grand rapids, mich.<u+2014>republican presidential nominee donald trump is sharpening his case against democrat hillary clinton and laying down stakes in democratic-leaning states as renewed scrutiny of her emails buoys his campaign in the homestretch of the 2016 race. mr. trump has moved beyond bashing mrs. clinton as corrupt to arguing that the new evidence uncovered by the federal bureau of investigation related to the former secretary of state<u+2019>s private email server will worsen washington gridlock. <u+201c>nothing is going to get done,<u+201d> he said in a visit to one of the most culturally conservative parts of this state. <u+201c>our country will continue to suffer...her election would mire our government and our country in a constitutional crisis that we cannot afford.<u+201d> mrs. clinton, campaigning in the more traditional battleground of ohio on monday, is seeking to get back on offense by dismissing the importance of the fbi<u+2019>s renewed focus on her and her senior aides and reminding voters about what she calls mr. trump<u+2019>s unpredictability. as strategies shifted, some polls showed a slight tightening in the race. a reuters/ipsos poll found mrs. clinton<u+2019>s lead narrowing slightly to 5 percentage points, down from 6 percentage points posted in the five-day tracking poll last thursday. capital journal is wsj.com<u+2019>s home for election 2016 news. an average of polls by real clear politics shows mrs. clinton<u+2019>s lead narrowing to 3.1 percentage points monday from 5.5 points the week before. however, the nbc news/surveymonkey weekly election tracking poll showed mrs. clinton<u+2019>s 6-point lead hasn<u+2019>t changed since fbi director james comey announced the discovery of new emails last week. still, there has been some fallout. mr. trump<u+2019>s reference to mrs. clinton<u+2019>s election causing a <u+201c>constitutional crisis<u+201d> echoed remarks by douglas schoen, a former pollster to ex-president bill clinton, who said he would no longer vote for the democratic nominee. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s an extremely hard decision,<u+201d> said mr. schoen, a contributor to the wall street journal op-ed page.<u+00a0>if mrs. clinton is elected and goes on to face investigations into her email practices, the nation <u+201c>could face a degree of paralysis that could rival watergate.<u+201d> <u+201c>i can<u+2019>t advocate for that,<u+201d> he said. mr. trump, seeking to lock down the white, blue-collar vote that is the linchpin of his campaign, will shift his attention from michigan to wisconsin on tuesday. mr. trump is trailing in both states, neither of which has favored the republican presidential nominee since the 1980s. he campaigned sunday in new mexico, another state considered in the democratic fold. mr. trump<u+2019>s other last-minute plays include dispatching his wife, melania trump, to the philadelphia suburbs, where his lagging support among suburban women is dragging down his chances in another rust belt state. he<u+2019>s also seizing on rising insurance premiums under the affordable care act and accusing election officials of failing to count ballots in his favor. months after most campaigns unveiled lists of supporters, mr. trump in recent days has announced coalitions of seniors, native americans and veterans of the reagan administration. <u+201c>he has not run a traditional campaign from the beginning, nor is he going to end with a traditional campaign,<u+201d> said saul anuzis, former chairman of the michigan republican party. <u+201c>i could see him losing 40 states or winning 40 states.<u+201d> mrs. clinton on monday rebuked the fbi, declaring there is <u+201c>no case here,<u+201d> and devoted the bulk of her remarks to attacking mr. trump<u+2019>s credentials to serve as commander in chief. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m sure a lot of you may be asking what this new email story is about, and why in the world the fbi would decide to jump into the election with no evidence of any wrongdoing,<u+201d> she said as she opened her remarks at a rally at kent state university in ohio. <u+201c>that<u+2019>s a good question.<u+201d> mrs. clinton said she was confident the fbi<u+2014>which will need to scour 650,000 emails found on the laptop they believe was used by former rep. anthony weiner, the estranged husband of top clinton aide huma abedin <u+2014>would reach the same conclusion it did when it closed its investigation into her email practices over the summer. mr. comey announced in a letter to congress on friday that the agency<u+00a0>had found new emails that could be related to mrs. clinton<u+2019>s case and was planning to investigate them, but offered few details on how many emails there are, their subject matter, and how they had been discovered. in july, the director announced that the fbi wouldn't recommend criminal charges against mrs. clinton, but criticized her for being <u+201c>extremely careless<u+201d> with the nation<u+2019>s secrets. mr. trump has repeatedly tied the swirl of questions around mrs. clinton<u+2019>s email to her ability to run the country and manage her own affairs. <u+201c>how can hillary manage this country when she can<u+2019>t even manage her emails,<u+201d> mr. trump said at a monday stop in grand rapids. for her part, mrs. clinton on monday pointed to mr. trump<u+2019>s praise for russian president vladimir putin and his lack of military and foreign policy experience. <u+201c>let<u+2019>s not get distracted from the real choice in this election,<u+201d> she said. <u+2014>peter nicholas contributed to this article. write to beth reinhard at beth.reinhard@wsj.com , byron tau at byron.tau@wsj.com and rebecca ballhaus at rebecca.ballhaus@wsj.com
trump amps up criticism of clinton  - wsj
beth reinhard byron tau rebecca ballhaus