Republicans have only guarded optimism about FBI probe changing Clinton, Trump race

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Breaking down difference in media coverage of Trump, Clinton

Reporters lob softballs at Clinton while Trump gets grilled

The FBI announcement Friday that the agency would restart its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email has the potential to change the outcome of her presidential race with Republican rival Donald Trump.

But even Republicans eager to retake the White House question the impact of the so-called “October surprise,” with Election Day just 10 days away.

“Most voters have decided they are ignoring her criminal-type activity and are voting for her,” California Rep. Darrell Issa said Saturday on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”

Issa made the comments a day after FBI Director James Comey announced the investigation into Clinton’s emails, which she sent and received on a private server system while secretary of state, would be reopened as a result of an investigation into former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner “sexting” on a laptop he shared with wife and Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Issa said the other segment of voters, who appears equally entrenched, are those who think Trump is too “gruff” and “unconventional” for a presidential candidate and they don’t want Clinton profiting from running the country like she and other family members apparently did through their charitable Clinton Foundation.

Issa said such voters likely think the Clintons are “in it for the money” and saying, “Let’s not have them in the White House getting billions while selling out America.”

He pointed out that 50 percent of voters in strongly-Democratic California have already voted.

Trump -- consistently trailing Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, in most major polls by about 5 percentage points -- on Friday immediately tried to seize on the news.

“The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate. And it’s everybody's hope that justice at last can be delivered,” Trump said in battleground Iowa, where he remains in a tight race with Clinton.

Clinton, while also in Iowa on Friday, hastily called a press conference to tell the FBI to release the "full and complete facts" about its review.

"Voting is underway, so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately," she said.

Republican strategist Rob Carter on Friday suggested the revelations will have little impact on incumbent Republicans senators trying to keep their seats and control of the Senate.

“While this seems very significant and is being met with great eagerness on the right and some trepidation on the left, I am hard-pressed to get my hopes up that this will help down-ballot Republicans being hurt by Trump in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and other states,” he said.

Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Karl Rove suggested Saturday that the new email review could in fact impact undecided voters and those who had planned not to vote.

“It is going to cause some of them to say, ‘This is why I don’t like Hillary Clinton,’ and vote for Trump,” he said on Fox News.