must be something substantial there that the FBI did not see before. It is entirely feasible that this has to do with whether or not Huma Abedin told the truth when she testified to the FBI or it could be something that was deleted from Mrs. Clinton's servers and the FBI didn't see it. My other reaction was from Director Comey's letter, and the fact that he also sent it to the chairs of the Intelligence Committees as well as the Congressional Judiciary Committees, this probably does involve national security. And when the FBI agents looked at it, they did not know for sure if it was classified or not and they need to confer with their colleagues in the intelligence community in order to make that determination.
KELLY: Unbelievable. I mean, if that is the case, these documents are sitting there on Huma Abedin with Anthony Weiner sitting there next to her, on her home computer and they're unclassified. This is what Trump has been saying for months. Like she's married to this -- well, you know.
NAPOLITANO: Right.
KELLY: So what, do you -- how do you see Comey? You've been critical of him for not bringing charges. But how do you see his decision to come out with this today?
NAPOLITANO: I see it as a very painful decision. I see it as one where raw evidence was presented to him just two days ago and he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If he sits on it until after Election Day and Mrs. Clinton is elected, Republicans will rip into him. If he reveals it now and runs the risk of it looking like he's doing so to affect the outcome of the election, Democrats will rip into him.
Look, for many years he had a reputation, you know, this is a lawyer Megyn and the legal community as being the most upstanding of persons to hold a job like the head of the FBI. He's seriously tarnished that reputation by making a decision not to seek indictment, notwithstanding a mountain of evidence of her guilt. I'll repeat it, a mountain of evidence of her guilt. If he's made this decision today in order to change the way we perceive him, it's wrong, immoral, unethical and probably unlawful. But if he made the decision today because there's real new hard evidence before him that his investigators missed the last time around, then he did the right thing.
KELLY: Uh-hm. I'll defend Comey because he doesn't have anybody here to defend him. But, you know, I have said as a lawyer that there is a basis to justify his decision not to charge her because he needed he says to prove intent and no one had ever been charged under similar circumstances. And, you know, he's been a straight shooter his whole life. So, the question is, you know, will he flip just because of Loretta Lynch. Who knows? I don't know the answers to those questions.
But I think there's a legal defense for the decision not to charge and there is a legal defense for him coming forward even 11 days before the election. If he found something that was being held back from the American people, and if these people lied to the FBI or did not disclose a computer that had responsive documents on it, they're in a whole world of trouble.
Finally judge, before I let you go. A lot of these people received immunity deals when they were dealing with the FBI. Do we know whether Huma is one of them and could it possibly protect her if she didn't disclose everything she was supposed to disclose to them?
NAPOLITANO: Great questions. We don't know if Huma is one of them. None of them received immunity. They received promises not to be prosecuted under very narrow circumstances. It will depend upon the wording of those promises which come not in the form of an order of an immunity which lasts forever. They come in the form of a letter, from a lawyer and the Justice Department. So, those letters will now have to be examined. And if one of them is addressed to Huma Abedin, then Jim Comey has more headaches --
KELLY: Wow! Judge, thank you.
NAPOLITANO: Pleasure.
KELLY: This is stunning news. I mean, this is big. This is significant. And the American people have a right to know what went on there. And Hillary Clinton does have some answers. That's her right-hand person. Again, you think about it. Do you have anybody in your life who is, you know, your assistant or your best friend? Why can't she just look at her and say, what was on the computer? What was on there? Huma and Anthony are estranged but they lived in the same house for years. What device are we talking about? What was on it? How did you communicate on there? What's the universe of possibilities? She can answer those questions.
Already tonight, the same Democrats, many of them who praised the FBI last summer, they loved Director Comey are tonight screaming about this same man. Matt Bennett worked in Bill Clinton's administration, we'll ask him about that, next.
Plus, Donald Trump is expected any moment at a rally in Cedar Rapids, we'll see how he reacts tonight with to new remarks we just heard from Mrs. Clinton. This would be the first we've heard from him since those comments.
And then we'll speak in moments to Mr. Trump's senior communications Director Jason Miller about how the campaign plans to handle this in what was already a tightening race.
And then there's the political question, how will this impact the polls? What about the folks who already voted, they already cast their vote and how will the media handle this?
Stirewalt, Kurtz, those remarks from Trump in a whole lot of news. Still breaking on this story tonight. We're back in moments. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It might not be as rigged as I thought, right? Right? The FBI, I think they're going to right the ship, folks. I think they're going to right the ship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Breaking tonight, we're waiting for new reaction right now from Donald Trump to today's bombshell FBI announcement on Hillary Clinton's email investigation. This was a criminal investigation which is now ongoing and active. Mr. Trump expected to step up in to the lectern in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at any moment now. In a series of events across the day, the Trump campaign has made this as you might imagine, issue numero uno. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As you might have heard earlier today, the FBI, after discovering new emails, is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton.
(CHEERS)
The crowd went nuts throughout the whole thing when it was on that subject. Our chief political correspondent Carl Cameron is live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with Mr. Trump. Carl?
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Megyn. Trump had three -- this will be his third event of the day. He started out in Manchester, New Hampshire. Initially, he was going to have a meeting with the locals about the opioid epidemic there and he decided to move it after the rally in Manchester. And then he went up to Maine and in Maine, he made it very clear, that having called the FBI and the Justice Department, part of the rigged system and suggested that Hillary Clinton corrupted them, that he now thinks that maybe they've got it right. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I have great respect for the FBI for righting this wrong. The American people fully understand her corruption and we hope all, all justice will finally be served.
(CHEERS)
This is the biggest political scandal since Watergate and I'm sure that it will be properly handled from this point forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: Trump's running-mate Mike Pence was campaigning in Pennsylvania and like Hillary Clinton did today, he demanded that Comey release the emails and whatever this evidence is so people can see it before the election. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, R-VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We call on the FBI to immediately release all of the emails pertinent to their reopened investigation, the American people have a right to know. And they have a right to know before Election Day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON: Trump has been behind in some of the polls but they have been closing as they always do in the last two weeks before an election. You add this new scandal in an amazing -- and all of the amazing developments that go along with it to the spike in ObamaCare premiums and the avalanche of WikiLeaks John Podesta emails and Trump now has, what one of our colleagues called the Trifecta, an awful lot of ammunition for his arsenal against Hillary Clinton for the final stretch -- Megyn.
KELLY: Absolutely, Carl. Thank you.
And at the end of that, sort of warm-up about Hillary today, Trump finished with now the rest of my remarks are going to be so boring. It will go down to ObamaCare, you know, policy issues, but you could see the crowd fired up about what is obviously bad news for Hillary Clinton today.
Earlier this afternoon, just moments after the news of the renewed FBI investigation broke, defenders of Hillary Clinton turned their attacks on the director of the FBI. Some of these folks were the very same people who praised Director Comey just three months ago when he cleared Mrs. Clinton in the FBI's initial investigation.
Matt Bennett is co-founder of the Third Way and a former deputy assistant to President Bill Clinton. Matt, good to see you. So, let me just give you an example of what we're talking about. So, here's Nancy Pelosi back in July when Comey said, we're not going to charge her. Listen to her reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIFORNIA: Let me just say this about Director Comey first. This is a great man. We are very privileged in our country to have him be a director of the FBI.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: He's a great man. And then today we saw a different reaction as she put out this. The public interest would be served by the FBI providing facts rather than allowing Republicans to stoke innuendo. She was not pleased with the investigation. That's just one small example. But I could go through Elijah Cummings and many others who came out today and thought Director Comey did the wrong thing. Your thoughts.
MATT BENNETT, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, Megyn, look, where you stand on Director Comey is where you sit. As you noted, Donald Trump was saying that Comey was trying to rig the election as of yesterday.
KELLY: Hypocrisy on both sides.
BENNETT: Yes. So, look, I think there is a lot of anger among Democrats about how Comey handled this. I don't think Pelosi would say, he's not a great man.
KELLY: What he's supposed to do?
BENNETT: I think he should say, he made a mistake.
KELLY: But what he's supposed to do, Matt? By all accounts, this FBI hasn't confirmed it but the reporting is they were investigating Weiner for being, somebody sexting with an underage person, good for the FBI, that's what they're supposed to do and they stumble upon this device which they say, reports say, was not produced in response to a direct demand by the FBI, they've got to look at it and they say, holy mother of you know what. These documents are responsive to her other investigation which was resolved in her favor but which is still ongoing, still open.
BENNETT: Right. So what they ended up doing -- I think the criticism from the Democrats is because what Comey did is write a letter to a bunch of Republican committee chairs saying hey, by the way, we're looking into more emails in the Clinton case and he didn't have to do that. There's all kinds of FBI investigations.
KELLY: Could have called it off?
BENNETT: Sorry.
KELLY: I mean, I've heard people make this point that he should have called because when you write a letter, you know it's going to get leaked. But is that his problem? Like maybe he's looking to make a record that he wasn't playing politics, he wasn't trying to protect anybody, he was just trying to do his job.
BENNETT: Yes. Look, to be fair to him, I think he's in a terrible position. Because had he not revealed this or announced it the way he knew it would be revealed, and it came out after the election, the Republicans would have gone bananas. So, I think it was a very difficult place for him to be. But I agree with Clinton and Podesta and what they said today, which is, look, you cannot leave them -- in particular -- you can't leave voters dangling like this. You've got to give some indication of what there is.
KELLY: On what she have.
BENNETT: Yes.
KELLY: Even Mike Pence just said that. But what about the point raised by
Trey Gowdy, which was, why doesn't she look over at Huma and say, what was on there and then tell us?
BENNETT: Look, two points on that Megyn. First of all, it's a thousand emails. I mean, I can't remember what I was emailed at 2:00 this afternoon much less with a thousand emails came in over the past five years. The other thing is, if she were to come out tomorrow and say, look, I talked to Huma and there's nothing there, no one who doubts her now would believe her then.
KELLY: That is true.
BENNETT: It wouldn't put anything to rest.
KELLY: You raise an excellent point.
BENNETT: Right.
KELLY: Matt, great to see you.
BENNETT: Good to be here. Thanks.
KELLY: Joining us now with more as we await Mr. Trump, is Jason Miller, Trump's senior communications advisor. Great to see you, Jason.
JASON MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR: Megyn, thanks for having me on.
KELLY: So, you must be feeling very good today.
MILLER: Today is an interesting day. I mean, I think we're ending the day with a lot more questions than we had at the beginning. I think one of the things that's clear is there's a public Hillary Clinton and there's a private Hillary Clinton. And the more and more is these emails, and the investigation and we see this coming back up today, we realize that there must be a lot of fire where the smoke is. And I think the big concern from this is this is Huma's computer, or her husband Anthony --
KELLY: We think.
MILLER: We think. How did they not have this in the first place? What else was missed? Are we talking about national security or are we talking about obstruction of justice?
KELLY: Uh-hm.
MILLER: These are very legitimate questions and with 11 days to go before the election, there must have been something extraordinary that they saw to make them stand up and reverse course and say, we're going to push forward with --
KELLY: Well, Hillary is pointing out that even Director Comey said, we don't know whether it's significant or it's not significant. But there are reportedly -- one report says there are thousand documents. One report says there up to 10,000 documents and it was significant enough for him to do what he -- director Comey to do what he did.
You tell me how concerned we should be because in fairness to Donald Trump, he's been raising now for months the issue of Hillary's right-hand woman being married to a man who is under investigation by the FBI, who obviously had some deep issues when it comes to -- I don't even know how to define it, but he's being investigated for sexting with an underage girl.
I mean, we're talking about potential molestation, and he's been raising this and the compromised position that Huma could potentially be in, right, if he had access to these documents and knew something he wasn't supposed to know and was violating the law at the same time, and who could have black mailed him. I mean, this could go down a very dark rabbit hole.
MILLER: Well, it could and it would be just the latest example that we've seen. We went all the way back to director Comey using the words extremely careless back during his press conference a couple of months back. When they were traveling overseas using Blackberries and other devices all the way to this illegal home brew server they had set up at their house.
I mean, what national secrets, what confidential and classified top secret information was out there for anybody to get? This is dangerous stuff. This really goes to the question is Hillary Clinton ready to be commander-in-chief when she has all of this? This is pretty bad.
KELLY: Do you expect, in the same way that we heard Giuliani -- when you hear Giuliani say we at the Trump campaign we have a few surprises up our sleeves still to drop on this campaign, this wasn't it. They want to charge the FBI. Do you expect the Clinton camp to drop something on Trump now because that's typically how these campaigns work, right? They save something and when they get hit then they may throw something back.
MILLER: Well, I think already -- today you saw Secretary Clinton going into overdrive to try to reframe this with her -- was it a press, I guess was it a press conference? It was three minutes or three minutes and thirty seconds...
KELLY: But in her speech she got much more aggressive towards Trump when she was speaking earlier without addressing the email thing.
MILLER: I think what Secretary Clinton needs to avoid at this point is trying to politicize the investigation. It's clear the investigation is pushing ahead. There's something serious there and hopefully we will find out what that is. Obviously the FBI is going to run its course, but she's already trying to politicize it and there's...
KELLY: You guys are going to politicize it too.
MILLER: We want to see justice. We want to see transparency.
KELLY: Yes, I know and -- it's all about justice.
MILLER: It is. I think we need to see it before the election.
KELLY: You're allowed to make it political. You work with the Trump campaign. Jason, great to see you.
MILLER: Thanks Megyn.
KELLY: Can you believe this? When the news broke, long time Clinton aide, Huma Abedin was by candidate's side on the campaign trail and we're told that she and Mrs. Clinton actually travel in a separate compartment in the campaign plane, apart from the rest of the Clinton staff. After holding two rallies with no mention of the news, Mrs. Clinton agreed to take questions and here's a little more of how she addressed this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you or any of your advisers heard from Comey or anyone else at the FBI today and are you concerned at all that these new email that they say they've found will in any way reveal classified information that you sent or received?
HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. We have not been contacted by anyone. First, we knew about it as I assume when you knew about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would you say to a voter who right now will be seeing you and hearing what you're saying, saying I didn't trust her before, I don't trust her anymore right now, and they're heading to the ballot box tomorrow?
CLINTON: You know, I think people a long time ago made up their minds about the emails. I think that's factored in to what people think.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've spoken to Huma. Was she able to give you any information about that?
CLINTON: You know, we've heard these rumors. We don't know what to believe and I'm sure there will be even more rumors. That's why it is incumbent upon the FBI to tell us what they're talking about, Jeff, because right now your guess is as good as mine and I don't think that's good enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: Correspondent Jennifer Griffin is with the Clinton campaign in Iowa tonight, Jennifer.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN, FOX NEWS NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good evening Megyn. Well, Huma Abedin didn't come out with her into the gymnasium behind us. This was her second campaign stop. At first it looked like she was defiant and she was not going to address the press, then she spoke to reporters after the second campaign stop here in Iowa. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: The director himself has said he didn't know that there'd be emails referenced in his letter are significant or not. I'm confident whatever they are, will not change the conclusion reached in July. Therefore it's imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question whatever it is without any delay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: A well placed source tells me the investigation is the result of four devices seized from Anthony Weiner as part of the investigation into his alleged sexting with an underage girl. At least one of those devices I'm told belonged to Huma Abedin who was traveling with Clinton today as she always does. Earlier in the day, Clinton left it to her surrogates to respond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN FALLON, HILLARY FOR AMERIC PRESS SECRETARY: As it is, we now have the worst of all worlds here where he has aired this in an extraordinary step that almost would never be taken in any other circumstance and yet the public doesn't have any information at their disposal to judge the significance of this or what it has to do with Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: When Clinton landed in Iowa, she emerged from the plane and ignored questions shouted by the traveling press. She smiled and waved. We've just learned that Clinton actually did know about the breaking news when she exited her plane. Wi-Fi returned to the plane about 20 minutes before they landed we're told. Page 58 from the notes that were released by the FBI from its previous interview with Huma Abedin shows how Abedin often transferred secure department of state emails to her Yahoo account and to her Clinton email account -- her Clinton.com email account because the Department of State system was often down.
She had a third account devoted to her husband's campaign. We're also told that she shared a computer with him. Neera Tanden, who is the co-chair, Megyn, of Hillary Clinton's transition team has been tweeting up a storm tonight. She says that these emails in question are duplicates and that they're the same ones that the Clinton campaign handed over to the FBI and that that will be shown over time to be the case. At this point it's anyone's guess, however.
KELLY: Wow.
GRIFFIN: Back to you.
KELLY: Jennifer, thank you. Good old Neera Tanden, the one in all the WikiLeaks. The one who was constantly saying these people suck, they suck at politics. She has no message. Why doesn't she come out to the microphones and tell us what's going on. So there are legal questions and there are political questions. How will this new political fall up (ph) play into Mrs. Clinton's chances of winning the White House.
Joining me now, Chris Stirewalt, co-host of "Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What" on Sunday nights and Howie Kurtz -- tell it whatever -- host of "MediaBuzz,"and there's news breaking right now which is actually really interesting and good stuff. This is from director Comey. This is a Fox News exclusive -- it's an internal memo obtained by Fox News that just posted. It's a memo from him to his FBI staffers saying the election and timing of it require disclosure of the renewed probe saying he had to do it because of the political sensitivity that he was facing and the country was facing with this election.
This is a quote -- again, this is foxnews.com reporting this exclusively, "Of course we don't ordinary tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I felt an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed," he wrote, Comey. "I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same however, given that we do not know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don't want to create a misleading impression in trying to strike that balance in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood but I wanted you to hear it directly from me."
CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS "PERINO & STIREWALT: I'LL TELL YOU WHAT" CO-HOST: Man.
KELLY: Wow.
STIREWALT: Wow.
KELLY: Chris...
STIREWALT: Holy crocodile (ph)
KELLY: I can't quite get my arms around what the hell is happening. Like this is -- what is hell is happening?
STIREWALT: So we've never been here before.
KELLY: No.
STIREWALT: This is the first time that in the history of the republic has -- in the old days, a lot of weird stuff used to happen, but in the history of the republic since we had an FBI, we've never had this, that the federal police are involved in a presidential election to this degree. My job with you and with the viewers and with everybody else is to be an analyst of data. I'll you what the polls say, what's going to happen. I got to tell you, just as a citizen, I'm a little heartbroken tonight because I've watched now Democrats decry the FBI.
And you hear in James Comey's email here, I'm trying to hold it together, I'm trying to keep it together. I'm under tremendous pressure from the Congress. I want to keep this together. And on the same election cycle when I heard Republicans cheer again and again for the Kremlin to be involved on the other side. And I say at what point does politics stop at the water's edge? At what point does this begin to be about America and not about winning this election.
And as I listen to these Democrats decry James Comey doing this and I hear a man saying in this email that you just read, hold together, please stay with me so that we can try to prosecute justice in an appropriate way, I am worried. This worries me.
KELLY: Howie, I'll tell you, you know, Mike is a little -- seven, five and three -- and I wasn't going to work tonight. I was going to take a night off and be with them. This broke and that's why I got to go in and try to explain to them why I had to go in, in terms that a seven and 5 year-old could understand.
My 3 year-old was, you know, off breaking stuff and my 5 year-old daughter and my 7 year-old son looked at me and said, so is Hillary Clinton going to go to jail? And then he said, what if she wins the presidency and then she goes to jail? These are actual questions that people now need to ask.
HOWARD KURTZ, FOX NEWS MEDIA BUZZ SHOW HOST: It is absolutely surreal and when you throw in the weird Anthony Weiner sexting angle, it takes it to a level of, you know, really bizarre Hollywood movie that would never get made because it would be so unrealistic. But look, this is indeed a bombshell. We don't know whether it's a nuclear bomb. Just in that memo from James Comey, we're looking into it. We don't know what we have. We don't know how relevant it is but really caps the worst week of Hillary Clinton's general election campaign coming after the WikiLeaks disclosure.
And you got to say this, you know, if it turns out to be a nothing burger, it is a gift from the political Gods to Donald Trump who will keep hammering this and it really strikes that Hillary Clinton's Achilles heel because what's her Achilles heel? It's two-thirds of the public doesn't think she's honest and trustworthy.
KELLY: It's true and it does bear mention we don't know whether it's a bombshell yet. If it is all duplicates, that's a different story.
STIREWALT: Right. And that's why Democrats are mad it's because with 11 days to go, if this is just hanging fire for 11 days and because they're obviously not going to come to a conclusion in 11 days. There's no way that an FBI investigation into Anthony Weiner...
KELLY: No, it's not going to get results but does it change the election? Could it change this election?
STIREWALT: Well right now, it's doing one important thing, which is its making Republicans feel better, like they could win. Whether this transitions into next week and would convince and persuade more voters that this is actually happening, who knows? That's why we're here.
KELLY: Howie, last question to you. Does it change the election?
KURTZ: It possibly could, and for all of the prognosticators who came on a week ago and said look at the polls, this is over, who's going to be in Hillary Clinton's cabinet? I remember cautioning them stuff happens in a presidential campaign in the last two weeks. We've never quite seen anything quite like but who knows how this will affect the polls. It certainly makes it seem like a much more competitive race than it did this morning.
KELLY: Wow, good to see you both.
STIREWALT: You bet.
KURTZ: Thanks Megyn.
KELLY: So this is clearly a remarkable moment for the Clinton campaign, the Trump campaign, the FBI, you, everyone else, the country, the future of the republic. Former FBI assistant director Ron Hosko is next and we expect to hear from Mr. Trump at any moment. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Donald Trump taking the stand now in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This has been a great day for the Trump campaign no matter how this shakes out. Let's listen to Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. And I want to thank the great Dan Gable and Kathy, his beautiful wife -- they're here some place -- for their support. Greatest wrestler, maybe ever, pretty good. And I'll tell you what, he loves Iowa and so do I. But thank you, Dan. You're out here -- where is Dan? Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Kathy. So nice. Thank you. I love you, too. I love you too. I love you, too.
As you've heard, earlier today the FBI after discovering new emails is reopening their investigation into Hillary Clinton.
(CROWD CHANTING)
The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate and it's everybody's hope that justice at last can be delivered.
(APPLAUSE)
In very brief remarks tonight, Hillary Clinton tried to politicize this investigation by attacking and falsely accusing the FBI director of only sending the letter to Republicans, another Clinton lie. As it turned out, the letter was sent to both Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress.
The FBI would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense. As you know, I've had plenty of words about the FBI lately, but I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. Justice will prevail.
(APPLAUSE)
Prior to today's events I was going to start off this speech by talking about how great we've been doing in the polls. We've been running an issue-based campaign focused on change, accountability and of course...
KELLY: And now Trump is going into his typical stump speech. We want to bring in former assistant director of the FBI and president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, Ron Hosko. Ron, good to see you. So, you're somebody who unlike most people actually knows how the FBI works and understands the position that director Comey has been placed in. Do you think he did the right thing?
RON HOSKO, FBI FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: I do, Megyn. You know, I do think that back in July the director thought he could thread a needle in taking politics out of the discussion, which had been in the discussion. We know that the attorney general basically shot herself in the leg in her meeting with Bill Clinton that fanned up this belief that politics were involved and would be involved in the decision.
And the director stepped up to the plate to make his comments. It was an extraordinary event. A lot of us thought he was going to say she should be indicted and he stepped back from it. And many promised that he talked about extraordinary transparency because of the interest in this case and who we were talking about.
KELLY: But do you think, you know, because the criticism is 11 days out that he -- I mean I guess people thought he should have held it or that he shouldn't have disclosed it in a letter to Congress which of course would be leaked. But of course, if he didn't and then she won, and then it came out, half the country would have been ready to, you know, because he didn't.
HOSKO: Exactly right. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. And I think the director looks into his own heart and determines himself what path he needs to walk. He committed himself to transparency. Something obviously significant, very significant happened in a way that they could not exclude Hillary Clinton from whatever this cache of new information is.
KELLY: Why do you say that? I mean, because she keeps saying he doesn't know whether it's significant of not and, you know, this could be a big nothing burger? Why do you think no, it's significant?
HOSKO: Yeah, they're not going just -- if they discover three emails that one may be classified and is already linked to something they've already seen, they're not going to go through the motion of restarting the investigation. It could have be, you know, asked and answered. They've already covered it. I think it is something that is quite significant and something that's going to take them a period of time to go through to figure out what have we already seen, what have we not seen, how do we assess that and how did we not know about this before? Where there false statements made, if so by who? Was there obstruction, if so, by who? And I think at that point, he felt obligated to tell Congress and the director feels very seriously about congressional oversight. He felt like he's made that representation, he's been beaten up for the oversight -- in the oversight.
And now he, you know, he's in the eye of the hurricane, you know, the political wings from the right battered him for the last couple of months. There was a brief eye and now that other wall is coming at you and those wings turn in the other direction, and now we're hearing it from the other side.
KELLY: But do you think, Ron, I listened to, you know, these Republicans for months prior to Comey's decision say we trust Comey. He's a straight shooter. We'll abide by whatever he decides, and then as soon as he decided not to prosecute her, they were like, Comey sucks. He's terrible. And now they're saying he's doing the right thing and the Democrats are do the reverse.
My impression as somebody who, you know, practice law for a long time and covered the department of -- the Supreme Court and legal matters for Fox News for number of years, is he's a straight shooter. He calls them like he sees them. He doesn't strike me as a guy who would be pressured by politics. But you know him better than I do. You tell me and you tell our viewers what you think.
HOSKO: I worked with Jim Comey for about eight months before I left. I've worked with some of the senior executives who were involved in this investigation. I trust them all. I trust them to be apolitical, to go where the facts take them, to make the right decisions based on the facts and the law. I don't for a second think that they were influenced by a call from the White House. I don't think they were briefing the White House. I think they would reject calls like that.
KELLY: What about a call from Loretta Lynch?
HOSKO: I think they would battle back based on the facts and the law and they would push back based on their view of how this should proceed. There can be, and you know this, there are often differences between investigators and prosecutors. At the end of the day, the bar for them to take a case forward is not indictment. They're looking pre-indictment at do we have a substantial chance likelihood of prevailing at trial.
And now we're talking about somebody who wants to be the president of the United States with this profile. You better be damn sure before you indict we are going to win at trial because we have an airtight case. They clearly were a great distance from that. I don't think any of them were influenced by that. I trust my former colleagues and I think they are going based on what they see, what they discovered and the law.
KELLY: He would have been damn sure that -- he would understood how huge the political implications were of what he did today.
HOSKO: Unquestionably. He knows. He's looking downrange to figure out how am I going to be attacked? What's going to come at me? Am I doing the right thing? And I think he's looking at the man in the mirror at night struggling with the criticisms that he's heard but wanting to do the right thing and at the end of the day, he's going to all look us in the eye say so.
KELLY: Ron, great to see you.
HOSKO: You too.
KELLY: Well earlier voting is already well underway across this country. But with each passing day, new revelations may have some people wishing they could take back their ballot. Is there any way for them to do that? Trace Gallagher joins us on that from our West Coast conference newsroom. Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And Megyn it's a key question because in early voting it appears that Hillary Clinton is outperforming Donald Trump especially in some of the battle ground states although we should note Democrats traditionally have done better than Republicans when it comes to early ballots. Now, as to whether you can ask for a do over, the answer is it depends on where you live.
But in 29 states, including battle ground states of Ohio and Florida, changes are not allowed at all. In 14 states, including Arizona which is a dead heat, we couldn't find any information about whether early votes can be changed. But experts say if the information isn't readily available, it likely means you cannot do it. We could only find eight states that definitely allow you a change of heart but in Minnesota, Hawaii and Connecticut the deadline to change your early vote is November 1, a week before the election.
In Pennsylvania and Louisiana you can cancel out your early ballot anytime by voting in person. In New York you can request a new absentee ballot up until the day before the election. And if Missouri is the show-me-state, you might call Wisconsin the "I can't decide state" because it turns out, Wisconsinites can change their vote three times before they submit a final ballot. Don't you know, Megyn.
KELLY: Wow, Trace, thank you, sir. We'll be right back. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KELLY: Sean Hannity is standing by like this. He's so excited to be here. I think we should wrap early and give it to Sean. He's got a theory. He's going to bring it to you. You have to wait five seconds, four, three, two and take it away.
END
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