FBI Director Stands Firm Amid Criticisms; Clinton Defiant on Renewed FBI Probe; Trump Seizes on Abedin E-mails.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight James Comey indicates he is standing firm. The FBI boss thinks he made the right call on Hillary Clinton's e-mail situation.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: But Clinton campaign doesn't. It is accusing Comey of a blatant double standard.</s>BERMAN: Donald Trump and Mike Pence together on the trail today. They go to Pennsylvania with a message. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.</s>ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. 31 minutes past the hour on this first day of November, folks. The breaking news, just one week to go until Election Day and a slew of developments in just the last hour. FBI director Jim Comey says he will not give an update. He will not give any update on the new e- mails that could be related to the Clinton investigation until his agents have reached a conclusion. Hillary Clinton maintains the investigation will amount to nothing, saying there is no case here. Donald Trump warns it could become a constitutional crisis for the country if Clinton is elected.</s>BERMAN: All right. I want to start with the e-mail. At this moment the FBI says it is urgently searching the newly discovered e-mails from a laptop belonging to disgraced former congressman, Anthony Weiner. There are hundreds of thousands of e-mails on that laptop. We're joined this morning by CNN Politics reporter Eugene Scott.</s>ROMANS: Good morning.</s>EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning.</s>BERMAN: Eugene, Jim Comey, with the statement standing by his guns here. What is he saying?</s>SCOTT: Well, he's saying that he's not going to update citizens and voters and the rest of the people who are paying close attention to this situation until the investigation is complete. He's been under a lot of criticism and I think he wants to keep that from continuing.</s>ROMANS: So what are agents doing at this point?</s>SCOTT: OK. They're going through all of the e-mails with the special equipment that's pretty comparable to some equipment that they have out in Quantico, and they're trying to isolate the e-mails first. Then they're going to look through the e-mails that belong to someone on the Clinton campaign, Huma, and to see if any of that information was classified. And I think perhaps, most importantly, they want to see if she knew that it was classified.</s>BERMAN: Right. And the issue is that the e-mail program may go through it quickly, but once they identify e-mails that may be classified, if there are any, then humans have got to get involved, right.</s>SCOTT: Right.</s>BERMAN: And they have to figure out if they can release, you know, how classified are they, what's the situation there. So that's something they'll have to look into. All right, Huma Abedin, we did not see her on the campaign trail yesterday.</s>SCOTT: We did not.</s>BERMAN: She was notably not with Hillary Clinton. So what is she doing? What's she's saying?</s>SCOTT: Well, she's been off the trail, as you mentioned, since this began, since this broke. But we do have a statement from her attorney. Her lawyers are saying, "Abedin only learned for the first time on Friday from press reports of the possibility that a laptop belonging to Mr. Weiner could contain e-mails of hers. While the FBI has not contacted us about this, Miss Abedin will continue to be as she always has been forthcoming and cooperative."</s>BERMAN: That is stunning.</s>ROMANS: FBI has not contacted us, interesting.</s>SCOTT: Interesting.</s>BERMAN: That is so interesting.</s>SCOTT: And to learn all of this from the press, I think that's very interesting as well.</s>BERMAN: It just goes to show this was Anthony Weiner's laptop. They got it through the Weiner investigation, they -- you know, and it wasn't --</s>ROMANS: It's completely unrelated, sordid and unrelated investigation.</s>SCOTT: Very unrelated.</s>BERMAN: All right.</s>ROMANS: All right.</s>BERMAN: Eugene Scott, thanks so much. Appreciate it.</s>ROMANS: Thank you so much. The Clinton campaign is accusing James Comey of a blatant double standard. Campaign manager Robby Mook jumped on reporting by CNBC last night that last month Comey opposed naming Russia as the so- called state actor hacking Democratic officials, warning it was too close to Election Day.</s>ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard. That Director Comey would show more discretion in a matter concerning a foreign state actor than one involving the Democratic nominee for president is nothing short of jaw-dropping.</s>ROMANS: We should note here, CNN, we at CNN do not have the same reporting on Comey and Russia. The FBI has declined to comment.</s>BERMAN: All right. On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton says there's flat out no case here. She said that on the stump. In Ohio Clinton invited investigators to go ahead and dig into Huma Abedin's e-mails. She says they'll find nothing. CNN's Joe Johns has the latest from Cincinnati.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Hillary Clinton kicking off the final full week of campaigning right here in battleground Ohio, trying to use some of the anxiety surrounding the latest controversy to get out the vote. At Kent State, making the case there is no FBI case on the latest e-mails that were discovered, and here in Cincinnati calling on the FBI to take a look at the new e-mails but predicting they won't find anything.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, there is a new e-mail story about, you know, why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election without evidence of wrongdoing with just days to go? And that's really good question. But I want you to know, look, I've said repeatedly. I -- you know, 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, by all means, go ahead. Look at them. And I know they will reach the same conclusion they reached when they looked at my e-mails last year, right?</s>CLINTON: It wasn't even a close call, and I think most people have moved on. They're looking and focused on, OK, who is going to be the next president and commander-in-chief?</s>JOHNS: Traveling in Ohio, Clinton was not accompanied by her long- time aide Huma Abedin. Instead accompanied by Capricia Marshall who served as her chief of protocol while she worked at the State Department. Three stops today for Hillary Clinton, all in the state of Florida. John and Christine, back to you.</s>ROMANS: All right, Joe Johns in Cincinnati for us. This morning Trump and running mate Mike Pence go to Pennsylvania to talk about Obamacare. They will be on the stage with senators, House members and Dr. Ben Carson, highlighting what the Trump campaign calls the disastrous increases in Obamacare premiums, and they will pitch Trump's call to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump is also certain to bring up Hillary Clinton's e-mail controversy as he did at two campaign stops in Michigan. CNN's Sara Murray has the latest.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. While Donald Trump kicked off his week by spending the day trying to convince the American voters that the FBI was sure to find the worst in Hillary Clinton's e-mails and warning them that if they elect her, she'll be embroiled in scandal for years to come.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will be facing the very possibility of a constitutional crisis with many dimensions and, you know, this is so true, deleterious consequences should Secretary Clinton win this election. In other words, we're going to be tied up in court for the rest of our lives with this deal. She's not going to win the election, but I'm just saying.</s>MURRAY: Now even though FBI Director James Comey has said it's too early to say whether anything significant will come out of these e- mails which came from a computer that was shared by Huma Abedin, a Clinton aide, and her husband, Anthony Weiner, that certainly hasn't stopped Donald Trump from seizing on it on the campaign trail. And it's given his campaign new hope that they may be able to compete in blue states that once seen out of their reach. He spent Monday barnstorming in Michigan and on Tuesday, he is hitting up Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Back to you, guys.</s>BERMAN: Interesting is whether or not they have hope of flipping the blue states, he simply has to flip some blue states if Donald Trump is going to win. So it may be out of necessity more than actual hope. All right. The Trump campaign is distancing itself from a self- described white national supporter who paid for robocalls in Utah, going after a third party candidate. The calls to nearly 200,000 homes, they attack Evan McMullin, an independent doing well up there to perhaps turn Utah into a battleground state. The calls focus on McMullin's support for gay marriage.</s>WILLIAM JOHNSON, SELF-DESCRIBED WHITE NATIONALIST: My name is William Johnson. I'm a farmer and a white nationalist. I make this call against Evan McMullin and in support of Donald Trump. Evan McMullin is an open border, amnesty supporter. Evan has two mommies. His mother is a lesbian, married to another woman. Evan is OK with that. Indeed, Evan supports the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage.</s>BERMAN: So this call also claims without evidence that Evan McMullin is a closeted gay man because he is single and in his 40s. The Trump campaign now condemns that call saying it has no connection at all to it.</s>ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight, Senator Richard Burr is apologizing for suggesting gun owners may want to put a bulls eye on Hillary Clinton. The North Carolina Republican made the comment in private over the weekend. In a recording of that comment obtained by CNN you can hear Burr talking about a visit he made to a gun shop the day before.</s>SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), NORTH CAROLINA: Nothing made me feel any better than I walked into a gun shop, I think yesterday in Oxford. And there was a copy of "Rifleman" on the counter. It's got a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it. I was a little bit shocked at that. It didn't have a bulls eye on it.</s>ROMANS: The Brady Campaign, a pro-gun control group that supports Hillary Clinton is calling on Senator burr to step down. Burr says the comment he made was inappropriate. The Clinton campaign has not commented. Open enrollment for Obamacare starts today. Premiums are up an average of 22 percent, costs, very widely depending on age, location and the level of coverage. Here is what people across the country are paying. These numbers are for a 27-year-old enrollee. The cheapest premiums are in New Hampshire, $217 per month. A little change from last year. There are much bigger increases in the middle of the scale like in Arizona. You can see that. Up to $422. A 27- year-old enrollee there will pay more than $420 a month. The highest premiums are in Alaska, $760 a month. The government says 85 percent of enrollees will get subsidies and three-quarters won't pay more than $100 a month. You know, that's based on income levels, depending on how many people are in the household. For a single policyholder it is $47,524. For a family of four, it's more than 92 grand. If you are enrolling in Obamacare, it's crucial that you shop around this year because there are some changes. Shop around for your level of coverage. And we've been hearing a lot about people who are really getting hit by some of these premium increases, but the Obamacare exchange officials point out that the vast majority, 85 percent, will pay less than or around $100 a month for their premiums.</s>BERMAN: Because they'll get subsidies and when it's all said and done it will be less than $100.</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>BERMAN: All right. Just seven days remain in this race. Both candidates out on the campaign trail. We're going to talk about the breaking developments overnight. That's next.