Takes to do the job until you have sat behind the desk. I mean, sasha tweets. This is a choice between whether we are going to cling to some imaginary past or whether were going to reach for the future. Even the republicans on the other side dont really know what the guys talking about. You ask them, theyre all like i dont know. Then they kind of duck the other way. By any measure, that would be considered a blockbuster event. We will have more on the president s big endorsement speech in the show. Of course, it also comes on a day when there was also a Big Development in the seemingly neverending Hillary Clinton email saga. It came in the form of a midmorning surprise press conference by fbi director james comey. After nearly a yearlong investigation that culminated in a 3 1 2 hour interview with clinton over the weekend, comey said the fbi would not recommend criminal charges against the former secretary of state. Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. In looking back at our investigations into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. As a result, although the department of justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case. May not be appropriate but comey also delivered a forceful critique of Hillary Clintons use of a private server. Although we did not find clear evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive highly classified information. Seven email chains concerned matters that were classified at the top secret, special Access Program at the time they were sent and received. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in secretary clintons position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about those matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. Comey also faulted the Security Culture at the state department and he says it was at least possible that hostile actors gained access to clintons email account. Clintons spokesman said in a statement we are pleased the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate. As the secretary has long said it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved. Meanwhile, donald trump called what happened a total miscarriage of justice and tweeted fbi director said crooked hillary compromised our National Security, no charges, wow, rigged system. We are expecting to hear more from trump when he takes the stage at a Campaign Rally in North Carolina. Many republicans faulted comey for his decision not to recommend charges. Speaker paul ryan said in a statement while i respect the Law Enforcement professionals at the fbi, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law. Declining to prosecute secretary clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting National Security information will set a terrible precedent. Nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams joins me with the latest. Pete, you just heard that statement by paul ryan. Is he correct that mr. Comey, the fbi director comey, stated that there were violations of law and then didnt prosecute on them . More or less. What comey says is that there is some evidence that there were violations here but that you have to measure that against the standard here of have cases like this involving similar situations ever resulted in prosecutions and he said no. Now, heres where i think you are going to hear a lot of disagreement. There are some former prosecutors who say the statutes, yes, make it a crime to intentionally give classified information out or put it in a place where it doesnt belong, but also make it a crime to do so if it amounts to gross neg i negligence. What some of the former prosecutors say is comey has rewritten the statute saying you have to have intent, not gross negligence. Others say look at the record. Nobody has ever been prosecuted when the information is given to someone who is legally qualified to have it. So that is a critical point on comeys side. This was information exchanged back and forth between people who actually had clearance so its person a who has clearance to have the information gives it to person b, who has clearance but they use an unclassified Conveyor Belt to pass it along, thats where the potential violation comes in, but comey says thats not a case that should result in a prosecution. Now, of course, as you began this with, its his recommendation, its the justice departments final decision, but remember that attorney general Loretta Lynch has said she will go along with whatever the career prosecutors at justice say and tonight officials are saying it would be its a virtual certainty they will accept the fbis recommendation here. I want to talk a little bit about director comey. Hes somebody that people may remember from the ashcroft situation where he essentially intervened to try to stop Alberto Gonzalez from going to the bedside of an ailing a. G. Ashcroft in the case of warrantless wiretapping. He isnt somebody who doesnt have a sterling reputation in washington. Donald trump is trying to call him a partisan apologist for Hillary Clinton. I like that question. We have been covering james comey for what, 20 years. Now suddenly everybody has discovered james comey and wants to know whats the deal with him. Hes a former u. S. Attorney in new york. You may remember that he filed criminal charges against Martha Stewart which was somewhat controversial. The question was was she doing improper trading and she was prosecuted for misleading the fbi investigating that. He was the Deputy Attorney general in the Bush Administration under john ashcroft, the attorney general. He left the government to go into private practice as general counsel for an aerospace firm, then was persuaded to come back and be the fbi director. Thats a tenyear position and hes three or four years into it. He threatened to resign over attempts to interfere with the work he was doing during that warrantless wiretapping situation. Hes got a pretty good reputation. Pete williams, thank you very much. Im joined by howard fineman, global editorial director for the Huffington Post and msnbc political analyst and susan page, Washington Bureau chief for usa today. Howard, to you first on this. What in your mind is the balance of good day, not so good day, in this news about the Hillary Clinton emails . Well, if at the end of that pretty long excoriation of Hillary Clinton and the state department and james comey had said and we are recommending indictment, can you imagine, the whole world would have been turned upside down in an already Chaotic Campaign season would have been turned into a version of the apocalypse 2016. What would the democrats have done . Who would they have chosen . How would they have proceeded . Well, that sort of apocolyptic story line, that version of history can now be put aside. So the good news for Hillary Clinton is, its true i think that the justice professionals will not disagree with comey, the fact is that she wasnt indicted and thats the bottom line legally. Politically, i think what comey said today does nothing to allay the two big problems Hillary Clinton has on the personal side of her campaign. Number one, the trust factor is very weak with her. Current polls, some current polls show that donald trump is more trusted personally than she is. Number two, its this notion that somehow the system is rigged. The people who hate hillary are already going to hate her. Some independent voters may still go for that the system is rigged argument that donald trump is making and i think trump will be playing that card as hard and as long as he possibly can. Susan, this does come on the same day that president obama gave that really sort of epically praiseful speech. I havent seen a sitting president give that kind of an endorsement to their sort of anointed successor in my lifetime because president s havent had that close of a relationship really. How much does that balance out what you saw earlier with the comey announcement, barack obama coming out with this fullthroated defense of Hillary Clinton today or endorsement of her . Some people thought this was terrible timing because the comey announcement kind of muddied the clarity of president obamas message but maybe it was helpful to her because as you said, maybe it kind of trumped the earlier news. We have not seen in modern times a twoterm president who was either willing or able to give kind of the fullthroated endorsement that president obama is giving Hillary Clinton and that is very helpful because for one thing, hes popular enough to make a difference. Hes popular enough among some voter groups that she needs some help with, like young people. So that is enormously helpful. But i would have to say with the comey announcement, of course she avoid catastrophe by not being indicted but he was at odds with the explanation she has given the American People about how the email server operated and she turned over all the business emails and just deleted personal ones. So there are things, this isnt an issue thats settled but i think you would agree that president obama can do Hillary Clinton a lot of good in this election. Absolutely. I want to play a little more from the joint appearance they had today. I mentioned Hillary Clinton and president obama did do this First Joint Campaign event this afternoon and both spent a lot of time going after one donald trump. Lets take a listen. But ive also known him as a friend that i was honored to stand with in the good times and the hard times. Someone who has never forgotten where he came from and donald, if youre out there tweeting, its hawaii. But im here today. Because i believe in Hillary Clinton. Hillary understood and continues to understand that just a bunch of tough talk doesnt replace the hard work of diplomacy. A bunch of phony bluster doesnt keep us safe. This is not entertainment. This is real. You cant be reckless, you dont have the luxury of just saying whatever pops in your head. You have actually got to know what youre talking about. You know, howard, i do find it really important that you see this moment of the two of them talking about each other as a friend. Barack obama expressing great trust in Hillary Clinton even as hes ridiculing the other guy. But how important is that validation . Because if the question is do you trust Hillary Clinton, but you also really like barack obama and he trusts Hillary Clinton, thats got to be helpful to her, right . Yeah. I think that for hillarys sake, if you are a hillary supporter, you hope this is only the first of many carefully selected, strategic, not overdone because you dont want barack obama on the campaign trail every day with air force one, but i think he can be enormously helpful to her on the trust factor question. The question about is the system rigged, thats Donald Trumps thing and hes going to make whatever he can out of it. I must say, i have to wonder if james if president obama didnt know or have at least some inkling of what james comey was going to say, before he scheduled that trip with hillary to North Carolina, can you imagine what the story would have been like had comey gone the other way. So trump will be playing those conspiracy theories out there but if barack obama can reassure likely democratic voters like the sanders supporters, young people as susan was saying, that they can trust hillary because they can trust him, those kinds of things dont always transfer but these two people are close enough that i think it might make a difference. I cant imagine what the conversation would have been like on that flight between staff had that comey announcement gone a different way and they were already on their way to North Carolina to give that speech. Im sure everybody all the way around was quite happy the way this came out. I think we will bring you back. Thank you much. We appreciate it. Coming up, much more on Donald Trumps reaction to the fbi decision today not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton. Trump will be taking the stage in a few minutes in North Carolina. Just as he finds himself mired in another controversy of his own. Plus with a deeply unpopular candidate on the republican ticket, could the libertarians make noise in november . Gary johnson will be with us tonight. We saw today why president obama is Hillary Clintons not so secret weapon in his Campaign Rally with clinton, the president offered a fullthroated defense of his former secretary of state and fullon skewery of donald trump. The hardball roundtable weigh ns on our top story of the day. While the threat of criminal charges may be over, the political fire storm surrounding Hillary Clintons emails wont go away. Take on any road with intuitive all wheel drive the nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder. Legalzoom has your back. For your business, our trusted network of attorneys has provided guidance to over 100,000 people just like you. Visit legalzoom today. The legal help you can count on. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. Around hgets the waffle. Rd but for all the other birds who could use a few more minutes of sleep, weve got you covered. Enjoy free breakfast on the run and free wifi. Get up to 20 percent off as a Hilton Hhonors member at hampton. Com. We continue to wait for donald trump to take the stage in North Carolina. As we wait, we have two new general election polls to tell you about. Lets check the hardball score card. According the an nbc news online poll, Hillary Clinton leads donald trump by five points. Similar story in a new usa today poll where clintons lead is six. Clinton 46, trump 40. And clearer skin. This is my body of proof that i can fight Psoriatic Arthritis with humira. Humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. Its proven to help relieve pain, stop further joint damage, and clear skin in many adults. Humira is the number 1 prescribed biologic for Psoriatic Arthritis. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Want more proof . Ask your rheumatologist about humira. Whats your body of proof . Welcome back to hardball. Fbi director james comeys recommendation not to indict Hillary Clinton today will likely spare the Presumptive Democratic nominee from criminal charges but the decision has been scooped up by donald trump to help him continue making his case that the system is rigged. We continue to wait for trump to take the stage at a rally in North Carolina tonight where senator bob corker of tennessee is also joining the candidate amid speculation about a possible praise lace on trumps ticket. It is confirmed tonight that corker is being vetted. We are joined by michael steele, former chairman of the rnc. Steve, i will start with you. How much is the corker speculation and the speculation about all these other potential veeps an attempt to distract folks from the news of the last 24 hours about Donald Trumps tweeting life . I dont think that was on purpose. Its just a matter of timing. His tweeting life stands on its own. The story about comey takes away trumps biggest attack on Hillary Clinton. He talks about the system being rigged but this is going to fade out over the course of the summer. Come september when donald trump wants to bring this back to life again hell have to spend lots and lots of money doing it. The problem is hes having trouble raising money. As a matter of fact, michael, they are still trying to go out through text feeds, trying to raise money. They dont really have the cash if they want to make this case. Is there a possibility some outside group is going to want to burn money attempting to use the Hillary Clinton email gate against her