herman cain style. herman cain has figured out who leaked the cain sexual harassment story. cain laid it out to a friendly reporter at "forbes" magazine. the reporter was the author of this article last week -- "why herman cain has the potential to win." the story of intrigue and betrayal that cain told forbes began when herman cain is running for the united states senate in georgia. in the summer of 2003, cain recalls briefing anderson that sexual harassment claims were brought against him while he was chairman of the national restaurant association from 1996 to 1999. i told my wife about this in 1999 and i've got nothing to hide cain told me wednesday. when i sat down with my general campaign consultant kurt anderson in a private room in our campaign offices in 2003, we discussed opposition research on me. i told him that there was only one case, one set of charges, one woman, while i was at the national restaurant association. i don't recall anyone else being in the room when i told him." only one woman. talk about making a campaign consultant's day. only one woman. when'

cain just chill out.ow it came about, don't accuse somebody unless you know it for sure. you don't want to be accused of something based on innuendo or suspicion. if you really don't know the young man did this, you shouldn't say it. you can suspect it, i suppose, but obviously somebody leaked this with herman's best interests not in mind. this is a political deal. this came out because of political reasons. and it could have been a lot of people. >> you twice have made the point he needs to chill out. do you get the sense that he has the right group, the experienced group, the measure, the calm group around him? a presidential level campaign team that will help him get through this? >> i think he's behaving like an average person would, who feels like they're turning my life upside down. this happened 12 years ago. it was settled. i did not wrong. and i think he's, you know, taken back by it all. but they'll get better at this, because it does come with the job. and as you know, somebody leaked this stor

first, women accuse cain. cain accuses perry. perry accuses romney. liberals. liberals say, party! we love this stuff. and the fingerpointing gets worse. seriously. breaking news at this hour. we just find out the "washington times" reports the following. a friend of the cain campaign believes a national restaurant association employee out of the chicago office leaked the story to the perry campaign via information and influence from mayor rahm emanuel's office. we will continue to update the ed flowchart as developments warrant. i mean, everybody's coming onboard here, martin. great to have you with us tonight. what do you make of this circus? >> well, it's herman the hunter becomes herman the haunted. haunted by allegations not from one, not from two, but reportedly from three different women. and these allegations against a man who said the following -- that we should have a mote with alligators in that will repel illegal immigrants. the blacks have been brainwashed into voting democratic. that the unemployed should blame themselves for the fact th

are sticking by cain.m, which of course is always convenient when things aren't going your way. any way, here's the question. should, not will allegations of sexual harassment more than 12 years ago cost herman cain his run for the white house? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog or go to our facebook page. wolf? >> when ever you have a combination of politics and any inkling of sex, you know that's going to generate a huge amount of interest in the political community, the journalistic community. this story isn't going to go away for some time. you and i have covered these stories for a long time. >> arguably, this is the most interesting thing that's happened since the republican contest began. it was a pretty big yawn up until now. at least it's put a little electricity in the deal. >> a lot of electricity, too much for herman cain. the pressure on him is enormous. thank you. >>> a fresh drum beat of alarm for the so-called super committee of lawmakers. the nation's top military off

the bottom line is it's a disaster for herman cain. >> tonight we asked cain if he believes race hasplayed a role in the way this story has emerged. let's listen to the answer. >> relative to the left, i believe that race is a bigger driving factor. i don't think it's a driving factor on the right. this is just based upon our speculation. >> john nicholls, what did he just say? >> well, he's spinning the now quite popular lie on the right that somehow conservatives are dramatically more racially sensitive than liberals. polls and vote totals show african-americans think differently. the key thing here is this attempt by cain even now to suggest that barack obama or progressives would have some reasons to bring this story out now. in fact, i think barack obama and most progressives have been very much enjoying the rise of her herman cain as a political figure and the effect it's had on the republican primary fight. really he's trying to spin it away from an examination of who the likely source of this story is. of course, when you think about the fact that you've got a lobbying organi

>> this is cain versus cain.one else attacking herman cain, this is herman cain a front-runner in the republican party and he coming unscrutiny from the media and candidates trying to beat him at the polls. i think herman cain should have got in front of the story, he should have been prepared for the questions and he should have, you know, pretty much put out the facts and stuck with them. >> billie tucker makes an important point she does not see fallout at the moment. the baseline by which key can judge this. a new florida university pop conducted by suffolk university, excuse me. choice of republicans for president among florida voters, mitt romney, 25%, herman cain, 24%, gingrich ate 11, governor perry at 9, paul at 5, huntsman at 2%. herman cain in a statistical tie right now in your state of florida, billie. this poll was taken before these allegations hit the newspapers and hit the television show. so it's a good baseline. we'll back in a week, two weeks and see if mr. cain's going up or down. what do you

cain? >> beyond what's in the statement -- sorry. beyond what's in the statement she has decided not to relive the specifics of the incident. so can i not give any further details. >> reporter: is that because she is not able to do so because she's limited by the confidentiality agreement? or is that because she's made a decision that she doesn't want to but could if she wanted to? >> the latter. she's made a decision that she does not want to do that. >>. >> excuse me? >> is the group going to lift the nondisclosure? >> we have not asked them to lift it beyond making this statement. >> reporter: how long did the actions -- >> i don't remember the exact time period of the incidents, but it was over a period of time of at least a month or two as i recall. >> reporter: can you tell us the extent to which you were in consultation with the cain campaign? >> zero. >> reporter: how many incidents are you talking about? >> more than one. we're not going to get more specific than that. we resolved

the cain campaign is calling on rick perry to apologize to cain and to the american people. third woman came forward today anonymously to the "associated press." with alleged complaints about sexual harassment allegation from cain. tonight, shannon bream looks it how sexual harassment claim are big business and headaches for business. >> the types of claims are cost of doing business. some legitimate, some not. >> the equal employment committee handled 12,000 sexual harassment complaint in 2010 but that is estimated to be a small fraction of claims they handled internally, rather than to any formal legal adjudication. they often give a pay-out with or without any acknowledgment of wrongdoing. >> it saves a lot of headaches and those decisions are made every day. they don't indicate wrongdoing took place. >> reporter: while each have different terms almost all have a major thing in common. >> 99.9% of the agree it it would have a confidentiality agreement. where the parties agree not to disclose terms of the settlement. what has been paid. whether the complain nant had to lei

cain in the interview?in d.c. and i'm in atlanta. i asked my team, see what he looks like. is he in a bad mood, a good mood, but the herman cain the voters and viewers needed to know was the guy who came in this morning ready to answer questions. i take it he was really ready to do some damage control. maybe we got answers on some things, but i feel we still have a lot of questions that did not get answered. for one, you know, his memory, he said, got better as the day wore on yesterday. maybe it got better today, too, when he said, i remember some items, some other items in that complaint that were so ridiculous. notice i cut him off and said, like what? what do you remember? and all of the sudden he said, i don't remember what they were, they were so ridiculous. he's known as a straight shooter, but when you leave things unanswered or it looks like your story has changed, the viewer may have doubts or questions about is the guy known as a straight shooter being straight still after 24 to 48 hours into it.

but herman cain is no bill clinton.agazine columnist joe klein who has a piece on the latest issue in the stands right now and melissa harris-perry a professor at tulane university and msnbc contributor. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> absolutely. >> joe klein, how much deja vu are you feeling here between the clinton and cain situation? >> absolutely none. although i'm feeling a bit nostalgic. as herman cain may say it is apples and freight trains. it is, in the clinton case, it was an act, several many, multiple acts of consensual sex. it was always consensual. in herman cain's case they had to pay two women to shut up. you know, it was a form of sexual harassment. now i think all of these things are overblown. i think this, given all of herman cain's other sins and almost near total ignorance is a drop in the bucket, but i think that in the end -- by the way, the real story of the gennifer flowers thing was that it with wasn't hurting clinton in the polls at all. what happened within i think eight days to t

was politico tipped off to the story by one of cain's rivals, as a cain rival as some including cain himself seems to be suggesting? >> and jonathan was on message last night, anderson. i'll tell you why i think it's important. this is a sensitive story. we haven't been reporting on innuendo or things we think we know and so in the public comments we have tried to stick very closely what was within the published story and edited pretty extensive and comfortable with it and i'm trying not to go beyond that. i will say the question of motive to me, anderson, is pretty secondary to the question of facts. everybody or anybody, rather, who speaks to a reporter at any time on any subject presumably has some motive for doing so. what's important is not the motive but the facts. politico's two main facts in that initial story, one, that there had been complaints. two, that those complaints had been settled or agreements reached, to use mr. cain's phrase and both those things have been validated by mr. cain himself as true and accurate. >> so you won't say one way or another whether or not an

happening now, herman cain. he's getting ready to speak out about new allegations of sexual harassment. we're standing by for a news conference by the embattled republican presidential candidate. also, a chilling new assessment of iran's nuclear capabilities. an atomic web is believed to be b in its reach. plus, the embarrassing conversation between president obama and the french president picked up on open microphone. what they said about benjamin netanyahu when they thought no netanyahu when they thought no one was listening. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> all eyes on herman cain right now. in one hour, the republican presidential candidate will speak out about the latest allegations of sexual harassment dogging his campaign. he's scheduled a news conference that we'll bring you live at the top of the next hour. it comes one day after a fourth woman said he groped her. we're also revealing details about one of the other accusers. jim acosta is following this for us. >> wolf, herman cain's campaign i

to gloria cain. joining me now editorial writer for the "washington post" and msnbc contributor johnathon cape hart and thank you for joining me, goldie, we were all glued to the local atlanta television news broadcast this evening where these accusations unfolded. what it is like in atlanta with the local media since this is where it all broke. >> first it is incredibly quiet. i ironically start mid career at that station almost 25 years ago. dale russell, the report who are broke the story, he's the kind of guy i would rather have the cia walking up my driveway than to see dale russell come ooen and see me. when he comes he has his facts and that's the truth of the matter. out is quiet here in atlanta. you know, at some point, and we have been saying this for a long time, herman cain was never going to be the republican nominee. he was never going to be the president of the united states and the question was, when was he going to take the midnight train home to georgia and i have to imagine he is p

politico delivers the deep dish on herman cain. does the candidate finally have his arms around this story? he's moving a lot. we have a lot to talk about. this is "the ed show." let's go work. >> i have never sexually harassed anyone. >> herman cain's reaction to the politico bombshell keeps evolving. >> we have no idea the source of this witch hunt. >> tonight, ken vogel of politico is here to defend his reporting. >>> meanwhile, the cain campaign can't get their story straight. right wingers are attacking liberals and herman cain is playing the clarence thomas card. steve kornacki, joan walsh on the fallout. >>> 99%ers protest eric cantor. elsewhere the occupy oakland talk of a general strike is getting louder. we'll ask labor strategist steven learner where all of this is headed. >>> in iowa, the aftermath of corporate greed. i'll talk about my trip to newton, iowa, on saturday, after whirlpool announced their latest rounds of layoffs. >>> and the muffin man's rant is debunked. >> i want to taste that muffin. know why? because

herman cain's performance thus far.r john huntsman to display expertise on china and really e vis rate mr. cain's limitations in this forth coming debate? do you think that's what's going to happen? >> i don't think you will see john huntsman being in the debate because he hasn't been so far as all. what i think we will see is mitt romney continuing to push forward. he had a good speech today and as we talk about what may or may not happen with herman and any involvement with rick perry. for mitt romney, he was able to sit back and focus on jobs and look presidential. i is up will see him do that next week too. >> isn't he is the luckiest guy in the world? he doesn't make mistakes and is not charismatic and stays about the same and goes up in the polls and everyone else is imploding around him. >> they really don't want him. 3/4 of the base do not want him. he did make one when he came out and flip flopped on the ohio law on tuesday. by then we know the results and which way that goes will depend on whether he benefits

cain and he got her upset? >> i believe she contacted me when the politico story first broke. >> so she -- so you're saying she wasn't contacted directly by politico or she -- >> i don't know how that happened. my understanding is a present or former board member of the national restaurant association leaked the story to politico. >> a member of -- >> i'm sorry. you said -- you said that's your understanding. how do you have that understanding? where did you hear that? >> i don't recall how i heard that but that's my understanding of how the story originally got on politico. >> was it in any sense from your point of view a smear effort against him? >> i'm not in the position to judge that as i've stated previously. my client's allegations were made in good faith-based upon actual events. >> mr. bennett -- >> does your client have any political affiliation? is she part of the obama administration? is she an active politically and democrat, republican, anything like that? >> i have no knowledge that she's active

cain says the charges are absolutely and unequivocally falls. >> cain drew a defense from carol markowitz in the new york post this week. markowitz moved to georgia seven years ago and worked on the cain 2004 campaign for the u.s. senate. markowitz wrote this week -- and defend evidence cain as extremely professional and fair to female staffers at the restaurant association. question, is the cain campaign getting unusually tough execute are scrutiny or is this treatment standard for a front- runner? pat buchanan? >> no, it's getting unusual treatment because he's an african-american who talks about getting off the liberal plantation. he is also a conservative and he is the front-runner for the nomination. you look at the media went into the tank for jack kennedy, all of them, john edwards. however, john, there does appear to be some measure of substance to the charges. and i agree these don't look like murderous charges but they've damaged cain. i think they've damaged the republican party. and the republican establishment probably more against cain now than ever, thinking we don't know w

cain's campaign pointed to, herman cain has pointed to. what did dow you do to find out, ask around, make sure we had no part in it? >> my folks at campaign said, listen, this is what's going on out there, this is what's happening on the internet, and we don't have any comment because we don't have anything to do with it. >> when he accused your campaign, did you ask anybody to check around, make sure in. >> my people had done that, i can assure you, they don't need to be asked if someone is spreading those types of malicious rumors. our campaign didn't have anything to to do with it, and we're going on and talking about our tax plan and how to get americans back working. >> you said nothing to do with it, i don't want to dwell on it if you ever found out somebody in your campaign did something like that would you fire them. >> out the door. >> out the door. you don't -- is it fair game if something like this happened or allegations when he was the head of an organization, is that fair game, or to you -- >> i would say, listen, if you're p

herman cain.re has been criticism about the fact that was reported on, a lot of defense of herman cain, a lot of insistence it couldn't be true. some of his loudest support has come from that direction, so --. >> thank you, maggie, roger, and thanks to the whole politico team for great reporting this week. >> thank you. >>> still to come tonight, inside this week's most famous lobbying operation, the national restaurant association, they are holding herman cain's secrets. they will decide tomorrow whether to release them. if they continue to hide his secrets, are you going to continue to help pay the salaries of the people who are hiding herman cain's secrets? are you going to continue to spend money at mcdonald's and burger king and disney world? and later, details have emerged about what mitt romney actually said in a closed-door meeting about abortion back when he was the prochoice governor of massachusetts. it is the thing now, the biggest thing now standing in his way of getting the republica

cain are completely false. mr. cain has never harassed anyone. fortunately the american people will not allow mr. cain's bold 9-9-9 plan clear foreign policy vision and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks." joining me now, joel bennett, the attorney for one of the women who has accused herman cain of sexual harassment. thanks for joining me tonight, mr. bennett. >> you're welcome, lawrence. >> mr. bennett, have you had any contact with sharon bialek? >> i had contact with a woman named sharon in chicago the last five days. i don't know if it's the same sharon because i never got her last name. the sharon i had contact with left a voicemail in my office one night indicating she had been harassed by herman cain while he was with the national restaurant association. when i called her back the next day, she said she had decided not to pursue it further. i then called her again yesterday to advise her that she could give her information confidentially if she wanted to. she said she'd think about it and let me know.

cain's side. what we did get in a little bit of detail some response to this from the national restaurant association. part of a statement they issued read, in july 1999 mr. ben net's client filed a clants associati the policies. herman cain disputed the complaints. the soev yassociation entered i agreement without admission of liable. mr. cain was not a party to the agreement. herman cain this week strongly disputing these allegations against him, john. >> brian that is the one client, mr. bennett represents. you're learning new information about a second woman who suggests mr. cain behaved inappropriately. what can you tell us. >> reporter: that's right. we spoke to a former employee of the national restaurant association who knows the accuser. the second accuser, not mr. bennett's client, a second accuser, came to the employee's office on the day this accuser left the national restaurant association, the accuser said to this employee, that she was not getting along with her bosses, that she was

herman cain is an art project. herman cain is an art project. herman cain is an art project. the whole beltway allegation of the sexual harassment allegations is how the allegations hurt his standings in the poll. it may be more useful to note whether or not the herman cain sexual harassment allegations cause him to hire any staff. to handle these allegations and the other responsibilities of campaigning. as far as we can tell, herman cain still has no real campaign staff to speak of. in any early states or nationally beyond a few americans for prosperity koch brothers guys who have worked with him from the beginning. this lack of a campaign structure, this lack of having a real campaign not only made it really hard to get over the sexual harassment abuse allegations, it's now showing itself in some ugly new ways. one of the things a campaign does is better or worse raises money off a candidate's popularity. the fact herman cain does not have a real campaign to do that has not left him completely unable to raise money but left him unable to capi

i spoke to the attorney of one of cain's accuser who says she wants to come forward to correct cain's claim that only one isolated incident occurred. >> more than one incident that my client perceived assayers president. she would like to speak out for the record only because mr. cain has stated that he didn't sexually harassed anyone. there wasn't any substance to the allegations, and basically made it look like she was some type of frivolous claimant just looking for money. >> bennett says his client hasn't gone public so far because of a confidentialality agreement that was signed 12 years ago as part of a financial settlement, but he said cain's comments this week may have changed that. specifically bennett said cain violated a clause fr. this is what he said on monday. >> i was told her performance, i had been told to me, by her boss, was not up to par. >> i do believe that his remarks are a violation of the confidentiality provision of the settlement agreement. i think she's upset about his statements and would like the record to be balanced and clear. >> bennett is asking the n

cain, to come clean. admit what you did. >>> guilty. dr. conrad murray promises to appeal after being convicted in the death of michael jackson. >>> and remembering joe frazier, the final bell rings for the >>> and remembering joe frazier, the final bell rings for the champ, dead at age 67. captioning funded by cbs >>> this is the "cbs morning news," november 8th, 2011. thanks for joining us today. republican presidential candidate herman cain plans a news conference today to address the newest allegations of sexual harassment against him. the fourth woman is the first to go public. cheryl says cain made a sexual advance back in 1997. her allegations are explicit and specific. >> he suddenly reached over and he put his hands on my leg, under my skirt and reached for my genitals. he also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch. >> in an appearance on the jimmy kimmel show, cain denied the charges. >> at least it wasn't one of the many that had the first name anonymous. so now this one actually ha

cain once headed. to speak out and set the record straight. bennett says he would like the association to release her from the confidentiality agreement she signed when she left that group. >> naturally she has been very upset about all of this since the story broke last sunday because mr. cain has been giving the impression that she's someone who came out and made false allegations. if and that's certainly not true. >> reporter: joel bennett said his unnamed client got a benefit from a sexual harassment complaint against cain and describes his client as married, highly intelligent, some one that doesn't go around making false claims. bennett says she is a career civil servant but asked whether she is politically active -- >> i have no knowledge that she's active politically. she is a current employee of the federal government. >> reporter: by most indications, bennett's client is not the same woman who "the new york times" reports got $35,000, a year's salary, in severance pay after an alleged encount

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i was also sexually harassed by herman cain, but not this herman cain.was a pharmacist from cleveland. he was an animal. i thought i'd get that out there. >> bob: thank you. >> kimberly: covered by our insurance. >> bob: as usual, greg, you elevated this conversation. >> greg: somebody has to. >> bob: i think eric put his finger on it. the question really for republicans do they want to have somebody represent them in a general election that fairly or unfairly these allegations are hanging over and will not go away? if you get to the point where i do believe republicans are that they will do whatever it takes to beat barack obama, they really want him, do they want to take what is essentially an allegationly flawed campaign against him? >> andrea: democrats were willing to take bill clinton. one of the greatest presidents. >> bob: that was re-election campaign. >> andrea: there were facts there. >> bob: are you talk about palla jones? >> andrea: a number of them. still hailed as one of the greatest president. i think it depends on what happens after this