sen. marco rubio prodded his democratic challenger, patrick murphy, to <u+201c>let floridians know if he still trusts hillary clinton 100 percent.<u+201d> | ap photo by seung min kim and burgess everett 10/28/16 06:58 pm edt for at least a day <u+2014> thanks to the latest hillary clinton email bombshell <u+2014> senate republicans scrambling to defend their majority got to play some offense. gop candidates from senate battlegrounds such as florida, pennsylvania, missouri and elsewhere pounced on the news friday that the fbi was reviewing new evidence potentially related to its probe of clinton<u+2019>s email practices. the shocking revelation <u+2014> which came as a surprise to both presidential campaigns and capitol hill <u+2014> injected new life into the e-mail controversy that has long dogged clinton and her favorability ratings and gave republicans fodder to tie democrats to their own unpopular candidate at the top of the ticket. story continued below in five of the six most competitive senate battleground states <u+2014> missouri, nevada, pennsylvania, new hampshire and north carolina <u+2014> the two candidates are separated by an average of less than three points, according to the real clear politics average of recent surveys. indiana<u+2019>s race is nearly as close. <u+201c>if you look across the senate map, there are six races that are neck-and-neck. this kind of news absolutely has the potential to impact those races,<u+201d> said ian prior, spokesman for senate leadership fund, a super pac focused on electing republicans to the senate. <u+201c>democrats have to be wishing that they didn<u+2019>t so wholeheartedly embrace hillary, because there<u+2019>s no escape pods now.<u+201d> meanwhile, a handful of democratic senate candidates competing in closely contested states quickly issued statements stressing that they<u+2019>ve long recognized that clinton had erred in using a private email server as secretary of state. some democrats also took a cautious tone, nudging the fbi to thoroughly look into the matter. "as i've said before, secretary clinton's use of a private email server was a mistake,<u+201d> jason kander, the democratic candidate in the missouri senate race, said in an e-mailed statement. <u+201c>i trust the fbi's investigation and know they will handle this case, as they do with all others, with the utmost integrity." by josh gerstein and madeline conway immediately following the fbi news, kander faced calls from his gop opponent <u+2014> sen. roy blunt <u+2014> to step down from his role as national co-chair of clinton<u+2019>s campaign. (kander's campaign says he was never a national co-chair; rather, kander served on the clinton's state leadership council for the missouri primary with a slew of other down-ballot candidates.) blunt and fellow republicans have relentlessly tied kander to clinton in what has become a tossup senate race, hoping clinton<u+2019>s unpopularity in the conservative-leaning state will drag down the insurgent democrat. with control of the chamber down to a half-dozen races, all of which could go either way, it was a welcome development for republicans struggling to hang on to their narrow majority and weather anti-trump backlash. but with less than two weeks left before polls open, there was still a great deal of uncertainty about what exactly the fbi was investigating and whether it would produce more surprises before election day that could further roil the races. democrats had been expecting senate republicans to begin sagging down the stretch due to trump, said club for growth president david mcintosh. but he said that narrative is quickly being rewritten. <u+201c>the bottom drops out, hillary really opens up a wide lead; i think she and her campaign were banking on that when they started diverting money to these senate races. my prediction: they<u+2019>re going to divert it back to her after the announcement today about the fbi," he said in an interview. in new hampshire, democrat maggie hassan called on fbi director james comey to <u+201c>clarify today<u+2019>s announcement and provide more information to the american public.<u+201d> hassan is facing republican kelly ayotte in one of the most closely contested races in the nation. <u+201c>this matter has been investigated exhaustively, and secretary clinton has appropriately apologized and said that the handling of her emails was a mistake. i agree with that,<u+201d> hassan said in a statement. the fbi<u+2019>s revelation friday was unwelcome news for democrats, who need just four or five seats to take the senate majority and had been handed a political gift this month with a series of controversies surrounding republican nominee donald trump, particularly the 2005 tape that captured trump boasting about sexually assaulting women topping that list. trump's missteps had helped obscure some of clinton<u+2019>s weaknesses, including voter perceptions that she's untrustworthy that have long loomed over democratic senate candidates. but the fbi disclosure gave the gop a chance to reclaim the offensive. one gop strategist speculated that it could boost trump by one or two points in the senate battleground states <u+2014> helping to stanch republicans<u+2019> political bleeding and even potentially lift up gop down-ballot candidates. by nolan d. mccaskill still, some states such as nevada are already well into early voting, raising questions about how much impact the new revelations will have <u+2014> particularly if tens of thousands have already cast ballots. the national republican senatorial committee quickly seized on the new movement as republicans have retooled their message to focus on the gop serving as a check on a potential hillary clinton presidency. the fundraising e-mail asked: " do you think hillary clinton can be trusted to serve as our commander-in-chief?" the nrsc<u+2019>s counterpart, the democratic senatorial campaign committee, also called for <u+201c>clarity<u+201d> into what specifically the fbi was looking into <u+2014> before pivoting to trump. <u+201c>republicans flailing around on this are showing how desperate they are to save their political campaigns,<u+201d> said dscc spokeswoman lauren passalacqua. <u+201c>but nothing between now and november 8 will change their damaging records or caustic allegiance to donald trump.<u+201d> in pennsylvania, republican pat toomey<u+2019>s campaign sought to tie friday<u+2019>s news to democratic challenger katie mcginty<u+2019>s own issue with e-mail dating to the time she served as chief of staff to the state<u+2019>s governor, tom wolf. a state court earlier this month ordered up the release of mcginty<u+2019>s emails from that time. "katie mcginty is still trying to hide what she was doing on the taxpayers' dime in harrisburg, despite her long history of using her public office for personal gain and official ethics rebukes," said toomey campaign spokesman ted kwong. "we knew mcginty was in complete lock-step with hillary clinton, but sharing an email scandal is ridiculous.<u+201d> a spokesman for mcginty<u+2019>s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. some democratic candidates fully embraced clinton, and turned friday<u+2019>s news into an opening to attack their republican challengers over their own controversial standard-bearer, donald trump. sen. marco rubio (r-fla.) prodded his democratic challenger, patrick murphy, to <u+201c>let floridians know if he still trusts hillary clinton 100 percent.<u+201d> by louis nelson murphy responded, essentially, that yes, he does. "patrick trusts hillary clinton with the nuclear codes, which is more than marco rubio can say about his preferred candidate for president, donald trump<u+201d> said galia slayen, a campaign spokeswoman for murphy. other democrats were more measured; helen hare, a spokeswoman for deborah ross, the democratic senate candidate in north carolina, said: "deborah believes the fbi should review the facts and share them with the public as they become available." her opponent, sen. richard burr (r-n.c.), called for a <u+201c>full accounting<u+201d> of clinton<u+2019>s email practices. sen. ron johnson (r-wis.) issued a statement in his official capacity as senate homeland security and governmental affairs chairman, calling on the fbi to <u+201c>fully examine<u+201d> the additional evidence and urging investigators to be <u+201c>transparent<u+201d> as they look into clinton<u+2019>s <u+201c>extremely careless behavior.<u+201d> michael tyler, a spokesman for russ feingold, the democratic senate candidate in wisconsin, struck a somewhat similar tone in his response, saying it is <u+201c>important that officials have the opportunity to gather all the facts and certainly director comey has the ability to do so.<u+201d> the key for democrats will be how quickly they can shift the spotlight back to trump. catherine cortez masto, the democratic candidate in nevada, was already trying to do so on friday evening. "hillary clinton has acknowledged she showed poor judgment and has apologized for it,<u+201d> said masto campaign spokesman zach hudson. <u+201c>joe heck is grasping at straws to try to distract nevadans from his being donald trump's biggest supporter in nevada until it was no longer politically convenient." by thomas wright by bill scher by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
gop senate hopes brighten on fbi news - politico
seung min kim burgess everett josh gerstein madeline conway nolan d. mccaskill louis nelson jack shafer