and fight never to lose, that basic human knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. as penn state says good-bye to joe paterno, joe pa as they have long cheered him, i hope, don't you all, they will welcome back the basic values lost in the hunt for the next winter on saturday. what makes college football win or lose great, what makes trying for perch and team glory and all the fun and challenging contests on earth is the abiding respect for those values we all know are greater still. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politics nation" with al sharpton starts right now. welcome to "politics nation." i'm al sharpton. we have a lot of political news toorch. newt gingrich is surging in the presidential race and more shocking republican attacks on the women accusing herman cain of sexual harassments, but we lead tonight with breaking news

in the horrific child sex abuse scandal at penn state. late this afternoon, news about the assistant coach, who told the grand jury he witnessed a boy being raped in the shower at penn state football locker roan, but failed to stop it, his name is mike mcqueary, who has allowed to continue as a coach, until now. >> he will not be coaching nor attendsing tomorrow's game. with respect to paid or unpaid, at this point the leave is paid. that's subject to further determination. >> meantime, authorities in texas are looking into whether former assistant coach jerry sandusky sexually assaulted a boy on a team trip back there in 1999. sandusky is already facing 40

charges, including the sexual abuse of eight young boys over a period of 15 years. also today -- listen to this -- reports that authorities in pennsylvania have interviewed at least two new alleged victims since last week. in an extraordinary interview that aired this morning, the mother of the boy known as victim 1, talked about the trauma her son suffered. >> i had said, you know, if, you know, maybe we should have, you know, come to this conclusion earlier, you should have told me, and he was like, well, i -- you know, he said i didn't know what to do. i just didn't know what to do, and you just can't tell jerry no. >> the school says it's forming a special committee to investigate the handling of the abuse allegation, and we've learned that former coach joe paterno has hired a top criminal

defense lawyer. joining me now from penn state is michael isikoff, nbc news national investigative correspondent. bill fallon, a former prosecutor who oversaw the sexual assault and child abuse units. he's dealt with many cases involving the catholic church. and john martin, staff writer for "the philadelphia inquirer." michael, tell me about paterno's hire of this lawyer and what is it an indication of? >> well, it's an indication of just how serious the legal issues are for coach paterno. he's been described as a cooperating witness in the case, not a target or subject of the investigation, but as you pointed out, this is an el ongoing investigation. there are new witnesses coming framed, and there are certainly

going to be trials of the principles in which coach paterno is going to be a key witness. anybody in that situation neither a top-flight lawyer. in addition, there is the very real prospect of multiple civil lawsuits here. i can tell you the paterno family and advisers are certainly kerr are concerned about that. they know it's coming. we've seen it as issues in cases of the catholic church and boy scouts, where there have been massive judgments. inevitably the threshold in civil lawsuits like that are much lower than in criminal prosecutions, and the very real likelihood that coach paterno could find himself a defense when you put all that together, he needs a top-flight lawyer. >> bill fallon, you have prosecuted some of the catholic church cases as a prosecutor in boston.

>> yes. >> if coach paterno was told and had more knowledge that we know now, but was told details of a crime and did nothing, could he be criminally prosecuted? could he face jail himself? >> well, he could fail jail himself if in fact the pennsylvania statutes say you must be the reporter. the oddity we have here, you know, massachusetts has upped its laws, if you will. you can say to somebody, i know this, then you tell the person in an organization what you know, and then they have the authority or the burden to report this. as you just point out. if he went to his uppers, not that there was anyone with more authority than paterno, let's be honest, but if he went up the chain and left out of the the gory horrific details, someone could say he didn't in fact do what he should have, and therefore the people above him

wouldn't have known what to report and therefore he could be held criminally liable for not following through with his duty to at least report. right now we're not there yet, and there is the question of legal obligation versus moral obligations versus what would happen as was just pointed out in a civil negligence case. >> john martin, you have been writing about this story. what do we know? we know that we were told that, according to the grand jury report, that mcqueary, the assistant coach who has now been put on the sidelines, i might add with may, and i don't why that is, but we'll get to that in a minute, but he's on the sidelines. walked in, saw we are told, a 10-year-old boy with his hands up being raped by this assistant coach. and that he went home, did nothing at the scene, we aren't home, called his father, who

told him to tell coach paterno. he told coach paterno the next day. now, the conflict is what he told paterno and what paterno told the authorities. there is no conflict according to the grand jury, though, that he actually saw a 10-year-old physically being raped and went home and called his dad, am i right? >> first of all, he didn't know how would the boy was. he said he appeared that the -- that the boy appeared to be 10 years old, but yes, what he's testified to is he saw what appeared to be a sexual assault going on in there. what coach paterno has said is he wasn't given that details of information, that level of details, and there we get into the question of what he knew or what he believed he was being told. i don't think we have those answers yet. >> let me ask you this, john. he said he saw it in the grand jury paterno said he wasn't told

that detail. let me go back to you, mr. fallon. why would somebody go home, tell their daddy, and they should not tell the horrific thing he saw when they went to paterno the next day. that doesn't pass the smell test to me. >> it's pretty smelly here, too. i can tell you why someone would go home -- i certainly know from the priest abuse scandals, people saw things they couldn't believe, but it's strains credibility to say he we aren't home, spoke to his father, his father said tell the coach and he's going to say, coach, i saw him fooling around in the shower. you would be telling him what you told your father, how horrific it was. they'll try to water it down all the way. mcqueary would be in trouble -- he's already testified, so i don't think anybody is out of the woods. we all say why didn't he go to

the police? you don't know me, but i think there should be an obligation to tell the police. the laws are not written like that, i think it's absurd there's no way to help children, but if mcqueary says i told joe paterno this, that will put him in trouble, because everybody up the line, some of whom are indict indicted, will say i didn't know those facts. >> first of all -- i don't know why you -- who is watching a 10 -- i mean, i don't know that i would do that. >> i wouldn't -- >> i understand that, but let me ask you something. let's say we get past he went home, he told the father, isikoff, and the father says, we go to coach paterno in the morning. if he, for whatever reason didn't tell paterno what he saw, his father's there, who he told his father. so we're to believe that not

only he didn't tell paterno, his father who was with him didn't tell paterno? >> well, look, if -- there are certainly a lot of contradictions in that report, in the testimony, and when these cases go to trial, and they inevitably will, the lawyers on all sides will be exploiting these contradictions, but i think you put the finger on the eyewitness here is mcqueary. he is the one who witnessed what he says was a pretty grotesque scene in the shower of coach sandusky naked with a naked 10-year-old boy. regardless of whether he passed along the precise details of what he says coach sandusky was doing, you have the basics there of something that seems seriously wrong. an adult male with a young child

naked in the shower. when you look -- >> not for the first time. >> yeah, go to that, fallon. this wasn't the first time. there was a case in '98. tell us about -- >> this is what is absolutely outrageous, which is why i think the college has got to give up and butte out everybody. if in fact you had someone in the shower with the kid and whether or not they could prove they were molesting the child, and then he somewhat apologizes or whatever, he's out in six months. the university is on notice, paterno is on notice, everybody is on notice who at least has something to do with them. if the police investigated this case and the d.a.'s office investigated, even if they came with no prosecution, sometimes victims can't come forward, don't want to come forward or there's a jumpball on what exactly happens and what someone saw, but this organization is on notice, which is why think

booted out the president, i'm sure, without knowing, i'm sure, because they know there was a cover-up, and that's where paterno does fail the smell test. >> because they had a case, '98, investigated it, there was even some recording where they've got the assistant coach saying something that clearly implicates something happened and they decide not to prosecute. am i right, mr. martin? therefore when this comes up again, this is a pattern. they had seen this before. all you do is take the guy's keys? >> yeah, and nobody tried to find the victim. nobody tried to find who the 10 years old bow was, no one tried to ask him anything, partial. there's no indication that anyone went to coach sandusky and said who were you with that night? we would like to talk to him. >> they didn't just take his keys. they gave him access with his new group of kids, boys that

he's helping, quote, they gave him access to the showers and the buildings for the next decade. that is the ultimate outrage. let's give him a place to molest more, because he's done it before. >> mr. isikoff, there was some strange disappearance of the d.a. from the '98 case? >> reporter: right. that has been under investigation for years. i should point out that -- i talked to investigators that assured me this week this is an active and open investigation. i think that it's pretty clear, they're certainly getting tips and allegations that might -- suggest might be in some way related to this, but in fact there is no evidence after this point that we have -- >> we don't know there's -- >> but john martin, we do know -- >> we have no evidence of that whatsoever. >> but we do know this is the d.a. that has been missing that

closed the case in '98. >> who in 1998 decided not to pri. they find his car, they never find his body, and there has been -- it's been a wild case for six years. no one can explain it. they say it's suicide, homicide or a walk away. now you have his friends, everybody is saying the new spotlight on this case. they're saying maybe if nothing else, there's a national spotlight, maybe we'll find out what happened to that d.a. ray gricar. >> we do know, before we go to any trials, before we go any further, there was an investigation in '98 that was the alleged harassment and/or assault of a young boy by the same sandusky, and they let him

deal with young kids in his program with the knowledge of this accusation. there's no doubt about that. >> that is certainly the evidence that's in the grand jury report. i should point out that it's not just the university that's under scrutiny here, as we'll be reporting tonight on "nightly news" there's an increased focus on the charity, second mile, that jerry sandusky had founded and why charity officials durant act sooner to prevent his conduct. >> including one out-of-state trip to texas. >> thank you all, and we'll be right back.

i'll talk with chris hayes about it next. and packages.

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welcome back. i don't know about you, but i've gotten pretty sick of seeing overconfident republicans spreading around, even since the tea party popped up, ever since they started their maneuvers, there's been a strut and swagger in their steps, and hearing a lot of talk like this. >> our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny president obama a second term. >> i i think it's pretty clear that the obama/pelosi agenda is being rejected by the american people. >> president obama will be a

one-term president. >> the cake is baked. barack obama will be a one-term president. >> that's one reason why president obama will be a one-term president. >> but this week, you saw the republicans fall flat in a big way. >> issue 2 failed and not by a small margin. >> they just called it. issue 2 is gone. >> we are -- >> ohio! >> opponents of the personhood amendment gathered to celebrate as mississippians voted down the proposals. those voting yes were aiming to stop abortions and set up a challenge to roe versus wade. >> this is an important victory for women and families and we are very, very excited. >> from ohio to mississippi to maine, voters rejected the gop's extreme agenda. even conservatives are

admitting, a columnist writing, quote, the 2011 off-year elections are a warning to republicans. the 2010 party is over. and over the last month, president obama's approval has shot up six points. hi forced republicans to show their true colors and vote against the one thing americans care most about -- jobs. no one on the american jobs act -- no on teachers and first responders, no on infrastructure, no, no, no. it's starting to look like the party of no is also the party of no hope. joining me now is chris hayes, host of msnbc's weekend morning show "up with chris hayes." thanks for being with me. he's my morning hope on saturdays and sundays. did we turn the tide this week

or am i too hopeful? >> no, i think it was quite an indication -- here's what i would say the the electorate is not in the same place as a year ago. that i think is for sure. there was a genuine conservative feel to the electorate in 2010. if it was the same electorate in 2010 and they were in the same place, they would have ratified that issue in ohio on tuesday night. so i think there's a real marked differentiation between what we saw a year ago and where the electoral is now. in a bellwether state like ohio, and even in mississippi, which i think obviously isn't going to be up for grabs. so i think the mood of the country is quite different than when we saw it as sort of the high watermark of tea party, deficit mania, get government away. i think we have come down from that. >> i'm sensing in the base, because i travel a lot. last year in 2010, when i was traveling a lot, you could almost feel a depressed state,

and people kind of feeling that no one was speaking for them. when i went through ohio and all around for this election, people were energized, rallies, and i think the base of the progressive democrat liberal, whatever you want to call it, they had the energy this time. >> remember the way on the arc of it i think galvanized the tea party and a lot of money poured in, and it gave the right a very concrete thing to target their energies against. and that gave them energy into the midterms. i absolutely agree, that energy that is flagged considerably. the exhaustion of the progressives. which was so drawn out and so

exhausting and demoralizing, that is gone and replaced by the energy on the left. >> well, i think also a lot of people on the left wanted to talk about josh, and felt i think what a lot of us were saying, that some of the tea party people agreed on a different perspective, i think they lost their message when is that is not -- >> when there is such a sort of serial diskevin among the american voter with the people in charge, whoever they are, 2006 they kicked them out, 2008 they kicked them out, if you are the baercht, you become the establishment, and people target their anger at the status quo, which is absolutely a justified

anger. they target it at you. i think we have seen that in ohio tell larry. i think you're right, but we know the real reason that things started to turn around, because we got a tv show. be sure to catch up with chris hayes -- >> i like that theory. >> sunday and saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. still ahead, it's newt's turn to be the latest flavor of the month? we'll talk about it with bob shrum and nia malika henderson. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief?

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coming up newt reboot gingrich, is surging into second place in the gop race. wow. those folks must really not like mitt romney. >> when the front-runners at 18 and the next two you are tied at 15, it is a wide open race. >> and the outrageous gop plan to defend herman cain by attacking his accusers. this is "politics nation" on msnbc. stay with us. [ male announcer ] when these come together,

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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. welcome back to "politics nation." poor republicans, just 54 shopping days until the iowa

caucus. what do they do? they go window shopping at tiffany's. it's true. they're taking a new look at tiffany's favorite customer, newt gingrich. a new poll shows he's surged to second place, now tied with mitt romney at 15%. herman cain still leads with 18%, which is amazing on his own. a new mcclaspney poll shows him in second place. between romney who gets 23% and cain who polls at that one on 17. this is a big turnaround for newt whose campaign nearly imploded last spring when most of his staff quit. but here's a number more unbelievable. in both polls 17% of republicans are still undecided. undecided? remember the part where we want

iowa caucuses are just 54 days away? >> i think it will stay why open, you know, until january. i think we'll be up here in january in a relatively open race. >> nobody is far enough ahead to mean anything. >> bob shrum and nia malika henderson are here. bob, is newt for real? >> he's sort of for real. they've been on this long search. they return newt to the store a long time ago and now they have tried everybody else out. they've been through backman and perry. look, ima for him. i'd like to run against him next year. one of the ironies is all of that senior leadership who quit, they went to work for rick perry, who is now mired in

single digits. i think in the end it will be romney. and they're going to do everything they can to stop him, but romney all to think strategically about whether to go into iowa, but if he can stop gingrich there, win new mexico, i think he would roll to the nomination. the danger is gingrich or somebody like gingrich emerges in iowa, and efederally if they get to the southern states, this could be a long, protracted process. >> i think there's a couple interesting things to me about the new polls that i just quoted. one is, of course, i've never heard of a front runner at 15%. that's a new one. second, that you have as many people not choosing a candidate as the front-runner they're polling equal, undecided is almost beating the front runner, but third is the emergence of newt, who i know, newt gingrich

at the request of president obama toured -- we did five states in education, even called me on this show for my birthday, which i would gladly give one republican opponents in iowa if they won it. i mean, what is it with this undecided? are they that determined not to go with mitt romney? >> so far that seems to be the case. 17% still undecided, still window shopping, still not confident that romney is their guy. they see him as an establishment figure. this is the year, 2012 they want a more anti-establishment figure. republicans across the country, tea party folks were unhappy in 2008 with the choice of john mccain. they feel like they had to hold their nose, vote for him and compromise some of their principles. this time around they really want a real dyed in the wool conservative. is it herman cain, who of course has had some problems over these

recent weekses with sexual harassment allegations? is it newt gingrich who himself has had problems in his personal life? i don't think that will do him any good in iowa where 60% are going to be in the evangelicals, if you look at that last poll, he was polling fifth. hard to see him making up any ground in iowa, because they are so concerned with social issues there. >> now, bob, rick perry, who has been underwhelming, to put it nicely, still hasn't given up. he's fighting back. "new york times" is reporting he just made a million buy for campaign ads on fox news. >> he tried to turn around his gaffe, which was disastrous let

me show you a video where he tried to turn around his gaffe. >> number six -- >> hey, listen, you try concentrating with mitt romney smiling at you. that's one handsome dude. >> number two -- >> yeah, i wanted to help take the heat off my buddy herman cain. >> and the number one rick perry excuse -- >> i just learned justin bieber is my father. >> oh, my gosh. >> i take issue. i like justin bieber, but beside that can money save him? >> i don't think so. there are moments in politics that should indelible. 123467 even though the bush/quayle ticket one, quayle

was through in american politics. i think that we saw that indelible moment when governor perry for 53 seconds couldn't tell us what one of the three federal agencies he wanted to abolish was, and then said oops. i don't think it matters if they spent money. i think the biggest impact they may have, if they decide to go after romney, they might inflict damage on romney. >> when you look at romney again, let's go to where we saw written, one of the bloggers, erickson in a red state, an influential right-wing blogger, he said this about mitt romney going to be the rep not any, will be an ultimate terr disaster for conservatives, as they takes the gop down with him and burns up what it means to be a conservative in the process.

nia, that's about as devastating as you can get from someone that is reply kale and idea lochblgically supposed to be on your side, or at least on your party's side. >> yeah, that statement looks like it was wring by the democratic national convention, which has been hammering mitt romney for what they see as his flip-flopping position on things, but that is the exact sentiment that republicans have, that mitt romney is a watered-down verse, a pastel version to use rick perry's phrase, of barack obama. that's what they fear, this insurgency they saw in 2010, with the tea party pushing for mahler goism, will just go by the wayside if mitt romney, as it looks like the case, that he will realtily set the party b k back. >> well, bob, the problem is,

newt is starting to surge, and mccain is starting to fade, don't tell anybody, but they're running out of time. 54 days. >> i think newt will fade ultimately, but whether he fades at the beginning of the pros, or how long this is, i don't know, but one thing is romney is taking collateral damage, being pushed further and further to the right, as people are talking about all the flip-flops, there's a ppp poll in ohio that showed favoritable at 28 and unfavoritable at 48 among general election voters. if that's the way he goes into that state, he's going to lose it and lose the presidency. >> bob shrum and nia malika henderson, thanks. both of you have a great weekend. >> thank you. you too. >> thank you, rev. up next the smear campaign against cain's accusers. they're circling the wagons and attacking the victims. plus we have seen a lot of

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welcome back to "politics nation." herman cain ace scare tactics may have worked. his accusers won't be sharing their stories of harass mchbt publicly any time soon. last night the attorney for karen kraushaar would not be coming out unless -- why wo they? sharon bialek -- >> you now have folks that will try tattle their 15 minutes of fame and get $15 of fortune along with the 15 minutes of fame. >> look forward to a spread in

"playboy." >> let the women take lie detector tests. >> a woman, if you look at her rap sheet, 14 years later she is cares about the country? double bankruptcy, legal troubles, illegitimate child? that says to me two words -- scam artist. >> scam artist, liar. no wonder the accusers don't want to come forward. republicans are humiliating them. let's not forget cain's attorney warned other accusers that why he accident want to scare anyone off, they should think twice before coming forward. the right wingers are trying to intimidate these women into keeping their mouths shut, but some republicans don't see it that way. they see it as a woman's thing, a woman thing. >> the other women woven return her call. she cou she can't assemble a panel,

which makes sense to me. >> rush, this is not about a trip to the ladies' room. you and other republicans are trying to scare these women into silence. joining me now is victoria defrd difrancesco-soto, and joan walsh. thank you both for being here. joan, does all of this speak to a bigger problem, sexism in the republican party? >> yes, i really think it does. not all republicans are sexist by any means, but there's a real core of misogyny, and you know as well as i do, there's an idea to bring us closer to the day we didn't care about sexism and

didn't care about racism, either. it's very nice that they have their african-american as a standard bearer who likewise wants to mock and make fun of victims, whether it's victims of sexual harass mchbt, or victims of unemployment. it's their fault, blake them. this is the republican strategy to blame people who are having a hard time, and to smock people who are fighting back. and, you know, whatever is true of share bialek is fighting back. of course it's scaring women off. how would it not? >> victoria, i think the thing that bothers me, none of us know the truth or not truth of any of the accusations, but the almost cavalier way and tone that they've dealt with this is offensive. i mean, first of all, i have two daughters. what do you mean in a restaurant all women go to the bathroom at

the same time? it doesn't even make sense, aside from the fact it's belittling, and yesterday anita hill's name was -- this challenged justice clarence thomas, so she's been a simmic of women that would stand up. a serious case, serious woman brought up to herman cain. let me show you how he responded. >> did you hear the latest news today? that anita hill is going to come -- >> is she going to endorse me? >> they break out laughing. it's like there's no sense of respecting the gravity of women and the right not to be

harassed. whether you're saying it's true or not, how does it become a joke? >> first of all what we saw was arrogance, and you do not have to attack the victim in order to say that you have not done what you were accused of. if anything, it makes you seem like a gentleman, but he has gone that route. i think this is part of a larger picture of the gop trying to bend over backwards to show that, no, we are in a post-racial society, that racism in our party didn't exist, so we're going to defend our black candidate aattack of white aconfusers. what would have happened in a latina or african-american woman accused newt gingrich? would we have seen the same? the token has made this the defense that we're seeing on tv today of attacking these women. >> now, when you look at this,

joan it says allegations don't change republican view of him. if you look at this, 61% say allegations don't matter. joan, what bothers me about that is not 61% according to the language of the poll, they say it doesn't matter. what do you mean it doesn't matter? >> partly it is say that they don't believe it, but the other thing that's happening, hi support has dropped a bit, and he's got a gender gap problem, a problem of women being more disturbed by these allegations than men are. the more it's likely to be true. that anita hill clip, i'm sorry, that's devastating. anita hill told the truth.

20 years later we know that for a fact. so to continue -- to continue mocking anita hill, who is a black woman, whatever race factors in here, she told the truth. she's been mocked and pal lardied by the right. the fact that he's still laughing, he will be sorry. mr. cain has said clarence thomas has been his model for supreme court judges. mr. quan, on his website, has gone on the attack. this is on his website. he talks about veteran anchor bill kurtis says bialek was a former cbs employees with a track record. hers and cain's roles may even have been reversed in the car. i mean, victoria. now they're saying that she may have been the one that harassed him? >> i'm not going to be surprised if he comes out of accusing

certain women of harassing him. white women vote. women in general vote more than men. if there's one demographic you do not want to alienate, is women. i don't know how the hard-core republican women will vote, gull maybe in their heart of hearts, it's going to weigh on them, and on the offchance that he does make it into the gen, he will be dead in the water. i think the reality is no matter the truth, part of what disturbs a lot of people is how they're being air gan about it. despite the allegations, princess nancy pelosi, mocking anita hill, it's one thing to say these are not true, it's another thing to act like i don't care, i don't respect the whole deal with the whole women

and the rights of women. joan and victoria, thanks, and enjoy your weekend. >> thank you. you too. >> still ahead, on this veterans day, remembering those who serve. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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this has been a crazy republican presidential race, but sometimes it seems like a joke. rick perry is making fun of his debate gaffes, while herman cain is laughing at his lack of foreign policy experience. >> when you ask me who is the president of ubeki-beki-stan? i say i don't know. >> i like to laugh, but today is a serious today. veteran days should remind us that the people who are running as president, who have to make

life-and-death decisions if they are elected, have to make just as important the decision to end a war. >> after nearly nine years, america's war in iraq will be over. i can say that our troops in iraq will definitely be home for the holidays. >> today the president was at arlington national cemetery honoring our troops. >> when your tour echbds, when you see our flag, when you touch our soil, you'll be home in an america that is forever here for you, just as you've been there for us. on behalf of a proud and grateful nation, we thank you. >> we should thank our men and women in uniform today for serving this country, but we should also thank our president for taking this job seriously. at some point, republicans have to stand up and do the same. we should respect or