Tim Kaine splits from Clinton over her attack on FBI as corruption probe woes mount, saying James Comey is NOT trying to influence election

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Hillary Clinton's running mate says he does not believe FBI Director James Comey was intentionally trying to disrupt the election when he announced a new chapter last week in former secretary of state's email investigation.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said on a taping of Alan Colmes' Fox News radio show that Comey's letter to Congress last Friday was 'highly unusual' and 'cryptic' but he wouldn't follow in Clinton's footsteps and suggest the law enforcement official was helping the Republican ticket.

'I don’t think he is trying to influence the outcome of the election,' Kaine said, according to Politico. 'I don’t question his integrity, but I do have serious questions about the judgment demonstrated by this.' 

Hillary Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, says he does not believe FBI Director James Comey was intentionally trying to disrupt the election when he announced a new chapter last week in former secretary of state's email investigation

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook declined to give Comey the benefit of the doubt today when he was asked a similar question on The View.

'I don’t know what he’s doing,' Mook said. 'I thought it was very strange. There’s protocols that you don’t announce things right before an election, but also that the FBI doesn’t comment on anything that they’re investigating.'

He noted that the FBI is reportedly investigating two of Donald Trump’s associates' connections to Russian interests it's 'not putting that information out there so we’re just asking.'

So, 'I don’t know,' he said. 'I’m not like an FBI guy.' 

At a Monday rally Hillary Clinton, pictured today in North Carolina, ripped the FBI for the eleventh-hour announcement. 'Why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election with no evidence of any wrong doing with just days to go'

Mook implied last Saturday during a conference call with reporters that Comey, a lifelong Republican, behaved recklessly, if not politically, when he sent the letter to Congress a day before updating them on the status of the FBI's investigation. 

'The Justice Department's longstanding practice is: Don't do anything seen as trying to influence an election,' he said. 'It's completely unfair to Secretary Clinton and it's really unfair to the voters." 

Clinton campaign chairman said Comey 'allowed partisans to extort and exaggerate to inflict maximum political damage.'

Harry Reid, the highest ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, accused Comey of violating at statute that prohibits him and other executive branch employees from engaging in political activity.

'Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law,' Reid said in a harsh letter in which he said he was wrong about Comey's character and regretted voting in favor of his nomination. 

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook declined to give Comey the benefit of the doubt today when he was asked a similar question on The View. 'I don’t know what he’s doing,' Mook said

At a Monday rally Hillary Clinton ripped the FBI for the eleventh-hour announcement.

'I am 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 an election with no evidence of any wrong doing with just days to go,' she told her supporters. 'That is a good question.'

President Barack Obama's spokesman was unwillingly to say in a briefing that afternoon that Comey had misbehaved, though.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest would neither 'defend nor criticize' Comey's letter to Congress. 

The president believes the law enforcement official is a man of 'integrity' and 'principle,' Earnest said, and does not believe he would 'intentionally influence the outcome' of the election.

'The president doesn’t believe he’s secretly strategizing to benefit one candidate or one political party.' 

Obama was heavier-handed in his own assessment of Comey's actions in a Now This News interview that was taped on Tuesday.

'We don't operate on innuendo and we don't operate on incomplete information and we don't operate on leaks,' he said. 'We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.'

Comey has provided no further updates of the status of the bureau's Clinton review. 

Nonetheless, Mook told the ladies of the The View today that he is  ‘totally confident’ that when the law enforcement shows his hand ‘there’s going to be nothing new.' 

A CBS/New York Times poll on Thursday put Trump within three points of Clinton, 42-45.  

Six in 10 likely voters said the development in the email saga affected their vote. A comparative four in 10 said they were deeply troubled by Trump's lewd comments about women.

The election is still five days away, but more than 22 million Americans have already cast their ballots.