Clinton Seeks To Turn Tables As Polls Tighten Against Trump Ahead Of Election Day
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- With exactly a week to go before Election Day, Hillary Clinton was trying to turn the tables on Donald Trump Tuesday.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, Clinton was campaigning in Florida Tuesday, and she was introduced at an appearance by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.
Machado was quick to bring up Trump and remarks she said he made about her.
"He said to me, 'Miss Piggy, Miss Housekeeping, Miss Eating Machine," Machado said.
The Clinton campaign was trying to change the subject Tuesday, away from the renewed email inquiry that has put the Clinton campaign on the defensive.
"It's almost hard to believe that it's only seven days left till this election," Clinton said. "So are you ready to vote?"
COMPLETE CAMPAIGN 2016 COVERAGE
Trump slammed Clinton Tuesday as he made appearances in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
"This is a message for any Democratic voters who have already cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton and who are having a bad case of buyer's remorse -- in other words, you want to change your vote," Trump said.
In King of Prussia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, Trump actually stopped by a convenience store. He bought nothing, but his campaign manager scooped a few tastycakes.
Trump was staying on message, delivering a speech on Obamacare.
"I will ask Congress to convene a special session so we can repeal and replace," Trump said.
Trump said Obamacare was "a catastrophe'' and has to be replaced "very, very quickly.''
He said if it isn't replaced, "we will destroy American health care forever.''
Trump left the detailed criticisms of the program to Mike Pence, his running mate. Pence delivered a lengthy takedown of the health law, highlighting the news that the cost of its premiums are rising.
Pence also said Clinton is the wrong person to try to fix the system.
"We can't trust Hillary Clinton with our health care any more than we can trust her with classified information," Pence said.
Polls are showing a tightening race as Hillary Clinton challenged the FBI's new email inquiry, declaring during a campaign rally in Ohio, "There's no case here.''
According to CBS News, the latest RealClearPolitics average of national polls shows Clinton leading Donald Trump by just over three points, the closest margin in a month. Clinton's average lead was nearly six points before the new FBI probe was announced.
Meanwhile, a new Washington Post poll has Trump with a one-point national lead over Clinton in a four-way race – along with Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
In the poll, Trump has 46 percent of the support among likely voters, Clinton has 45 percent, Johnson 3 percent, and Stein 2 percent.
But the difference between Trump and Clinton in the Washington Post poll is within the margin of error.
Republicans say they believe the race is tightening in the swing states.
"Republicans are certainly saying that, over and over again. The Trump campaign's saying it," said John Heileman of Bloomberg Politics. "The real question is whether the races continue to tighten. There's some internal polling on the Republican side that seems to suggest that. The Clinton campaign claims not."
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey alerted Congress that the FBI has obtained new material that may be related to its dormant investigation into whether classified information passed through Clinton's private email server while she served as secretary of state.
The FBI plans to review the emails to see if they contain classified information and if so, whether they were handled properly. The Justice Department said Monday it would "dedicate all necessary resources'' to concluding the review promptly.
Clinton's camp fired back Tuesday at Comey for publicizing the probe.
"The FBI has been frustratingly non-committal," said Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook.
Clinton accused the FBI of having jumped into the election "with no evidence of any wrongdoing with just days to go.'' She said that if the bureau wants to look at the emails, which appear tied to her longtime aide Huma Abedin, "by all means, they should look at them.''
"I am sure they'll reach the same conclusion they did when they looked my email for the last year," Clinton said. "There is no case here."
She insisted the FBI would reach the same conclusion it did earlier this year, when it declined to recommend Clinton and her advisers face charges for how they handled classified information.
"They said it wasn't even a close call,'' she said."I think most people have decided a long time ago what they think about all of this.''
The investigation appears to center on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and Abedin's estranged husband, whose laptop was seized in connection with an investigation into his sexting scandal.
It's unclear whether the material on the device was from Clinton. It's also not known if the emails in question are new or duplicates of the thousands the former secretary of state and her aides have already turned over.
Comey has been facing criticism from both sides of the aisle for reopening the Clinton investigation 11 days before the election.
Former attorney general Eric Holder said Comey "committed a serious error" and Senate minority leader Harry Reid claimed Comey "may have violated the law."
And some Republicans, including strategist Karl Rove and Sen. Chuck Grassley, are questioning the Comey's move as well.
But Comey, who Trump previously criticized, is now getting his praises.
"What he did was the right thing," Trump said.
Clinton is hoping supporters can look past it all.
"I think most people have moved on," she said. "They're focused on, OK, who is going to be the next president and commander-in-chief."
Abedin's attorney released a statement saying that the FBI has not contacted them about the email probe, but that Abedin "will continue to be, as she always has been, forthcoming and cooperative."
In another sign of the Clinton campaign's escalating feud with Comey, Mook blasted the FBI director for what he called a "double standard" after the New York Times revealed that the agency spent months looking into whether Russia may have had ties to the Trump campaign.
"Why is it important to hold back information about Russians and it's not important to hold back information about a Democratic candidate for president?" Mook said. "It is mind-boggling and Director Comey needs to answer this."
Comey has refused to comment on that investigation.
"He won't say what he's doing with Donald Trump, but what we're hearing from anonymous leaks is that they're investigating Donald Trump's ex-campaign manager with the Russians," Mook said.
Intelligence agencies have linked Russia to the hacking of Democratic groups during the campaign. Clinton has charged the Kremlin is trying to tilt the election in favor of Trump and has questioned the Republican's financial ties to Russia.
Trump has seized on the FBI review, gleeful over getting a new opportunity to hammer Clinton's trustworthiness and perhaps change the trajectory of a race that appeared to be slipping away from him.
He is also using the new probe as fuel to reignite his campaign in places like Michigan, where he has been lagging in the polls.
"If Hillary is elected, she would be under criminal investigation likely followed by the trial of a sitting president," he said.
In another unpleasant surprise from the FBI, the agency released 129 pages of documents from a 2001 investigation into President Bill Clinton's controversial presidential pardon of fugitive Marc Rich. The Clinton campaign called the move "odd."
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