Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20111105 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 November 5, 2011



for one of two employees who filed sexual harassment complaints against herman cain when he ran the national restaurant association. today bennett said that their client waived confidentiality but would not be saying anything beyond the brief statement she co-wrote with him. here is a portion. >> she made a complaint in good faith about a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances from the ceo. those complaints are resolved in an agreement with her acceptance of a monetary settlement. she and her husband see no value in revisiting this matter now nor in discussing the matter any further publicly or privately. in fact, it would be extremely painful to do so. >> the statement concludes, quote, my client stands by the complaint she made. as you heard, the complaint, which bennett says was filed in july of 1999 and settled that september alleges a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances. herman cain says he can only recall one incident with one woman and we don't know which woman he is talking about. >> she was in the office one day and i made a gesture saying oh, and i was standing close to her and i made a gesture, you are the same height as my wife. and brought my hand, didn't touch her. up to my chin and said, you're the same height as my wife because my wife comes up to my chin. >> that's a far cry from what joel bennett described today as behavior that in his opinion is harassment. it never made it to court and according to the restaurant association today the settlement contained no admission of liability. mr. cain maintains he never harassed anyone. he has been consistent on that from the beginning. as to the details not so much. first he wasn't aware of a settlement. a day later he was. it looked like it took him a day to jog his memory. the evolution took place 11 days after politico warned his campaign it was doing a story on the harassment claims. he had ten and a half days to rack his brain before the vague and hazy memory came back to him. >> i can't recall any comment that she made positive or negative. i don't recall by whom the charges were found baseless. i don't recall whether she left the restaurant association before making the accusation. i don't recall, greta. i really don't. i don't remember the number. can't recall. i don't remember her name at all. if i had a private conversation with her, i don't recall having a private conversation with her. all of the conversations that i had, it could have been, but i don't recollect. >> just to remind you joel bennett described a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances and made it crystal clear he thinks herman cain has a credibility problem. >> there is an expression where there's smoke there's fire. the fact that there are multiple complaints tells me that it's more likely than not that there was some sexual harassment activity by this man at that time. >> again, herman claimed though he has offered a variety of answers about what happened and what he remembers about what happened he's always categorically denied harassing anyone. it is worth pointing out there are still no details from anyone, any accusers about what specifically they say he did. his campaign today issued a single sentence reaction to mr. bennett. we look forward to focusing our attention on the real issues like fixing the broken economy and putting americans back to work through the 9-9-9 plan as well as strengthening national security. clearly they want to move on. joining us now chief political analyst gloria borger and jeffrey tubin. you said previously you thought herman cain's accuser would speak out or the details would come out. >> i think i was wrong. that's -- i just think this is over. i think at least as far as this woman is concerned understandably she doesn't want to get involved in a circus or make herself a target which she would be if she got specific. but in fairness to herman cain if that's all she is going to say through her lawyer, i don't think he's obligated to respond. there are no specifics. there's no name. i just think that is not a concrete enough accusation to force him to continue this story any further. >> gloria, do you agree this is done? >> yeah. well, it depends if more comes out. i think at this particular point jeffrey is right that this statement today was so nonspecific it doesn't even warrant a response from herman cain. we don't know the result of the internal investigation at the restaurant association. their statement doesn't talk about it. herman cain has said that they found internally that there was no basis for these charges. but we don't know that. so unless, and this is a big if, there's lots of people now who may know who these women are and all that kind of stuff and more could come out so if you have specific allegations from specific women ready to go on the record then i think the story resurfaces. but for now i think it dies down. >> so has this been unfair to herman cain? >> i don't think so. i think the original politico story was entirely factual. it said that they did -- that the national restaurant association did pay two settlements that were based on claims of harassment. they also made the point these could have been points for nuisance value just getting rid of the cases. if you are running for president of the united states and a former employment of yours has paid judgments following claims of harassment that's news and politico was right to report it and i think we were right to follow up on it. but i think the current state of the story is so ambiguous that i don't think it is going to have much political fallout. according to polls it hasn't. >> gloria, have folks on the republican side been concerned about the way herman cain handled this? i mean surprised at kind of the various stories that were told or the time it took? >> sure. particularly people in rick perry's campaign who were accused by herman cain of leaking the story. and, you know, at first he tried that and that was kind of diversionary. it didn't work so well. now blaming the media, which is of course really popular within the republican party. it's helped him raise money. i mean, since the story broke he's raised $1.6 million. in the whole last quarter he raised $2.8 million. so it's helped him but i think if you look at the way herman cane has behaved in this, i think there are lots of republicans scratching their heads. but by the way, he's done that on the issue front as well on abortion, you know, he said he's had a problem for example with what is his position on abortion and that's going to cause him more trouble in iowa right now than these sexual harassment claims. >> early on he sort of was making a difference between a settlement and an agreement that he said he didn't think there had been an agreement or settlement. legally, there's no difference between a settlement and agreement. >> no. i think what he was saying is settlement to him meant a lawsuit that had been filed and then was settled. agreement can happen before there is even a lawsuit. this was an agreement, settlement, whatever you want to call it. it's just semantics. in advance of any lawsuit being filed. i mean, his initial behavior was ridiculous, not remembering something so significant. i find it hard to believe he doesn't remember more to this day. but especially given ten days advance notice, you know, if you're running for president you should have some better answer than i don't remember this and if you remember he confronted the politico reporter and said were you ever sued for sexual harassment? >> some in the campaign talked about possibly suing politico for this story. is there any basis there? >> i think that's absurd. politico's story was entirely factual. these settlements did take place. they did follow sexual harassment claims. i think you know as we've been discussing there is good -- it's a good thing in the republican primary to attack the press. and that's what cain has done. they put out a video where he sort of compared himself to clarence thomas, unjustly accused by liberals. same thing with the threat to politico. but there's no grounds for a lawsuit here. >> anderson, it occurs to me that if herman cain were the likely republican nominee and i don't think he is the likely republican nominee, if he were at some point and was getting very close to being nominated i wouldn't be surprised if this story resurfaced and women did come out on the record if they felt that strongly about herman cain. but i think, you know, right now while he's doing well in the polls, we all remember when rudolph guiliani was the front runner in the republican primary in 2008. so, you know, again, these things are moving, are moving targets. right now as you see here, you know, cain's second to mitt romney but mitt romney just sits back and watches this occur and remains the sort of most plausible candidate out there according to lots of sort of establishment republicans. >> it's been a good week for mitt romney. he hasn't been in the news. >> very good. >> jeff toobin thank you, gloria borger as well. hard to know what to think of this. herman cain's wife gloria was to sit down tonight for a rare interview on fox news. that is not happening. even at the best of times gloria cain keeps a very low profile. >> on his facebook page republican front runner herman cain says when he first met his wife gloria, quote, she was the most beautiful woman i have ever seen. after 43 years of marriage, he says, he still feels the same way. his facebook page shows the couple on a recent trip to israel looking all the world like typical tourists. that's them at the site of the sermon on the mount, at the sea of galilee, at the western wall. those who know herman and gloria say they are a devoted couple. as her husband has rocketed to the top of the list of republican presidential hopefuls, gloria cain has rarely been seen on the campaign trail. that may be about to change. >> don't even bother. >> reporter: facing a storm of questioning over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward at least two female employees in the '90s, cain told fox news gloria cain is currently planning an exclusive interview and he hinted to hln's robin meade his wife is ready to speak out against her husband's critics. >> the hardest part on my wife, quite frankly, is all of the innuendos from all of the news reports that haven't been presenting the facts. >> reporter: cain has often said he wanted to keep his family out of the political spotlight but there may be more to it than just privacy. his wife has had medical concerns in the past. according to his book, this is herman cain, my journey to the white house, gloria cain had a pace maker implanted in 2005 to help with a serious heart fibrilation. gloria continues to be a steady source of devotion and inspiration, never more so than now. the candidate wrote. >> this is my family. >> according to cain the couple met by chance in atlanta in the mid '60s. he was attending moorehouse college. she was at nearby morris brown. it took a year before herman asked gloria out. it was magic from that moment on, he says in his book. and so i didn't go out with anyone else. neither did gloria. and we dated and dated and dated. and they married in june of 1968. those who know gloria cain says she is a devoted christian, active in the church and the choir. while her husband was climbing corporate ladders she stayed home to raise their two children, sometimes working as a teacher and librarian. >> thank you. >> reporter: cain dedicates the chapter to his wife in the book with a quote from the bible proverbs 31:10. who can find a virtuous woman? for her worth is far above rubies. if gloria cain does step into the spotlight and stand by her man, those words may prove prophetic. >> thank you. >> reporter: martin savidge, cnn. new fears about the country that sponsored osama bin laden, sponsored terror groups and is supposed to be our ally. we'll talk to the author of a chilling report. also this. >> the bruises were the worst i've ever had. i'd had other lashings like that but this one produced the most bruising and the next day it was all up and down my legs and he'd also hit my arms when he couldn't get to my legs. >> she was beaten for seven and a half minutes by her father who is a texas family court judge when she was a teenager. ahead on the program what are the lasting effects of beatings like that as well as lesser forms of corporal punishment the kind many would never consider child abuse. first, also, a check in with isha. >> anderson, it's going to be a tense weekend for dr. conrad murray, a tense weekend for michael jackson's family. they're waiting for answers, waiting for the jury. we'll have the latest on that and much more when 360 continues. 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[ female announcer ] in this lab demo, 1 sheet of bounty leaves this surface as clean as 2 sheets of the bargain brand. ♪ dance cooking? bring it. super durable. super absorbent. super clean. bounty the 1-sheet clean picker-upper. and try bounty napkins. bounty the 1-sheet clean picker-upper. when you're a sports photographer, things can get out of control pretty quickly. so i like control in the rest of my life... especially my finances. that's why i have slate, with blueprint. i can create my own plan to pay down large purchases faster... or avoid interest on everyday items. that saves me money. with slate from chase, i'm always in control. financially, anyway. get slate with blueprint and save money. call 855-get-slate today. when it comes to pakistan, it reads, the ally from hell." pakistan is a nuclear armed ally. officials deny that osama bin laden was in their country. even though he was hiding near a major pakistani military outpost. an ally that gets offended when american experts raise serious concerns about a nuclear security. one pakistani official saying, quote, of all the things in the world to worry about the issue you should worry about the least is the safety of our nuclear program. the authors find many reasons to wonder whether one day a warhead or nuclear material could fall into the wrong hands. weapon components they report are sometimes moved around the country in vans like these with little or no security surrounding them. they cite an american intelligence source that says the pakistanis aren't just toting around parts but at times fully assembled war heads. first my conversation with the atlantic's jeffrey goldberg. in terms of its nuclear arsenal, how much confidence should the u.s. have that pakistan, that the arsenal is secure? >> the u.s. should have confidence that the people around the nuclear arsenal are among the best pakistan has to offer. they have a very professional service guarding the nukes. the problem is twofold. one, pakistan itself is not a stable place. and what the deep american worry is, is that the state, itself, will disintegrate. a second worry is that we have seen repeatedly that the pakistani military, pakistani intelligence services, are penetrated by people who are sympathetic or outright members of organizations like the taliban and so when you're for instance moving nuclear weapons from one place to another which is how the pakistanis hide them from among others the americans, when you're moving those, if you have someone inside who is going to tell you, you know, at so and so hour and so and so road there is a truck with fissile material that can be used for say a dirty bomb you have a real problem. that's what people worry about. >> you've learned information about how they are moving their nuclear arsenal. >> like any country with a nuclear arsenal they have multiple ways they can move these devices and components of these devices from place to place. the pakistanis have chosen when they're moving. not to go with a high profile, heavily armored sort of convoy presence on the roads. what they do is they use subterfuge or camouflage. they will put a war head or fissile material or sometimes they will put complete tactical nuclear warheads when they're moving together which is very significant and dangerous. they will put them in the equivalent of delivery vans and drive them on certain routes from base to base. >> they're putting a tactical nuclear war head in essentially a delivery van? >> there is no other way to say it, yeah. >> particularly in a country where there have been attacks in allegedly secure cities. there have been assassination attempts that clearly seem to indicate some level of inside knowledge. >> right after the abadabad raid that killed osama bin laden there was a raid on a pakistani naval base outside karachi that the taliban figures who got into this base held it for about 18 hours. i mean, that means they raided it and successfully held off security for 18 hours. they are very professional. when i spoke to people in pakistan about this there was an assumption that these guys in this naval base operation had inside help. how else would they have known how to secure a very complicated, very large naval base? >> you also report that the u.s. has very specific contingency plans about what to do in the event they do lose control of a device or devices and it involves a heavy military presence on the ground. >> right. this is one of the areas that is most contentious between pakistan and the u.s. pakistanis believe that the u.s. wants to seize the nukes preemptively. the u.s. would of course like pakistan to be nuclear free but it has no plans of going in there and just taking the nukes. but the u.s. is worried about disintegration of the state, about taliban being able to go steal a nuke or steal some nuclear material. and so there are a lot of plans on the shelves. different components of the u.s. military have different plans to go in if necessary and go secure these nukes and it's obviously a -- it's one of the most sensitive things that the u.s. military might be called upon to do. >> do they know how many nukes there are? >> that's one of the problems. one of the problems is the u.s. only has an approximate guess. it is believed pakistan has somewhere between a hundred and 120 different nuclear devices. now of course when the nuclear devices are kept separate, it becomes even more complicated. another thing, it is believed by nuclear nonproliferation experts and u.s. intelligence pakistanis are trying to grow their nuclear arsenal and build more nukes. >> a fascinating article. thank you. >> thank you. more on the implications now. here is myzakaria, editor at large for "time" magazine and fran townsend. the idea of lightly armed trucks driving around with nuclear weapons inside in pakistan is pretty terrifying. >> it is, anderson though when i was in the white house i traveled to governments around the world who took the position that they were better off in these small convoys that were lightly protected. now, what you hope they have are perimeter security. that is people off the van who are traveling with it, watching it, and securing it from a distance. and you also hope that they're not what they call mated weapons, not completely put together ready-to-go weapons. that you're moving them at least in pieces or just the fissile material without the warhead. >> how possible is it that a nuclear weapon or nuclear device in pakistan could fall into the wrong hands? >> oh, look. we've seen attacks on convoys against our troops and coalition forces in afghanistan. they're perfectly capable and an organization that is able to attack the naval base in karachi and hold it for 15 to 18 hours until the pakistani military gets control of it is certainly capable of taking control of an unarmed van. so it's a real concern. >> you've said i think in the past that it seems like the pa

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