what's in herman's head? herman cain admits he was accused of sexual harassment and denies he did it. >> i never sexually harassed anyone. i was falsely accused. >> can't deny a settlement? >> have you had to settle a claim? >> if the restaurant association did a settlement, i was unaware of it and i hope it wasn't for much. >> the cain camp means more confusion for voters. >> some supreme have a problem with that. herman will stay herman. . >> in full damage control.

a day of denial responding to a report that the trade group settled complaints that cain engaged in inappropriate behavior. cain rebuffed the story hours ago. >> i have never sexually harassed anyone while at the restaurant association. i was accused of sexual harassment. falsely accused, i might add. >> some are finding cain's denials as confusing as the details. at the press club he said he had no idea if there was a settlement at all. >> i am unaware of any settlement. i hope it wasn't for much because i didn't do anything.

>> likewise, cain's campaign manager now famous for smoking in the campaign ad struggled to issue an out right denial when pressed by msnbc's truck todd. . >> i am not personally aware of any settlement. >> you understand how that sounds? >> it's very serious. >> the fact that you cannot say it and you are telling us we have to go to the association. >> that's the place to get the answer. >> cain always said his is a different kind of campaign. he concluded his national club remarks in a hymn to jesus. ♪ he looked beyond ♪ all my faults ♪ and saw

>> he's got a good voice, but maybe not a nice story. with me now from washington, jonathan cape heart and goldie taylor, columnist. >> in the report, conversations with innuendo and personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature and descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual, but made women uncomfortable. it sounds difficult. what do you think television? >> i think -- look. herman cain would not be in the terrible mess he is in right now had he given the explanation he gave at the national press club today, october 31st. had he given that explanation on october 20th when politico said they reached out to get a response. yesterday jonathan martin goes up to herman cain when he comes out of cbs after doing face the nation and puts the question to

him and what's herman cain's response he throws the question back at jonathan martin. that is not how you handle a situation like this. if herman cain was ready and prepared for the question, he wouldn't be in the mess he is in right now. >> goldie, you are very familiar with the cain campaign and you had opportunities to interface with him as well. what's your understanding of his personality. is this consistent with what you know of him? >> first thing is he was right about that when he said that cain had many, many days to prepare an answer for this, but presumably he knew about this when it happened. he knew it would come up and the fact that he wasn't prepared to answer it says something about the campaign. i think that really has to be looked at. in terms of herman cain and his reputation, we women running

around in business circles. there was never an insinuation that herman cain had this kind of reputation and treated this way in the workplace. it doesn't check against all of the things that we know about him here in his hometown of atlanta. not to say that the facts are now true, we just don't know what they are. jonathan is right. he had 10 days to get the story right and the fact that it took him this long says something about the campaign. >> what are does it say to you when you look at this issue of the way they handled this crisis and what it means going forward. is it a one-week hit and are we having a different narrative? >> it might have, but what this story does is a piece of evidence that the cain campaign despite riding high in the polls and having a lot of interest is not quite ready for prime time. whether it's questions about his

stance on abortion and a border fence and about his stance on his 9-9-9 plan, herman cain you ask him a question and he gives you an story and another story the next time you push him on it. this shows that herman and his campaign, they are simply not ready for the spotlight they are under right now. >> what's the solution then? they are not ready for the spotlight. what do they do with them? the statements that have come from cain and his surrogates, is that good enough? is it detailed enough? >> i don't think it will be detailed enough at the end of the day. what happens on day three or four is more informatioabout to come out. will they prepare themselves? that's going to be the question moving ahead. we won't be able to segue to the next messaging point as he wants to do today. we won't be talking about the song tomorrow. we will be back on this story

tomorrow. we will have to go to bed and get up ready to take itto tomorrow. i think that herman is in a difficult position. >> when are and how do the others take this on and how they leverage this point here? >> notice we haven't heard or i haven't heard anything from any of his rivals on the situation. i think they know to leave well enough alone and let herman be herman and fight his way out. what they need to do, any of the other campaigns that haven't been in the other than romney spotlight need to get themselves ready and prepared for any and every eventuality whether from the superficial to the policy oriented questions that would come that would allow them to catapult over and be the next flavor of the month if you will.

>> the many venues, he understands what it's like to be front-runner and be pull's eye and get bigger on his back. >> if he was running at 1% or 2%, no one would know, but he is constantly at the and two place in the polls in the early states and the national poll. yes, he's right about that. the target on his back is bigger. we are talking about him because he does have a strong base of support out there. if the campaign was going to hit a tipping point, it was going to be much more tough and he needs to be ready for the tough questions every day from wherever they may come.

it's not acceptable. thank you, jonathan as well. >> thank you. >> herman's competition tries to reboot a tagging sam pain. >> i'm a doer, not a talker. the employee of the month is... spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there,

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the battle line is drawn and both republicans and democrats are firmly rooted in their ways, creating that partisan gridlock that has proven to be clearing up.

it's time to get serious about this. when we see what was put on the table, democrats for the tax increases, this is the same number in the president's budget that i don't know that they found any democrats in the house and senate to vote. i don't think it's a reasonable number. . >> i am joined by a washington in democrat. >> good morning. how are you? >> very well. thank you. you had a meet and greet over the weekend and you were happy with what you were doing. it sounds like most voters have heard consistently over the last year. what did you hear from those that spoke with them over the weekend. >> this was the sixth coffee

shop to announce i was coming. 30 chairs and event people asked questions. they are very, very upset about the fact that we are having nothing done in washington, d.c. the gridlock is upsetting people. people believe the unfairness ought to be dealt with. the unfairness at the top. they ought to be willing to give something to settle the problems that this government faces. they ask it in different ways with health wear. >> congress is back to work and you are in the beautiful state of washington right now. >> you hear so little it's hard to have any serious debate.

they were not upset because they know where i was coming from. they continuing ought to pay something. no question about it. these were people who were asking why can't the rest of the congress see that if they get to the last 30 years, they have 275% increase and the people at the bottom get a 2% reduction. they have a variety and it's difficult to see how the tea party and the republicans think they are going to succeed. >> paul was thinking as he normally does and saying in so many words that he would probably reekd to class warfare. what do you to that? >> he knows his poll numbers. he didn't even get on the recycling and want to be a part

of that city that is supposed to come on the answers. he knows what it is. that created this hold and now they have got no way out because they are stuck and you can't ask for revenues. except the defense plan. they cannot ask and he wants to know about class warfare. for the last 10 years. over the weekend, we have listened to a couple of 10 sors on "meet the press" and they said everything is on the table. it sounds like what you are saying is you don't believe the republicans are going to agree to any sort of revenue generations at all. >> mitch mcconnell said more than two years ago, my one goal is to prevent barack obama from being reelected and solving this

would make the president a hero. they are not going to let him solve it. you have to remember something. these tax breaks are going to all expire at the end of next year. the republicans have set a trap for themselves where the taxes are going to go up at the time they are starting to run the campaign of next year. they are going to try to blame it on the president. >> talk about the president here. the president issued what, over 20 executive orders here a long. i was speaking earlier this week or over the weekend he said he wasn't happy about the president and he was politics as you said the republicans are doing. >> the president is doing what he has to. he laid out on the table proposal after proposal and eric candor and the speaker get up and walk away because they won't

discuss. the at this time has to act on behalf of all the american people. you need to do something with health care and foreclosures. you need to do something with student who is have got no job to pay back the student loans and the president is going around and saying the constitution said it's your job and you didn't do it so i am going to do it. the congress would have to respond, but where is the proposal? >> coming up, the day's top honors. >> it was meant to be fun he? >> it was meant to be informative.

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detailing plans to bolster the military presence in the persian gulf region. this comes a week after president obama's surprise announcement that every u.s. serviceman currently serving in iraq would leave by the end of the year. this is widely criticized for republican opponents. for more we are joined by pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. what are you hearing about what will be happening from your sources? >> we had actually reported this first on the very day that president obama announced the forces. one of the first issues is training iraqi forces. they need quite a bit of training. the u.s. military is planning to train them in other countries like kuwait and the others. the much larger issue is of course a run. once forces came out of iraq,

many of the allies felt that that hedge against iran threatening neighbors was gone. the military is considering putting several thousand american forces into kuwait to serve as a trip wire. this would be pretty much a symbolic show of the force. 3,000 american service members are not going to take on all of iran, but the feeling is that iran would be hesitant to pursue a threat against the neighbors there in the gulf state. if the combat forces were still there in iraq. they already have a robust prngs. they have an air base in qatar and they always have a presence there. if needed, the situation became so tense they could put a couple of aircraft carriers into the

gulf in quick order to push back any possible threat. >> mick, as you take a look at the context that you have been serving, how does it fit in? we have been at troop level and force level in recent years. >> absolutely. the force level will go down considerably. they are about 38 to 39,000 american forces in iraq. take those out and put another 3,000 to 5,000 in and we can do the math and find that the troop levels are actually lower. it's just that symbolic combat presence that may be in kuwait that is intended to sort of keep a run back. >> thank you so much. at the pentagon for us. the head of planned parent hood responds to herman cain. >> you said they were trying to put the centers into the black communities because they wanted to kill black babies.

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anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. cain defends the smoking man and perry defends herman and everybody takes a swing. halloween's top items. >> this was not intended to send any signals whatsoever. >> it sends a signal that it's cool to smoke. >> i don't get confused with his telling the truth with someone saying that that is negative. >> this is such a cool. live free or die? live free or die? bring it. >> if i'm trying to prepare for

a speech, i do tell people to shut up. yeah. >> i love herman. is he the best? >> it was meant to be fun he? >> it was meant to be informative. >> today has been awesome. girl. this has been a great day. >> what i find interesting is that mitt romney continues to have 7580 perce-80% of his part somewhere else. >> you are only allowed a certain number of flips. >> you get the sense that people -- it was good to see the sky was green and the grass was blue. >> after 50 years the texas rangers are going to win a world series! oops. >> the cardinals won the world series! >> i am not doubting i can draw

a bright line with barack obama. >> even though his own rangers. the lack of love for mitt and the rest of the field. i am join bide crystal ball and contributor and candidate for congress and analyst and former rnc chairman michael steele. a good monday to you both. i want to start with rick perry. we saw a lot of that speech, sound bytes from it. some are asking weird rhetoric. what is happening here? >> it was a little bit overexuberant, i would say. strange in contrast to his debate performances that have been very dead. if he can find a happy medium, that might be the place to be. for rick perry, he has to nail home the idea that this is an a versus b choice. a is rick perry the true conservative, the defender of conservative ideology versus mitt romney the flip flopper. i think his campaign is getting more disciplined about that

message. >> what are do you think here? is this like howard dean? remember that moment we had seen on tape? >> the scream. >> exactly. i have been reading the headlines and you have been questioning the issue and the influence here. what's your thought? >> there is a lot of fun. there was a side of pery that a lot of people had not seen. she loose like that a lot of times. perry came out of this box more uptight than he is used to being. the formalities of running for the presidency is certainly those who were telling they had to be more formal. really worked against him in the beginning. being looser and being more relaxed, i will help him in his debate performance. certainly there is a limit. you don't top the go to the point where people scratch their head wonder figure they are on something. the reality is for him to be himself and to be looser in his boots is probably better. >> let's take a listen.

talking about being more easy and laid back. we have this new ad that is being released from perry. >> if you are looking for a slick politician and a guy with great teleprompter skills. we have that and he is destroying our economy. i'm a doer, and not a talker. we created 40% of jobs since june of 2009. they say we can't do that in washington. they are wrong and they need to go. >> crystal, tie off. a clean and plain speaking in the ad for iowa. he had a lot of effects, almost two dozen, but polling very poorly. 7%. >> he really struggled and amazing how the debates and the poor performances have taken a toll on him. i thought it was a nice ad. one thing that stood out is i'm am a doer.

in general it was a warm folksy and an effective ad. >> how crucial is iowa here? i was mentioning the number of events perry had in the state. romney had maybe a handful and stepped away because he probably thought that state vote there would be better suited to determine who would be the winner on the social conservative side. >> i think you are right. the reality of that commercial is what i was referencing. much more relaxed and comes across with a good vibe. playing that now is good. you are putting behind a lot of the stumbles and the missteps and you will do the lead up to january 3rd. it's perfectly timed. when you look at the entire iowa play, for perry it's iowa is important, but south carolina is going to be i think the corper stone of what will hopefully be

his launch to the nomination. it's the combination of starting to stay fresh with a new voice and sound and image and tone. then putting in place the stair steps that it's going to take to get to south care lane olina tot work. >> the poll numbers were done before the story came out with allegations of sexual harassment. how might the numbers change that you just saw? >> they will change. the combination of the story line that is being played out right now, how herman cain fumbled the ball and the first instance of this gives opportunity for individuals like newt gingrich and perry to wedge themselves into the conversation and the numbers will change and how severe of a hit he will take. >> i personally think this will be devastating to herman cain. michael is right.

the way they handled this, this is the guy who is not supposed to be a politician. not only has the story focused on him being a lobbyist and not the element he wanted to emphasize, it made him react in a way that was like a typical politician. not good for him. i think perry will get a second look here. perry has the car chest to make his case and do that second impression and come across a little bit better. >> how long? a week or two weeks? >> it depends on how they handle it from here and are there more allegations and who knows? anthony wiener lasts way longer than i thought. >> a week or two? >> i think about a week or so. you have to see what they do-over the next couple of days, but the beginning doesn't bode well. >> thank you very much for being with us on this halloween. appreciate it. next ahead of planned parent hood on herman cain's deeply offensive genocide comments.

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no shortage of controversy including herman cain's attack on planned parent hood including the right to choose with genocide on african-americans. on sunday he stood by with face the nation's bob schaffer. >> you said planned parent hood was trying to put the centers into the black communities and he wanted to kill black babies before they were born. >> i stand by that. 75% of those who were built in the black community, she did talk about preventing the increasing number of poor blacks by preventing black babies from being born. >>y >> cecille richards is commenting. >> it's incredible that someone

run for example president has so little information about planned parent hood and women's health. i would love to invite him to visit one of our health centers. we are the largest provider and trusted provider to women and it's deeply offensive. >> one of the statements is that 75% of planned parent hood centers are in areas with large populations of african-americans. looking at the maps of locations, they tend to be in major metropolitan areas. what is your response? >> it's completely inact rate. we are all across the country and our patient population reflects the patient population from america with women from every walk of life. i think i have no idea where he gets his facts, but 1 in five women in womendom planned parent hood at some point in their lifetime. we serve everyone in america. >> what do you think his

statement is aimed at? is it about funding? >> she making all kinds of statements that are politically motivated rather than factually. the real danger that we are see suggest not only that, but mr. romney and mr. perry as well who are using women's health care as a political issue. the problem is it has impact on women's lives. i was back home in texas where governor perry cut 300,000 women off of basic life-saving cancer screenings and family planning and all in the name of politics. at a time when women were struggling to get care, this is a dangerous business. >> their concern is dollars will be used towards health centers and offer services related to abortion. they don't want them to be overlapping. they want to be confused in the budget. >> the incredible thing, all of the money that governor perry has cutoff for family planning,

the money that republicans and congress tried to cutoff goes for preventive care. planned parent hood is the largest provider of family planning. >> his other statement because you know this better than most. you are the president of planned parent hood. the founder of planned parent hood supported reducing the number of babies being porn. we looked at what they had to say. the supposed evidence that sayinger supported black genocide is tied to her work on the negro project started in 1939 and brought birth control services, but not abortion to black communities in the south. the facts do not come close to supporting cain's claim. is there anything that you know of that margaret sayinger said in the past that is consistent with what cain said so far? >> absolutely not. i think that's what is frightening. planned parent hood has been

around for 95 years. it's regardless of their income. that's what we stand by today. i don't know why he is conplating the two issues, but the real struggle in america is we have too many unintended pregnancies of all women. half of all pregnancies are unintend and we need to be doing more and not less to have family planning. >> thank you so much. >> good to see you. thanks for having me. >> you bet. did a college student lose his job for asking michele bachmann a tough question on immigration. hey, hampton. >> let's take a look at how stocks are doing. major averages near the lows of

the day right now. we see the dow down about 217 points and the s&p down 26 almost. the nasdaq down more than 38 points. here's another sign that all business adage, the customer is always right. wells fargo canceled the test that changed customers for debit card purchases. new jobs on florida's space coast. boeing will take over a hanger at the kennedy space center to create a commercial spacecraft. it is expected to create about 550 jobs and more than 4,000 people lost their jobs. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. sun life financialrating should be famous.d bad, we're working on it. so you're seriously proposing we change our name to sun life valley.

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it is safe to say that michele bachmann's campaign has cooled off a bit considering the "des moines register" shows her with 8% of support with caucus

goers. lagging behind herman cain and mid-romney, she is doing her best to stay in the spotlight, but not all press is good press necessarily. the critics are fired up. take a look at this. >> what about the kids who came here by no fault of their own when they were babies. these guys were my friends and the guys who sit next to me in class and my neighbors. what would you do to them? >> i'm not doing anything to them. their parents are the ones who brought them here. they did not have the legal right to come into the united states. so we do not owe people who broke our laws. >> michele bachmann was not finished suggesting a bar citizen to children of illegal immigrants she said we have to end this anchor baby program. the student who asked the question, until a few hours ago

an office for the young democrats in iowa and joins us now. you were telling us and understand that you just got fired? >> pretty much what happened. >> what happened? >> you know, in that article when i had talked to michele bachmann, they asked me a couple of questions and said who would you vote for in 2012. i said i'm open to voting for a republican and i stand by it. if they want to shut me out for that, that's fine. >> which republican you might vote for and back to the issue that you were responding to that got so much interest as of right now. you asked that question about what she is calling anchor babies. why did you ask that question? >> what she is talking about is different from what i was asking. she is talking about an anchor baby. that by definition is an illegal couple comes into the united states and has a baby to help them stay here. that's not what i was asking. i asked what happens to the children of the undocumented

citizens who came over and these kid who is couldn't even speak and through no fault of their own were brought because america is all they know. >> bachmann also said that, quote, i'm not doing anything to them. a lot of people are taking offense to that response. were you satisfied with her response when you were asking about those parents who brought over a baby with them? >> absolutely not. their response was entirely inadequate. and here's why. she said, she's not doing anything to them, but by definition, she is, because she's deporting them. that's what she wants to do and she said it in the statement. so the idea that these folks who, again, by no fault of their own, were brought to the united states and know nothing else but america, are going to be deported to a foreign land, well, you know, that cow don't hold no mil for me. >> you know, roy, i was at a civil rights conference over this past week in california and got to meet three dreamers. dreamers are those who might

take advantage of a law, state or federal, that would allow them to stay or get certain tuition fees that would be in-state. service certainly tough for them to describe what it was like to come out to either teachers, their family, or the environment that they're in. so you were alluding in your question here to your friends. what are they going through right now in dealing with this question of how and should i come out with being undocumented in the united states? >> well, obviously, i can't give you any names, but what i can do is this. >> i don't want any names. i just want their response. >> these guys, they sat next to me in high school and we all pledged allegiance to the same flag, most of them only know english as their first language, so these guys are finding it very tough. because when they want to go to college, number one, their families are working jobs that pay below minimum wage most of the time. number two, they can't get any federal assistance, sometimes they get state assistance, but

if the republicans get their way, that'll be wiped out too. >> roy, sorry to hear that you lost your job, but you'll probably bounce back. thank you for your time. >> thank you. now our play of the day. herman cain's gospel serenade at the national press club. ♪ amazing grace will always be my song of praise ♪ is this a chevy volt? [ stu ] yeah. it's electric. i don't think so. it's got a gas tank right here. electric tank, right over here. an electric tank? really, stu? is that what you pour the electricity in? it's actually both, guys. i can plug in and go 35 miles gas free, or i can fill up and go a whole lot farther. is that my burger? oh. i just got bun. i didn't even bite any burger.

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is that that new... is that the electric car? yeah. but it takes gas too. ask him how much he spends on gas. 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. well, today president obama signed yet another executive action. this time involving the fda and the growing shortage of prescription drugs to treat cancer and other diseases. now, this is the latest in a series of actions announced over the past week. and because none of them require congressional approval, you can bet there's been some criticism on the hill. joining us now is nbc's kristen welker at the white house. we also have luke russert on capitol hill to tell us about what's happening. kristen, the details are saying there's been over 200 drug shortages of some kind of the

most commonly used drugs in hospitals. this executive order tries to alleviate some of that problem. can you tells more? >> reporter: that's right. hi, there, richard. well, the aim of this executive order is to try to cut back on some of those shortages. here's what it does. it orders the fda to do a couple of things, to broaden it reporting of possible shortages. also, to really increase its review of drugs that are in the process of being manufactured to try to speed up the manufacturing process. and also to step up its communication with the justice the department to try to cut down on price gouging. now, some analysts have looked at this and other presidential actions that have been taken in the past week and says it's really not going to have a huge impact. and that, of course, has caused republicans to say, this is really the president playing politics. the white house has pushed back against that type of criticism, though, and has said, look, these presidential alaska actit not have a huge impact, but they could help some americans who

are struggling. so the same here is to really try to cut back on some of those shortages. and of course, there's political aim as well, an aim to try to gain some political capital to show that, look, if congress is not going to work with this president, the president saying, i will work around congress. as you say, he has gotten some criticism for that, though, richard. >> perhaps coming from the hill, i might guess. luke is there with more reaction. so, luke, close to what, two dozen executive actions or orders so far. what's been the response there? >> well, look, congress has its own legislative branch within the constitution. never likes to be cut out of things. but in this case, richard, it's not surprising, really it goes down party lines in terms of reaction to what the president is doing. a lot of democrats i've spoken to say, good for president obama. the house republicans have not wanted to move on anything that he's brought up. if this, in any way, can help the direction of the country, then it's good overall for the american people, then, by all means, he should go ahead and do it. a lot of republicans say that this is bordering on a

constitutionality question. speaker boehner certainly hinted at that last week. what you have to understand is the power of the presidency, when george bush was in office, he said, 291 executive actions and executive orders, or whatever you want to call it. the one thing to keep an eye on, though, richard, is there's really a constitutionalist element of the republican party that was really spurned by the tea party. there going to keep a close eye to anything the president does in this policy. while it looks like a minute issue that we've seen throughout administrations, rest assure this will come back as to some sort of political ad in the future. a question of the constitution and what exactly president obama is doing and whether or not it's legitimate in the eyes of some. >> kristen, talk about that, as luke is alluding to there, in history, there's been other executive orders by presidents. >> reporter: president clinton tried to circumvent a congress that wouldn't work with him. a lot of democrats have been

encouraging the obama administration to do the same thing, to sort of try to have an impact on the economy at a macro level. as luke just pointed out, they are really cheered by what they're seeing right now. they're encouraged by it. they want the white house to continue with this "we can't wait" message. the president's approval ratings still sort of stuck in the mid- to low 40s range. what we have seen, though, congress' approval ratings has dropped to an all-time low. 9% of people now say they approve of the job that congress is doing. democrats believe right now that the president is on the right track with this. richard? >> nbc's kristen welker and luke russert on capitol hill, thank you both. >> take care. >> thanks for watching. dylan ratigan is up next. dylan, i can hear the mega panel warming up. >> indeed, they are. and it's a halloween show, indeed. richard, the show begins right now. well. good monday afternoon to