PHILADELPHIA – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sprinted across the country to newly competitive battleground states Sunday as the tumultuous presidential race saw another dramatic development Sunday.
In a letter to congressional leaders, FBI Director James B. Comey said that after an expedited review of new emails that came to light, he still believes that Clinton should not face charges related to her use of a personal server as secretary of state.
On Sunday afternoon, Comey notified key members of Congress that after reviewing newly discovered Hillary Clinton emails the agency stands by its original findings against recommending charges.
Comey wrote that investigators had worked “around the clock” to review all the emails found on a device used by former congressman Anthony Weiner that had been sent to or from Clinton and that “we have not changed our conclusions expressed in July.”
The conclusion from Comey provided one last twist to the 2016 presidential campaign and came just two days before the election.
Comey had upended the campaign just nine days ago, when he alerted Congress that new emails had been located that were related to Clinton’s use of a private server as secretary of state.
The announcement effectively revived a controversy that had dogged Clinton since before she launched her presidential campaign and resumed an FBI investigation that had concluded in July. At the time, Comey had criticized Clinton as “extremely careless” with classified information but said,”no reasonable prosecutor” would recommend criminal charges.
Prior to his Oct. 28 announcement, Clinton had opened a significant lead over Republican Donald Trump in most public polling following a string of strong debate performances. But the polls tightened considerably as Clinton’s email practices once again took center stage.
The newly discovered emails came from a laptop owned by Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The computer had been seized by the FBI on Oct. 3 as part of an investigation into lewd text messages Weiner is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl. Abedin has told people close to her that she does not know how her emails ended up on her husband’s laptop.
On the campaign trail, Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters aboard a flight to a planned rally in Cleveland, “We are glad to see that ... he has confirmed the decision he reached in July, and we are glad that this matter is resolved.”
Trump has new targets in his sights in historically Democratic states such as Michigan, New Mexico and Minnesota.
On Sunday, the Republican nominee’s campaign pointed to Clinton’s scramble to shore up states like Michigan as a sign of momentum.
“Donald Trump is closing, and he’s got the momentum going into Tuesday,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said on ABC News. “We believe a Pennsylvania, a Michigan, a Wisconsin could quickly move onto our board.”
Once thought to be safe for Democrats, Michigan has become a last-minute battleground, with Clinton heading to Grand Rapids on Monday, the campaign announced this weekend. President Obama, who won Michigan twice, will campaign in Ann Arbor on Monday. And former president Bill Clinton made a stop in Lansing on Sunday after visiting churches in Flint.
Clinton campaigned in Philadelphia on Sunday after attending a get-out-the-vote concert in the city on Saturday night. And she will return to the state for two rallies on the eve of Election Day, a sign that the Keystone State is among the battlegrounds where her lead over Trump has dwindled in recent days.
A top Clinton aide said Sunday that the race is effectively over and that the campaign believes Clinton will hold on to blue, upper Midwestern states such as Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.
“We feel like we got a lead in Michigan,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added, “We want to hold on to it, and we think we can do that.”
“We think we have this race over. We’re going to get over our 270 electoral votes,” he added on ABC News’ “This Week.”
Trump will return to Northern Virginia on Sunday night as Republicans see new hope in a state where Clinton has long held a comfortable lead. And for the second time in less than 48 hours, Clinton will return to Ohio, which has consistently been one of Trump’s strongest battlegrounds, to hold a rally with basketball star and Cleveland’s hometown hero LeBron James.
At Mount Airy Church of God in Christ in Philadelphia on Sunday morning, Clinton swayed to a gospel serenade from singer BeBe Winans and delivered a version of her stump speech that sounded more like a sermon.
“On Tuesday we face a test of our own,” she told the predominantly African-American congregation. “This election is about much more than two candidates. Everything you care about, everything I care about, is at stake.”
Clinton noted that there is no early voting in Pennsylvania and urged strong turnout on Tuesday, despite what she said are forces trying to suppress or deter voting.
“We cannot get this wrong. The stakes are too high,” she said.
Trump will campaign in Sterling Heights, Michigan, on Sunday evening. He will also make stops in Iowa, Minnesota and Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Trump started his five-state swing in Sioux City in eastern Iowa, close to the Nebraska border. Nebraska is one of two states that can split its electoral votes between candidates, and in 2008, one electoral vote from the Omaha area went to Obama.
Speaking before Comey’s latest letter to Congress was released, the Republican nominee continued to suggest that Clinton could face criminal charges related to the ongoing investigation into her use of a private email server while at the State Department.
“If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Trump said. “In that situation we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and, ultimately, a criminal trial.”
Johnson reported from Sioux City, and Phillip reported from Washington. Jose A. DelReal in Reno; Ed O’Keefe, John Wagner, Katie Zezima, Robert Barnes, Sarah Parnass and Sean Sullivan in Washington; Steve Friess in Sterling Heights; and Laura Vozzella in Richmond contributed to this report.
