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In Bucks stop, Pence hails new FBI probe into Clinton emails

In a visit to battleground Bucks County, Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence seized Friday on word of a new FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton emails and urged the agency to release the emails.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence campaigns in Bensalem on Friday, Oct. 28, 2016.
Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence campaigns in Bensalem on Friday, Oct. 28, 2016.Read moreMARGO REED / Staff Photographer

In a visit to battleground Bucks County, Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence seized Friday on word of a new FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton emails and urged the agency to release the emails.

"We commend the FBI for having the courage to reopen this case, because no one is above the law," Pence said in a rousing start to a speech soon after news broke of the renewed FBI examination.

The crowd of Republican diehards broke into chants of "Lock her up!" and waved signs for Pence and presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"With just 11 days left before a national election, an election of enormous consequence in the life of this nation ... we call on the FBI to immediately release all the emails pertinent to their reopened investigation," Pence told the crowd gathered inside a Bensalem industrial complex. "The American people have a right to know and they have a right to know before Election Day."

News of the FBI inquiry broke just before the Indiana governor arrived at the T.C. Millwork property, energizing a crowd in a county and region deemed critical to the GOP ticket's chances for victory in Pennsylvania. Recent polls had suggested Clinton could be pulling away from Trump in Pennsylvania.

Republicans in the counties surrounding Philadelphia are viewed as critical to delivering either victory, or defeat, for the GOP tickets. Several in the crowd on Friday said Clinton's recent email troubles had either strengthened their support for Trump or convinced them to get off the sidelines.

"About two weeks ago, I was saying to myself I'm probably going to write in 'Mitt Romney,' " said 31-year-old Justin Johnson, an information technology manager from Langhorne who said he backed Ted Cruz.

But after Friday's developments - as well as recent email leaks about the inner workings of the Clinton Foundation, its nexus of foreign donors and fees paid to former president Bill Clinton, Johnson said his concerns about Trump had faded.

"I can't live with Hillary Clinton as president," he said.

After stepping to the podium, Pence immediately came out swinging hard against Clinton and her family. He criticized the media for, in his view, skewing coverage in Clinton's favor during the campaign.

He spent most of his 40-minute speech espousing GOP principles that he, one of the party's more traditional conservatives, believed would be upheld by a Trump administration, from the selections of Supreme Court justices, repeal of Obamacare, a deportation-heavy immigration policy, and corporate-friendly tax policies.

He closed his remarks with specific instructions aimed at getting out the vote on Election Day.

"Get in line and vote," he said. "And bring a friend. And bring a friend's friend. And bring your family."

As she left the rally, Barbara Getz, 70, a lifelong Republican from nearby Holland, said she was "so glad" to hear of new pressure on Clinton.

"Why should anybody get away with what she's done?" Getz said.

Pence's appearance marked the sixth visit to Bucks County by him, Trump or high-level surrogates in six weeks, said Bucks County GOP Chair Pat Poprik. In 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney visited Bucks once, she said. Four years earlier, John McCain made two stops here.

Poprik said her office had been flooded in the last week with volunteers offering to spread the message for Trump and Pence in the race's final days.

"I've been doing this 40 years. This is my sixth presidential. This is so different," she said. "I don't care what the polls say."

mpanaritis@phillynews.com

610-313-8117 @Panaritism