Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine declined to answer a question about whether his running mate, Hillary Clinton, would be able to work with FBI Director James Comey should she win next week’s presidential election.
When asked about this Sunday, Kaine said on the CBS program “Face the Nation” that this question involved a hypothetical scenario he was not willing to address at this time.
“That assumes something that we are not ready to assume. We are taking nothing for granted on Tuesday,” Kaine said, referring to the election.
Comey sparked outrage among Democrats last week when he sent a letter to Congress announcing that the FBI was reopening an investigation regarding whether Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state violated federal law. Comey had previously closed the investigation. He told Congress he had to reopen it because new emails relevant to the case had come to light in a separate investigation into former congressman Anthony Weiner, who is married to Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide.
Reopening it so close to the election proved a blow to the Clinton campaign, with many seeing it as the reason for tightening polls in the race’s final days. Kaine, however, claimed that the news regarding the FBI had had little effect, saying the impact of it had been “a wash.”
“What we saw was the polls tightening before the letter came out,” Kaine said, arguing that it is a phenomenon often seen in the final days of a presidential campaign.
