Facing South Florida: Speaking With Top Officials From Clinton, Trump Campaigns
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – With Election Day less than 24 hours away, Facing South Florida host Jim DeFede spoke with top officials from the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigns.
DeFede spoke first with Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager.
The first topic: FBI Director James Comey and his letter closing a second investigation into Clinton's emails.
"We don't hear Hillary Clinton talking much about the latest letter he sent to Congress. Are we going to hear her discuss it at all?" DeFede asked him.
"You know, we only have less than a day left now until Election Day and what Hillary thinks voters want to hear about most, and what she wants to talk about, is her positive vision for where she wants to take this country," Mook responded. "We're glad that Director Comey cleared up that there is nothing new here, that's what we said when this first letter came out."
He did add the campaign was perplexed and frustrated with Comey's timing.
DeFede pressed.
"How much damage do you think he's done in this process?" DeFede asked.
"I don't think any. Voters have known about this issue for a long time now," he said. "The only unfortunate thing is it was a distraction and it didn't allow Hillary to talk about what voters really care about."
DeFede then asked if Clinton would have confidence in Comey going forward.
Mook stated the campaign is focused, right now, on winning the election, especially in the Sunshine State.
"We have been working incredibly hard on the ground in Florida. We have an absolutely fantastic team there that's been getting record turnout across the state," he said. "We've seen from the data over 250,000 people turned out. We think we won them by two-thirds."
And even though Mook said the data appears to be Clinton's favor, he urged voters to head to the polls on Election Day.
"We're asking a lot of our supporters. If you haven't voted, we need your vote," he said. "It's going to be a close election."
On the other side of the political aisle, Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer says people will be surprised by the Trump campaign's ground game, especially in a key battleground state like Florida.
"How are you feeling going into election day? And where do you see positive signs in Florida?" Defede asked him in a satellite interview Monday evening.
"You know, in 2012, Jim, we had 84 staffers between the Romney campaign and the RNC spread throughout the Florida," he said. "We now have 1,800 people canvassing the entire state – whether it's in, you know, Broward or Miami-Dade to the I-4 corridor and into the Panhandle."
Spicer added besides feeling really good about the ramped up ground game, he is very pleased with the early vote.
"As you know, the Obama campaign won the early vote last time with 100,000. We closed that gap. Mitt Romney lost Florida by 74,000 votes. Just on the early voting alone, we've made that up. So we feel really good about where we're headed," he said.
DeFede then pressed him about the historic early voting numbers in Broward and Miami-Dade, two counties that tend to be heavily Democratic.
Spicer said he isn't worried and continued to tout how well the Trump campaign was doing across the state – stressing success in the Panhandle and I-4 corridor.
"We have a very sophisticated data operation. We track every single voter – all 197 million of them. So we feel very good about where we think people who have voted and have not voted, where we are for Florida. It's going to be a late night, I think, but ultimately the momentum is with us – not only in Florida, but all these battleground states," he said.
DeFede then questioned Spicer on the surge of Hispanic voters getting to the polls, which pundits have said could be Trump's undoing.
"Yeah, and Jim, you know, early we sort of saw a lot of that, whether it was the I-4 corridor with the Puerto Rican vote or even in Miami-Dade, in particular, with the Cuban community. We modeled a lot of that into what we feel we needed to win," he said.
DeFede then shifted Trump's comments on a rigged election, Comey's investigation and if the GOP candidate would support a Clinton presidency.
"If Donald Trump turns out not to win on November 8th, will she be an unjust or illegitimate president in his eyes?" DeFede asked Spicer.
"No. I mean, look, we live in a democracy," he replied. "Whoever the majority of people vote for in a given office is the victor."
DeFede followed up, "Does Donald Trump continue to have confidence in FBI Director James Comey? And would he want him to resign?"
"I really don't know. I think to be honest with you, me and the rest of the staff here and throughout the country is focused on getting out the greatest number of Republican and independent and, frankly, even Democratic voters who are ready for change tomorrow," he said. "And so I haven't spent a ton of time asking Mr. Trump who he wants to serve in an administration, specifically Director Comey."
For more on Campaign 2016, click here.