tv MSNBC Live MSNBC November 16, 2011 11:00am-12:00pm EST
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as we learn his alleged crimes against children could have gone back all the way to the '70s. and is occupy wall street more trouble than it's worth? questions about whether the movement needs to regroup saying that key occupy sites have become a magnet for criminals and sex offenders. and a series of missteps by the prun mrshl candidates. at least one republican saying the race has become a real reality show. another bombshell development in the penn state sex abuse scandal has arisen. investigators now believe five children from the fresh air fund may have stayed at jerry sandusky's home in the 1970s. that is a children's charity that takes inner city children and places them in country homes. this amid fresh disgust and outrage from the mom of one of the alleged victims reacting to the exclusive phone interview that sandusky gave to nbc in which he denied any wrongdoing.
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>> it sickened me that he would be on tv. >> do you think support his contention that he's just a jock playing with kids in the locker room? >> no, it's not games. it's a planned-out strategy to groom children to molest. >> meanwhile, a key witness in the case, mike mcqueary, is speaking out for the first time since hz grand jury testimony rocked the school's beloved football program. >> do you have any idea when you think you might be ready to talk? >> this process has to play out. i just don't have anything else to say. >> one last thing, describe your emotions right now? >> all over the place, just kind of shaken. >> crazy? >> crazy. >> you said, what, like a -- >> snowglobe. >> that was a brief interview there.
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however, the receives coach has circulated an e-mail to friends and a former classmate that he not only stopped assistant coach jerry sandusky's shower rape of a 10-year-old boy in 2002 but told police about it. that is a stark contrast to his grand jury testimony where he says he left distraught, told his dad what he saw and then called coach joe paterno the following day. nbc's national investigative correspondent michael isikoff is following the details for it from state college, pennsylvania. before we get to mcqueary, i want to talk more about these new things that are coming forward from the fresh air fund, this charity that would have placed inner city kids in the sandusky home. we know we got one confirmation that one child was there in the '90s yesterday. and now they're coming forward after review of their records to say that more kids were sent there in the '70s. >> reporter: right, thomas.ç they put out a statement -- fresh air fund put out a statement a little while ago saying that five children may have stayed at the sandusky home
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in the 1970s. that's in addition to the one in the mid 1990s that they've confirmed. all this shared with pennsylvania authorities. but just to keep this in perspective, thomas, there's no information that the fresh air fund says it has that any of these kids were abused. just that they had been placed and stayed at the sandusky home. so all this is being shared. but it does give a picture of just how wide-ranging this investigation has become and potentially how far back investigators are going to go in looking at these, going back to these kids in the 1970s. >> michael, let's get to what mike mcqueary is saying first in an e-mail and getting a sense of how he's feeling in that brief interview that he gave. do we have any idea why he's coming forward to contradict what we've all read in the grand jury report, what they returned?
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>> reporter: clearly mike mcqueary has come under a lot of criticism because of what was in that grand jury report, although he is in one sense the whistle-blower here, he's the first one to report it. he goes to joe paterno. he then goes to curley and schultz, the top university officials that have been charged in this case. but people have asked, if you saw a young boy being sexually assaulted in the shower of the locker room, why didn't you stop it at the time? so mike mcqueary is trying to defend himselfç here saying th he did stop it, although not physically. and how you parse that, i think a lot of people are going to be asking questions about. >> michael isikoff in state college, p.a., for us. thanks so much. my next guest has established himself as a national expert on child sex abuse cases.
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delaware attorney general beau biden joins me. he's also the son of vice president joe biden. nice to have you here this morning. i want to get your immediate thoughts on the fresh air fund. they are only reporting that they have shown that children may have traveled through the sandusky home. none of those children have come forward with any allegations. >> yeah, look, these are -- there are going to be facts developing in this case on a day-to-day basis. i'll leave it at that in dealing with the case in the capable hands of the attorney general up there and the entire law enforcement community up in pennsylvania just north of my state here in delaware. the focus should be what you led in with, thomas. i compliment you for it. that is the survivors, the survivors being the children and the parents of this tragedy, as is alleged by the grand jury indictment, as well as the millions -- literally millions of survivors that are listening out there today. as you know, thomas, 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before
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they're 18. 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before they're 18. only 1 in 10 ever report it and 9 out of the 10 of the perpetrators know or say they love the person they victimized. this is not a new problem. this is national in scope. and we have to figure out ways as a nation to prevent and protect children better.ç children -- it's not a child's responsibility to protect themselves. it's an adult's responsibility. here in delaware, we're focused on mandatory reporting requirements that go a long way to enforce citizens to do the right thing. some of these things are sometimes incredible to believe actually are happening, whether you see a bruise or you see a child being raped in a shower. sometimes we as citizens don't want to believe people are capable of this. but in delaware, the law requires you to report it. if you just simply have a good-faith belief to believe a child is being abused, if you
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see a bruise or -- and that's, i hope, one of the things that will come out of all the coverage of this tragedy up at -- >> he's now contradicting the grand jury report, do you think this key witness, the person that is deemed to be the whistle-blower, someone that witnessed this firsthand and did report it, do you think that, though, he is now jeopardizing what could be a lock-solid case to bring justice to these survivo survivors, to bring justice to the parents whose children were abused? should he be talking to the media and sending e-mails to friends? >> look, i'll speak for myself. when we have cases in delaware -- and we've prosecuted big cases and any case involving a child is a big case, regardless of how many victims these pedophiles prey on. what we recommend that our key witnesses do is only talk to us and speak at a courtroom or in a grand jury. that's what we recommend that our witnesses do.ç
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i think -- i bet that's what they're recommending their key witnesses up in pennsylvania to do. look, they have their hands full in terms of investigating this. the reality, thomas, as you know, is that someone just doesn't wake up at 35, 40, 50, 60 years old and decide to be a pedophile. that's been my experience in our state, you see a number of people come forward after we arrest someone for an abuse of a child because too often there are many, many other survivors that stand behind the person that first comes forward. >> delaware attorney general beau biden, sir, nice to have you on this morning. we look forward to having you back on as we learn more about this case. >> thomas, can i send your listeners to one site that goes a long way to protect people? that's a website called darknesstolight.org. it's an organization like some others out there dedicated to teaching and helping prevent child abuse and neglected
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children. the key takeaway from that website is that one-on-one situations between an adult and a child should never happen. any parent out there needs to go and make sure that these wonderful places where they entrust their kids in the summer or during the school year, whether it be a school a scouting event, a church-related event or a sporting event, any place where you go to take your child, you should ensure yourself and expect that there's never a situation where an adult is alone with a child. it will go a long way to preventing abuse and ne glek gld rape of children if everyone followed that basic rule.ç >> darknesstolight.org. thanks so much, sir. one week to go before the super committee has to agree on $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. not a breath of a deal in sight.
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john boehner and harry reid met for what's described as a gut check. democrats fear the panel will cut cherished social programs while programs want any tax increase off the table. so far the battle lines are drawn and neither side appears to be crossing them. drivers of our debt crisis are medicare, medicaid and health care spending, nothing else comes close. but the democrats won't put a plan on the table to solve the problem in anything they do that even remotely addresses health care, even superficially, they're insisting upon a $1 trillion tax increase on the worst economy since the great depression, it's not going to happen. >> i'm joined by the chair of the democratic national committee. let's get to it. the stalemate, doesn't seem like it's going to be breaking before this deadline. in your estimation, what needs to happen to reach this deal? >> well, thomas, i'm a "glass is
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half full" kind of person. i believe a committee of willing members that make up the super committee could and should sit down and agree on a proposal that balances responsible spending cuts with asking the wealthiest, most fortunate americans to pay their fair share, many of whom -- most of whom are not paying their fair share now. andç balance our deficit reduction solution with revenue from the wealthiest, most fortunate americans and responsible spending cuts. if we can get agreements on that, which should be simpler than it seems to be and we get republicans to stop with the "my way or the highway" approach to this problem, we could get there. >> when we talk about the fact that this is a powerful 12-member panel, we were willing to join up to be on this super committee, it doesn't mean that they were willing to walk out of this with some type of deal, though. >> unfortunately, i heard the
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co-chair, the republican co-chair of this panel said unequivocally that there isn't going to be one penny of tax increases coming out of the committee. how do you begin a negotiation and a development of a proposal to reach a solution on a problem as significant as deficit reduction by starting with something that says unequivocally, one thing is completely off the table? we have to work together. we have to coming to and compromise. that's what the american people want us to do. we need to reduce our deficit in a way that doesn't pile all the pain on the backs of the middle class and working families through exclusive spending cuts. and absolutely the wealthiest, most fortunate americans can pay more. they have a tax rate that is too low and we need to balance this proposal with revenue and cuts. >> i want to see on wednesday if we can rebook you a week from now and make sure that that glass is still half full. and see where we get. i want to switch quickly, though, and talk about your good
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friend, congresswoman gabi giffords. a lot of us got to catch up with her and her husband when she gave an interview to abc's diane sawyer.ç she also posted a message to her constituents about this new book that she has out that she wants to get back to work. however, in the book that i talk about, her husband, mark kelly, criticizes house speaker john boehner for deciding not to visit giffords. is that criticism justified? he certainly sent well wishes through the air waves. but is that a justifiable criticism that he didn't come see her? >> that's a personal comment that was the opinion of mark. that's not for me to comment. that's a very personal thing and obviously mark was quite affected by it, understandably so. but gabi is doing great. i had a chance to fly to houston last week and have dinner with her last monday night. she's doing amazingly well.
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she's beginning to initiate more speech now. that facebook message you talked about, she did a robo-call to her constituents and spoke that message. and her voice is so strong and she's confident. and she's working so hard. and we're all just really looking forward to continuing to see her progress. i know how much i hope that she can come back and continue to do the job that she loves and that her constituents elected her to do. >> in your professional opinion, then, do you think speaker borne should have gone to see gabi giffords, then? >> that is not a question that is the subject of my professional opinion. >> very good. still glass half full. i like this. >> thomas, can i just add on the previous interview for penn state, i actually -- vice president biden when he was a senator and i sponsored legislation called "the protect our children act," which is designed toç beef up the law enforcement resources that we have, particularly with internet crimes against children and going after child sexual
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predators. it's really important that we -- that parents get themselves educated about stranger danger, not just on the street because most parents do that very well. they have to make sure that they talk to their children about the appropriateness of the kind of interaction that they have with adults, whether it's in person with someone they know or whether it's online with someone they don't know, but educating children and parents about the kind of interaction that they should have with adults is very, very important. that's what every parent should learn. >> i could not agree with you more. congresswoman, great to see you today. we'll try to rebook you for next wednesday. >> look forward to it. >> thanks so much. i want to move on, we are following this breaking news out of southern ohio. a gas line has exploded. as you can see by this cell phone video just in to msnbc, flames are shooting hundreds of feet into the air there. you can see it over the treetop.
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tennessee gas papeline is sending crews to the site. there are no immediate reports of injuries on this one. we'll keep our eye on that. . did you hear sam... ...got promoted to director? so 12 seconds ago. we should get him a present. thanks for the gift basket. you're welcome. you're welcome. did you see hr just sent out new... ...office rules? cause you're currently in violation of 6 of them. oh yeah, baby? ...and 7. did you guys hear that fred is leaving? so 30 seconds ago. [ noisemakers blow ] [ both ] we'll miss you! oh, facecake! there's some leftover cake. [ male announcer ] the new htc vivid. stay a step ahead with at&t 4g lte, with speeds up to 10x faster than 3g. ♪ and with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i love 'em even more. i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that's 1% back on... [ toy robot sounds ] 2% on pumpkin pie. and apple. 3% back on 4 trips to the airport. it's as easy as 1...
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now to the escalating situation in syria that we led the show with. msnbc news has learned that supporters of syrian president bashar al assad are attacking three cities. it comes after the arab league suspended syria's member over the government's deadly crackdown on the civilian uprising there. earlier today, syria's rebel army reportedly killed at least eight regime troops at a checkpoint and launched attacks an president assad's military at the capital. we'll bring you the developments as soon as we get them.
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republicans see the qs(loy president's handling of the economy as a weakness they can exploit all the way to a gop race next november. but they're getting too used to these moments on the campaign trail. take a look. >> it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone -- commerce, education and the -- what's the third one there? >> what i love about new hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty. you're the state where the shot was heard around the world at lexington and concord. >> when they asked me what's the president of -- i'm going to say, i don't know. >> e.j., nice to see you this morning. i think for a lot of people when people think these slip-ups are
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over, cain asked henry kissinger to be his secretary of state. take a listen to this. >> dr. kissinger turned my offer down to be secretary of state. he said he's perfectly happy doing what he's doing. >> did you ask dr. kissinger to be your secretary of state? >> no, i did not. dr. kissinger has retired and i expect that. i was not serious about asking him -- i know he's retired. >> have you ever seen anything like this month after month? and what do you think that republican voters watching at home think when they try to evaluate this current crop of candidates? >> well, they are clearly not happy. i've been thinking the democrats actually want to put up money to have a republican debate every other day just to have something like this go wrong.ç but there is actually a peculiar downside for the democrats in all this. i think president obama would like a republican primary where mitt romney, if he is going to emerge as the nominee, gets roughed up a little bit.
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and each of romney's potential adversaries make some mistake, that becomes the central part of the news. and they're not out there with a lot of credibility to beat up on romney. i think overall it's a downer for republicans. republicans keep switching around from candidates, those who aren't for romney because they're desperate to find somebody who might be able to stand up to him. but in the meantime, romney just goes right through without being subject to much attack. >> there is a growing belief that romney gets to distance himself from all the gaffe-prone other candidates. now we see that newt gingrich is reemerging as this alternative, what is old is newt again, followed immediately by details of his consulting, though, and admitting to consulting for freddie mac. he talked about it, though, this morning. listen. >> first of all, it wasn't paid to me. gingrich group was a consulting firm that had lots of people doing things. we offered strategic advice.
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>> is the $1.6 million figure correct? >> i don't know, we're going back to check. >> sounds like more than a historian's salary? >> i don't know. i was speaker of the house. >> right now, can he stand this added pressure? >> first of all, every historian in america would like to be paid as much as newt gingrich apparently was paid for his consulting< i think there's going to be a lot of stuff that comes out about newt. i think as a candidate, he has a tendency to way overstate his criticisms that might hurt him in a general election and might actually helping him in a republican primary. but i think he is the guy who is the best debater. and since the rest of them have fallen out on the debate front, he tends not to misspeak quite as much. and so the bar is pretty low. what i really think you're seeing is about half of the
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republicans who just can't find their way to romney. if you see how well, relatively speaking, he's performed in these debates, you would have thought he'd be going up more. instead, when one of these other candidates fail, their supporters move to another non-romney. i still think there's room for another non-romney to get into this race, especially if romney loses an important contest, because i don't think the republicans really want one of these alternatives to be their nominee. but they just can't yet get to romney. >> e.j., thank you so much. good to see you this morning. >> good to be with you. a bullet hits the white house, a window there. who fired the shots and why? we'll bring you the very latest on the investigation. plus, is the occupy wall street movement in desperate need of a makeover? after questions of sanitation, drug overdoses and assaults. we'll talk to the author, naomi wolf, about what the protesters can do to regroup. what's better than gold ?
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welcome back to msnbc. i'm thomas roberts. here's a look at some other stories topping the news now. the secret service is investigating a bullet that hit a white house window. two rounds of ammunition were found and officials are trying to determine if this is connected to friday's reports of nearby gunfire and recovery of a rifle. let's bring in nbc justice correspondent pete williams. he joins us from washington. what's the latest on the story and the possibility of theseç suspects from friday? >> reporter: the shots were fired -- they're looking into, were fired from a moving car on friday night from constitution avenue, about a half to a third of a mile south of the white house, about seven or eight football fields away. nobody was hurt, the president was out of-team town. but the police found the car. the rifle was left behind. authorities shayuth chased it to
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a drifter who's from idaho falls, oscar ortega hernandez. there's a warrant out for his capture. now the secret service has said that two bullet rounds hit the white house, all the windows in the white house have bullet-resistant glass. but the outer historic glass was broken. they're testing now to see if the rounds they found in the white house came out of the rifle they recovered friday night. >> when we talk about where on the white house this was, like what sector of the property did this happen? >> reporter: remember, the shots were fired from the south side, so it's somewhere on the south side of the white house. not in a very obvious place, because it took them three days to find it. so the shooting was friday night. they didn't find the rounds or discover the broken window until tuesday morning. >> nbc's pete williams in washington, pete, nice to see you this morning. thank you, sir. citigroup is making plans to cut about 1% of its global workforce or 3,000 people.
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the bank has begun to notify some of the employees who will soon be out of work. the exact number and the timing has not been finalized. the cost of your grande latte might be going up soon. starbucks raised the priceç on some coffee drinks in some regions including the seattle area. but there is good news for you. starbucks lowered prices on some of their other drinks. mike mcqueary appears to change his story saying not only did he call police or speak to police, but he stopped sandusky in the middle of a child rape. now is his credibility damaged by saying one thing and now saying another. and one week before the super committee has to make the drastic cuts for the nation, what happens if they don't meet their deadline? what will be on the chopping block? an the last? how about making it brighter. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work? so we can build on our favorite traditions by adding a few new ones.
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i think it's pathetic, it's horrible. it's atrocious what took place. if it is true, that these children were victimized, then he himself and anybody who allowed what he did to go on, they should be the one to suffer. >> that was former alaska governor sarah palin weighing in on what she thinks should happen to accused child molester jerry sandusky. one subject under heavy debate in the sex abuse scandal is whether or not current assistant coach mike mcqueary is a whistle-blower and if so, is his job prektd by law? but in light of a recent e-mail and comments he made, his grand jury testimony could now be in question. fbi agent jane turner blew the whistle on agents for moving ground zero artifacts in 2002. jane, good morning. nice to have you here. i want to get your reaction, your thoughts on how damaging is
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it for mcqueary to be out there contradicting his own grand jury testimony when he is such a key witness in what could be such a pivotal case to so many survivors? >> it's a question most people have this morning. when he went to his coach and advised his coach, mr. paterno, about what had happened, the label of çwhistle-blower attacs to him, to mr. mcqueary. he went on and even told further up the chain. now you have a passage of time that takes place. if there was a quid pro quo tra transfer, say he took a coaching job and they asked him not to say anything, he loses the whistle-blower identification. but then, again, he went to grand jury and he provided the truth to grand jury. the whistle-blower
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identification attaches again. people may question, wait a second, he's coming out with different details than he did before. but they may not necessarily contradict one another. we don't know if he turned around, left the room and made noise outside, forcing sandusky and this poor child to interrupt and leave. we don't know what his whole story is. we don't know exactly who he told. >> jane, wouldn't the grand jury have asked him these very pivotal, important questions when one of the things that he is saying that he witnessed was the fact that this child was being sodomized by a grown man? >> correct. and you can see that in the grand jury report that came out. but that is not all of the grand jury record, the stuff that has become public. that's what we don't know is the rest of the story. i know in my case when i brought the malfeasance and misconduct
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investigating child abuse cases on native american indian country in north dakota, it went all the way up to the desk of director mueller.ç director mueller had the paperwork on his desk to fire me. i had senator leahy and senator grassley to back me up. we don't know what happened to mr. mcqueary. we don't know what threats were leveled against him. we don't know his story at this point. he could have taken it a lot higher. he did not have senator leahy or senator grassley to protect him, obviously. they're known as whistle-blowers. we see this phenomenon taking its course at the national whistle-blower center. only 2% of employees blow the whistle on misconduct. and do you know why that is, thomas? >> why? >> because 98% see what happens
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to a whistle-blower. they get destroyed. in my case, i was run out of the bureau. and every day i thought, at some point somebody's going to walk in and say, you did a good job, you did a fabulous job, you exposed this, you protected these indian children in indian country. and you know what, thomas? it never happened. it never happened. they were more interested in protecting the reputation of the fbi. >> well, i think that we're seeing something like this -- the same scenario, more in favor of trying to protect this money-making cash cow called their football program. jane, we have to run. thanks for joining me today. >> thank you, thomas. hundreds of cheering occupy wall street protesters are back in new york's zuccotti park today after police literally threw them out duringç a preda raid yesterday to clear space for sanitation crews. protesters were allowed back in late last night but allowed to just bring one small bag. tents and sleeping bags, no
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longer allowed. in seattle, a violent clash with police ended in hospital visits and pepper spraying. a pregnant woman and a priest were among the people sprayed by the cops. a protest in berkeley was punctuated by a shooting. police shot a man after he pulled out a gun at a campus computer lab. the suspect is alive. police are investigating whether he has ties to the occupy movement. in london, eviction notices have been attached to tents on the road close to st. paul's cathedral. if protesters don't leave by tomorrow afternoon, london's high court will now intervene. these crackdowns, these incidents raising new questions about whether the occupy movement is in need of rebranding. i'm joined now by naomi wolf, political activist and author of "give me liberty." she was also recently arrested herself in an occupy wall street protest. naomi, what do you make of the notion that occupy wall street is more trouble than it's worth? >> i would like to know who's coming up with that?
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what's amazes me about the framing of the question is we're asking, is the occupy movement is need of rebranding after a violent, coordinated crackdown against americans' right to free assembly guaranteed in the constitution, instead of asking, maybe is homeland security, which was behind a coordinated conference call with 18 mayors in advance of these mass crackdowns in need of rebranding to get it in line with the constitution. >> tomorrow will be two months they were in zuccotti park. two months of people living there in tents with blankets. you've been there. it's not sanitary. some things needed to be straightened up in there< obviously, this was an effort to get them out to clean it up and possibly an effort to make them leave for good. >> certainly. >> now they're not allowed to come back with sleeping bags, not allowed to come back with tents or with blankets. do you think that now -- 59% of americans support the goals of the occupy movement. and it's not up to mayor bloomberg.
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the first amendment guarantees freedom of assembly to guarantee rights. the first amendment rights of these people is more important, it supersedes municipal laws and violations. it's not up to us to say, we don't like them. the first amendment guarantees their right to be there. it's not up to mayor bloomberg. >> they have a right to be there. and they've been there for the last two months. and there are still people there. but they're regrouping to figure out how they can remain collected and vibrant within the news and they're not having a home base, say, of zuccotti park right now. while we see these other movements taking place, as we just demonstrated within london, that are taking place in california, obviously it's not just focused on zuccotti park but the major birth of this was at zuccotti park. where do they go now? >> they're going to zuccotti park. what's interesting to me about the bogus statement by bloomberg that this was a safety issue --
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when they threatened us that if we were re-arrested, they said they have the right to violate any law because safety issues trump anything. i said what keeps anything from being called a safety issue?ç and the police chief agreed that that was right. what i think is clear is that the problem, the disruption is wall street being unregulated. massive differences between rich and poor, people being excluded from the political process. people being silenced. and dhs organizing a coordinated conference call among 18 mayors across the nation which is in violation of our municipal rights, a federal agency stepping in on local policing? that suspends our system. that's not democracy in action. i think that should be very, very concerning. that's what the media should be investigating. >> is it distracted by the other stuff and the occupy wall
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streeters lose what the focus of their message originally is? >> look, you are on to something that -- i've been having a back and forth all morning with the occupy people because i keep saying to them, go on the air. bbc asked me to get one. your produce you are has been in contact with me. all these media contacts are like, where are the protesters? because they're leaderless, you can have spokespersons and surrogates but you need to get their voices out there. i'm working on it. you're going to see them soon. but they do need to step up to the plate and explain to you why they're there. you'll see they represent the mainstream of american society there. moms, former military, current military, retired police officers. they're working people. they are ordinary people who get it, that their country has been taken away from them. what they're doing is very american. i brought my ben franklin to zuccotti park yesterday because he was the original civil rights activist.ç
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he says you have to go out and disrupt peacefully. >> naomi wolf, nice to have you here. >> thank you, thomas. >> hopefully you can bring us one of those -- >> i'd love to. justin bieber won't be taking a paternity test. the california woman who claimed he was her baby's father dropped that lawsuit last week. the gossip site reported that her attorney quit the case. a bluetooth connection, a stolen-vehicle locator, roadside assistance, and something that could help save your life -- automatic help in a crash. it's the technology of five devices in one hardworking mirror. because life happens while you drive. for a limited time, get an onstar fmv mirror for only $199 after a $100 off. visit onstar.com for retailers.
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the vote compared to just 43% for senator john mccain. i'm joined by jen sachi and sherry jacovis. what is it going to take women to get back to the voting booth come 2012 and why might support be less than what it was in '08 for president obama? >> well, we're in the early stages of the presidential race here, as you know. but what's important is that every election is a choice. we have not even begun to peel back the onion of the republican platform on women's issues. leading republicans in the field, including mitt romney, support the personhood amendment, which is the most extreme attack on a woman's right to choose in a generation. you can also look no farther than friday when republicans in congress are going to vote on a balanced budget amendment, an issue that republicans running for president support. that means a gut to key programs
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that are important to women and children across the country, like medicaid. i think we haven't begun to have this conversation yet about what the candidates present for women. and we're looking forward to having that next year. >> among all republican % mitt romney reportedly getting the largest share of support from the women's voting bloc. the herman cain sexual harassment scandal likely to be helping push those in your opinions up. a new poll is showing support from women for herman cain has dropped from 28% in october to just 15% currently. if this trend continues, how much does that help to bolster romney as the lock, as the nominee for the gop? >> i think romney's going to do well on his own merits. i don't think that he necessarily needs to be affected by the herman cain numbers. romney is good on the fiscal issues. and women do not need to be condescended to. we're more than 50% of the population. here's the thing where obama is really hurting. the fastest-growing demographic
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is unmarried women in this country. they represent more than a quarter of the voting population. obama won them by 70% in 2008. married women broke for john mccain. but in the 2010 elections, democrats only got 57% of the got only 57% of the unmarried woman vote. women need jobs. they care about the economy. we don't have to be off to a separate group and talked to by the first lady. that's nice, but we don't need that. we are disappointed in the president. that's what's happened. we have been lied to. if you ever disappointed a woman, thomas, you know how hard it is to regain her trust. we were told unemployment would be under 8%. trillions of dollars on the stimulus package. we were told there would be projects to create jobs that didn't happen. when a guy is at 9% unemployment we don't trust him. that's a problem for the president. >> the most important woman i'm disappointing is my executive producer so who says i need to be quicker. jen, do you agree?
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>> iç completely disagree with sherry. i don't know which women she's talking about but the majority of women support the president's platform and the issues he's fought for. if you talk specifically about the economy because of the president's policies, millions more women will have access to affordable health care. millions of more children will be able to go to schools and programs like head start. millions more people have jobs that didn't have jobs when the president took office. you know, this is a debate we should have about key issues. i completely agree with that and think the economy is the central focus of next year. >> right. >> let's be honest about what the different candidates are presenting and what it means for families and women and children. specifically single women. >> great to see you, ladies. we'll be right back after this. in america, we believe in a future
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welcome back. with members of the occupy wall street movement identifying themselves as the 99% it leaves the question -- who makes up the 1%? billionaire bankers, well known ceos. what about 1 percenters who don't know they fall into that category? some americans are unaware they do. the flip side looks at unexpected one percenters. first up 57 members of congress who fall into the top 1% of wage earners. nancy pelosi supports the occupy movement. next in hollywood where film maker michael moore, alec baldwin, russell simmons have all voiced their separate support for the movements yet they are among the elite 1%. it's good to know the occupy wall streeters have friends in high places. that does it for me today. i appreciate your time.
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see you tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. until then follow me on twitter. @thomasaroberts. alex, what'sç next? >> hey, thomas. thanks. is president obama obsessed with mitt romney? also, rick perry's hail mary plan to overhaul d.c. and profiting from politics. are the rule it is same for wall street as they are for washington? i'll be joined by hard ford, jr., alicia menendez, jed die i can't bila and wes more next on "now." year ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card - "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪
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