'This Week' Transcript: Sen. Tim Kaine and Kellyanne Conway

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR 'THIS WEEK' on October 30, 2016 and it will be updated.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: Let's bring this now to Hillary Clinton's running mate, Senator Tim Kaine.

He joins us now from Richmond, Virginia.

Senator Kaine, thank you for joining us this morning.

(AUDIO GAP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Kaine, thank you for coming back to THIS WEEK.

We have a lot to talk about this morning.

Let's begin with Donald Trump.

He has pounced on this news. He calls this the worst scandal since Watergate. And Hillary has no one but herself to blame.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, look, he's also made all kinds of wild claims that just aren't true, like the investigation is being reopened. That's not true. He's making claims about the -- these activities that have been debunked by the FBI, when the FBI reached their conclusion three months ago, that no reasonable prosecutor -- no reasonable prosecutor would move forward on this case.

Director Comey was asked about the conclusion, which was an unequivocal one, and he said it wasn't even close to reach that conclusion. And -- and we expect that the final conclusion is going to be exactly the same.

This is a -- an unprecedented move, as your folks were describing earlier, because it happens close to an election, which is in violation of normal Justice Department protocol. And it involves talking about an ongoing investigation, which also violates the protocol.

And as far as we know now, Director Comey knows nothing about the content of these emails. We don't know whether they're to or from Hillary at all.

And so this is a distraction.

But look, we're focused on winning this race over the next nine days, talking about the -- the kind of president that Hillary will -- Clinton will be and contrasting her Stronger Together vision with the...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But what more...

KAINE: -- dark and dangerous vision of Donald Trump.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But what more do we know about the emails?

What has Huma told the campaign?

A source close to the investigation told me this morning that this was Anthony Weiner's computer, according to Huma, and not her computer, and that the first she heard about these emails was on Friday when the news broke.

What has she told the campaign?

What do you think is there?

KAINE: Well, listen, I'm not going to speculate, because the FBI director doesn't know. I mean he -- he had to issue a second letter internally within the FBI to frankly back up, because the first letter created so many misimpressions.

But I think it's now pretty clear that the FBI director doesn't know that there is anything -- these could be duplicates of what's already being analyzed. They could be things that don't have anything to do with Hillary Clinton.

We can't speculate about it. That's why we're asking the FBI director, OK, you violated these two protocols if you put out kind of a -- a letter and then had to do a second letter to kind of backtrack, you owe the public full information. That's what Hillary Clinton wants and that's what the American public deserves.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So what exactly do you want him to do right now?

What exactly do you want him to release?

KAINE: Well, I think he should release -- if he hasn't seen the emails, I mean they need to make that completely plain -- then they should work to see the emails and release the circumstances of those once they have done that analysis. That's what Hillary said immediately when she spoke to the press on Friday, she said, look, you can't break both of these protocols and then leave it just kind of up in the air with a question mark. You owe people the -- the complete information.

Hillary cooperated with the FBI in this investigation. The FBI reached a -- a rock solid conclusion, that there was no need to -- to take it forward. No reasonable prosecutor would do it.

And so, to the extent that now there's a question mark, what -- what needs to happen is the FBI director...

STEPHANOPOULOS: It's...

KAINE: -- needs to give more information about it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you don't know what's in the emails, how can you be so sure that it's not going to change his conclusions?

KAINE: Because of the unequivocal nature of the conclusion. This -- this was a lengthy investigation, George, a very long and very elaborate investigation, not a slapdash one, not a short one.

And the conclusion they reached, as Director Comey said to Congress, was not even close. And that conclusion was very unequivocal -- no reasonable prosecutor would do anything about it.

So when Donald Trump is going around making these wild claims about trying to jail his political opponent and all of this stuff, he's just making this up. He doesn't get to decide what the laws of the country are.

And so, look, this is a distraction in the last nine days, but we're happy that this weekend, we've had 50,000 volunteers working yesterday. We see very strong trends in early voting, especially in states like Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, where we have good data. And -- and we're not going to be distracted by this. We're going to power forward to make our case about why Hillary is going to be the next person.

STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, a lot of Democrats are incensed by James Comey's actions. Dianne Feinstein -- Senator Dianne Feinstein called his actions "appalling."

Howard Dean, former Democratic candidate for president, says, quote, "He may have destroyed the credibility of the FBI forever, put himself on the same side as Putin."

Do you agree with that?

KAINE: You know, I -- what I -- what I said when I was -- when it looked about this Friday was just, it's just extremely puzzling.

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. They're -- they're completely unprecedented and that's why I think he owes the American public more information.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Because in the past, you've had great praise for Director Comey. You called him a wonderful and tough career public servant.

Do you still believe that?

KAINE: That's what makes this...

STEPHANOPOULOS: And wasn't he kind...

KAINE: -- that's what makes this so hard to understand, George. It really does. I -- I worked with Jim Comey when he was in the Eastern District of Virginia, the U.S. attorney's office and I was mayor here.

That's what makes this -- this so completely puzzling. They did a very thorough investigation of this matter. And they did -- they weren't releasing, you know, tentative conclusions along the way. They waited until they got to the end of it. And then he gave a very unequivocal finding.

And so why he would released this sort of tentative letter and then have to back up on it within 24 hours, when he hadn't even -- hadn't even seen the emails himself, I just cannot understand that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But how about the point that Dan Abrams was making earlier, that he was caught between a rock and a hard place and he would have been criticized for keeping silent on an issue like this before the election?

KAINE: George, the issue for the FBI director is not whether somebody would criticize him. The issue for the FBI director is, is he following established protocols for a law enforcement investigation?

You know, criticism comes with the territory, but you can't tack and move one direction or the next to avoid criticism. Following established protocols and rules is what you would expect from a chief law enforcement official.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You say you're not worried about the impact on the race right now, you're seeing some strong signs in early states.

KAINE: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But look at our poll over the last week, an 11 point shift, according to the ABC News Tracking Poll. You've had stories about WikiLeaks every day, stories about the Clinton Foundation every day and now this email story, as well.

Aren't you a bit worried that this is moving against you?

KAINE: Well, look, is the race close?

In some polls it is, and in some polls it isn't. But we've always assumed it would be close. And we're working like it's close.

We -- we like where we are in the states that are the keys. And you do now start to get data, George, that's even advanced beyond polls, which is you get information about who is registering. You get information about who is seeking absentee ballot requests and which are being returned. And you get information about early vote in the states that have it.

That -- that data about actual voter participation is more meaningful at the end of the race than polls. And we feel very, very good about that, taking nothing for granted. Hillary is trying to do something that's never been done in the history of this nation, which means she's running into a headwind.

But we're going to run very, very hard and we're excited about the energy we see from a nation that now has more than 200 million registered voters, including 50 million who are millennials between 18 and 34.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No indication that this email story yet has shifted the race?

KAINE: No, even in your poll, I -- you know, the way I -- I looked at the poll that you discussed earlier, the folks who are concerned about it are folks who were not voting for Hillary Clinton anyway. And more than 60 percent of the folks that you guys polled said this is not a story that concerns them.

STEPHANOPOULOS: This email issue is the -- has just bedeviled Hillary Clinton this entire campaign. You say she's learned from it.

What exactly has she learned?

KAINE: Well, look, she's learned, I think that rather than put words in her mouth, I mean I'll just say what she said. She said, look, I used this private server to -- as a matter of convenience and it was about being able to -- to do work 24-7, even when I was at home. But now I've learned that I should have done otherwise. That's a -- that's been a -- an important lesson. I absorb it.

She's also said something that you never hear Donald Trump say. "I take responsibility for it. I apologize for it. And I'll do differently going forward."

Donald Trump won't apologize for going after the Khan family, that Gold Star family from Virginia. He won't apologize for trash-talking John McCain because of his POW status. He's not apologizing to all these women who are coming forward with allegations against him. In fact, he's saying he's going to sue them if he gets to be president.

Hillary knows how to take responsibility when she's concluded that she's made a mistake. That's an important element of the character of somebody in the Oval Office.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The Clinton Foundation has been in the news, as well.

Should it be shut down if Hillary Clinton becomes president, or pushed over to another independent entity?

KAINE: You know, George, the Clinton Foundation -- of course, the Clintons themselves receive no salary from the Foundation. And the Foundation receives marks from organizations that look at charities in -- in a very elevated way, higher marks than other great charities, like the American Red Cross, for example.

This is a charity that's doing great work around the world and in this country on issues like HIV-AIDS and opioid addiction.

And the -- the comparison in the Clinton Foundation that's the best one is the Trump Foundation, which had to pay a fine for an illegal campaign contribution. You can't make a campaign contribution out of a charitable foundation, but Donald Trump's foundation did. They hid it, pretended that it wasn't a campaign contribution.

They got caught. The money was going to the Florida attorney general, who, at the time, their office was looking at an investigation into Trump University. And they got fined by the IRS.

So if we're going to talk about foundations, we ought to compare a foundation that's doing good work for people around the world in the best traditions of American philanthropy and a foundation, the Trump Foundation, which, according to "The Washington Post" lead story today, is nothing but an effort to self-aggrandize Donald Trump, but not help anybody.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We are nine days out.

Are you going to be vice president of the United States?

KAINE: You know what, I take nothing for granted. I've been telling every audience, George, I talk to I'm 8 and 0 in elections to this point. But the way I run is I tell myself I'm the underdog until they call me the winner. And that's the same attitude that I have and it's the same attitude that Hillary has as we go into the next nine days.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Kaine, thanks for joining us this morning.

KAINE: Absolutely, George.

(END)

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