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Hillary Clinton Campaigns In Ohio Amid Fallout From FBI Announcement

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

FBI Director James Comey has created one last October surprise for this presidential election. He told Congress on Friday that the FBI is looking at more emails apparently related to Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. It's not clear how this will impact the race, but it is the focus out on the campaign trail.

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DONALD TRUMP: That's the mother lode. That's - I think you're going to find the 33,000 that are missing, the 15,000 that are missing, the batch that are missing two weeks ago. You know they had boxes of emails missing two weeks ago. I think we hit the mother lode, as they say in the good old mining industry.

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HILLARY CLINTON: And I am sure they will reach the same conclusion they did when they looked at my emails for the last year. There is no case here.

SHAPIRO: That was Donald Trump speaking today in Michigan and Hillary Clinton at a rally in Ohio. We will hear more about Trump in a moment. We're going to begin with NPR's Tamara Keith traveling with the Clinton campaign. She joins us from Kent, Ohio. Hi, Tam.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.

SHAPIRO: How much does Comey's letter seem to be hanging over Clinton's campaign right now?

KEITH: Well, as you know, Ari, campaigns tend to be bubbles. And in the Hillary Clinton bubble, at this event, she mentions the Comey letter, and everyone boos. And then earlier in the day, she was at a soul food restaurant in Cleveland near a union hall where it was just a party atmosphere. They were taking selfies, ordering pie, even singing happy birthday to Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who was introducing her to folks.

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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing) Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

KEITH: It was sort of an alternate universe where the FBI investigation just isn't a concern. Hillary Clinton at one point was talking to a voter who said she had already voted for her. And Clinton predicted that if they can turn out her supporters in a big way, they will win big. She said there's lots of noise and distractions, but, quote, "we've just got to keep people up, moving and voting."

SHAPIRO: And what is her plan to make sure people do stay motivated, up, moving and voting, as she puts it?

KEITH: Well, today it seemed that the plan involved fear. The campaign message today was very much to say that Donald Trump is an existential threat. At Kent State University, she was introduced by a man who was a former nuclear missile launch officer who said Donald Trump shouldn't have his finger anywhere near the button. And then when Clinton talked, she only amplified that message.

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CLINTON: Imagine him plunging us into a war because somebody got under his very thin skin.

SHAPIRO: Well, Tam, Election Day is a week from tomorrow. What is Hillary Clinton's plan for this final stretch?

KEITH: Well, so she's in Ohio today, which is a critical swing state, she said. Florida tomorrow - that's not surprising. But then it gets interesting. She's going to be in North Carolina later in the week, a state that her campaign has really seen as almost a firewall in this election.

And very interesting - Arizona - she's going to be campaigning in Arizona on Wednesday, and then her running mate, Tim Kaine, is actually set to give an entire speech in Spanish in Arizona on Thursday. So they are making a big push into a state that is traditionally considered a red state. This time around, it is absolutely a battleground.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Tamara Keith traveling with the Clinton campaign - thanks, Tam.

KEITH: You're welcome, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.