Tim Kaine is questioning whether FBI Director James Comey has read the new batch of Hillary Clinton-related emails that are under investigation. Kaine called Comey’s actions “unprecedented” in an interview Sunday on ABC’s This Week.
“It’s just extremely puzzling,” said the Democratic vice presidential candidate. “Why would you break these two protocols? Why would you release information that is so incomplete — when you haven’t even seen the material yourself — 11 days before an election? Why would you talk about an ongoing investigation?”
“I have — I just have no way of understanding these actions,” added Kaine. “They’re completely unprecedented, and that’s why I think he owes the American public more information.”
Kaine also expressed that he “knows nothing about the content of these emails” or whether the emails are to or from Clinton.
Comey sent a letter to Congress on Friday stating that the FBI was opening up another investigation into whether emails involving Hillary Clinton contained classified information. The investigation comes after the FBI uncovered new emails while looking into the sexting probe involving Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Sen. @timkaine calls FBI’s actions “unprecedented” pic.twitter.com/kKdOxGmp9M
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 30, 2016
Sen. @timkaine on Trump wanting to jail Clinton: “He is just making this up.” pic.twitter.com/IwhdAAYppF
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 30, 2016
Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta also agreed that Comey’s actions were an “unprecedented step” and that the FBI director should have reviewed the information before making a public announcement. Podesta spoke out about the recent investigation in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
“To throw this in the middle of the campaign 11 days out just seemed to break with precedent and be inappropriate at this stage,” he said. “If they’re not significant, they’re not significant. He might have taken the first step of actually having looked at them before he did this in the middle of the presidential campaign so close to the voting.”
Podesta added, “Eleven days before the election — Is that something you toss on the table, or do you take the time to do what other prosecutors have done in the past and make sure that it is so significant that you have to go forward with it?
Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also appeared on State of the Union, where she said that Comey could be accused of interfering in the election if he didn’t reveal a second FBI investigation into Clinton-related emails.
When Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence was asked about his reactions to the emails, he told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that the incident shows that Clinton is a “risky choice in this election.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
