I've thought about this a lot, especially since people never seem to agree on it! I remember sitting around with my friends back in high school, arguing about whether James Comey announcing that the Clinton email investigation was being reopened actually changed anything.

Honestly, I think it really could have made a difference. I mean, the timing was crazy—just days before the election, right? Some polls even showed that a bunch of people switched their opinions after the announcement. And I read somewhere that researchers estimated that if just a small percentage of voters changed their minds, that could be enough in close states to flip the whole outcome. The 2016 election was insanely close in places like Wisconsin and Michigan.

But at the same time, you can't blame it all on Comey. There were so many crazy things happening in 2016, like weird social media stuff, debates, and scandals everywhere. But from what I've seen, a lot of experts do think Comey's decision had a real shot at swinging things, at least a little. It kinda freaks me out how much power one announcement can have over the whole country! Crazy to think about.