based on his innocuous comment about height? it raises a question. >> it sure does. thank you, david gregory, cynthia tucker, and eugene robinson. we'll be back with a new issue of "hardball" in an hour. politicsnation starts right now. tonight, the herman cain offensive. >> the charges and accusation are absolutely reject. they simply didn't happen. but, herman, can you really save your reputation? >> i don't even know who this woman is. >> another accuser's attorney joins us. super tuesday. voters deciding issues from abortion to union busting. gerald mcentee, the head of asme

on what ohio's worker's fight means for your fight. >> if congress continues to stand only for dysfunction and delay, then i'm going to move ahead without them. >> and one year to go. and new poll numbers blast the myth that president obama is losing his base. strategist ed rendell and ted devine on the president's re-election chances. >> public servants shouldn't get a better deal than taxpayers. >> gop warfare, republicans on the wrong side. scale as 76% of the americans say the economy is weighted against them. howard dean on the rise of the progressives, and getting to know them. >> it's like live free or die, victory or death. >> maybe a little too much. "politicsnation" starts right now.

. >> welcome to "politicsnation." i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, herman cain speaks out. he held a live news conference to respond to sexual harassment allegations made by sharon bialek. >> i have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period. i saw ms. allred in that news conference for the very first time. i don't even know who this woman is. secondly, i didn't recognize the name at all. >> cain also said the scandal would not drive him from the

race. >> as far as these accusations causing me to back off, and maybe withdraw from this presidential primary race, ain't going to happen. nine days ago, the media started to beat me up, covering anonymous accusers, and then yesterday, another accuser came forth, came forth, identified herself, went on tv, and made some other allegations. it was tough last week? yes. has it been tough the last couple of days? yes. that's one thing about herman cain a lot of the american people know. and that is, just because it's tough is no reason for me not to do what i feel like i have to do. >> this morning, the cain campaign released a memo attacking what it claims is

bialek's "long, troubled history," including claims she's gone bankrupt twice and been involved in several lawsuits. this morning, bialek answered questions about her motivations. >> is your coming forward a part of any kind of financial motivation? >> absolutely not. >> have you had any contact with any of the other republican campaigns? >> none at all. >> none? >> zero. >> zero. >> why did you decide to come out now? what's in it for you? >> i don't despise the man. i actually did it because i wanted to help him. i want to give him a platform to come clean, to tell the truth. and he still hasn't done it. >> bialek, the fourth woman to come fourth with accusations against cain, the first to do so publicly. joining me now is joel bennett, the lawyer for one of the two women who settled sexual harassment claims against cain at the restaurant association.

up until now, mr. bennett's client has remained anonymous. but in an interview published within the past hour, she has been publicly identified as karen kraushaar, a 55-year-old woman who works at the treasury department. now, she was accuser "a," who worked in the communications department of the restaurant association. she filed her complaint in 1999 and reportedly received $45,000 settlement. mr. bennett, thank you for being with me tonight. we'll talk about your client in a moment. but, first, herman cain said about these accusations "they simply did not happen." what is your reaction to mr. cain saying that what has been reported about your client just didn't happen? >> my client filed a detailed, written complaint in 1999, specifying multiple incidents of

sexual harassment over multiple days. the incidents happened and my client stands by the written complaint that she filed. >> mr. bennett, can you -- are you at liberty to tell us the nature of these sexual harassment series of sexual harassment complaints what they are comprised of? >> not at this time. my client is planning to come forward. we plan to contact the other women and have a joint press conference where the women will air their specific complaints. >> you are planning to contact the other women and hold a joint press conference with your client to lay out in some kind of joint way the accusations against herman cain? >> that is correct. >> now, can you tell me whether or not what your client said in '99, her complaint in any way runs parallel or similar to what we've heard that went public

yesterday? >> similar, yes. >> all right. now, the other thing that i must ask you, and this is very interesting about a joint press conference. i've not heard this before. but let me ask you this, mr. cain said tonight in front of a national, live press conference, that your client did not get a settlement and that it was found that what she said was baseless. is that true? was what your client filed found to be baseless, and if so, by who? if not, mr. cain leading the public -- or misleading the public when he says that? >> first of all, there was a written settlement agreement which my client and i signed. it was signed by an officer of the national restaurant association. and the national restaurant association's outside councseco. it was a settlement satisfactory

to both sides and my client left the employ of the national restaurant association. second, i have never seen any findings on the complaint that she filed, so no body of evidence has ever been presented to me that her complaints were baseless. >> now -- so you have never seen any determination by anyone saying it was baseless, and you used the term that you and your client signed a settlement. now, if you might have saw mr. cain's press conference, he said that there was not a settlement, but an agreement. you are saying it was, in fact, a settlement, which meant her leaving and the payment was based on the accusation that was and you your client's understanding, not just based on some employment agreement. >> that is correct. >> so what you are saying is totally the opposite of what was represented by mr. cain at his press conference? >> that is correct.

>> now, the other thing i want to ask then is if mr. cain is -- is saying something totally opposite of what you are saying, in terms of how this was settled, not just an agreement, based on employment, let me ask you this. are you here by asking mr. cain then or the restaurant association to say if there was a finding by someone that this was baseless, that you or your client was made aware of, they should make that public? >> that's up to the restaurant association. my understanding is that they did an internal investigation that mr. cain denied the allegations. but it wasn't done by some outside objective body. it was done by employees of the national restaurant association, who had been under the supervision of herman cain. >> now that your client is going public, and even taken the step of saying i want to stand with other women that make these other accusations, will you ask the restaurant association to

release the file they have? >> i will be in contact with the restaurant association's attorney before we have the press conference to work out the necessary legalities, and i can discuss that with them, whether they want to release anything. >> mr. cain was asked point blank if he would take a lie detector test? and he said absolutely, or yes, something like that, if he good reason. would you be willing to offer him a good reason once your client has gone public and the claims she has made and other women have made are up to the public? >> that's up to him whether he wants to take a lie detector test or not. that's his prerogative. >> to you feel that mr. cain has in his press conference tonight responded in a way that was forthright and truthful, given the facts that you know and the

facts that you believe that he knows and should have known based on what was in your terms settled in 19999? >> i do not. >> why don't you feel that way? >> i know the specifics of my client's complaint, i have seen ms. bialek's statement on the record, and i just can't believe that she would come forward to make up something like this. >> your client had said originally, she didn't want to relive the details. what changed? what made her today say i'll come out and eilei'll even try organize with other women. what changed this for her? >> she hoped to remain private and not become a public figure. but her name has come out today, her videos of her have been on the networks, and so she knows that so much is out there now, she feels she has to get the

facts out there to justify her position and justify the complaints she made in 1999. >> so you are saying, and i thank you again for coming on here immediately after and responding. you are saying if i am to characterize you correctly that what mr. cain said in his press conference tonight as it relates to your client, was, in fact, not forthcoming and could be misleading to the public as it relates to your client and the -- and what happened around the claims of your client in 1999? >> that is correct. >> joel bennett, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> here to talk about this whole situation is jonathan capehart, msnbc contributor and editorial writer for "the washington post" and rebecca henderson also for "the washington post." thank you for joining me.

can herman cain survive this by simply denying all of the allegations that you heard mr. bennett say here? this is the first interview i know of after the press conference. but thaw his client will come forward and he wants to organize the other woman to come forward. what mr. cain said about his client and knowledge of a settlement or characterizing a settlement as opposed to an agreement was misleading, can he survive this? >> it's hard to say how he can go day after day with this stance? he doesn't know these women, what they are talking about, a settlement? it's hard to see how he survives it if these women come out and have a joint news conference where they lay out the facts. one of the things that will be interesting to watch over the next days is to see if republicans start to turn on him. you saw today mitt romney came out before he had kind of brushed questions about this aside. today he came out and said that

these were serious allegations and that they were disturbing allegations. so i think that's going to be something to watch for. if you remember with anthony wiener, that puea weiner, that's when he decided to leave, when it was said he was a drag on the party and a distraction. these allegations disturbing, that he needs to come clean about them and put facts out there, we'll see a slow trickle of that happen over the next couple of days. the big question also that he is going to get over the next days is whether or not he's going to put facts on the table. is he going to call on the national restaurant association to release these documents that he says exonerate him? >> jonathan, that was my question. he is a good reporter. that was going to be my question to you. were you disa pointed that mr. cain and his press conference

was not more definitive and specific in putting out evidence of calling on the release of evidence? he basically was a lot more rhetorical than one would have thought, given the gravity of the charges and the preponderance of the charges. >> yeah, the press conference was woefully inadequate. it didn't rise to the level of the pink sweater press conference that hillary clinton gave in the white house, talking about everything dealing with whitewater. herman cain has a lot to answer for. the revelation of karen kraushaar, an hour before herman cain came out and gave that press conference. the story this morning was about ms. bialek. the story this afternoon was about herman cain answering the charges. tomorrow morning, we'll be talking about that press conference and karen kraushaar.

it was one thing if ms. bialek was the only person coming forward, the only person to tell her story. now that there are two women, two of five, who have come forward to tell their story, herman cain, it is imperative that he come forward and lay out the facts. tell the truth. right now, i don't see -- excuse me, how his support within the republican party holds up and i don't see how other republican candidates for president hold back from calling on him to, you know, come clean. >> well, they are going to have an opportunity tomorrow night at the cnbc debate. but let me ask, there was a couple of things that kind of like was a little awkward to me. when he said that the democratic machine was after him. yet he said we have no evidence of this at all.

like if somebody else said it, he was refuting what he said. and he said he absolutely or clearly would take a lie detector test if he was given good reason it would almost seem to me that he was like very awkward. almost uncomfortable in some of his answers. >> yeah, i mean, in changing his story, quite frankly in some ways. i mean, he's pointing the ficker at the democratic machine, pointing at rick perry, liberals, at racists, so i don't know where he's going with these allegations. it's odd. here is a man who has condemned the whole idea of anonymous sources, yet he is pointing to this vast anonymous conspiracy that is supposedly out to get him and now i guess they are also apparently anti business. they don't want to see a businessman in the white house. okay. >> i'm going to have to go. jonathan, you've been around a little while. first time you heard a candidate say i don't need everybody's

vote, i just need 51%. jonathan, nia-malika, thank you for joining me. we'll be right back. 6 [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. there's a different cream. i challenge that with olay. i've found one cream with everything i'm looking for... olay total effects. with 7 age defying effects in just one, easy to use cream.

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we all remember that night three years ago when barack obama won the 2008 election. he did it by firing up the liberal base and with an

unprecedented number of grassroots organizers and the biggest african-american turnout in history. but since then, the write has been trying to drive a rift in there, somewhere between the black caucus and others and people saying that obama is losing their support. completely untrue. a new nbc/"wall street journal" poll shows 91% of african-americans would vote for him today. but he does have his work cut out for him. with under a year to go, 11 states are up for grabs. including the all important state of pennsylvania. where today president obama attacks republicans for blocking jobs legislation. it's a message he should continue pounding. joining me now is nbc political

analyst ed rendell, former pennsylvania governor and former chair of the dnc. and democratic strategist tad devine, former senior strategist to the gore campaign and former senior adviser to john kerry's 2004 campaign. thank you, both, for joining me. governor, how easy are republicans making this? blocking hundreds of thousands of jobs? how easy are they making by continuing to do this? >> well, i think it's -- from their standpoint, a tragic mistake. it's allowed president obama to pivot and run against a republican congress that has done nothing. if the republicans said when he initially introduced his jobs bill, we're okay. we're okay on continuing the payroll tax cut. okay on tax credits for veterans. we don't like the rest of it, but we'll work with the president on those things, people would have said, okay,

they are making a judgment. not just saying no for political purposes. by saying no to each and every component, they are making it clear to the american people that they don't want to give president obama any legislation that passes between now and the election. they are willing to put the country on hold for the next year, for political purposes, and i think that that's going to hurt them mightily and hurt the republican presidential candidate too. you remember, harry truman got re-elected in '48 when he was dead in the water in the polls. he barely mentioned dewey's name, the man he was running against. >> the nbc/"wall street journal" poll that came out last night, the base is clearly more with the president than some of the right-wing pundits have said. but he does clearly have work cut out. colorado, iowa, michigan, nevada, new mexico, ohio, pennsylvania, virginia,

wisconsin, and in those states, those are tossups, those are challenges. what does he have to do to win and get his vote out in those kinds of states? >> well, reverend, he has to talk to people who live there about the issues that matter to them. the president has to make the case that he is working every day to create jobs in this country. that he understand that people are suffering because of the economic situation, they are confronting each day, that he is on their side on the issues that matter to them. he's doing a great job of that matter. i'm so impressed to see in the nbc poll, support 91% job approval in the african-american community. 92% of the vote against romney. 93% of the vote against herman cain with an oversample of 400 african-american respondents. the president's support in that community is deep. i think he has a tremendous base to build up. and the thing he has going for him, his greatest asset and the reason he is going to win the election, compared to the 2000

and 2004 elections, so many more states in play. there is a route to electorals for him and i think he'll get there. >> when we talk about the issues in those states, governor, in nevada, the president has to deal with 13.4% unemployment. top in the nation, michigan, 11.1%, florida, 10.6%. when we talk about the issues that people are concerned about, you are in states with general unemployment and break it down withet nick groups and young people and women, it's extremely -- much higher than these numbers, and these end up as a basement are huge. how does he deal with that? >> starting with the jobs bill speech and all of the campaigning he's done for it has created the impression that he's the one person in washington, d.c. that cares about jobs who

isn't focused so heavily on the deficit. isn't focused on domestic spending, that he cares about jobs. over and over again. that's what i talk about straight through to next november. because the republicans i think, again, by being obstinate, not meeting the president halfway, are not meeting to things that they voted for in the past and the president made that point beautifully. i think tad is right. is he really finding his stride. republicans are opening the door and the president is going through it. >> tad, have you been a great strategist. worked 2004. i was involved in that kerry campaign after the primary. i know you know what you are doing. when you look at the screen of independent and suburban residents, 57% of independents, 57% of suburban residents, 52% of people from the midwest disapprove of the president's job, yet if you take the full

polling of the voters, 49% would vote for the president, only 43% would vote for mitt romney. how does he get those in the midwest, those suburban voters and independents back on his collum that would reflect and then have a rise in the national polling numbers have? >> i think the president has to make the case to them very vividly when it comes to jobs, he is supporting immediate, urgent action, and the republicans in congress are doing nothing but obstructing him every step of the way. he has a very powerful case to make, governor rendell is right, since the president gave the jobs speech, he continued to fight for every piece of legislation, every portion of legislation for the jobs program that he put forth. i think the public is listening to him. they are hearing him and they are siding with him. if he continues to make that case all the way through, even in the midwest and some of these places and some of the demographic groups where numbers are lower right now. he can make great progress,

particularly once republicans pick a candidate and can define that candidate on his own terms. >> governor rendell, a much lauded governor, you ran the dnc. if you were going on to the gop side, the last eight or nine days, the herman cain distraction, they are not getting their message out, even though i question whether they really have one, how do you deal with the fact that they can't get a message out, the president is pounding away, the president should keep ignoring their mess and keep going with his message? >> yeah, no question about it. right now, the republicans are eating themselves alive. the president and his campaign doesn't have to do it, although the dnc ad against mitt romney, it wasn't a dnc ad. it was one of those superpacs. mitt romney, a very potent ad. mitt romney will get attacked by

other republican candidates and some of the independent expenditure groups. the president should stay positive, focus on one thing and that is jobs. that should be the mantra of the campaign, the mantra of what he is doing in washington, and i agree, he should keep bringing it up. make sure he keeps -- force them to vote on it week after week after week. >> i couldn't agree with you more, governor tad, and if i were to advise the president, i would tell them to listen to you two guys. a wise man once told me, if you see a man on the edge of a cliff about to go over, don't get close, mr. president. don't turn a suicide into a homicide. back up, give them pleasant eve room. >> the president watches this show, doesn't he? >> i think all great americans do. ed rendell, tad devine, thank you for your time. >> thank you. ahead, million dollar mitt

pretends to be a man of the people and it goes terribly wrong again. and the grand old party overreached. why tonight's vote in ohio could send republicans into panic mode. stay with us. want to make a healthy choice for your hair? [ female announcer ] try pantene nature fusion shampoo. its pro-v formula makes weak, brittle hair up to 10x stronger. ♪ healthier hair. [ female announcer ] nature fusion from pantene. hair so healthy it shines.

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we're back on "politicsnation" to talk about a number. 76%. that's the number of americans who think this country's economic structure is out of balance. this country wants greater equality. but they are not going to find it in this gop party. not with willard mitt romney who is still pretending he's just a regular joe. >> public servants shouldn't get a better deal than the taxpayers they work for. taxpayers shouldn't have money taken out of their paychecks to pay people in government who are our servants, making more money than we are. >> making more money than we are, willard? i don't know too many public servants worth $250 million, or who will have photo-opes of

dollar bills stuffed in their suit. michele bachmann isn't the answer either. >> our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and do for themselves. self-reliance means if anyone will not work, neither should he eat. >> if you don't have work, you should starve. is that her vision of america? 76% think this country is out of balance. republicans aren't the answer. joining me now is howard dean, former governor of vermont and former chair of the democratic national committee. howard, you ran for president. is it just me or attacking public workers and the unemployed seem like a bad campaign strategy to you? >> it is a bad campaign strategy, and i think tonight in ohio are you likely to see the result of that. a very unpopular governor's anti working people's legislation will be overturned. look, republicans really are out

of touch. for michele bachmann to say what she said is -- is unfortunately representative of the republican party. you may recall there was a debate about health insurance not very long ago in front of a republican audience, and republicans cheered at the idea that someone was going to die because they didn't have health insurance. >> i also recall -- >> this is not what we call appealing to the majority of the american people. the majority of american people aren't like that. >> i recall mr. cain saying if people were -- not working or not rich it's their fault, paraphrasing, but that was his point. >> yeah. >> when you look at those kinds of statements, cain, or romney, leading contenders, or bachmann. and you look at the poll, the feeling of the american people, they didn't seem totally out of step with where americans are in terms of economic equality and how to deal with these issues. >> it's true. the problem is -- a lot of the problem has to do with the business community. and it's the business community

not always been the way they are today. they -- they were leading in several righ civil rights. leading in gay rights, women's rights. they promoted opportunity before the legislature -- state legislatures and congress made them do it. so they have a history of being socially progressive when they want to be. right now, they are not particularly, the wall street community. wall street, it's all about them. the credit default swaps, collateralized mortgage obligations, where nobody know who's owns what, homeowners take it on the chin. so they attack public employees. the other thing is, it's not true that public employees do better than similar job working people. that was a heritage foundation, a biased, right-wing foundation. truth is, their sample was very small, skewed, and their facts don't add up, not surprising. they are ideologically motivated rather than motivated by facts. that is the problem with the republican party. completely and totally out of touch with the american people.

and the polls show that's what most americans believe. >> i'm glad you made the point in which you said about some of the business community and how many have changed. because i was at zukati park today, and i talked to a lot of people in various parts of the progressive or the left, and people in general, they call themselves progressive, are not just -- not necessarily anti business. they feel a lot of them have become anti people. anti trying to make the system equal. and they act like they are attacking, they are responding to being attacked. >> i would say the wall street folks are the worst. some wall street people do a lot of things. are you familiar with jeff canon. funded with a lot of people from wall street. not everybody from wall street is a bad person. what they are doing for the economy is really bad. taking money, passing it around in paper when they should be investing it in real jobs and businesses that make things again.

and they haven't done that part of the is our tax code. part of it is the fact that we got rid of glass-steagall 20 years ago. these banks are too big to fail so we have to keep propping them up. we have to let hard work pay, and it is not paying very much for the people of ohio, who were voting tonight to overturn their -- their governor's -- >> we'll talk about ohio in the next segment. let me say this it's not just businessmen, it's also legislators, speaker boehner. let me show you what mr. boehner said about giving more tax reform and the 1% paying more of their share. >> we can create revenue out of fixing our tax code, and bring that revenue to the table as long as our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are serious about cutting spending. come on. the top 1% pay 38% of the income

taxes in america. how much more do you want them to pay? >> but, al, the top 1% own about half of the wealth of the country. if they are only paying 38%, they are not paying their share. the truth is, we were much better under bill clinton when everybody was paying more tax. much better under bill clinton. republicans came in, created enormous deficits, mostly by cutting taxes without cutting spending. that's why we have a problem. i'm not against cutting spending, but i'm against cutting spending against the middle class people if you let the people keep the ill gotten gains from the bush tax cuts, which were never paid for. >> you're right. under president clinton, taxes were raised. he talked about prosperity sharing and we created jobs. and he has a new book out talking about work now. i saw him on "morning joe." when you talk to him, tell him to come do evening al.

>> thank you for having me on. ground zero in the fight to protect workers' rights is in ohio tonight. why governor kasik's overreach could send shock waves through the republican party. approach to food is to keep it whole for better nutrition. and that's what they do with great grains cereal. see the seam on the wheat grain? same as on the flake. because great grains steams and bakes the actual whole grain. now check out the other guy's flake. hello, no seam. because it's more processed. now, which do you suppose has better nutrition for you? mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal.

herman cain denies all charges, but we heard earlier, a lawyer has a plan to get all the cain accusers together. you need to hear this one.

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welcome back to "politicsnation" on this election day. seven states are considering ballot initiatives today, and we're keeping a close eye on extreme pro posals in maine, mississippi, and ohio. in maine, voters are deciding whether to keep letting people register to vote on election day. maine's republican legislature voted to overturn that rule earlier this year. in mississippi, voters are determining if their state will become the 15th to put a voter i.d. law on the books. also in mississippi, they are voting on whether to change the definition of personhood. under the proposal, a fertilized egg would be considered a person. the law would ban abortions and may be used to ban birth control and some fertility treatments like ivf.

in ohio tonight, voters are deciding if they will up hold govern kasich's union busting l. that will impact the entire democratic party. hear to talk about that vote is gerald mcentee, the president of the union of state, county, and federal workers. a real champion for working people. what is at stake in ohio tonight, jerry? >> at stake in ohio is something called referendum two, created by kasich, when he went into office, he went into office on a platform of the creation of jobs, and everybody in ohio getting a job and building a better ohio. once he got in there, he just turned and he let the workers have it with a blockbuster, and passed a law to do away with

collective bargaining, so the workers would have no rights to negotiate a contract. no rights to talk about their wages, their benefits, their pensions. and so he got that passed real quick without anybody seeming to notice, and we've been fighting ever since, to get it repealed. and today, it's on the ballot. we have worked real hard, the people in ohio. the workers in ohio have worked real hard. >> now, the workers i understand, and eye been out there a couple of times as you know. 321,000 signatures required to put it on the ballot many you got 1,300,000. if a lot of them came out tonight to repeal it, won't that send a message across this country to other governors and state legislatures that people will not stand to lose collective bargaining for themselves public workers? >> we sure hope so, al. are you write about the million

signatures. we've had thousands of people volunteer today, from other states to go into ohio. and make this battle, make this struggle and we've had thousands of people from ohio knocking on doors, as volunteers. if we're able to win this battle in ohio, and i feel confident that we're going to do it, if we're able to do it, i think it will send a message to the governor in florida, for example, the governor in michigan, for example. the governor of wisconsin where we fought like hell to have it rolled back, dann near did it, and knocked two republican senators who have been around a long time out of office and we'll go after the governor, walker to knock him out of office, to get him -- get him booted the hell out of madison for what he tried to do and what he did do to workers in madison, wisconsin. it's going to be a good day. it's going to be a good day and

a good night. and we have 30, 35 minutes to go, al. >> let me ask you this, mr. mcentee. would you have to -- you've been wise, a prudent labor leader a long time. why are the republicans and the right wing going after the unions? is it their belief that workers should not have a voice in their own pension funds, wages? or is it the politics of breaking the unions because it's the organized body on the left side of the center and they want to break those that are opposed to them, or both? >> are you right on, al. it's both. we are part of -- we're not part, but we're usually lined up with the democratic party. because they speak for the middle class and they speak for the workers, so we're generally supporting people like obama and people in congress like pelosi

and reid and those kinds of folks. in addition to that we're also out there and the republicans and the state legislators and the governors don't like the fact that we're going to speak up for the people so that they get a decent wage and they get decent conditions and a decent pension, so it's both. and they are out to fight both with the koch brothers. they were involved in ohio in terms of buying ads and giving money. we have -- we have them nailed, the republicans in ohio with robocalls, telling people the polls will stay open for tomorrow. so you don't have to hustle out and get in line, but you can come out tomorrow and vote. that's an old richard nixon trick. >> a lot of misinformation going on. the polls open another 35 minutes in ohio. people can vote tonight, but tonight only if you haven't voted. gerald mcentee, thank you. >> get that vote out.

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breaking news tonight in the herman cain story. we have identified the woman known as accuser "a," in the sexual harassment controversy. she is karen kraushaar, currently a spokeswoman at the treasury department. she filed a complaint against mr. cain in 1999, when she left the national restaurant association. earlier in the show, i asked her lawyer, joel bennett, why she decided to come forward publicly. >> she had hoped to remain private and not become a public figure, but her name has come out today, she feels she has to

get the facts out there to justify her position and justify the complaint she made in 199 9. >> bennett says she plans to reach out to other women in the controversy for a joint press conference. >> my client is planning to come forward. we plan to contact the other women and try to have a joint press conference where the women will air their specific complaints. >> gloria allred, the attorney for the woman who came forward publicly, tells nbc news she would be willing to discuss the idea of a joint press conference. this afternoon, herman cain denied all accusations against him and claimed he would be willing to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence. we will continue watching this, because charges against one character is serious and charges against women being in any way inappropriately or