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Cain Blames Perry for Scandal; Herman Cain's Deepening Scandal; Greece's Government Nears Collapse; International View of Greece Crisis; Oakland Protest Turns Violent; Cain Accuser Wants Story Told; Texas Judge Beats Daughter on Video; Asteroid Fly-by Next Tuesday; Butt Grab Heard Around Iran

Aired November 03, 2011 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, guys. Thanks so much.

And we do begin this morning with new developments in the Herman Cain harassment scandal. Today the attorney from one of the alleged victims says that he will ask Cain's former employer to actually lift that confidentiality agreement so she can break her silence. She wants to issue a written statement contradicting Cain's claims that he did nothing improper. Meanwhile the stress on the presidential candidate, as you can see, is showing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me say one thing. I'm here with these doctors and that's what I'm going to talk about so don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about. OK? Don't even bother. Excuse me. Excuse me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And Cain is not just snapping at reporters. In an extraordinary twist, his campaign is now lashing out at Republican rival Rick Perry. It says that a Perry campaign adviser actually leaked the decade-old allegations.

Gloria Borger actually just spoke with the man who's the target of Cain's finger-pointing.

And, Gloria, Curt Anderson is accused of leaking the sexual harassment allegations. You asked him directly.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Did he leak the info, but it was interesting, he sort of danced around your direct question for a while and then finally kind of got to it.

BORGER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But he still said it in a very interesting way. BORGER: Well, he came out quite directly and wanted, in fact, to talk to me on the air to clear his name, essentially, and say he was not the leaker. I think you ought to -- just take a listen to what he said and how he said it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: Are you the leaker?

CURT ANDERSON, RICK PERRY ADVISER: On to your -- no, no. Well, there's two problems with that. One is, I didn't know anything about this. And so it's hard to leak something that you don't know anything about, of course. The second problem with it is this. If someone tells you something in confidence, a family member, a friend, a candidate, a client, and then you go out and blab it to other people, that's just unethical. And that's not the way I live my life. But that's sort of immaterial in this instance because I didn't know anything about any of this.

BORGER: So you're saying that that conversation never took place?

ANDERSON: That's correct. I don't have any knowledge of any of this and, you know, it's just -- it's just not true.

BORGER: So were you saying Herman Cain is lying?

ANDERSON: Well, I'm not here to add any more name calling to what's already a mess --

BORGER: My characterization, though.

ANDERSON: Yes --

BORGER: Is he not telling the truth?

ANDERSON: I'm not going to, you know, attack him in any sort of personal way or anything. I will say this. This has been -- you know, he's in a tough spot and it's very rough and candidates when they get into a firestorm like this have -- you know, sometimes come unraveled. And, you know, it seems to me that they're kind of grasping at straws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: It's interesting, Gloria, he didn't say, yes. Herman Cain is lying. Or, as you put it --

BORGER: Well --

PHILLIPS: -- yes, Herman Cain is not telling the truth.

BORGER: He -- he said the conversation never took place.

PHILLIPS: OK.

BORGER: Which means that Herman Cain is lying. He didn't want to use the word lying. I told him, I said, OK.

PHILLIPS: It's a strong word. Yes.

BORGER: It's my characterization, not his. But he said the conversation never took place. So you have a he said/he said situation. But what I thought was kind of interesting was he kept saying that he admires Herman Cain and he likes Herman Cain, and this doesn't -- the sexual harassment charges don't sound like the Herman Cain that he knows, but then in that clip that you showed, when I asked sort of what's the motivation, he said, well, sometimes this happens when a campaign gets unraveled.

So what he was doing was criticizing the Cain campaign, essentially, saying that they're grasping at straws, that this was a diversionary tactic, and that's why --

PHILLIPS: The campaign is saying what it did.

BORGER: Exactly, exactly. Because they want to take the pressure off of themselves. And so he was willing to share that with us. But he did say conversation never happened.

PHILLIPS: Well, we definitely were wanting to hear from him. You got it. And the interview --

BORGER: I want to thank Mark Preston.

PHILLIPS: Did he make that happen?

BORGER: Who actually was the one who made it happen, absolutely.

PHILLIPS: That's our Mark Preston. Great job, Gloria, thanks so much.

BORGER: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Meanwhile, as early as today we could hear from one of Herman Cain's accusers.

Joe Johns, we may actually hear more about one of the women at some time today, right? What do you know?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, maybe. Look, Joel Bennett is the lawyer for one of the women at the center of this controversy. And there had been some hope and speculation, Kyra, that she might go public to clear the air, tell us specifically what behavior Herman Cain did that she was complaining about, that apparently led to a settlement something like a dozen years ago.

However, Mr. Bennett, the lawyer, had a long talk with his client last night and now he's saying she doesn't want to go public, she doesn't want to become an Anita Hill-type figure, won't be doing any interviews.

Though, Bennett, the attorney, now says he's going to ask the National Restaurant Association to approve some type of statement being drafted in his client's words -- I think that's the most important thing -- to be released to the media and this is important, of course, because there's a confidentiality agreement, nondisclosure agreement, remember, we also call it.

We've been talking about it for days. The woman -- the client apparently signed this with the National Restaurant Association as part of a settlement. So this current avenue apparently is to try to put something out there that's written that the client wants to put on the record without her actually having to step into the limelight.

Meanwhile more on the finger-pointing. You already talked to Gloria a little bit about that. The question is, who leaked the story? The Cain camp said it was the Perry camp. The Perry camp says, no way. In fact, Rick Perry just told Redstate.com a little while ago, nobody in this campaign knew anything about it.

You know about Curt Anderson. Just talked about him. There's another guy named Chris Wilson who is an Oklahoma political consultant actually doing polling for a political action committee that supports Perry's campaign. Chris Wilson says he personally witnessed Cain engaging in inappropriate conduct toward a woman while Cain was head of the National Restaurant Association and -- let's just listen to the tape and hear what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WILSON, FORMER POLLSTER, NATIONAL RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: I was actually around a couple of times when this happened. It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place. So many people were aware of her situation and the fact that she left after this. That it was -- it was a -- everybody knew at the campaigns -- with every campaign, that this would eventually come up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Chris Wilson, of course, also denies leaking the story about Cain to "Politico." So we still have a case of who done it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, it shall continue. We'll keep talking about it, Joe, thanks.

And you can also hear Rick Perry's reaction to Herman Cain's charges tonight on CNN. John King actually has an interview with Governor Perry. That's "JOHN KING, USA" tonight, 6:00 Eastern on CNN.

All right, now a financial crisis that's hitting home for every single American. You want to pay attention to what's happening right now at the G-20 economic summit. That's where our Ali Velshi is.

Ali, just moments ago, you're hearing that it's possible Greece's government could be toppled at any moment and we know if that happens that comes all the way back to us and our pocketbooks right here in the U.S.

ALI VELSHI, ANCHOR, CNN'S AMERICAN MORNING: Yes. This is a -- look, it's a complicated story. Let me draw it out for you. Generally speaking, many of our viewers would let a G-20 meeting come and go and wouldn't have much to do with it. Here's the important part.

Last night before the G-20 started, the head of the -- the German chancellor and the French president asked George Papandreou, the prime minister of Greece, to come here to Cannes. They sat with him for two and a half hours and they basically said this. He has called for a referendum on this European rescue plan that was agreed on last week.

It wasn't supposed to go on a referendum. The Greek parliament was supposed to approve it and it was supposed to happen. They said to him, if this thing fails, that is basically going to mean Greece gets removed from the euro zone. There are 17 countries that use the euro, they may not want Greece involved.

He flew back to Athens, had an emergency cabinet meeting, he's in it right now. And the reporting out there which we are trying to confirm is that when that meeting is over, the prime minister of Greece is going to go to the president's office.

Now prime ministers and presidents in parliamentary democracies don't visit each other for tea. If you go to the president's office, it means either you're calling an election, the government is being dissolved, or you are resigning. So it is likely that one of those three things is happening very, very shortly.

Now the impact of this is that if this European deal doesn't go through, it adds more uncertainty to this European crisis, it could weaken the European economy. Europe as a whole is America's biggest trading partner. As Europe weakens, Europeans have less money to spend on goods from elsewhere in the world, including goods made by Americans or products or services made by Americans, which could cost us jobs in America.

It's obviously had an impact on the stock market. We're looking at a shaky open this morning while we wait for this to go on. So what is going on? It's very strange because it was thousands of years ago that Greece was the most influential nation in the world and once again today the 32nd biggest economy in the world, Greece, is the most important country in the world.

What happens in Greece today, Kyra, is going to affect everybody in the world. So we're waiting to find out what is happening, when that cabinet meeting ends, what the prime minister is doing, who's going to be in charge of Greece.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll talk more about how the crisis could impact our markets, our banks. And Ali, we are standing by for that.

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Zain Verjee, it's interesting, you know, how we're covering this, the European media is also covering the Greek crisis, and you've been monitoring that. What's your take?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, let's take a look straight away at some of the headlines and what they're saying today as this crisis unfolds in Greece. We're waiting with bated breath to see what exactly happens and whether or not the government will collapse.

The "International Herald Tribune" has this headline, "No continent is an island." It's actually a guest editorial from Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, who says, "No one should be lulled into a false sense of complacency. The euro summit called to bring a lasting solution to a three-year crisis may have brought little more than a short breathing space."

The "Daily Telegraph" in the UK. "The euro tragedy is meeting its bloody end." It's an opinion piece that says, "We've had the mellow drama, the comic flourishes, the lunatic interludes but there's still no telling how it's all going to end."

The "Australian" has this, "Greek vote a banana republic moment." It's referring to the referendum that Papandreou had wanted. The opinion piece says, "Papandreou's decision is as much about realism as heroics. Whether he'll succeed is highly uncertain, but in the birthplace of democracy, he's right to put the decision to the people."

With this huge political crisis going on right now, Kyra, we don't know if millions of Greeks are going to ever vote on a referendum. The best-case scenario, many analysts are saying right now, is if he resigns and a coalition government takes over, then the referendum gets put off the table and everybody just moves ahead with the plan to bail out as it was supposed to go.

Greece gets the tranche of money and later on there could be elections. But there's a degree of stability now. But we don't know what will happen -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes. And we're watching it. Zain, thanks so much.

Well, back here at home, Oakland is hoping to reopen its shipping port after it was overrun by protesters from the "Occupy" movement. Police actually fired tear gas on the crowd, as you can see here, after some of the protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks at officers.

CNN's Dan Simon is there.

Dan, a little calmer this morning.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, but take a look at this. This is an example of the damage that we're seeing in downtown Oakland. We're in front of a men's warehouse. You can see the smashed window. I have the rock actually that was used to smash this window and also on the sidewalk, we're seeing remnants of some of the tear gas canisters that were used on some of these protesters.

And we should mention that yesterday this was a very calm event, a very peaceful event, then at about 12:30 this morning a small band of these protesters, and we're talking maybe a few dozens of them, they were -- they were bent on creating violence here in downtown Oakland, inciting the police, setting off fireworks, starting small fires, spray-painting graffiti, breaking windows. And so the police had to respond and they had to use force to get some of these protesters under control. But it was -- it was a crazy night, but it was the end of a very peaceful event. As we said that -- you know, you saw these protesters close the port of Oakland, but we didn't see any violence there.

It was only until, you know, you had nightfall and some of these protesters came out and were intent on inciting police -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Dan Simon, we will follow things there in Oakland as the sun rises.

Meanwhile, one of the women accusing Herman Cain of sexual harassment wants her side of the story told. But a confidentiality agreement is keeping her quiet.

Coming up, a sexual harassment lawyer explains how exactly -- what it would take to break that contract.

And this is going to outrage you. A Texas family court judge beating his daughter after she taped it and posted it online.

Coming up, you'll see the video that already has more than a million and a half clicks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking stories across country now.

Six days after the freak October snowstorm that nailed the Northeast, folks in Simsbury, Connecticut, are fed up with feeling powerless. The town is threatening to sue the company now that's been unable to restore electricity.

Meet the newest hero of Corsicana, Texas. Officer Dan Putnam was awarded the Medal of Valor for going into a burning house to save this 3-year-old Jayden Jones. Looks like each of them have a new life-long friend now.

And Massachusetts lieutenant governor went out for coffee and a paper, but instead, Tim Murray found a patch of black ice and nearly totaled his state-issued car. He's OK, but it reassure his constituents, he asked for a breathalyzer test at the crash scene and, yes, he passed.

Well, one of the women accusing Herman Cain of sexual harassment wants her story told. But, for now a confidentiality agreement is keeping her quiet. That could change today. We're waiting to see if her lawyer will be allowed to release a statement from her today.

Deborah Kelly is an attorney specializing in sexual harassment. She's in New York.

Deborah, you know, this accuser --

DEBORAH KELLY, EMPLOYMENT LAW ATTORNEY: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Good morning -- wants to stay anonymous but still wants to tell her story through a statement.

So, what exactly needs to be done in order to break this confidentiality deal?

KELLY: It depends upon what's in the confidentiality deal itself. And I think they're being very cautious because often these agreements include two pieces. One, confidentiality, I'm not going to talk about, that there was an agreement, the terms of the agreement. And the other a non-disparagement, meaning, I'm not going to say anything bad about you.

And there are penalties if you breach one of those agreements and it could be, give me back all the money that I gave you when I first settled the case or it could be worse, which is give me x sum of money in what we call liquidated damages if you don't give you what I bought.

And, basically, what companies do all the time with this severance agreement is they're buying peace. They're saying peace costs less than victory. I don't have to hire a lawyer, I don't have to suffer all the reputational damage. I'm just going to write a check and move on with my life.

And if people talk about it after you pay the check, you haven't purchased the peace that you intended in the first place. So, I think that's why Joe Bennett is being properly very cautious because he doesn't want it to look like his client has engaged in a breach with all the attendant fallout.

PHILLIPS: Now, Herman Cain has already talked about this incident. He didn't name her, but he's talked about the incident. Isn't the contract already broken then?

KELLY: It depends -- it is. But generally -- without making your listeners do a face plant as I talk about contract law -- generally, the principle is if someone breaches, it releases the other party from complying with that aspect. So, if he trash talks her, she ought to be able to trash talk him.

Now, the question is, has he trash talked her? We don't know who she is. He's certainly tip toeing up to the line when he starts saying things like false allegations and in some reports there's been comments that issues were discussed regarding the person's job performance. So, I think her position would be, hey, you breached first. I don't have to stay silent while you do victory laps. You didn't even let me engage in this race. So, I get to speak up.

PHILLIPS: So, Deborah, what does a $35,000 settlement say about the severity of this alleged harassment?

KELLY: I know this is not a popular sentence, but in the world of a corporate culture, allegations of some sort of discrimination happen all the time. It doesn't mean that the discrimination actually occurred and the company does a "dollars in, dollars out" assessment, and it's just often less expensive to pay it out and go along. Thirty-five thousand dollars is not that much money and employment lawyers all the time settle cases, settle matters, write checks based upon demand letters. And as long as you're not in the six-figure range -- of course, it depends upon the company. It's a percentage of how much money the company has, but $35,000 isn't an -- oh, my God, something really bad had to happen figure at all. In fact, in many companies, that's a nuisance value settlement.

PHILLIPS: Deborah Kelly, attorney specializing in sexual harassment, great perspective from you this morning. Appreciate it, Deborah.

KELLY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Greece's government may be near collapse and that will affect your wallet. We're watching live as the stock market opens.

And former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finally talk about Moammar Gadhafi's fixation on her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, CNN'S "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Quite extraordinary.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, quite extraordinary, and weird and a bit creepy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Not to mention, Gadhafi's music video montage of her. We'll have the details next in NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Moammar Gadhafi is dead, buried, but certainly not forgotten. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hasn't forgotten either. Matter of fact, she's talking about the late Libyan's dictator's big crush on her.

CNN's Zain Verjee live in London with more on this story.

Zain, you and have talked about this in the past. I mean, you used to work there at the State Department, and you kind of wondered if she was going to reveal details about this, considering how awkward it was.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, now she has. And, yes, it's kind of juicy. You know, Moammar Gadhafi had a big crush on her and he once expressed his admiration by just saying he really loved the way that Condoleezza Rice just leaned back and gave orders to Arab leaders. He said, "Leza, Leza, Leza," he would say.

But this is something that is pretty interesting. Condoleezza Rice in her new book said essentially when she went to Libya and got to the meeting that she was having with Moammar Gadhafi, she hoped it was all business and all diplomacy. And, all of a sudden, he said, "I want to show you something." She thought, it was a videotape montage of her full of pictures of her with different world leaders.

Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Quite extraordinary.

RICE: Yes, quite extraordinary, and weird and a bit creepy. I had actually known that he had this fixation on me. A couple foreign minister friends had told me and, also, a couple of my staff.

And so, I was going to Libya, my job was to go there. He had given up his weapons of mass destruction. He had paid reparations to the families of the victims of his terrorist acts. It was my job to go there, do a little bit of diplomatic business and get out.

And, so, that's what I did. But I have to say, I did have that terrible moment when he said that he had the videotape. I am just glad that it all came out all right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: She also said, Kyra, that she was glad it wasn't raunchy. She had a sigh of relief when she saw it and actually, someone to compose a tune along with the pictures and he called the song "black flower in the White House." And then he asked her to sing some of the lines from this little ditty and she said, no.

PHILLIPS: Zain, you just can't make this stuff up. It's just -- it's too good. Zain, thank you.

All right, on a much more serious note, Greece -- you know, it's the world's 32nd largest economy, but its troubles are having a huge impact on markets.

Right here, Christine Romans joining us live.

And, Christine, we have been talking about it all morning just to bring people up to date that might just be tuning in. You've got this emergency meeting going on, major crisis for the Eurozone. If the prime minister of Greece does resign, like we're hearing, this is going to not only impact Europe, but that impacts us and our banks and our markets.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Totally. I mean, it all -- it seems almost amazing that a country so small a shipping and tourism country that is part of the European Union, just one of the 17 countries, could hold so much of the world hostage. But it really does here.

And the internal politics of what's going on with Greece has an awful lot to do with how well the U.S. recovers. You don't have to stretch the thread too far to make that connection because you've got Europe. It is the largest destination -- area destination for U.S. exports. Europe is barely growing. They're very concerned about a banking and financial crisis there all because of Greece. They thought they had this problem solve would the European debt deal and then the Greek prime minister says we're going to put this up to a vote by the Greek people throwing the whole thing in doubt, making all the European leaders angry, G-20 is just abuzz with how this thing is falling apart, and the United States recovery just showing some signs of being true. You've got a U.S. number today on jobless claims that fell below 400,000, that's a good sign. We're expecting maybe tomorrow the official job's report will show more than 100,000 jobs created.

If Europe sinks, it will take the U.S. down with it. That's why what's happening, what's happening in Greek politic matters to all of us right now.

Futures, I will tell you, are up 128 points, all being driven by rumor. I wouldn't focus too much on the intraday move of stocks today. It's all being driven by rumors out of that G-20 meeting and out of Athens about whether Greece is going to drop that call for a referendum, whether the prime minister is going to resign, form some kind of new government, just what exactly is happening there and will they get this debt deal back on track -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Bottom line, you hit it right there: Greece sinks, so do we.

ROMANS: Yes.

PHILLIPS: And the markets are going to open in just about two minutes, Christine. So, we're standing by, we're watching that, and we'll talk to you again. Appreciate it.

Meanwhile, a Texas judge beats his screaming teenage daughter while the camera's rolling. It's gut-wrenching, I have to tell you.

But the video has gone viral and has gone viral for a reason. It's been on leak a week now -- or online rather for a week now and already gotten more than 1.5 million clicks. You'll see it and we're going to talk about the entire story right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now:

Herman Cain wants an apology from rival presidential candidate Rick Perry. Cain said a consultant tied to Perry's campaign leaked the story about sexual harassment claims against him. The Perry aide denies it.

President Obama is joining other heads of state at the two-day G-20 meetings in France. The leaders will be focusing on a European plan to bail out Greece.

And the CDC says 29 people have now died from listeria-tainted cantaloupe. That outbreak traced to a Colorado farm has sickened 139 people across the country. Well, a Texas judge admits that a video of him whipping his daughter with a belt is real. He says he's sorry. He lost his temper. But the video's gone viral on YouTube with more than 1.5 million clicks and now police are investigating.

We're going to show you just a few clips and talk about it afterwards. And I want to warn you, though -- parts of this are really disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM ADAMS, TEXAS JUDGE: Bend over that bed. Bend over that bed.

HILLARY ADAMS, DAUGHTER: Dad.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): The video is difficult to watch. It shows a Texas father punishing his 16-year-old daughter for using the computer to download video games. But that father, William Adams, is a Texas judge who handles, among other things, family and juvenile cases.

This happened seven years ago in 2004. And the now, 23-year-old daughter, Hillary Adams, posted it online. It's been viewed more than a million times. The outrage is causing Judge Adams to leave his post, temporarily. A visiting judge will take over his case load.

Judge Adams could face criminal charges. Police and the Texas Rangers are investigating.

CHIEF TIM JAYROE, ROCKPORT, TEXAS POLICE: We need to see the original video. We're always concerned with seeing an original when possible.

PHILLIPS: Phones at the Aransas County courthouse have been ringing off the hook. A fellow judge says the video is disturbing and surprising.

C.H. MILLS, ARANSAS COUNTY JUDGE: Observing him in court, you would never think that he had some kind of temper.

PHILLIPS: Judge Adams admits, it's him in the video.

W. ADAMS: In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing and I did lose my temper, but I've since apologized. It looks worse than it is. There is a story, it will come out in due time.

PHILLIPS: In a Twitter post her daughter says, "I'm feeling some regret for publishing the video because to ruin my own father is heavy, indeed."

She tells Corpus Christi TV station KRIS --

H. ADAMS: I'm very relieved that these things were brought to light, and not because I want to see my father burn or anything like that, that's a hideous way of thinking and I don't want to inflict that upon him. I just -- I cannot stress it enough. I can't repeat myself enough that he just needs help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Sunny Hostin is legal contributor for "In Session" on TruTV. She's also a former federal prosecutor.

Sunny, he's a family court judge, someone who makes decisions about other people's families. My guess is you're going to say he should be fired.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There's no question about it. I mean, when I looked at the tape and we just showed a small part, this goes on for seven minutes.

There's no question in my mind, Kyra, that this is child abuse. It's pretty clear. I prosecuted crimes against children. In my view, a crime did occur.

The problem here is that the statute of limitations has run. In Texas, it's only five years. This happened about six years ago. She was 16 at that time. She's now 22.

So, the criminal charges, I think, are unlikely. But what can be done is that he can be removed from this post. He's an elected official. I believe he's up for re-election in three years.

But there is that Texas Judicial Commission and they are charged, Kyra, with making sure that their judges aren't breaking the law, that their judges are a good representation of our society, and that their judges are doing the right thing. And so, there's no question in my mind that something must be done about someone that beats his daughter on videotape and after everyone sees it says, it's not as bad as it looks.

I mean, if this is the person that, indeed, the family court judge that determines whether or not children should stay in homes, whether or not parents are fit, this is not the person that has the appropriate judicial demeanor and temperament and discretion for that type of post.

PHILLIPS: So, if you were to take this case because you've had background with this, what would be your first step? What would you do right now?

HOSTIN: My first step would be to remove the child from the home. I mean, no question about it. I mean, you would open up a full blown investigation.

My concern is that there is another younger daughter that this judge has. Apparently, she is in the custody of her mother, but there are some, there is some information out there that he wants to try to change visitation and perhaps get custody of that daughter.

I would certainly, if I were the prosecutor on this case, be concerned about that.

PHILLIPS: We're definitely going to follow it. They actually spoke on "Today" show, the daughter and the mom, both of them talking about abuse. So, we'll follow it and see what happens. It's definitely disturbing video. Sunny, thanks.

Well, still ahead, we're going to tell you how close your brush with an aircraft-size asteroid will be next week.

And next, Justin Bieber responding to a paternity suit alleging he's the father of a 3-month-old baby boy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: "Showbiz Headlines" now:

And Justin Bieber is being sued by a woman who says he is the father of her baby. The teen idol hasn't spoken public about the claim but he did send out a tweet.

"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT"'s A.J. Hammer has all the details. What did he say, A.J.?

A.J. HAMMER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" HOST: Well, he's not addressing it directly, Kyra. But the Bieb is tweeting that he wants to just focus on his music right now. He actually has a new album of Christmas songs called "Under the Mistletoe" releasing today. And, look, it just got an extra plug because we're talking about him, even though the news isn't so good.

But he has taken to Twitter. Here's what he's saying. "All the rumors and gossip, I'm going to focus on the positives, the music." He's actually tweeted that message a couple times now.

As for this paternity suit, well, don't expect to see official court documents from this case, they're not going to go public because of Bieber's age at the time of the alleged incident. He was only 16 when a then 19-year-old Mariah Yeater alleges the pair had sex in the backstage bathroom, getting her pregnant with her son. And their age difference, by the way, also means Yeater could potentially face criminal charges for having sex with a minor. But, we don't know if it's going to go down that road just yet.

We're starting to see some stories surface, as well, about her having money issues, including reports she was on food stamps when she allegedly had sex with Bieber.

This kind of paternity suits against celebrities is certainly nothing new. And last night, I actually spoke with Nick Cannon last night, host of "America's Got Talent," husband of Mariah Carey, who's been in the public eye for a very long time.

So, I had to ask Nick, how does a star like Bieber deal with this? What should they do? Watch what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK CANNON, ACTOR: Keep your family close to you more than anything. Justin Bieber has an outstanding family and a good support system around him. So, you know, I've known Justin since he was a preteen and the kid actually does have his head on straight. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Well, Cannon also told me he hopes these allegations are not true and I think, Kyra, all the Bieber fans certainly are hoping the same thing.

PHILLIPS: I know. We hope it's not true.

All right. "Kate plus 8" plus a job.

HAMMER: Yes, Kate Gosselin's got a new gig. She's blogging about coupons. And, really, when you have the family the size of Kate Gosselin's, only makes sense to know your coupons. Her blog is going to appear on CouponCabin.com starting November 22nd. And look, the hire is working for them. I just give them a mention. She's going to be posting about holiday shopping tips, gift ideas and how to stretch a budget for a very large family.

And, you know, I'm thinking, when Kate Gosselin is talking about a large family, you really do have to take that as expert advice. Now, Gosselin announced the news on Coupon Cabin, where she says, "No matter what your financial situation is, there is no reason not to use coupons. It's like free money in your pocket."

So, perhaps, Kyra, Kate has found her new calling. Are you a coupon clipper?

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. I won't lie, it wasn't until I had twins and now I'm a fierce coupon clipper.

A.J., you can save a lot of money, really. A lot of two for ones. You know?

HAMMER: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, A.J. All right.

HAMMER: Kate Gosselin says, it's like money in your pocket.

PHILLIPS: That's right, it is. Right there.

All right. Well, A.J. is going to be back next hour. He's going to be talking about this controversy over the Canadian rock band Nickelback. Apparently performing during the half-time on Thanksgiving Day, but some fans say they want an American act, instead. A.J. is going to talk about it next hour.

And one programming note: Herman Cain says Rick Perry's campaign leaked the sexual harassment allegations that we've been talking about all week. Well, you can hear Rick Perry's reaction. He's going to talk to our John King. He actually sat down with Perry in Iowa. You can see it 6:00 Eastern, tonight, on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Checking stories cross country now.

In the tiny Indiana town of Bethany Park, the upcoming city election is pitting brother against brother. It looks like Charles and Walt Whirly will be running against each other to be a member of the city council. All 46, yes 46 registered voters will choose which Whirly will represent them.

And residents of Denver, Colorado, digging out from their second snow storm of the season. Another ten inches of snow greeted the Mile High City yesterday morning. They got hit with six inches just last week.

And near Birmingham, Alabama, a vending machine that's a cut above the rest. It's called a Smart Butcher. It actually allows customers to buy steak, sausage, even a tenderloin with cash, credit or a debit card.

Well scientists have a chance to check out an aircraft size asteroid that is expected to do a fly by, well, past earth, I guess next Tuesday.

Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf has the low down. OK what's the deal?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: OK, the thing that is scary about it is not just the size, which as you mention, the size of a Nimitz aircraft carrier, it's going to come fairly close to the earth. Believe it or not it's going to come within 201,000 miles of Planet Earth and it seems like it is a far away, away but that's actually closer than the orbit of the moon around the earth.

Let's give you a shot of what this thing looks like. Not too impressive for the time being, but that is it. As I mentioned the size of a Nimitz's Class Aircraft Carrier and the way we're able to observe this, a couple ways. We use these radio telescopes and this one happens to be in Puerto Rico, kind of interesting to see.

This one you have over here. The (INAUDIBLE) is actually from the Mojave Desert of California. This thing is so incredibly effective it can get an object, take a peek at an object some 10 billion miles away from Planet Earth. So pretty amazing stuff.

Let me show you this animation that we have from NASA. And as we pop this up, you're going to get an idea. You'll see of course the earth which is right in the middle and then you see that line that darts right from screen down. That's the path it's going to take.

It is not expected to make contact with Planet Earth, but I'll tell you if it were to, say it strike the ocean, Pacific, the Atlantic, it could make an impact that would cause a 7.0 earthquake or possibly at the same time create a tsunami that would be up to 70 feet in height and spread out well, about some 60 miles from its impact zone. So pretty interesting.

The good thing is again, not expected to hit Planet Earth but it's going to make another pass a little bit closer in the year 2092. I think we're going to be OK. Maybe your grand kids might have some issues, maybe great-grandkids.

PHILLIPS: OK thanks Reynolds.

WOLF: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Wow, you're thinking away far ahead.

WOLF: Long term. You bet.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Well, a young football player doesn't let a wheelchair stop him from scoring a touchdown. Wait until you hear about this inspiring story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Stories making news later today.

AT 2:15 Eastern in Mass., there's a detention hearing for the man accused of trying to blow up the Pentagon with remote controlled airplane loaded with explosives.

Then at 2:20 Eastern in Cannes, France dinner time for leaders of the G-20 economic summit.

And at 6:30 this evening Washington Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman will be honored at the 2011 American Patriot Award.

We're covering all kinds of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in first with Mark Preston. Hey Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Kyra, you know Herman Cain yesterday accused a former campaign aide of leaking information that Cain allegedly sexually harassed two former employees. Well, that aide is now speaking to CNN in his first interview. I'll have more at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans in New York, following developments in Greece of course and what that means for stocks but also following developments in the banking fee arena.

Yes, I have new bank fees for you. One bank in particular raising fees by $24 a month. I'll tell you more about that at the top of the hour.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Simon. More violence in Oakland, California, smashed windows. Fires. Police respond. We'll tell you about it at the top of the hour.

PHILLIPS: All right, guys thanks.

Also next hour, John Carlos knows about protests. At the top of his career with the whole world watching, he and a teammate thrust fist in the air. It was black power at the Olympics medal ceremony. But John Carlos paid a heavy price for that move. Now 43 years later, he's backing another protest. Occupy Wall Street. He'll tell us why next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about sports, shall we?

The Toronto Maple Leafs plan to test Marty Brodeur since the Devils goalie was coming back from an injury and the Leafs' Joffrey Lupul, really prepped him or pepped him, rather. Lupul scored three goals, there you go, just over seven minutes.

It's the first time a Toronto player, by the way, has scored a hat tricks in one period in 31 years. Lupul says it was special. He'll do it against a goalie, who's going to the hall of fame on day. The Leafs beat New Jersey, 5-3.

All right. Tennessee Women's Basketball Pat Summitt has a friend in Nancy Reagan. Summitt tells ABC's "20/20", the former first lady wrote her, saying, quote "I heard about your diagnosis of dementia and just I wanted to reach out and tell you it's going to be OK." President Reagan, as you remember had Alzheimer's.

Meanwhile Coach Summitt says she's not slowing down anytime soon. She's in her 38th season leading those ladies to easily win an exhibition game on Tuesday.

Well, it hasn't been a great football season for the Fairfield Union High School Falcons. However, this one play erased all of that. Fairfield and a rival team returned to the field as the last game ended for this play, a trick play. That young man in the wheelchair took the handoff and he went in for a touchdown. Trenton has muscular dystrophy and despite that the senior was elected to be team captain and has been at the coach's side for every single practice and every single game.

Two Iranian soccer players are in a bit trouble for their version of the old pat on the butt celebration. Of course, Jeanne Moos has the score.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Giving your teammates a hand to celebrate does not include a hand on the butt, not in Iran. Call it a fanny pat, goosing, a bottom pinch, a butt squeeze -- it's called immoral in Iran.

Iran's most popular team, Persepolis, was celebrating a goal. Apparently it's OK to kiss, but don't try this. Yikes. Number 13 jumped. So did the video to YouTube. In slow motion and with a helpful arrow, number 13 was also seen giving not quite as good as he got, a more subtle butt grab, but nonetheless caught on camera.

The two bottom pinchers got more than a spanking. The Iranian Football Federation said both have been banned indefinitely from all football activities for committing immoral acts.

And talk about getting squeezed, each player member was fined almost $40,000. A member of Iran's parliament called it a very ugly thing. Guy on guy contact isn't appreciated there. After all, remember what Iran's president said.

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): And Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country.

MOOS: That got a laugh from the audience at Columbia University.

Here in the U.S., we don't penalized butt grabbing. We honor it. Take, for instance, the 25 greatest butt grabbing moments in sports history, compiled on a blog, more blatant the butt grab, the more popular. There are butt pat's between the sexes and between celebrities, on the stage and in the movies. And on TV --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to have you aboard.

MOOS: On "Friends", even among girlfriends --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never congratulate Monica on a great stew by, you know, grabbing a boob.

MOOS: But even in the West, the butt pat is usually a playful gentle thing. As one person posted about the Iranian players, he was trying to give this guy a colonoscopy.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)