Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager on Monday said that the team planned to devote few words to FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that nothing new was found in emails linked to her private server. Instead, they’re staying positive in the final 24 hours before Election Day.
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day,” Robby Mook was asked of the impact of the renewed focus on Clinton’s emails over the past nine days.
“You know, I don’t think damage was done,” Mook said. “First of all, this matter has been in the news for some time now. I think voters had already factored it into their decision. But what we’re seeing in the numbers is record early turnout across the board.”
Early returns in critical states like Nevada, North Carolina and Florida have shown positive results for the Democratic nominee, with high numbers of women and Latinos casting their ballots for Clinton.
Mook said the campaign was “puzzled” by Comey’s decision to publicize the discovery of new emails sent and received by Clinton aide Huma Abedin, many of which turned out to be duplicates of previously reviewed messages.
“I don’t know why he couldn’t have gotten the warrant and looked at it and we never would have had to go through all of this, but that’s behind us now,” Mook said. “We have a final day left. The American people deserve to hear from these candidates a positive vision for what they’re going to do to make a difference in people’s lives.”
Asked by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota why Clinton didn’t want to “make more hay” of the news that she was in the clear, Mook again said the campaign wanted to stay focused on voter turnout.
“I think the American people have heard enough about this email matter,” he replied. “Again, we’re focused on turning out our supporters. That ground game that we worked so hard to build is really bearing fruit.”
Clinton’s favorability numbers took a hit after Comey first announced that the FBI was reviewing the batch of emails, and the campaign criticized the director for discussing the case so publicly so late in the race.
