on the president's re-election chances. plus, with less than three weeks before the super committee has to find $1.2 trillion in savings, dozens of congressmen from both parties are sending a clear message, go big and put together a $4 trillion deficit deal. but a new poll finds two-thirds of americans don't think washington can get anything done. we'll have a reality check. overnight, police dressed in riot gear clashed with protesters in oakland. a violent turn to a standoff after demonstrators shut down the port on wednesday. trash is burned and tear gas is fired and police are injured. good day, i'm chris cillizza, remember when the most scrutinized part of the cain campaign was the tax plan? 9-9-9 may seem like a walk in the party compared to what he's facing today. mark murray is here with the

daily fix. mark, i feel like that intro took 30 seconds and something may have changed. >> this has turned into a blame game where they are saying this is coming from the rick perry and his camp. and the perry campaign is pushing back against that idea. certainly people are pointing fingers at one another. another development that came out, the associated press reported there was a third woman considering a complaint against cain while the national restaurant. nbc news has not confirmed that part but there is a third woman that the ap ended up introducing and then you have the situation where you have herman cain went on ginny thomas on an interview, basically said, look, washington, d.c., always guilty before being proven innocent. >> what is remarkable and i want to play the blame game, it went from the media's fault and now rick perry's fault.

mark block, now famous or infamous for the famous smoking ad where he smokes at the end. he is the chief operating officer, basically campaign manager. he was talking about the blame game. let's listen. >> in 2003 herman cain ran for the senate. he hired a general consultant, curt anderson, mr. cain divulged the nra claims at that time to his general consultant. >> national restaurant association. >> exactly so the campaign athat point would be prepared if the issue surfaced. it did not. approximately two weeks ago as you know, mr. anderson went to work for the rick perry campaign. what else happened about two weeks ago? politico began this smear campaign citing anonymous sources claiming mr. cain acted inappropriately. >> in the interest of fairness, i want to read ray sullivan, the

communications director had this to say, this charge is both reckless and false. for a candidate and campaign claiming to be victims of unfounded accusations they are often quick to hurl unfounded accusations themselves. there is no one shroud of evidence that they had anything to do with recent story regarding herman cain because it simply isn't true. suggesting there is no room here, no wiggle room, that rick perry had nothing to do with it. is there a strategy in what herman cain is doing? it feels a little catch as catch can. >> in a way it is working, they are trying to turn the focus away from them to the rick perry campaign. but that's only a short term solution. at the end of the day the story is the story nbc news confirmed with accusations from two different women, one of whom we've been able to confirm ended up getting a settlement

agreement. there is smoke here. >> it is not just a smear campaign there are facts. a woman was paid this amount of money as a result of some allegation. that much we know. >> ultimately the story does become the facts. it doesn't matter who ended up leaking it. that's the challenge herman cain has right now. >> mark murray, nbc news deputy political editor and author of "first read", one of the things i always read. >> thanks, chris. john heilemann is national affairs editor for new york magazine and the co-author of my favorite book about the campaign, a little thing i like to call "game change." >> good to see you in the seat up there. >> thank you, boss. let's talk about -- mark and i were talking about, the circular firing squad seems to be in full effect at the moment. you have cain blaming perry, perry saying we didn't do it. newt gingrich kind of coming to cain's defense saying i don't

know exactly what happened but if it's the media following down this path, it's wrong. what do you make of all of this? you have followed the circus that is the presidential campaigns for a long time. who wins and loses in this? >> it depends on what the facts are and the facts are getting worse not better. murray is right when he said the blame game is an inside baseball game. the perry campaign has been definitive for not having dropped this on politico. the question is what happened and how herman cain is dealing with it. yesterday, you have someone who claims was working as a lobbyist for the national restaurant association who claims to have been an eye witness to the sexual harassment that earned the payout for the woman who left and was one of the sexual harassment charges and the other is a iowan radio host who said

in the source of the campaign he acted inappropriately to two of his staffers. those are facts coming closer to rather than documentary evidence to eye dwitness evidence. >> it's the old you're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. i want to talk because i loved this story. i've been wondering about it, about romney and iowa. this is in "new york" magazine, a great piece called the temptation of mitt. you look at the poll and he's essentially tied with herman cain, cain 23, mitt 22, yet not a lot of visits, zero dollars on ads, five staff in the state. he spend 10 million bucks in iowa in 2008. talk about what the calculation is for them. what are they scared of? >> they are scared of losing again and scared of that they

have been cautious this year because what they did not wachbt to do what happened the last time, spends that money and see someone like mike huckabee come along who has grass roots enthusiasm of cultural conservatives and religious conservatives and win the caucus again. romney has been focused like a laser beam on new hampshire and florida. but not to be in full bore like last time. right now it's very tempting to get in because the field among cultural conservatives is split and the idea of coming in there to steal the caucuses at the last minute then win in new hampshire and deliver a 1-2 punches that allows romney to get the nomination fast, that's one they are taking seriously route now. >> i want to quickly quote from the piece. a last minute burst of organizing and advertising might allow the national front-runner to steal a victory in the caucuses. if he did he would be forced to

tank execute the plan that tanked him in '08 that would amount to a knockout blow. which is what we saw in '04. john kerry sweeps in iowa and the race is over in eight days. do you have any sense, john from reporting the piece, where does the romney team stand? is this an open question? are they 55-45. where are they in iowa? >> they are debating this matter internally intensely right now and determining how far to go. they still believe that rick perry is their biggest threat to the nomination threat. they don't think herman cain will win the nomination. in some respects, the notion of being able to go to iowa and even if romney couldn't win, if they could drive a stake into the heart of rick perry in iowa and kill him off, you see the amount of money that rick pearlry is spending in iowa between his own campaign and super packs affiliated with him. i think the romney people think to themselves, make we don't have to win but if he can finish

above rick perry we can accomplish our goals by doing that. that is what is tempting them right now and debating intensely every day. >> john heilemann, "new york" magazine and author of "temptation of mitt." game change, i don't think that book has sold that well. maybe you can sell a few copies. >> daddy needs a new pair of boots, chris. >> on capitol hill there were tense moments as harry reid and mitch mcconnell repeatedly traited barbs. >> they are more interested in building a campaign message than in rebuilding roads and bridges. >> they are goal is to do everything they can to drag down this economy, to do anything they can to focus attention negativively on the president of the united states and i would say to my friends, we can stay here all day. i will get the last word. >> this certainly is a case that the majority leader can always

have the last word but i would say with all due respect to my friend, he made another campaign speech. >> joining us now nbc capitol hill reporter kelly o'donnell. why would anyone not like congress after seeing a clip like that? what was that about? >> there is a vote today on one piece of the president's jobs plan, the infrastructure which many thought would be popular because we know roads and bridges are in terrible disrepair. it includes a sliver the millionaire's tax that would help to fund this. that was the basis for that sort of tart conversation that went on for while a while between reid aechb mcconnell. the fact they went back and forth and kept referring to each other as my friend, which is sort of a standard cover line when you're irked at someone. >> the more often you say my friend, the angrier they are. >> they do have a relationship and work together but that was unusual to see them go back and forth fighting over who's

campaigning more. >> and it shows you the level as we're 20 days out from the super committee. i want to get a quick super committee update. where are we? >> there's an expectations game, which is kind of dour at the moment. many people thinking the group of 12 won't be able to achieve sufficient cuts and the cuts in or the changes to the tax code that democrats desperately want and republicans don't. there's a mood of this may not go anywhere. yet at the same time 100 house members, including 40 republicans, many of them signed the no new teax pledge, urging o go big, to reach for a more sweeping solution to the debt crisis. this incremental and there will be a real flurry before thanksgiving as we're down to the deadline. >> kelly o'donnell, you'll have more on the super committee. good to see you. the european debt crisis in the fate of greece's prime minister takes center stage at

the g-20 in france. is greece about to bail on the european union? will the ripple effect be felt here at home? this is "andrea mitchell reports." only on msnbc. ttling ] jason... really buddy, wow. samantha jane. ♪ guys, christmas dinner and you're bringing toys to the table? ♪ that, that's not a toy... let's eat! [ male announcer ] get low prices on the gifts they love. and layaway is back, so you can pay a little at a time. save money. live better. walmart.

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protesters are sharing the same message, stop protecting the rich and start changing the rules. a happenedful of demonstrators clashed with police, managing to shut down one of the busiest sea ports in the country. the port reopened about an hour ago. police were out in force as protesters marched on monaco and, the playground of the super

rich. inside the g-20 smum summit. chuck todd is nbc's chief white house correspondent and has more from the summit in cannes. >> reporter: the first day of this two-day g-20 summit that president obama is attending is more about europe and less about any role the united states is playing. president obama is on the sidelines playing the role of therapist or cheerleader as the situation in greece and this issue about whether the rest of europe in particular, france and germany and richer countries, are successfully able to sell the greek government to take this bailout deal. you say why is it we have to worry about greece? but after greece the other countries in the european zone here, including italy, portugal, spain, even ireland, all could have similar problems with

they're debt as greece. and if greece doesn't take the deal it threatens perhaps the entire european zone and we know what kind of hit that has had on our economy. obama administration officials admit the g-20 is less about any ideas they had about promoting growth globally and doing other things they wanted to touch open. it is about greece and europe solving this problem. it's now dominating this portion of the working group session. it's going to dominate much of the next two days and dominating much of the time of the host here, french president sarkozy. and of course, what happens here in europe doesn't stay in europe. that's why the united states and the president is so concerned as well. chris, back to you. >> jay powell is a visiting scholar in washington and served as undertreasury for president h.w. bush. a lot of moving parts in this situation. can you bring us up to date on

the latest in greece? >> to call this a fluid situation is to understate the matter. the very latest i'm aware of is that the prime minister has announced he will not pursue the referendum and they'll go back to the other plan to have a confidence vote in parliament late tomorrow. he says also he's gotten the support of his opposition conservative party for the aus teri measures which means that it would then pass and we would be where we were at the beginning of the week, which was trying to put together a difficult deal to save greece. >> i want to play something the prime minister said yesterday and let's talk about it. let's listen first. >> we need to have a wide consensus because the program we are facing is difficult, difficult in implementation and but i believe the greek people want us to be a strong partner in the euro and the euro zone, strong part in europe. >> okay, so it's less than 24

hours from when he said that. what changed? >> maybe there was some method in his madness after all. what changes is, what the prime minister says, is that the conservative leadership said they will back the program. they were standing back and opposing the austerity measures that go with the conditions of the bailout. now they claims they will support it and the prime minister now says so we don't need the referendum we have parliamentary support so we'll go ahead. >> you said fluid is an understatement of the situation, i hesitate to ask you to make predictions. does this seem like we're moving towards yes, the deal is made and we're moving forward or is the possibility of the train going off the tracks in some meaningful way still relevant? >> i would we've steered from this particular cliff. the referendum was scheduled for january, way too far in the future that was not a great idea. the issue is what happens now. does he win the conference vote.

if he does and the austerity measures pass, then you have to go back to the extraordinarily difficult process of putting together what really a set of term sheet really on the deal they made last week. it wasn't a fully negotiated deal. that's enough of a job to get that done. >> who role if any do world leaders have to play in this? can they play a role in this? this is the greeks for the greeks but this affects all of europe and the united states. is there a role for them? >> i think what happened here was merkel and sarkozy yesterday called his bluff and said, no this is not happening. and he had to go back and lost his own support in his own party. they held the line on no referendum. you made a deal. the deal he made was to take this to his parliament. they held the line on that. that's constructive. we're back where we were which is a long way from the goal line. >> very important part to be made. jay powell, thanks for joining

us. cain versus perry, the blame game continues, the political briefing with the man who first broke the story, jonathan martin, next on "andrea mitchell reports". time for the "your business"" entrepreneur of the week. nina is using high tech marketing. scanning the company's qr codes with the smart phones her customers can learn about wines and get discounts. and nina is not alone, qr codes are now everywhere watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. look, every day we're using more and more energy.

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msnbc is the place for politics, live on the campaign trail, michele bachmann is delivering an economic policy speech. in the politico briefing, the attorney for one of women accusing herman cain of sexual harassment is asking the national restaurant association for permission to allow her to issue a statement. he has shifted blame from his accusers to the media now to rick perry's campaign. jonathan martin is a senior political reporter for plit co-and joins us. >> hello. >> i want to read something here that herman cain last night.

he said, we've been able to trace it back to the perry campaign that stirred this up in order to discredit me. the fingerprints of the rick perry campaign are all over this. the perry campaign on the record denying it. what do you make of it? >> what do i make of it? i don't make anything of it because i don't discuss my sources as you do either. i'm not going to comment on finger pointing besides to point you to what has been said publicly by the cain campaign by mr. cain himself and the response from mr. anderson and from the perry campaign. >> and jonathan, we've seen -- this seems like herman cain first he swung back at you guys, then he acknowledged that lots of the stuff he swung at you about was actually right and he did know about these settlement. i keep asking everybody we talk to cain about this, is there strategy here or is he going day

to day? chris, they had ten days as your listening know to respond to our story. then they had of course sunday. i saw mr. cain outside of cbs news that morning and asked him these questions very directly. they had hours after that. i don't know if they've prepared any kind of a defense. the campaign manager acknowledge the last night on tv that the response korve better. mr. cain himself acknowledged that. i'm not sure about their defense. but i will tell you that we have -- these two women who complained about mr. cain's behavior towards them at the organization late '90s, based upon a half dozen interviews with sources familiar with very aspects of their complaints. that story was reported over a period of three weeks, talking to folks all over the country. it was a thorough reported story

and then other news agencies, including yours, have corroborated your reporting and mr. cain conceded he was accused and there were settlements. so i'm not sure right now what the complaint actually is. >> jonathan martin, a great political reporter at politico reporter on the front lines of the herman cain story. thanks for all you do. >> thank you, chris. >> the super committee fires up the left by putting social security on the table. will that spell no deal from democrats? we'll talk about the co--chair of the progressive caucus next. plus, a day of peaceful protests takes a violent turn in oakland. police move in with riot gear making dozens of arrests. the latest on "andrea mitchell reports." ♪

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murray. prosecutors say murray was criminally negligent when he gave jackson a deadly dose of propofol. murray's attorneys say jackson gave it to himself. the obama administration may scale back combat operations in afghanistan much earlier than plan. it would shift the military mission to an advisory role long before the 2014 time line. cuba's government is allowing citizens to buy and sell private property for the first time since the 1950s. and in recent decades cubans could only exchange property through trade agreements and black market deals. meanwhile, apple is trying to fix a glitch in its new iphone 4s shortening the life of the phone's battery. apple will release software to release the problem within the next few weeks. the world waits with batted breath. time is running out to find the $1.2 trillion in budget

savings. 60% of americans don't think they could do it by the november 23rd deadline. the co-chair of the progressive caucus joins me now. congressman, you've been a critic of the super committee from its start. tell me if you're surprised you have two-thirds of the american public believing congress and the white house cannot get a deal done to get our financial house in order. >> i'm not surprised by that. you know the super committee and much credit to clay burn and van holen they have listened to recommendations on how to generate revenue from the caucus, but the fact remains the committee as a whole is ignoring public opinion that says generate revenue, create jobs, leave medicare alone and those things could be accomplished. but there has to be a willingness on the part, particularly the republicans on that panel to say, we are going to look at revenue generation.

we're going to look at some of the tax breaks we've been giving to individuals and use that tool to spare social security, spare medicare and also create the kind of revenue that is going to allow us to have a real jobs program. i think the 67% out there that are saying they don't believe they can do the job, they have been watching and not heard anything different since the inception of the committee. >> that same poll said 48% of people said the debt solution should include only spending cuts, 39%, a balanced approach cutting cuts and tax increases. half of the country believes we should get there via spending cuts. is that not the public speaking out as well? >> i think that that's been the tenner that has been set from the beginning. from the very beginning, nine months ago when we had the struggles over the budget resolution, debt ceiling, it has

been about cut, cut, cut. that's all you've heard out of congress. so the american public believes that that's the only tool that we have in order to deal with the economic issues that we face -- the reality is that there's many more tools. those are not being utilized. >> did your party or is your party currently then making a mistake not getting their message out if you say the discussion is entirely about tax cuts and not about anything else, is there a message disconnect here? if you say as you do there's a story here to tell. >> i don't know the disconnect could be, but i know what we should be doing. that is being more pro active on the jobs plan, talking about revenue generation in a strong way and really dealing with the fairness issue that's out there right now. the american people feel that this system as it's set up economically is not being fair to the vast majority of the american people.

and that sentiment is strong and when people say we can do that through cuts, included in that objection is cuts to corporations on tax breaks, cuts to individuals in the 1% not paying their fair share. when you generate revenue, you're also eliminating some of the niceties and tax breaks that very big corporations and very, very rich people have been receiving for the last 10 to 15 years in this country. >> congressman, very quickly, 100 members of congress, including democrats and republicans called on the super committee to go big, $4 trillion. do you think that's a possibility given the current tenor in congress? >> they have to look at jobs and they have to look at revenue generation. you have to think in those terms. i think the mistake would be to do something small that's politically pal atable but doesn't deal with the situation we're in and try to buy more

time. the reaction from the american people will be -- will be very, very negative. thinking big, is it doable? yes, is the political will power there to do it? that's the yes that will be answered in the next few weeks. >> i know it's a busy day up on capitol hill. thank you for taking time. >> we're joined by david hawkings, the editor of the cq role call daily briefing. let's go -- we know kind of where we are right now. let's look -- i'm always an around the corner guy. do we think that this $4 trillion proposal has any possibility of going anywhere or is this just members wanting to be on the record as the congressman said that we need to go big? >> i think it has as much chance of succeeding than going small.

as long as what the poll shows, one in at best, maybe one in three, the 24% that still think there's a chance for this, 18% believe in the birther movement and 30% believe in ghosts. maybe they are as skeptical as the rest of us. >> and there are some that believe elvis is alive. >> that's right. there is a sense in congress that the political pain involved just to get to the 1.2 trillion is almost as big a political pain as getting to the $4 trillion. if they get to anything, it may well be big. do they get to anything? i feel like we just went through the debt ceiling. and people saw it as a debacle. president obama took a hit and congress took a hit. do they look back and say we don't want to repeat that? it seems we're 20 days away now. it doesn't seem like a deal is in the offing. >> despite the debacle and i think it's almost objectively

you can describe it as a debacle. >> you have affirmed me. >> what it showed the republicans are winning the argument, may not be winning the day but winning the argument, the all cut no tax revenue seems to be more speaker swasive to the public. that having been said, speaker boehner said something really interesting, which was grover nor quist, he was derisive in his weekly press conference, he called him just some random individual in america when he was asked whether republicans should be scare if they are going to break the no new taxes pledge. >> the thing i always struggle with, dividing between how much of this is legitimate philosophical policy disagreements and how much of this is the fact that we're almost turning the calendar to 2012 in an election year? >> it's at least 50/50.

i think the democrats think they still have an outside chance of taking the house if they play this right and saying no to offender their base with deep cuts in medicare and medicaid benefits is a good thing and republicans think they have a good chance of holding on and expanding their control in congress if there are hard liners -- >> a classic case of what president obama want is not the same thing as the house wants? >> not coming up this week. >> david, thanks for joining us. the port of oakland has finally opened after protesters took down a block aid which had shut it down last night. miguel almaguer is live with the latest. >> reporter: good afternoon to you, it was a dramatic turn here in oakland yesterday. there was a day long peaceful protest. some 7,000 people poured through oak lapd streets all day yesterday and it culminated with

a large protest over at the port of oakland. it was shut down for several hours and just recently has reopened. after they shut down the port of oakland. many protesters, at least a dozen or so came back here to downtown oakland when police say they made a dramatic turn. a handful of protesters became violent according to police. police moved in with riot gear and said they had to throw in tear gas and flash grenades to dispurse a crowd and lighting dumpsters on fire. that led to other acts of vandalism. some of the local businesses here have had windows blown out and completely broken into hundreds of pieces. many of the protesters say this was no indicative of the message they were trying to send that their message has been peaceful. the occupy oakland camp has been here and they have no plans to go anywhere even though the city has already asked them to try to leave more than once. it's been a day of cleanup after the early clash with police.

protesters say they will remain here and those that are here will be peaceful. police say they have seemed to have restored order in oakland and hoping for a quiet day later this afternoon. >> miguel, thanks for that report in oakland, california. thinking you know everything you need to know about mitt romney's health care plan? think again. the biggest myths next on "andrea mitchell reports." ting . at e-trade it's harnessing some of the most powerful yet easy to use trading tools on the planet to help diversify, identify opportunities, take action. it's using professional grade research and your brain to seek maximum returns to reach your goals. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction. you made the money. you should have everything you need to invest it. e-trade. investing unleashed. dad's a real cleaning machine. and look at mom whipping up some kraft homestyle mac & cheese.

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coming up on news nation, all is fair in love and politics, maybe not politics, herman cain's camp said it was rick perry's team who leaked the sexual harassment allegations to politico. they know exactly which staffer put the information out. michael will join me live on why he says mitt romney is the real loser in the cain controversy.

our political panel will weigh in on the infighting. we're following developing news, the jury could get the case by the end of this day. we'll have the latest for you in a live report. >> michael douglas was at the state department advocating for nonproliferation and arms control. douglas kpab campaigned for nuclear disarm. for the united nations and now a spokesman for the arms control group, plow shares. >> i'm old enough to have been taught when i was in elementary school that when i saw a bright white flash to get under my wooden desk. that was the understanding we had back then. my father had a bombshe shelter when his backyard. i'm hoping in my lifetime we see the elimination of nuclear weapons. >> the actor, who once famously declared greed is good told

congress to be generate with foreign aid speaking out against congressional efforts to slash billions in foreign assistance. douglas won an oscar for that performance in "wall street" and made the gigantic cell phone famous. recent polls show mitt romney's biggest draw back is the massachusetts health care law he signed five years ago but a closer look shows its implementation has been surprisingly smooth. ron fournier joins me now. great piece, looking at five ways in which the law that mitt romney signed into law, the reform is unpopular, actually not true? >> you're right. not only was it not true then. it passed with overwhelmingly support. but even now about two-thirds of all massachusetts voters like

the law. >> fascinating too because it shows the difference between massachusetts voters and republican primary voters. mitt romney didn't tout how popular it is. is that a strategy? >> exactly, it tells you a lot about mitt romney on other issues. when he's in massachusetts, this is a popular moderate reform. when he's running for the republican nomination in a party that is reachly lurched to the right since 2002, 2003, he runs away from the popularity of that proposal. >> there's another myth, ron, which he does talk a lot about on the campaign trail which is that he implemented this program without raising state taxes. that's not totally false but it's also a little bit misleading, right? >> you'll love this one. this is a perfect political bit of rhetoric, it's not quite wrong but very deceptive, they had a huge pot of federal money and that came from taxpayers,

including folks from massachusetts and all of us. also before the law had been implemented there was a state tax passed to help close the insurance gap that romney pig gi backed on. that's a myth he's prop pull gating. >> you've watched these campaigns almost longer than anyone, how little romney has had to answer for health care, a little bit back and forth in debates but largely been able to avoid it. do we expect sometime, 60-odd days between now and january 3rd, i thought this would be the issue we were talking about day in and day out. will we be? >> first of all, i appreciate how nicely you said i'm old. that was nice of you. >> i said experienced. >> you know, i'm just as surprised as you are, this is really an issue that is really right for opponents to come at him after. he's done a good job of redeflecting it. instead of walking away from it

or flip flopping like he has on others, he's come up with a standard response, 1-2-3 defense of the law and he's really largely benefited from the fact there's been so much else going on in the campaign. three or four candidates rising up and imploding, the last three weeks have been dominated by cain's rise and cain's possible pending fall. every day that goes by with us focused on another controversy is another day mitt romney dodged the health care bullet. >> the surprisingly youthful ron fournier. >> there you go. >> what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! i'd be like, yes, i do rule! ohh! that rules! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas. yeah. ring dinga-ding, ring dinga-ding, ring, ring, ring me up.

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allegation against herman cain was paid $45,000 as a settlement. nbc not independently confirming that, but politico is reporting it. i have an idea which political stories will make stories in the next 24 hours, but to be sure, let's check in with one of the few men who can carry out a bow tie and writer for "the washington post." what is next for herman cain? >> chris, over the next 24 hours, we will be talking about this $45,000 settlement we are now learn being as you reported. that brings the grand total to $70,000 and maybe somebody else, maybe another settlement will come out and we'll talk about that and we also talk about the fact that herman cain has not been able to get his story straight on this scandal from the moment politico went to him on october 20th. right through today.

you never know what's going to happen. >> jonathan, most importantly i think in the herman cain story, an underreported piece is that herman cain angered your mother. you wrote on a near daily basis, the front-runner for the republican nomination denigrates the high level of expectation and preparation demand by my mother and mothers everywhere. care to elaborate? >> look. children of color, women, anyone who is -- >> there is your mom on screen. >> there she is. that was on mother's day. anyway, she sat me down before my first day of school at a predominantly white school in new jersey before i went off to carlton college saying you will have to work twice as hard and be twice as prepared to be seen as equal to your white classmates and white counterparts. watching herman cain right now

who is the front-runner, an african-american for the gop nomination, you see, pardon my french, but half assed attempt at running for president where he is not prepared to answer serious questions with regard to china policy, border policy, abortion, gay rights, and now sexual harassment allegations. this is not the way anyone should run for president of the united states. >> jonathan cape hart, thank you for your perspective and picture of your mother. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports"." andrea is back tomorrow and tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> herman cane's campaign said they know who the person is that leaked the sexual harassment allegations to politico. that staffer is now responding. does this lessen the pressure on

cain to give more details on what happened and the two women filed the lawsuits against him. why perry's camp is set to be unwilling to push hard against cain and the accusations. just learned about this. a video shows a texas judge beating his daughter with a belt. new developments in the story a lot of people are talking about. the american economy of pediatrics are urging teenagers be tested for hiv. details in our gut check. free g! we call that hertz gold plus rewards. you earn free days, free weeks and more fast. that's a plus. upgrade your ride. that's a plus. rewards with no blackout dates so you can redeem anytime. and it's easy to redeem your points online. already a gold member ? just select gold plus rewards in your profile and start rewarding yourself now. just go to hertzgoldplusrewards.com

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>> right now on "news nation" -- >> we are not the sherlock holmes of the presidential primary. >> the mystery of who leaked the herman cain scandal keeps growing and is creating a battle within the party. from accusations to