jonathan martin is chief political correspondent for politico, and nia-malika henderson is a political reporter for "the washington post." let's show us now what we've heard latest. nbc has confirmed that one woman received a settlement from the national restaurant association after complaining about inappropriate sexual conduct by herman cain. nbc news is not disclosing the name of the woman, nor characterizing who she is. today herman cain acknowledged that he had been accused of sexual harassment, but said that charges were not true. let's listen. >> in all of my over 40 years of business experience, running businesses and corporations, i have never sexually harassed anyone. while at the restaurant association, i was accused of sexual harassment, falsely accused, i might add. i was falsely accused of sexual harassment. and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, i recused myself, and allowed my general counsel and my human resource officer to deal with the situation. as far as a settlement, i am unaware of any sort of settlement. i hope it wasn't for much,

nia malika henderson and dana milbank ones cain crisis. >>> and parent alert, the baby whisperer wrangles a fussy infant. now can he quiet the big babies on the hill? "politics nation" starts right now. >>> welcome to "politics nation." i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead -- class warfare republican style. folks, everything you need to know about class warfare can be summed up in this eye-opening graphic. during the past three decades, the top 1% in this country saw their earnings grown by 275%. but during that same sometime, the middle chunk of this country only saw a 40% growth. this is from a government report. and the poorest fifth, they only saw 18% in this. this is stunning. for republicans who might not get it, here's another chart. that top line that sky rockets. that's the income of the top 1%. that line barely making any progress at the bottom. those numbers are appalling, but paul ryan is even more so. >> instead of appealing to the hope and optimism tharn the hall marx for the first campaign, he has launched his second campaign by preying on the emotion of fear, envy and resentmen

nia malika henderson and erin mcpike, thanks. ek, and stay off youtube, nia. we'll be right back. [ courier ] the amazing story of whether bovine heart tissue can make it from australia to a u.s. lab to a patient in time for surgery may seem like a trumped-up hollywood premise. ♪ but if you take away the dramatic score... take away the dizzying 360-degree camera move... [ tires screech ] ...and take away the over-the-top stunt, you're still left with a pretty remarkable tale. but, okay, maybe keep the indulgent supermodel cameo... thank you. [ male announcer ] innovative medical solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. [ male announcer ] innovative medical solutions. you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. and started e

today, "new york" magazine, john hileman and rana foroohar and nia-malika henderson and congress getting no where fixing our generation economic prospects. we have chris christie swooned over for telling a reagan library audience that barack obama has to talk honestly about the big challenges. >> lead on the by telling your citizens the truth about the depth ofur approach. about the depth ofur approach. >> economies aren't and historically, ar financial crises, recessions are deeper and they last longer than after the usual business cycle recessions. chris: americans want realism. they know something is different about this downturn. a quarter of the country sees a long-term decline ahead and a third of the country, and the optimismists think it will be more than three years before we start seeing a recovery. rana, this is your piece. tell us what the people are thinking about when we are going to climb out of these bad times. >> we are looking for any light at the end of the tunnel and it's a very long tunnel. it will be three years and the estimation of most of the people we surveyed t

nia malika henderson. thank you. >>> when we return, let me finish with this talk about cults and what the constitution really means by freedom of religion. ng good! you lost some weight. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories. >>> let me finish tonight with this. the constitution of the united states is very clear on one matter concerning public office. there should be no religious test for serving this country. none at all. this is a paramount principle of our american republic. the founders have seen much of europe torn apart for centuries, by one christian persecuted by another christian people over what a true christian should believe. that is all part of what we left behind. we meaning the people who came before us and building this country. we had seen too much of war, too much of the

and nia-malika henderson is with "the washington post." thank you, nia, for joining us tonight.t to show you something from herman cain, congressman, and have your reaction to it. he's talking about some things about the president, which i find interesting. in an interview with bloomberg view, columnist jeffrey goldberg back in june, cain stressed that he preferred being called american rather than african-american. then went on to contrast his upbringing with that of president obama. cain is reported to have said, "most of the ancestors that i can trace were born here in the united states of america. barack obama's more of an international. look, he was raised in kenya. his mother was white from kansas and her family had an influence on him, it's true, but his dad was kenyan." goldberg went on to correct cain in his interview by telling him that obama spent four years of his youth abroad in indonesia, never in kenya. why, sir, is it your estimate -- now, this is psychobabble, to some extent, but why on earth would herman cain, a man of obvious educational background, say that t

nia malika henderson.n we return, let me finish with this talk about cults and what the constitution really means by freedom of religion. it seems like for every anti-aging problem, there's a different cream. i challenge that with olay. i've found one cream with everything i'm looking for... olay total effects. with 7 age defying effects in just one, easy to use cream. i've swapped to all-in-one total effects. why don't you swap too? ben and his family live on this block. ben's a re/max agent, and he's a big part of this community. re/max agents know their markets, and they care enough to get to know you, too. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. gomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond j

with us today, "time magazine"'s joe klein, the bbc's katty kay, the "washington post" nia-malika henderson and the national joirnl's major garrett. our country is not full of haters and angry desperate people. it's a country between the political 40-yard lines. how is the obama presidency changed the country's thinking? we looked at a side byside of this week's "wall street journal" nbc poll and the same poll four years ago. in a dratdra matic shift, voters on both the far left and far right have moved to the middle. the number of independents has risen during the obama term. up 1% in that time and that's a historically big move. it's an america that fundamentally gets the difficulties confronting president obama, but feels he may be over his head. right now, it looks receptive to the untested but steady mitt romney over the president. romney's negative poll numbers are much lower than obama's, 29% negative for romney against 40% negative for obama. joe, it looks like the poll that nbc takes and the "wall street journal" completely verifies what you found in your long trip up and down the

alex wagner is an msnbc political analyst and nia-malika henderson covers politics for "the washington post." ladies, thank you for coming on tonight. it seems to me a most to the point question about american politics. we know the economy's terrible, we know people are very angry about it. everyone is, of every age group. the question is, what's the smart, intelligent thing for this president to say as he attempts to fix it? is he smart to say it's bush's fault, or what joe biden is starting to say now, the vice president, look, we're in charge now, we hope it gets better, we're not going to blame it on the past? >> look, i think biden is taking the argument that we opened up the church doors, there was a baby on our doorstep. it's not our baby, but we're going to take care of the baby. which is effectively what he's arguing for in terms of the economy. it is their responsibility to shepherd it to a better place. but how long is the american public going to give them? thus far the administration has been reliant on this talking point, it took a long time to get into it, it's going to

, becoming an independent because of the all the extreme anti-immigrant receipt ricks, and nia-malika henderson post," you can following her election 2012 blog on postpolitics.com. thanks to both of you for being here today. dee dee, you were a republican and you quit the party. tell us what happened? >> well, the straw that broke the camel's back for me was in addition to the anti-immigrant sentiment, the straw was marco rubio. a cuban from florida, whose family has benefited from amnesty, and government benefits, who decided to sponsor lamar smith, a republican from texas, his large government idea via the national e-verify program. both these people claim to be less government, but they are supporting large government ideas. now, we were already sort of getting used to the anti-immigrant and the anti-latino sentiment, but what did it for me was marco rubio sponsoring a large government idea. not only did he do that, he does not support our kids, our youth via the dream act, and she embraced arizona's harsh anti-immigrant law, and he's hispanic. >> his family ben phetted it, but he and others

joining me now is nia-malika henderson, a political reporter for "the washington post."a milbank, a national political reporter for "the washington post." thanks to both of you for joining me tonight. >> good evening, reverend. >> dana, is playing the birther card political suicide? >> well, you know, rick perry was originally doing the secession card. i think if at first you don't succeed, you go with the birther movement. i thought that this had been put to rest in the springtime. pretty much everybody else backed off of it. rick perry has chosen to march to a different drummer in this campaign. i think he's, in fact, gone farther even than the original birther, donald trump, himself. so even a lot of tea party folks at this point say, don't associate us with the birthers anymore. >> to prove that, nia, let me show you this, no one less than karl rove said this about the birther rick perry incident. >> look, you associate yourself with a nutty view like that and you damage yourself. there's a simple answer. yes, he was born in the united states. yes, he is eligible to

. >> nia malika henderson, thank you. good to see you, thanks. >>> that will do it for me today.eantime, richard lui joins you next. lieve honor is nt exclusive to the military. and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. from free checking to credit cards to loans, our commitment to the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. ♪ visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. usaa. we know what it means to serve. consider this: over 70% of firefighters are local volunteers... these are our neighbors putting their lives on the line. and when they rely on a battery, there are firefighters everywhere who trust duracell. and now you can join with duracell to help. just buy specially-marked packs & duracell will make a battery donation to local volunteers. these days don't we all need someone to trust...? duracell. trusted everywhere. two. three. one. two. and, three. [ male announcer ] with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, earn more cash ba

is with us to talk about this piece along with his colleague at "the washington pos post", nia-malika henderson off the page at me, yours did. this president, what is it? because he seemed to spend a lot of time with us during the campaign. not a lot of personal one-to-one time with reporters, obviously, we sensed that, reporters obvio but the people felt something from him, i felt something from him. why does he a vvoid people and contact now? >> i think part of what you're describing is the genius of that campaign. people projected what they wanted to on this president. he was wonderful on the stump. he gave sophisticated serious speeches, treated the public with a lot of respect. but the public in abstract largely. and when it comes to governing, the model is very different. it requires a lot of person to person contact whether it's with hill democrats or donors and he is not interested in that. he does not like doing that from what i've been told. >> franklin roosevelt was probably the greatest president, he got us through everything. fdr felt he needed to sit down and play cards every nigh