Welcome to McClatchy’s Voter Survival Guide, an interactive presentation of daily events from one of the strangest presidential campaigns in modern history.
Even though the FBI launched another investigation into potential classified material delivered to Hillary Clinton’s private email server less than two weeks before the election, initial polls since Friday’s news show Clinton maintaining her lead over Donald Trump.
But the state of Florida is now in play for Trump as a New York Times poll shows the Republican nominee with a four percentage point lead over Clinton. The polling averages show a dead heat in the key swing state.
Thirty percent of voters say Clinton’s newly discovered emails that could be related to her private server make them less likely to vote for her while 6 in 10 voters say the new information makes no difference.
The new information comes from an FBI search on electronic devices belonging to longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, disgraced former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner.
Trump called the revelations “bigger than Watergate.”
“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” he said. “Perhaps, finally, justice will be done.”
Joe Biden won’t be part of a potential Clinton administration.
Trump is opening his wallet to fund ads in key battleground states.
The polls open nationally in 8 days. Let’s get started.
Another email bombshell
Clinton campaign chief John Podesta called the announcement that the FBI would investigate emails sent to Clinton an “extraordinary” decision.
“We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July,” Podesta said, referring to the FBI decision earlier not to seek any prosecution of Clinton.
“In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” FBI director James Comey wrote in the letter. “I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
“This is definitely going to influence me,” said Democrat James Smythers, a warehouse manager from Princeton, North Carolina. “I’ll lean to Trump if he makes her pay for what she’s done.”
Clinton said in a tweet that “she’s not stopping now.”
A great day in our campaign just got even better. FBI reviewing new emails in Clinton probe @CNNPolitics https://t.co/WBltG2lAK6
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 28, 2016
"When you’re knocked down, what matters is whether you get up again...I’m not stopping now.” —Hillary
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 30, 2016
Biden won’t be part of a potential Clinton administration
Biden served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was atop Clinton’s wishlist for Secretary of State.
But the vice president isn’t interested in the role.
“I’ll do anything I can if Hillary’s elected to help her, but I don’t want to remain in the administration,” Biden told NBC affiliate KBJR in Duluth, Minnesota.
Trump puts $10 million into his own campaign
Trump announced Friday that he is investing his own money in the final days of his presidential campaign.
“I want to say thanks to all of our supporters by putting in an unprecedented TEN MILLION DOLLARS to this campaign,” Trump said in a fundraising email.
But it’s unclear if there’s enough room on the airwaves for the money to make a difference in expensive media markets like Miami.
“There’s a big difference between $10 million in August and $10 million in the last 10 days of the campaign,” said Steven Passwaiter, who tracks political advertising as vice president of Kantar Media/CMAG. “He’s going to be paying the highest rates of the season.”
There’s a big difference between $10 million in August and $10 million in the last 10 days of the campaign.
Political advertising expert Steven Passwaiter on Trump’s personal advertising splurge
Links of note
Obama’s trip to Florida – and golf game with Tiger Woods – cost taxpayers $3.6 million (McClatchy)
Trump campaign calls anti-Semitic chant at rally ‘deplorable’ (McClatchy)
Trump rally speaker fantasizes about the death of Hillary Clinton (Politico)
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Alex Daugherty: 202-383-6049, @alextdaugherty
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