'This Week' Transcript: John Podesta and Reince Priebus

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR 'THIS WEEK' on November 6, 2016 and it will be updated.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: And we are joined now by the chair of the Clinton campaign, John Podesta. John, thank you for joining us this morning. You saw our poll, a five point lead this morning. Where do you see the race?

JOHN PODESTA, CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Well, look, we feel a lot -- pretty good, George, but we’re leaving nothing to chance. We’re going to run through the tape. There’s a lot of work to do between now and Tuesday, when the polls close Tuesday night. So we’re feeling good, we’re closing strong, but we’re -- but we’ve got a tremendous amount of work to do and we’ve got a million volunteers across the country who are doing that work for us.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It seems like you’ve got a lot of work to do in that state of Michigan. The Trump campaign pushing very, very hard there right now. They’re going to Minnesota as well. They think they can break down your blue firewall in the upper Midwest.

PODESTA: Well, look, we feel good about Minnesota. You know, he made that last-minute change to abandon Wisconsin and go to Minnesota; we’re not sure why he did that. But with respect to Michigan, you know, as Jonathan Karl pointed out, if we hold onto Nevada, that looks strong in the early vote, Michigan votes for the most part on Election Day. You know, we think we have this race over. We’re going to get over our 270 electoral votes.

So we’re going where the votes are. We’re going to finish strong. We feel good about Michigan and the rest of those states. But as you noted, she was in Florida yesterday. We’ll -- we feel like we’ve got to do work, but we’ve got an edge in North Carolina. So there are a lot of paths to our victory, but we want to hold on to the states that we think ought to be in the Democratic column, and Michigan’s one of them.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You mention those states, Florida and Nevada, where you’ve seen that real surge in Latino voting over the early vote period. And you saw Donald Trump out in Nevada last night saying the fact that they kept the polls open in Las Vegas on Friday night until 10:00 is a sign that the system is rigged.

PODESTA: Yes, you know, that’s ridiculous. The people were in line and they got -- the people who were in line got to vote, and they, as normal, kept the votes, kept the polling place open so that they could vote.

But, you know, with Donald Trump, if he’s losing, everything’s rigged. When he lost the Emmys, it was rigged. When he lost the primaries, you know, those occasions where he lost the primaries in the Republican run-up, it was rigged. So if he’s losing, it’s rigged. But I think the American people see through that. They know that this is going to be a fair election. Republican voting officials across the country have said that. Marco Rubio has said it. Paul Ryan has said it. It’s going to be -- you know, we’ve seen a surge of voting. You noted the Latino surge in Florida, in Nevada. We’re feeling very good about that, and, you know, I think we’re going to keep working to make sure that -- that we’re successful.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Surging Latinos, but African-Americans have been lagging.

PODESTA: Well, look, I think, you know, if you look at Florida for example, we’ve now gotten more early vote amongst the African-American community that -- than we had in 2012. As voting sites expanded in North Carolina, the vote numbers went up. And, you know, in 2012, there -- the first African-American president was running for reelection. We’re going to try to match his numbers and we’re feeling like our organization can keep working to help produce that. And Hillary’s going to be out in Philadelphia tomorrow, you know, across -- in -- with LeBron James today in Ohio. We are very glad to be with Beyonce and Jay-Z. Donald Trump inexplicably attacked them last night so I’m not sure that’s smart for him.

But, you know, we’re going to do what we can to make sure that people are hearing her message that we’re stronger together. We’re going to build a country that’s united. We’re going to bring everybody to the table. We’re going to make the right investments to create an economy that’s working for everyone, not just those at the top.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That message has been somewhat drowned out in the last week, since the announcement from James Comey of the FBI that he was looking at some more e-mails in that e-mail investigation. Also other leaks from the FBI. And Tim Kaine, your vice presidential candidate, has now said that some in the FBI are, quote, "actively working in support of Donald Trump". Do you believe that?

PODESTA: Well, look, I’m -- you know, we’re all disturbed first of all by the letter, which really broke precedent, was over the advice the leaders of the Justice Department. You know, I’m not challenging Mr. Comey’s motivation, but I do think it was unwarranted; it was a mistake. And I think that Republican and Democratic former Justice Department officials have come out and questioned the move that he made.

And with respect to the leaks that have gone on throughout the week with Rudy Giuliani saying he’s hearing leaks from the FBI, you know, I don’t know what to make of it. I know that Elijah Cummings, John Conyers, sent a letter to the Justice Department on Friday asking the Inspector General to investigate those leaks, but you know, I’m not going to -- you know, our job is really just to get those doors knocked, the phone calls made, to get our people out to the polls. We’ll let other people worry about that.

The most important number I saw yesterday was 7 million voter contacts -- we did just one day -- of 3 million face-to-face, 4 million on the phone. So that’s what we’re concerned about. We’ll let other people worry about the rest.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Last week you said you wanted Mr. Comey to come out with more information. Do you still want that, or do you think at this point it’s better now for nothing to come out until after the election?

PODESTA: Look, I think that -- we always said that this would -- was -- you know, would end the same place it ended last June when he said that no further action was warranted. It wasn’t even a close case. There’s nothing that we believe that in this current round of -- that the FBI -- the e-mails that he’s looking at, that will change that outcome.

So if he’s got more information, let him put it out. That’s what we’ve said right from the beginning of this controversy and saga.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It did seem to cost Hillary Clinton the chance to -- to use her words -- go high in these final 10 days. You know, we’re going to have a bitterly divided country no matter who wins on Tuesday. If Hillary Clinton wins, how is she going to be able to begin to heal those divisions?

PODESTA: Look, you know, that’s what she’s out talking about. That’s what she was saying in Florida, that she’s going to be a president for everyone -- people who supported her, people who didn’t support her. She’s closing with a two minute ad that is optimistic, that talks about what she wants to do for the country. In contrast, Donald Trump has a two minute ad that looks like it’s a kind of a rip from a Batman movie. You know, he kind of lives in a dark place and he’s run this campaign on division and bigotry. We’re going to try to finish high, talk about what we can do to make sure every kid has a chance to succeedd. That’s what she’s done her whole life; that’s what she’ll do as president.

And, you know, she’s gotten success with that, working with Republicans and Democrats, to do things like the Children’s Health Insurance Program; like making sure that first responders got health care that they needed; that National Guardsmen and women got the healthcare they needed. She knows how to work across the aisle and that’s what she’ll do as president.

STEPHANOPOULOS: John Podesta, thanks very much for your time this morning.

PODESTA: Thank you, George.

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