On Friday’s broadcast of “MSNBC Live,” House Democratic Whip Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) reacted to FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that the agency is taking a new look at Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails by stating Comey is acting in “an abundance of caution” because “he is worried that if he didn’t release the fact that he’s looking at it, now, that when the election is over and Hillary Clinton wins, the Republicans would accuse him of hiding evidence for political purposes.”

Hoyer said, “The atmosphere that has been created by Donald Trump of rigging an election is so vitriolic, so negative, so dangerous, that I think what Comey has done is, there apparenty is some information that may be a related email from an unrelated case, which is what I understand the statement said. That in an abundance of caution, knowing full well that what ever he does will be second-guessed, because he says there’s no reason to believe neccessarily that Hillary Clinton was involved in this at this point in time, but it has some relationship to emails. That, I think he is worried that if he didn’t release the fact that he’s looking at it, now, that when the election is over and Hillary Clinton wins, the Republicans would accuse him of hiding evidence for political purposes. So, in my opinion, in abundance of caution, he’s just saying, look, I’m looking at this, I don’t know what it is, I don’t know whether it relates to any of the questions that were raised in our previous investigation, but I want you to know that I’m looking at this.”

Hoyer added that Comey “wants to make sure that Trump, on the 10th, doesn’t say, yep, that FBI Director hid the information. And so, Comey, in an abundance of caution, is letting the committee know, look, I’m looking into this.”

Hoyer also stated of Trump, “if he loves this country, if he wants to see our democracy continue to be the beacon of how we manage our political affairs, he will say, after the election, and I expect Hillary Clinton to win very substantially, he will say, our country’s first, we have a new leader, and we’re going to move on. We’re going support that leader, and solve the problem of this country, and make it greater.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett