mark block here. since january i've had the privilege of being the chief of staff to herman cain and the chief operating officer the friends are tomorrow one day closer to the white house i really believe that herman cain will put united back in the united states of america and i don't believe that i'm going to be we've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen but then america's never seen a candidate like john mccain we need you to get involved because together we could do this and we could take this country. well that only has block a steely nicotine addicted political operative he's always been one of the dirty as players in the game for one of the cain campaign troubles if there really is a campaign going on i'm joined by adel stamp washington d.c. bureau chief with alter net adult always great to have you here rates or as herman cain might call me at the at the stand stand stand. let's go live ready for this. so so who's this guy mark block well there's three things you need to know about herman ca

mark block's good!a gea segmen of the electorate that's ral wri ying behind cain, think he's getting a raw deal. and whenever somebody seems to be the target of the media, there are a lot of people in this country who just instinctively recoil from that and rally upon the person being accused. so i think that's what we're seeing here. now, that may be fine for raising some money of this kind. the question is, is that -- can that transfer into electoral success? and that's -- we're going to wait and have to see. >> just going back to the complaint that's been filed today, what are the potential ramifications here, mike? i mean, what could happen? >> well, you know, it really depends a lot on how far it goes. i mean, the fec, which this complaint was filed in, is notoriously slow in investigating charges of this kind. so it could take years in some instances. and then the question is, is it just mark block, is it the cain presidential campaign? or are others like americans for prosperity implicated in thi

cain's chief of staff mark block told cbs news that cain recalls one incident with a staffer that may have lead to a complaint. >> he commented to this employee that she was about the same height as his wife. his wife is a very short person. i think about five feet. >> reporter: and... >> that's it. no more than that. >> reporter: but block said there was no physical contact. the web site also said the restaurant association iaentually paid a settlement to the women-- something cain initially said he didn't know. >> i am unaware of any sort of settlement. i hope it wasn't for much because i didn't do anything! >> reporter: but late today he >old fox news there was a settlement. >> and, yes, there was some sort of settlement or termination and i don't even know what the tontents of that was. since it was found baseless, that was no big settlement or it would have had to come to me. >> reporter: the news comes as cain has shot to the top of recent polls. in iowa, he's leading former massachusetts governor mitt romney 23% to 22%. in texas, he's even edged governor rick perry 27% to 26%.

what was your reaction when his campaign chief mark block made up a story about her son? >> number one he know that mr. block is completely not ready for prime time mr. smoky, right? we've shown that that for some time. the whole blaming the victim. we're the victim. we're being victimized mentality that i think has gotten them into trouble. when politico first came to them with the story, they had ten days to come up with a credible answer. and instead know what did we see when the stories came snout all this obje the changing of answers. >> who is the young man? >> he has no connection to karen kraushaar. he is not related to her. he said she was his mother. he did work at politico. he covered house races. he went on to the national journal where he is an editor for the hotline covering house races and congressional races. he tweeted that he was not reached out to by the cain campaign. he subsequently said that he asked for an apology from mark block and apparently they guy one to the cain campaign. sort of issued a generic apology saying then acting on bad information.

joining me now is mark block, chief of staff for the herman cain campaign. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> bret: first, you're charging the perry campaign with stirring this up. >> absolutely. quite frankly, this is one of the actions in america that is the reason people don't get involved in politics. the actions of the perry campaign are despicable. rick perry and his campaign all herman cain and his family -- owe cain kansas and his family an apology. both rick perry campaign and politico did the wrong thing by reporting something that wasn't true, to anonymous sources in, like i said, they owe herman cain and his family an apology. >> bret: what evidence do you have of this? >> in 2003, herman cain ran for the senate. he hired a general consultant. kurt anderson. mr. cain divulgeed the nra claims that time to the consultant. >> bret: national restaurant association. >> exactly. mr. anderson, so the campaign at that point would be prepared if the issue surfaced. it did not. approximately two weeks ago as you know, mr. anderson wen

. >> yesterday, campaign's manager mark block says he's done with the issue. >> this is the last time that i'll be addressing the issue that has swirled washington ap thenation this week. as you know, mr. cain is a different kind of candidates and we've run a different kind of campaign and we're not going to play by the rules that the immediate has established. >> jon: what about that, jim, the media established these rules that they say they're not going to play with, play by. >> they do establish them and you can be an unconventional campaign if you want to, but you have to abide by media. and what is he going to do if someone asks him tomorrow or ten minutes from now, he can clam up and get clobbered. >> jon: the story comes out sunday night with unnamed sources and less than concrete details. what do you make of the whole thing that started this avalanche? >> well, yes, it started with anonymous sources in politico, since then we've had a number of women grow. you know, you have one woman alleging something like that that's an allegation and you have three women who supposedly rec

>> well, clearly, look, clearly mark block was their guy in wisconsin. was no secret about that. and herman cain oig as we've se today has that closer relationship with the koch brothers than we knew before, although it's not something he's hid. he's talked about it in the past. so there is an affinity of interest there among the three of them. i don't think on its face that's necessarily nefarious, but when the money flow, when the funding trail goes through nonprofits to a political campaign, that's something that is barred by law that is ver bow deny, that does spur investigations and that's what led to the complaint today. >> michael and jonathan, thanks for joining me. >>> ahead, the viral video that shocked the nation. the judge seen beating his daughter turns out he may keep his job. is this justice? >>> and a verdict in the jackson trial could come at any moment. my take on the fight for justice. ♪ [ female announcer ] find yourself sometimes cleaning up after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. it's super durable, and in this lab test bo

mark block accused of setting up a committee that actually then laid the groundwork perhaps illegallyherman cain's presidential ca presidential campaign. >> the $100,000 that they moved to the congress of racial equality in order to get herman cain a speaking role here, this is a very big story that continues to mushroom. we have to pick it up again tomorrow night. howard fineman and john nicholls, thank you for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thank you. >>> coming up, rush limbaugh attacked tarey today on his radio seo for what he says her last night. that lands him in the rewrite first. first, meghan mccain onç herma cain and her feud with newt gingrich and what's wrong with the republicans in 2012. ♪ when your chain of supply ♪ goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ chips from here, boards from there ♪ ♪ track it all through the air, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ clearing customs like that ♪ hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north

mark block accused of setting up a committee that actually then laid the groundwork perhaps illegallyfor herman cain's presidential campaign. >> the $100,000 that they moved to the congress of racial equality in order to get herman cain a speaking role here, this is a very big story that continues to mushroom. we have to pick it up again tomorrow night. howard fineman and john nicholls, thank you for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thank you. >>> coming up, rush limbaugh attacked tarey today on his radio seo for what he says her last night. that lands him in the rewrite first. first, meghan mccain on herman cain and her feud with newt gingrich and what's wrong with the republicans in 2012. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. for the efficient absorption my body needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the things that you need ♪ ♪ come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪

and the -- let's look at the footage of herman cain's chief of staff, mark block, talking on fox newsbout this very subject. >> karen kroushour, h come out as one of the women and we find her son works at "politico." the organization that put the story up -- >> can you confirm that? i've been hearing rumors. you've confirm that would, right? >> we've confirmed it -- that he does work at "political coo." that's his mother. >> absolutely false. no relation. this is an environment this which lots of stuff gets thrown around. >> mark block is guilty of political malpractice. i think herman -- i'm not alone, i think that herman cain ought to give serious consideration as to whether or not he should stay on as his chief of staff. and by the way -- >> and how did he challenge him, how did he -- >> to his credit. not only did mark block go on national television and made this accusation which is totally false, they also accused rick perry, his campaign, of being the leak to politico." they later sort of walked it back. that was devastating to herman cain because up until that point conservati

this is mark block, cain's sort of chief operations officer, they don't call him campaign manager, but that's what he is. >> reporter: right. >> this is the man who became famous for smoking in a web video ad. let's hear what he had to say and we'll come back and talk about it. >> in 2003 herman cain ran for the senate. he hired a general consultant, kurt anderson. mr. cain divulged the nra claims at that time to his general consultant -- >> national restaurant association. >> exactly. mr. anderson. so, the campaign at that point would be prepared if the issue surfaced. it did not. approximately two weeks ago as you know mr. anderson went to work for the rick perry campaign. what else happened about two weeks ago? politico began this smear campaign citing anonymous sources claiming mr. cain acted inappropriately. >> so, chuck, i mean, really in the weeds, talking about consultants and how this works. now, for the record, kurt anderson who advising the perry campaign has denied being involved. rick perry said no one in my campaign has any involvement in how this information got out. is

the campaign manager mark block insisted a relative of cain's -- how did block come to make that typem? is it a sign of desperation they're trying to link the way this story is getting out there? >> yeah, and let's not forget, this is the third time, thomas, they've come up with a novel theory which they've tried to trace this story and the original tip to us back to someone they perceive to be an enemy. in the first instance, herman cain as well as mark block said that curt anderson who worked for herman cain's 2004 gop primary campaign for senate in jihad had this informatihad thi and leaked it. curt anderson came out and said that's not the case at all. we heard herman cain say this is part of the democratic machine. we well, the democratic machine would like nothing more than seeing herman cain to run against president obama. and that also seems unlikely. we had mark block apparently try to identify our former "politico" reporter and say his mom is, in fact, karen krausaar -- the second accuser to come forward. false. it does have a feel of fishing. >> almost sounds like an episod

mark block is herman cain's campaign manager. was on fox news and he says he is convinced his candidate did nothing wrong. >> i asked mr. cain directly, on numerous occasions, were there anything that any of these allegations -- and he looked me square in the eye and said no. all right? mr. cain has never committed any sexual harassment period, end of story. >> james carville, mr. block makes an emphatic case there. is that part of the public record they need to create to put this behind them? or is it herman cain's campaign manager, so why should we believe him? he is a bias. >> well, mark block gets a spot in his own candidate, and everyone thought it was amazing that a campaign manager would endorse a candidate. i thought that was sort of par for the course. but this doesn't go very far in putting this behind him. they certainly suspect the perry campaign. any detective in the world would suspect the perry campaign. whether they did it or not, i don't know. but there's a lot of friction. but, no, this mark block saying this is

they had no proof -- >> mark block, the chief of staff for kahn. >> chief of staff. sorry.an on the restaurant association board was a perry donor. there's also donors on that board who donate to mitt romney as well. in fact, we could play the game that, well, maybe mitt romney is behind this. there's definitely a lot of speculation. i myself had had questions about whether or not herman cain's a stalking horse for mitt romney. to say that perry is behind this, it could very easily be said that romney's behind this. cain endorsed phenomenonry in 2008. he didn't attack him in any debates. we do go on and on. to say that rick perry is behind this -- >> let me give you some facts. i actually spoke to the perry campaign on the way over and i said do you have any facts tying mitt romney to this? because they did throw that out. and they said other than the fact one of the guys was on the board, no. so i asked is this the same as your being accused by the cain campaign as being the source of this, i got no response. so i think this is an effort -- >> jennifer, what do you make of

>> mark block, who's the campaign chief of staff for herman cain, set up a non-profit last year. and someone gave me the internal records and we were able to see that the campaign was paying for ipads, chartered flights, trips to iowa and las vegas for the cain campaign. and in the records, they said they were owed by the cain campaign about $40,000. no one knew about this and the only way we were able to discover this is through the internal records for the organization. >> has there been a response at this point? we should note here that we reached out to the cain campaign. we have not heard from them regarding this particular fallout -- this particular scandal, potential scandal. have you guys heard from the cain campaign? >> actually, the cain campaign have been very bad at responding to us. i first contacted the chief of staff and the deputy chief of staff in august when i got some of the records, but i see the announcement today that they've hired outside counsel to scrutinize this. so, that's the most recent development. >> the charity in question, it's called prosperity u

don't know if since this signal that it's cool to slow no it does not mark block smokes best all that it says we weren't trying to say it's cool to smoke you have a lot of people in this country to smoke but. so you've said your piece you don't think it's cool to smoke that's not what you're trying to say in the ad do you think it's cool to smoke mrs bachmann i can tell you alone that a woman outside a rally told me that smoking can kill you so i'm going to go with no i believe that that's perhaps a scientific fact that a lot of you know science would back up that claim that smoking can be incredibly detrimental to your health and also can increase your chances of lung cancer stroke well i do i trust the good american people to give me information like i would be i would be the anti-smoking candidate on this stage because it is an assault on the family now not because of secondhand smoke but i happen to know because i have heard from someone that smoking causes homosexuality and that is an assault on the family that i won't stand for. you but i believe that we're already at a time unf

i demand the apology but look what mark block said? watch this. >> we were absolutely thrilled that he came on your show and said it wasn't. mr. cain always had the utmost respect for him. i want to say we accept what mr. anderson has said, and we want to move on with the campaign. >> nia, you were thrilled, you call the man out, you want the man has put the whole thing out, you call for an apology, and you come back and say i'm thrilled. we always liked the guy. then what were you talking about last night? >> right. this is just another reversal from this campaign. he still believes -- they singled out politico, saying they're considering legal options in terms of what politico has done in their reporting. they are very much playing the blame game, but it seems they can't get their stories straight, whether it's perry, whether it's racist liberals. it's just a mess. one of the things that will damaging is as the more details come out, the more flesh that gets on this story, that will be damaging. herman cain has been in a position whe

i say if you are in a position of leadership, i admire herman cain for saying let mark block be mark block. let free people do their thing. >> bill: show him sleeping in a hammock. >> and on when schieffer hit him on it, he says i do respect your objection and he faces the camera and says that. >> bill: as we saw earlier in the program cain is a standup guy. >> is any kid not going to smoke because herman cain. >> bill: i will tell you the kids who smoke and i ask them, they think it's cool. the same with the tattoo on the neck. kids 10 or 11 to 14 or 15, they are looking around to see what these people do that's why they do it? >> scream about mad men on tv. scream about the movies where they make it cool. that has much more of an influence. >> bill: the mad men in the movies are not at the presidential level. >> that's true. i admire him for saying my campaign manager does this thing. people smoke, let them do their thing. >> bill: you admire that stuff. >> i do. respect for individual freedom. >> bill: all right. john stossel, everybody. when we come right back, is it legal tonight

the original ad was mark block. looks like a spoof. it's so bizarre.o creepy and weird that it's hard to spoof something. >> where was muntsman's ad on his web site. >> on the internet. and they tweeted about it the three daughters have been very active on twitter. >> bill: they were on "fox & friends." they are very articulate. >> they are. they have gone after mitt romney a little bit on twitter. >> bill: but i mean, look, if jon huntsman -- you don't send your daughters out. i mean, you know. >> may i go out on a limb? i think they are angling for media exposure for themselves. after the campaign. i think they are trying to make careers. >> bill: kardashian show with huntsman? >> reality show. i'm just saying. >> bill: a the lo of possibilities there. dagen mcdowell everyone, pinheads and patriots in a moment. starring condoleezza rice and qaddafi. right back with p and p. pinheads and patriots, with condoleezza rice and qaddafi, when he was alive in just a moment. we have a brand-new slogan -- restore the u.s.a. if you spend $25 or more on bill o'r

it's that statement about the person being talked about saying mark block doesn't have his facts straight. i'm not related to karen and i haven't worked there since june of 2010 so a lot of people have within cratal as to how the campaign has handled the controversy and are looking how he would handle the national spotlight if he were president. >> thank you very much for that live report. check in with jamie. >> all right. a new, here tonight tonight. questioning found the air force mishandled the remains of united states war dead and now veterans are reacting to the news. >>> when it comes to taking care of your nails, the use of chemicals could hurt them more than help. why one salon is going organic. those and update on the gas main in south baltimore at six. now a preview of world news. >> coming up on world news america's secret recipe for success. putting an entire town to work? what struggling towns can learn tonight. . >>> events in europe shaping the action in the united states market. dow down 389, the nasdaq down 106. the s&p500 down almost 47. not good. >>> first we traded in

a public watchdog group accusing the cain campaign and campaign manager, mark block, of what it calls serious campaign violations by using corporate funds illegally to pay for cain's presidential campaign expenses including charter flights around the country and paying for ipads. what happened is, these are based on documents that were first put on the web by the "milwaukee sentinel journal" from a group called prosperity usa, a non-profit founded by mark block, the cain campaign manager. they do show payments of $40,000 to the cain presidential campaign. you can't do that under federal election law. it bars non-profits or charities from paying for presidential campaign expenses. the cain campaign, when this first broke this week, when the documents became released, said they were taking these allegations very seriously. they hired an outside counsel to investigate. they have not commented further, but crew in this legal complaint just filed says that's not good enough. the cain campaign doesn't get to investigate itself. this is a matter for the federal election commission. >> michae

group, prosperity usa, was one of a number of groups set up by herman cain's campaign manager, mark block he was sort of exiled from wisconsin politics legally for getting caught in 2001 for having an outside group illegally fund a supreme court justice campaign. when block was allowed to get back into wisconsin politics, he signed up with americans for prosperity and founded these other groups that all have conveniently have prosperity in their names. they weren't all non-profits. they weren't all set up exactly the same way. what were you able to figure out about who was funding these groups for block? >> it appears there are a certain number of conservative wealthy people who are giving a lot of money. hundreds of thousands of dollars. you mentioned the loan. that's two individuals, one gave $100,000. the other one gave $50,000. that's the sort of money that we're talking about. and he set up three different groups, maybe four. now, americans for prosperity is distancing itself from all of this, saying we had nothing to do with this, but if you look at the records, and i've posted it a

well, herman cain's campaign manager, mark block, said this. >> the actions of the perry campaign are despicable. rick perry and his campaign owe herman cain and his family an apology. in 2003, herman cain ran for the senate. he hired a general consultant, curt anderson. mr. cain divulged the nra claims to -- >> national restaurant association. >> exactly. mr. anderson. so the campaign at that point would be prepared if the issue surfaced. it did not. approximately two weeks ago, as you know, mr. anderson went to work for the rick perry campaign. what else happened about two weeks ago? politico began this smear campaign citing anonymous sources claiming mr. cain acted inappropriately. >> mr. anderson told "forbes" he was not the source of the leak. a perry spokesman told nbc news tonight, no one in our campaign was involved in the story at any way. perry's camp pointed the finger at mitt romney, saying, i wouldn't have put it past them. a perry spokesman said this -- there are blog postings around as well discussing that cain's successor at the restaurant association is a big romney d

i think mark block was reckless and irresponsible to say on national tv without a shred of proof that rick perry is responsible for leaking this. >> chief of staff. >> sorry. one man on the national restaurant association board was a perry donor. there's also donors on that board who donate to mitt romney, as well. in fact, we could play the game that, well, maybe mitt romney's behind this. there's definitely speculation. i myself had had questions about whether or not herman cain's a stalking horse for mitt romney. i mean, to say that perry's behind this, it could be said that romney's behind this. cain endorsed romney in 2008. he didn't attack him in the debates. we could go on and on. >> let me give you facts. >> jennifer? >> because it's silly. >> i actually spoke to the perry campaign on the way over. i said do you have any facts tying mitt romney to this? they say, other than the fact one of his guys were on the board they say, no. when i say is this being -- i got no response so i think this is an effort that is wasted and -- >> jennifer, what do you make of those who say that

additional issue on top of that is the connections between prosperity usa, the group that mark block,d the cope brothers. you remember thspeech that cain gave on friday about prosperity founded by the two oil billionaires, david and charles koch, he embraced the koch brothers saying they're brothers from another mother, getting a big response from the crowd. but the koch brothers and their group of americans for prosperity had financial dealings and was helping to fund prosperity usa. so there does -- could be or what looks like a money trail going from the koch brothers' outfit to the group in wisconsin to the campaign. >>> union groups around the country will be closely watching a critical vote in ohio tomorrow, one that could provide a window to the 20 12 election. the residents will r. being asked to toss out a republican law that stripped most of the woe workers of their bargaining rights. i'm joined now by the governor. the numbers are certainly on the side of repeal, 57% in the latest poll i saw. are you surprised? >> not at all. i'm not surprised because the people of ohio rec