UNDATED (WTAQ) – On Friday, the FBI announced it’s reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of sensitive emails when she was secretary of state.
What impact could this have on voters just over a week before Election Day?
St. Norbert College Assistant Professor for Political Science Wendy Scattergood says the impact is likely to be small.
“But we do know that there’s a certain amount of likely voters who are going to show up who haven’t made up their mind,” says Scattergood.
Earlier this month, the college released their Strategic Research Institute Survey Center poll which showed Clinton leading Republican nominee Donald Trump 47 to 39 percent. Within the 664 registered likely voters who took part in the survey, 5 percent of respondents were not sure.
Another survey question was how strongly those who said they would vote for the Democratic presidential nominee are committed to Clinton. While 72 percent considered themselves “totally committed”, 24 percent were “somewhat committed” and 4 percent “might change mind”.
Could those more than one-quarter of Clinton supporters not firm in their backing of her be some who could change their minds? Scattergood says it’s possible, but that doesn’t mean a boost for Trump.
“Because they’re clearly not pro-Trump either,” Scattergood says. “So whether it means they’ll stay home, or cast a third-party vote, it could affect them.”
Scattergood mentions that while everyone looks for an “October surprise”, this will likely translate to being a “mini-October surprise”.
“It’s not like this is coming completely out of the blue and people have never heard of it, but at the same time, it is something that people had probably not anticipated,” explains Scattergood. “So, in that respect, especially with the people who are not sure it could have some effect on them. I don’t think it’s going to be a major effect, I don’t think for example it’s going to change the outcome of the election.”
Election Day is coming up on Tuesday, November 8.
REACTION FROM BOTH SIDES
In the wake of this development, Hillary for American chair John Podesta released this statement:
“Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is ‘reopening’ an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.
“It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.
“The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released this statement:
“Today’s announcement by FBI Director Comey is an important step toward accountability and transparency on Secretary Clinton’s private email system,” said Johnson. “With the FBI already determining that Secretary Clinton sent and received classified information through her private email system, it is important for the FBI to fully examine these additional materials. I hope that the FBI will be transparent with Congress and the American people as it continues to examine Secretary Clinton’s extremely careless behavior.”
Also, chairman of the RNC Reince Priebus released a statement which read:
“The FBI’s decision to reopen their criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s secret email server just eleven days before the election shows how serious this discovery must be. This stunning development raises serious questions about what records may not have been turned over and why, and whether they show intent to violate the law. What’s indisputable is that Hillary Clinton jeopardized classified information on thousands of occasions in her reckless attempt to hide pay-to-play corruption at her State Department. This alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency, a job that is supposed to begin each morning with a top secret intelligence briefing.”
