>> the speech that's creating a lot of buzz, but is it the kind of buzz this candidate wants? here's the trick, where is the treat? the halloween nor'easter that has left a lot of ghost and see goblins still without power. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we expect to hear more from herman cain at the press club. he said he was falsely accused of sexual harassment when he worked at the national restaurant association. one woman said she did receive a seltsme settlement from the organization after complaining about inappropriate sexual conduct by cain. his campaign denies the allegations. we here host of the daily rundown. this is the week he's in washington reboogt the cting th campaign, if you will. >> making the statement to the

media, this morning a good place to do that. >> he is overshadowed by the allegations. you have looked into it, and as well you had his chief of staff on "the daily rundown" today. >> he did. what's been interesting about the denials, andrea, including from herman cain, they've been very specific about what they're denying. >> let me show you what mark locke said to you earlier today from the campaign. because this was parsing words. >> i am not personally aware of any cash settlement relating to sexual harassment charges to mr. cain. >> have you asked mr. cain that specific question? >> yes, i have. and he said to me emphatically, when there is facts, bring them to me. let me face my accusers, and we'll deal with it then. >> even to you, that doesn't sound like he's giving you a flat out denial? >> i would suggest that you

contact the national restaurant association and ask them about any settlement. i am not personally aware of any settlement dealing with mr. cain. >> you understand how that sounds. >> yes, i do. it's very serious. >> now, herman cain says he's going to address this, he's going to get questions at the press club. the point is he was given the opportunity by politico before they published. they were outside cbs and pre tentd they were face to face. we do know one woman -- >> we know of at least one. politico has reported multiple. we know of at least one. >> received a payment. >> it is between the national restaurant association and this accuser, not between herman kahn personally and this accuser, and that is the parsing. what i'm saying is that is the parsing they are trying to have here. >> he was the ceo of this organization at the time. how could there have been a payment to someone in his employ involving an allegation involving him without his

knowledge? >> well, look, the way a lot of trade associations do work is that the ceo and president is sometimes more of a public figure, and there is an executive director that truly runs the day-to-day in many of these trade associations. in many ways, that is the way the national restaurant association worked, but there were others that worked this way, too. this is not unique among this company that you would have basically the number two, the executive director, handling the day-to-day operations without necessarily telling the board. now, did -- what did herman cain know and when did he know it? was there a law and did they create a firewall? >> some of these answers sound like it depends on what the division of it is. >> he's denying specific phrase whz it comes to sexual harassment, and the bigger picture is for herman cain is the more you're denying, you're finding little things to push

off on but not addressing the allegation, the harder it is to keep up your pretense as the most authentic straight talker and that's what this has the danger -- >> speaking of straight talker, bob from "face the nation" had herman cain on and asked him, is the number one issue in america cigarette smoking and however that web video, however it was intending, was suggesting to anyone looking at it that cigarette smoking is cool. this is the exchange. >> have you ever thought of just saying to young people, don't smoke? 400,000 people die every year from smoking-related -- >> i will not have no problem saying that. >> say it right now. >> young people of america, all people, do not smoke. it is hazardous and dangerous to your health. don't smoke. i never smoked and i have encouraged people not to smoke. >> it's not a cool thing to do. >> it is not a cool thing to do.

that's not what i was trying to say. smoking is not a cool thing to do. >> well, and herman cain, you can see that he's getting ready to speak at the press club. he'll be introduced, he'll have some remarks and -- >> mark block, by the way, did say they will not put up any more of their own videos with him smoking. he said, if someone catches me smoking, that's me, but they said that is one thing they've decided, they will not put any herman cain videos. he said that this morning. >> i want to ask you quickly about george will's column really taking mitt romney apart. that's the republican establishment. this is the republican front runner polls notwithstanding, and this column was just -- went point by point on all of romney's -- you could call it flexibility statements of the flip-flop issue. that was a tough hit on -- but many people would say absolutely based in fact.

>> between george will and mitt romney, george will might be the most read. it is the hard number of what we're seeing. let's talk about whether it's the rise of herman cain. is it cain or anti-romney? the more people in that iowa caucus who say they're less likely to go, the less happy they are with mitt romney. >> a straddle is not a political philosophy, it is what you do when you do not have one. it will be deflated by the nominee whose blurry profile only calculated trimming. here's herman cain at the press club. >> has worked at this club for 33 years and has some special coincidences with me and my campaign. his name is mr. andrew price.

[ applause ] >> chuck, as they do the introductions at the press club, we don't want to miss anything he does have to say about these important allegations, but we continue to talk about this dynamic between romney and cain, and just as he was getting a big lift from the des moines register poll when you were talking to andrea salter a few moments -- >> if this thing is lethal campaign, and they can't figure their way around this, they don't have a better explanation to get in front of this, there is a chance that some in the conservative community may just see this as the big media attacking their guy, and they may rally around him. but barring that, if this turns out to be a problem for him, if you're romney, you don't want cain to be falling now. you want cain to be hanging around longer, because if a successful campaign like rick perry is able to fill the vacuum, the question is can rick

perry do it? they play that sort of bizarre, loosy-goosy perry which on one hand, that is sort of who rick perry is, on the other hand, he hasn't fully introduced himself formally yet, so these things aren't planned so hot. it was not the most presidential of moments at a time when he can't afford to have unpresidential moments. >> and our friend ann seltzer out in iowa who is responsible for the des moines register poll is joining us now. ann, your poll was giving herman cain a big lift, because even those he's statistically tied with mitt romney, 23-22 in this poll, the leaning is to the herman cain side. >> one thing we asked is who is the candidate you like the least, and with apologies to sarah lee, nobody doesn't like herman cain, according to what we published sunday. he really did have a very nice

lift from our poll the last time, and you do have a sense that there's enthusiasm, and i think although overall enthusiasm is lacking, it's still a fluid race. but gosh, things looked good for him yesterday. >> when you look at the numbers, what is the biggest factor in the internals here? the fact that herman cain has such an advantage 27-10 over romney among those who say they are committed caucus goers? >> well, romney's numbers have many underlying vulnerabilities to them, and i think that says a lot about his failure to commit to the state, at least publicly, and do what's going to happen. he seems to have a floor, he seems to have a ceiling in terms of what he can get here. >> and one final question, what about rick perry and the drop-off there? >> well, this is the first time we've measured rick perry. he got into the race shortly after our last poll. he got in in august, our poll was in june. so we've never really had a

chance to take a look at him. we know he's very active in the state. he's a very professional campaign team, as chuck alluded to. i think they're working with a candidate that hasn't been in the race that long. there is a lot of work that gets done at the retail level to make candidates better. candidates who spend time in iowa one on one get better as candidates. >> ann selzer, thanks very much. the gold standard in iowa. thanks to chuck todd. on the democratic side, president obama is adding prescription drug policy to his growing list of reactions. he signed a bill on growing drug shortage and price gouging. is it enough to improve getting drugs to those who really need them? nancy sebelius was just with the president at the signing ceremony. madam secretary, thank you very much, and thank you for rushing out to us. tell us what exactly you think

this will accomplish because we've had, as you know, complaints across the nation of shortages and shortages are caused, partly, they say, by the regulatory roadblocks. >> angela, i think there are a series of things i pulled in the executive order. we're releasing one from the fda and one from the planning evaluation which really outlines why the drug shortages are taking place. what we do know is the fda, through its aggressive action, has prevented about 137 shortages in the last 18 months or so. so the president calls on congress to pass the bipartisan legislation to give fda additional mandatory reporting authority that's needed, but also says today, we can't wait. we can't wait for congress who has been having this legislation pending. we're going to ramp up the fda efforts, redeploy some resources

to our drug shortage office, call on the justice department to look at the so-called gray market, which is, again, a real problem when the shortages become apparent that they're being marketed and remarketed much to the abuse of patients, and we have with us today, andrea, a cancer patient from california who is willing to join us, jay kutera, who is himself involved in a drug shortage issue that has been solved but it could happen again. and also a pharmacy manager, bonnie crowley, came from massachusetts. and they really think the actions today around the fda, around the justice department calling on congress will be important pieces of the puzzle that will help make sure patients get the drugs they need. >> what do you say to businesses, madam secretary, who say the regulatory reviews are cumbersome, that mid-level bureaucrats at fda and deficient heads keep adding and changing the regulations, changing the

language, that that scares off their investors. these are small start-up companies, some of them, and there are just numerous complaints about the regulatory review process. and the other question is, why couldn't this have been done six months ago? >> i think the actions that the fda is taking have been under way for some time. this enhances their visibility, but for anyone to suggest that this current generic, injectable drug shortage has to do with barriers really don't understand the problem. the capacity has been stagnant while the demand has grown dramatically in the last three years. >> is that a separate problem? is that a separate problem that there are regulatory problems that are blocking start-ups and blocking reviews of drugs? >> the shortages are in the generic, sterile injectable area. what we know is early notification works. the president has called on

congress to go ahead and get the bill passed to give us additional authority, but we're reaching out to manufacturers to say if we know a drug shortage is looming, if we have your voluntary cooperation in a much more timely fashion, we can actually take actions to find additional drugs, find alternative methods, and meanwhile, the manufacturers are ramping up production capacity, which has been a missing piece of this puzzle. so i think today's actions will not only highlight a problem but make sure that we use all the administrative tools available to marshal resources and make sure patients get the drugs they need, that doctors aren't impeded in their ability to prescribe what we know are life-saving drugs. >> i guess it's a separate issue as to whether or not there are new drugs that are not yet on line that could be approved more rapidly by fda separate from this particular shortage. >> you bet. we are looking at ways that we can streamline the fda process, ways that the fda and nih can

work on innovative strategies on a much more timely basis and get drugs through that pipeline, but this specific issue, the drug shortage issue, is one that really can be solved in different ways. more capacity, more timely review, more timely notification and that's what the president is aiming to do to get patients the drugs they need. >> thank you very much. thanks for clearing that up. thanks, madam secretary. and facing that thanksgiving deadline, how super is the supercommittee? committee member congressman chris van holland will be joining us. plus, steve arminsky, his look at pakistan. i'm andrea mitchell on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ walk, little walk ♪ small talk, big thoughts ♪ gonna tell them all just what i want ♪

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time is working out on the supercommittee to budget trillions of dollars by thanksgiving. chris van holland is a member of the supercommittee and joins me now. congressman, thanks so much for joining us. the republicans were saying last week there couldn't be any taxes, yet today a gang of six-member senator chambliss was on with senator warner and this is what he had to say about the possibility of taxes and the necessity of taxes being part of the event wal bargain. >> the fak of the matter is you can't do this just with spending and you can't do this on the revenue side. the more you're involved with it like pelosi and boehner have

been in the last several weeks, the more you realize that. >> i know he's not a member of the supercommittee, and the gang of six has not -- their recommendations have not been incorporated, but is there any crack in that republican opposition to taxes? >> well, andrea, chambliss is right as is senator warner. we said we need to look at two things. one, ways we can get the economy moving and get people back to work, and number two, a ten-year reduction plan that has to have a balanced approach. senator chambliss is exactly right. that will involve some difficult choices and cuts that have to be made and reforms that need to be made, but it also means getting rid of a lot of these special interest tax loopholes that benefit special interests at the expense of the rest of the country. you need to have shared responsibility as we move forward. that's what we've said from the beginning. >> is there any sign of agreement coming out of your committee?

is there white smoke puffing at least from capitol hill? >> well, we're at a critical time now. we've got until november 23rd, but everybody knows the real deadline is earlier because the congressional budget office needs time to analyze and score, look at the budget impact of whatever agreement may be reached. so we're working hard to do that. tomorrow we have a hearing with simpson and bowles, alan simpson and erskin bowles, both partisan groups that concluded, like the gang of six, that in order to reach a reduction deficit agreement, you need to take the balanced approach. you need cuts, yes, but you also need to have the revenue piece. so i think it will be very helpful to hear from them tomorrow. >> congressman, what do you say to aarp which is running ads, and our friend tom brokaw "meet the press" made the point, the aarp ads are basically making the point, don't take away any

of our entitlements. shouldn't they say those who need them should get them, but some who can afford to give up some of their benefits should given the crisis we face? >> one of the budgets was put in the house that would have said for seniors, you have to fend for yourself in the private health insurance market with a voucher that declines in value. that's a non-starter and not the way to go. the better way to go is the way we started in the affordable care act where we began to reform the system to put more focus on the value of care and the quality of care as opposed to the volume of care and the quantity of care. and there are reforms that can be made in that area that both improve the system and save costs for everybody. that should be our focus, not the kind of approach we saw out of the republican budget. >> well, some would say not the kind of approach we're seeing in some of these scare ads, either.

but to be continued. congressman chris van holland, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. politico's jonathan martin with the inside story on his politico investigation into herman cain. . sure it's easy to make, but it looks like she's been busting her hump in the kitchen. [ doorbell rings ] ♪ let the fireworks begin. hi, it's so nice to see you. something smells good. [ male announcer ] kraft homestyle macaroni & cheese. cheesy noodles topped with golden-brown, breadcrumbs. you know you love it. her morning begins with arthritis pain. that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day

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now to the national press club, herman cain says he's delighted to clear the air. >> in all my 40 years of business experience, running businesses and corporations, i have never sexually harassed anyo anyone. number two, while at the restaurant association, i was accused of sexual harassment, falsely accused, i might add. i was falsely accused of sexual harassment, and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, i recused myself and allowed my general council and my human resource officer to resolve the

situation. and it was concluded after the third accusation that it had no basis. as of a settlement, i am aware of no settlement. i hope it wasn't for much because i didn't do anything. the fact of the matter is i'm not aware of a settlement that came out of that accusation. per the article, two anonymous sources claiming sexual harassment, we're not going to chase anonymous sources when there is no basis for the accusation. i would draw your attention to the three people mentioned near the end of the article that were at the restaurant association as past chairman, chairman and incoming chairman of the board who would have known about this if it had turned out, in fact, to be a charge with some validity. but it was not. and so as a result, i have never sexually harassed anyone, and

those accusations are totally false. [ applause ] >> so would it be fair to say that you're asking the restaurant association to help you further shoot this down to the extent that they might have further records if, indeed, there was or weren't, obviously they can look at their records. it might have affected their insurance, they might have had to book such a payment? would you be getting back to us in the coming days to verify or shoot it down entirely? >> no. there's nothing to shoot down. and secondly, the policies of the restaurant association is not to divulge that information. and so unless they have changed the policies. remember, i was chairman of the board, so as far as we're concerned, enough said about the issue. there is nothing else there to dig up. >> okay. do you think that one of your rivals might have helped to put this out there? >> i told you this bull's eye on

my back has gotten bigger. i have no idea. we have no idea the source of this witch hunt, which is really what it is. we have no idea. we've been busy trying to get my message out. >> okay. well, i would say that perhaps if you work aggressively to affirm or deny in the coming days, you can move on to that. obviously we had to deal with this issue today. we appreciate your willingness to answer the questions today at the podium. another issue that is out there that people have been asking about in recent days is this abortion issue. you clarified that to a degree yesterday with bob schaefer. however, in an earlier interview, you seemed to indicate that there might be exceptions where abortion should be allowed, so you have seem to have vacillated on this in the last couple weeks. so where would there be an

exception to an outright ban -- >> herman cain just addressed the charges that were first laid out by politico of payments that were made to women, according to politico, for sexual harassment back when, in the 1990s, he headed the restaurant association. you heard the denials. now joining us, jonathan martin from the press club, the politico reporter. you broke the story, and after waiting only 10 or 11 days to try to get a response from cain, and confronting him outside cbs yesterday and giving him the opportunity to respond when he did not. let's talk about it and the denial and whether you see any wiggle room in his denial. >> well, he has conceded finally, andrea, that he was, in fact, accused of sexual harassment. he says he did not sexually harass any women, but our weeks of reporting and talking to a half dozen sources, we have a very strong sentiment at that

time among two female employees that they were, in fact, sexually harassed by mr. cain. they described two colleagues and senior officials, according to our reporting, both verbal and physical contact that they felt was inappropriate, made them feel bad, made them angry. so much so that they told colleagues about it, reported it to supervisors and ultimately both of them got five-figure compensation packages to leave the organization and sign non-disclosure agreements so they couldn't talk about it. >> i wanted to show you what happened when you went up to herman cain outside cbs yesterday. this is the exchange. >> i'm not going to comment about two people who you won't tell me who they are, okay? i'm not going to comment on that. >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? have you? have you, sir?

>> that was the last question. thanks. last question. >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? >> so just to be cear here, you had spent ten days trying to get a response from them. you went up to him, you said, have you ever been accused of sexual harassment, just an answer, yes or no. and instead he turned to you and said, have you ever been accused of sexual harassment. we should point out that nbc news has confirmed that one woman received a settlement from the national restaurant association after complaining about inappropriate sexual conduct by herman cain. nbc news is not disclosing the name of the woman nor characterizing who she is. that is the up-to-date information from nbc. jonathan, where does this go from here? is this a case where he can successfully turn this against the mainstream media and accuse his accusers, those investigating, or is it something that will hurt him with supporters in this campaign? >> well, you just heard him

there at the national press club say that he recused himself from the investigation. how do you recuse yourself from an investigation where you're being investigated? that's a bit of a tough thing to do, so there are more questions for him to answer. he has not yet explained exactly what he was accused of, he just said he didn't do it. but these are serious charges. we spent weeks on this story, talked to folks all over the country, current and former employees, current and former board members, sources close to this organization, a powerful trade group here, andrea, in washington, d.c., and we concluded based upon our reporting that mr. cain was, in fact, accused of sexually harassing two female employees, and those female employees left the organization with five-figure cash payouts. >> jonathan martin, thanks so much for your reporting on this. and the obama campaign has a new slogan, we can't wait. as the president takes more aggressive actions rather than

wait for congress to opponents of his jobs bill. bob schram is an executive analyst addressing us both. first to you, josh, in your reporting. the new strategy, first of all, how much can he take credit for the foreign policy successes, for instance, the withdrawal strategy fulfilling the commitment on iraq, or is it all the economy, and will these executive actions, executive orders help him in his campaign? >> in foreign policy, i think he can take quite a bit of credit. what i wrote in my column is that it's clear now the economy is not going to be where the white house would have liked it to be when they signed the stimulus two years ago. three-quarters of the country thinks the country is on the wrong track, unemployment will probably be above 9%. but what i argue is if you look -- instead of saying, hey, we're where we want to be, obama would be better advised to say,

listen, i inherited a lot of problems from george w. bush, both in the domestic economy and overseas, and i've taken a lot of steps, i've made it a long way in fixing a lot of those problems, foreign policy being a great example. and while things may not be where we want them to be, we're on the right track and i deserve another term. >> bob, are you seeing a different barack obama in the past two weeks, perhaps? is he beginning to have his voice, and is that getting through? >> i think he is beginning to have his voice, and i agree with what joshua just said, but there is a narrative that he's wrapping this in. you can put a lot of different phrases to it. fundamentally, he's asking the question, who is on your side? and he understands that an abstract defense to government isn't going to get him anywhere. people agree with him on social security, they agree with him on medicare. i think it's 73% of independents agree we ought to raise taxes of people at the top. he's on the right side of these

issues, the republicans are on the wrong side. the other thing that people forget is in 1948 harry truman didn't just run against a do-nothing congress. he ran against a do-nothing congress that he called the favored, the few and underprivileged. i think that will be twinned with his successes in foreign policy. >> and bob, does the occupy wall street help or hurt this effort, or is it too soon to tell? >> i think it's symptomatic of a mood in the country, and i don't think the president is going to completely identify with it. you don't know where it's going to go. but i tell you, that's another issue that fits this narrative perfectly, because the country overwhelmingly favors the kind of regulations that would prevent a replay of the casino of speculation that led to 2008. the republicans are trying to dismember those regulations. i actually think there is some unease in the republican party with the president's new message here. that's why i think paul ryan was

out last week calling it class warfare. i think the president is exactly right if he stands up and says, he already have class warfare in this country, it's class warfare against the middle class and it's being waged by the republicans. >> josh green, as we go into the deadline for the supercommittee, though, do we have the possibility of the same kind of meltdown in washington? if they miss the deadline, if they have automatic cuts, if there is a huge thanks giving wrangle that we saw during the debt ceiling debate when public confidence really plummeted in both parties. >> yeah, i think we do. this is other firm deadline and the most contentious excitement happens around these deadlines when each side is kind of playing chicken with the other. if you look at the last year or two of how these negotiations tend to go, they wind up, more often than not, being fairly disastrous at the last minute, in a way of getting the country fairly upset, justifiably so.

>> thanks for joining me. are you ready to rock? "rock center" with brian williams, that is. it's the first prime time magazine in decades launching at 10:00 tonight on msnbc with a staff joining us with hard-hitting and engaging stories every week. one of those talented team members is kate snow who brings us the story of birth tourism, foreigners who travel to the united states from as far away as china to have their children here and gain citizenship for their children. >> the parents of these babies have no intention of staying in the united states. they're here just to get american citizenship for their baby. as soon as they secure a u.s. birth certificate and passport for their newborn, they'll fly home to china, having spent as much as $30,000 on air fare, lodging and medical expenses. >> where is his mom right now? >> shopping. >> it is instant american

citizenship sold by an industry called birth tourism. >> and kate snow joins us now. kate, great to see you. con grat lagratulations on the tonight. we're all excited about it. how big an industry is this? this is pretty astounding, people coming all the way from china. >> it is pretty shocking what we found, andrea. we found dozens of web sites just like the one that led those chinese women to the home in the american suburbs. it's hard to know, though, how many people are taking advantage of our constitution which says if you're born here, you automatically get u.s. citizenship. hard to know because no one really keeps track. the state department says they know there are thousands of births every year to foreign nationals, but whether those are tourists, what kind of visa they're on, nobody keeps track of that. >> one of the big differences is this is live. you have your reporting, you have the magazine pieces, you go out and spend weeks, months on these stories, but it's also the

live interaction with brian and you on the set. >> this piece, for example, took us several months to put it together. the tape will be on tape, but the live part will be brian and i interacting on the set, and i don't think you can replicate that when it's not live. it's a different live, there's an energy to it. i think you can also expect a lot of original reporting, a lot of digging deeper on a subject you may have heard about. we're very cognizant that at 10:00 p.m., people have checked their twitter all day, they know whats what's in the news. we want to give people a little beyond that, a little extra. >> any hint of what's going to be on? >> harry smith is in with a piece in the one place in america where they have jobs, thousands of jobs to be filled if you're willing to move to this particular place. also our senior correspondent, he has a very interesting piece from inside syria, a place we haven't gotten a lot of access

to recently, as you know. >> congratulations. we're all excited about it and can't wait to see. thanks for this hint of what's to come. that is "rock center" with brian williams debutting tonight at 10:00 eastern on your nbc station. this weekend, the freak storm didn't freak out all the spidermen and angry birds who did go out friday night, however, they had to wear coats over their costumes. the president and first lady handed out mnms and dried fruit to children in the portico. this year's google video shows staffers lighting up pumpkins that light up to say google at the end. and this happening on the "today" show with prince william and princess kate. our pal savannah came in drag as the father of the groom, prince

charles. savannah guthrie had those ears, and there was even a surprise visit from the queen herself, queen meredith vierra, that is. the return of meredith, and how much work goes into that halloween "today" show event, and we will be right back. [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with the lowest national plan premium... ♪

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i'm tamron hall coming up at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. damage control a day after politico publishes an article about two women accusing herman cain of inappropriate behavior. cain tries to put on a happy face while answering the very serious allegations. why some of his supporters are, get this, comparing herman cain to clarence thomas, one of them even saying this is another high-tech lynching. plus, is president obama's we can't wait strategy working? there are signs that it is, in fact, the president signed another executive order today

targeting prescription drug prices and supply. is this the anecdote for dealing with a congress that he says won't get anything done? and on line a hacking group known as anonymous. why they are threatening one of the most dangerous drug cartels in mexico. and these world headlines, the fbi has released new surveillance video of russian spy anna chapman meeting with an undercover agent in june last year. chapman was one of those ten spies arrested last year after sneaking into the country assuming another identity and trying to gain information about u.s. policy making. u.n. secretary condemned the continuing violence in syria. on friday, dozens of citizens were killed by government forces in the holmes and hemma provi e provinc provinces. the violence started seven months ago and killed many people. they have now granted

palestinians full membership in the organization. the u.s. announced it will cut off $80 million a year for unesco. the obama administration has accused pakistan's intelligence service of supporting terror networks in afghanistan. now the u.s. wants pakistan's help to bring some of those terrorists to the negotiating table and to help wind down the war in afghanistan. this is the taliban now claiming responsibility for the latest suicide bombing in kabul this weekend, a bombing this killed 12 americans. steve inskeep spent a great deal of time in pakistan and is author of a new book "instant city." steve, it's a great treat for me to have you at this table. >> it's fine to be here. thank you. >> let's talk about what you uncovered. this is the one day in the life and death of karachi, 30 people killed. >> there was a bombing and that was the beginning of this

violence. a man appeared on the streets and burned hundreds of commercial shops. what i think i uncovered was the life of this mega city of more than 13 million people, and more than that, kind of the back story to a lot of the new stories that you discuss in this program every day. if you're talking about terrorism, you see the background of that. if you're talking about income and equality or global economic changes, you see that as well. you see a lot. >> you really can understand the anti-american fervor as well as the fact that pakistan by agency intelligence services is playing both sides of the fence. >> absolutely. there is a lot of anger directed at the united states right now, especially in the media and in the government. it's a little more complicated among the public, i think, andrea. when you go to meet people, and i know you've traveled to pakistan, you get a lot of people who are hospitable, who will pour you tea and tell you their story. i find that helpful, but i see a government there as increasingly

diverge he not from the united states. they don't see the world in quite the same way, so they have resisted to do what the world demanded as they see for practical reasons. >> how has the city of karachi, 13 million people, the growth of the population there and all the implications of that and poverty and congestion and look of services, how does that happen? >> here is an amazing thing that i discovered, andrea. these cities, as awful as they can be to live in, you go through karachi and see these red rivers going down the street, pollution from tannerys. people live there because it's better than where they came from. there's been this massive migration to cities, and the biggest driving force has been either people fleeing some disaster in the country side, like the war up the border with afghanistan, or just looking for a better job, a $3 a day job, which is better than a job they could get. >> so the answer to the poverty, the congestion, the terrorism,

long term, can pakistan's government even provide services to this number of people? >> i've been we have this debat role of government. it's instructive to me to visit a country where it seems like they don't have one. millions of people live beyond the writ of the government to a place like this. they don't get basic services and can't depend on law and order and struggle as a result. now at the same time the problems in the developing world can be found in cities like this. this is where different kind of people come together and share ideas and get an education and innovate. it is such a look beyond the headlines that we see.

which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours. an editorial writer from "the washington post" joins me now. this herman cain business, can he manage this? is the damage control going to work? >> i'm not sure. at the press conference where he is speak he gave a three-point defense about what was going on. he said i never sexually harassed anyone. i was accused of sexual harassment that came from the allegation. maybe the swirl around him wouldn't be as ferocious as it is now. 24-hours from now you will be looking at the impact and the

consequences of what he is doing today. this was supposed to be his big washington moment. he was at the american enterprise institute. he is at the national press club. he and his campaign were hoping they would sail out of washington on a big head of steam on top of those being on top of the polls. he is in controverciy that he helped soak. >> i love your halloween tie. >> thanks. >> very cool. happy halloween and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." >> in the next hour, why herman cain supporters are comparing him to clarence thomas where he sexually harassed two women in the 90s. is it a good idea to compare him to clarence thomas?

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how much does he spend on gas? how much do you spend on gas? how much do i spend on gas? if i charge regularly, i fill up like once a month. he only has to fill up about once a month. [ woman ] wow. that's amazing. right now on "news nation." >> i am unaware of any settlement. i didn't do anything. >> hitting a low that could scare off voters. herman cain tries to diffuse a report that claims two women accused him of sexual harassment in the 90s. some supporters are fighting back, calling it a high tech lynching. sound familiar? the president'sampaign proves he is ready