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American Morning

Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal; Woman Posts Video of Father Beating Her; Greece May Reject EU Bailout Package; Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal

Aired November 03, 2011 - 08:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Herman Cain continues to deny sexual harassment allegations that are stacking up around him. A third former employee has now come forward. But the Cain camp says the scandal is the work of a bitter political rival.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Tear gas, fireworks, broken windows, dozens of arrests -- Occupy Wall Street protesters in Oakland. It gets ugly over night all over again -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you. It is Thursday, November 3rd. Ali Velshi is at the G-20 Summit in France. We'll take him live there in just a bit.

ROMANS: Up first, though, the growing threat to Herman Cain's campaign for presidency. A third woman, reportedly, says that Cain engaged in inappropriate behavior in the 1990s, around the same time the two co-workers at the National Restaurant Association settled harassment complaints against him.

COSTELLO: And as the scandal grows, it looks like the Republican frontrunner is starting to lose his patience with the press.

(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 these other questions that you all are curious, OK? Don't even bother.

REPORTER: But are you concerned about the fact that these women --

CAIN: What did I say?

REPORTER: Are you concerned about --

CAIN: Excuse me. Excuse me! What part of "no" don't some people understand?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cain says he's the victim of an appalling smear campaign and his camp points the finger directly at Rick Perry's people.

CNN's Joe Johns following developments for us. Joe is live in Washington.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

It's a bunch of finger-pointing and denials quite frankly. The search for whoever leaked the story has entered a new phase. Politically, this is a question that matters, especially since a lot of conservatives actually really have stuck their necks out, saying this is all a plot to discredit Cain.

And now, the Cain campaign has begun blaming the Rick Perry campaign of leaking the story publicly -- which I have to point out, Rick Perry himself now personally has responded to this in an interview with RedState.com. Perry said his campaign had nothing to do with it. There was nobody in his campaign who knew anything about it, until they read it in "Politico."

Cain has pointed out there's a guy named Curt Anderson who worked on Cain's unsuccessful campaign for the Senate in 2004. Cain said he briefed this Anderson on the harassment allegations and now Curt Anderson is working for Rick Perry's campaign. But this is odd -- Curt Anderson says he first learned of the story when it was reported in "Politico." Basically, he's saying he is an admirer of Cain, only had nice things to say about him.

Then there's another guy named Chris Wilson, who is an Oklahoma political consultant who's actually doing polling for a political action committee -- follow this -- that supports Perry's campaign. Chris Wilson says he personally witnessed Cain engaging in inappropriate conduct toward a woman while Cain was the head of the restaurant association. Wilson hasn't been real clear about what kind of conduct we're talking about here. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CHRIS WILSON, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: I was actually around a couple 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. In fact, she left after this. That it was -- it was -- everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

JOHNS: Chris Wilson for the also for the record also denies leaking the story about Cain.

Even the Perry campaign, the press spokesman has said they didn't have anything to do with it. "No one in our campaign was involved in this story," they say. "Any claim to the contrary is patently false." They say they first learned about it when it was in "Politico" and that is where a lot of us learned about it.

So, mystery to how this thing got out there, at least so far. But everybody's asking.

COSTELLO: It's like the political version of "As the World Turns Out," isn't it?

JOHNS: Yes, you got it, exactly.

I wrote on my Facebook page, who done it? You know, I mean, who done it?

ROMANS: Go back the guy who said I was around there a couple times when this happened and people knew -- what is the this? That's what I don't understand. What is the this?

JOHNS: Right. That's the most important thing of all. We heard the guy's defense. He's been out there defending himself for days, although he kind of shut up yesterday. The question is, what is he defending himself against?

And we won't know that until at least one of these women comes forward or somebody puts out the papers they signed, something that tells us what were the facts that were at least alleged. And then you'll have a little bit better grasp of the story.

COSTELLO: Joe Johns, thanks.

ROMANS: All right. Coming up in a few minutes, we're going to talk to the Perry campaign adviser Curt Anderson live. He is the man that Herman Cain is blaming for leaking all these allegations in an effort to ruin Cain's presidential campaign.

COSTELLO: And also tonight at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, John King interviews Governor Rick Perry. It will be the first time we hear from Perry on Cain's accusations. So, be sure you don't miss it. That's tonight at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

ROMANS: All right. "Occupy Wall Street" protests getting ugly in Oakland overnight. Thousands in the streets shutting down one of the busiest shipping ports in the country. Couple of businesses were vandalized. Several shops closed their doors. Some, frankly, in solidarity with the protesters.

Police reportedly fired tear gas to break this all up. Dozens of demonstrators were arrested.

COSTELLO: "Occupy Wall Street" protesters in New York City are headed to court today. Seventy-eight people who were arrested back in September will be arraigned. Most of the charges will likely be dismissed. That's pretty much commonplace for first time disorderly conduct arrests.

ROMANS: And more and more Americans are expressing support for this movement. A new ORC poll finds 36 percent of Americans agree with the "Occupy Wall Street" positions. That's up nearly 10 points from last month.

COSTELLO: President Obama arriving in France for the start of the G-20 summit. His first order of business, face-to-face talks with the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sarkozy is already making headlines this morning, warning Greece it will be kicked out of the E.U. if it does not accept a Euro zone bailout package.

ROMANS: And live pictures now from Capitol Hill where there's no end to the mocking and partisan bickering. On Tuesday, the president told reporters he felt the country was better off now than before he took office because of the actions his administration has taken.

Listen to how House Speaker John Boehner reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The president was asked yesterday if American people were better off than they were before he took office. He answered in the affirmative.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Are you kidding me? Why don't you go ask the 14 million Americans who are out of work whether they're better off today than they were four years ago?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: When the president made his remarks, he also admitted a lot more work needed to be done to get the economy back on track.

COSTELLO: Heavy snow hits Colorado, again. Denver saw almost a foot of snow yesterday. Part of Interstate 25 had to be shut down, dozens of flights out of Denver International Airport were canceled, thousands of people lost power. The storm system is said to be heading east now.

ROMANS: So, Reynolds Wolf is in the extreme weather center to tell us more about it. Good morning, Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, again.

It looks like the snow is fizzling out in some places, might see a touch of snowfall near places like Kansas City. But the big thing we're going to see is that it's going to be a rainmaker. A lot of moisture from the skies going down to the surface. Hey, we got some video that's going to share moisture going the opposite direction, coming from the ground up.

Take a look at this. This happened in San Diego. Someone happened to steal this vehicle and made the mistake of backing it over a fire hydrant.

Not really a good choice. First of all, always a bad choice stealing a car. Second of all, putting it right there. In this situation, the force of the water is so strong from the fire hydrant, actually caused the stolen vehicle to actually rise up a bit from the force of the water. Amazing stuff. Not a whole lot of traveling in that car today.

Hey, really tough times for people traveling for people across parts of the Midwest. A lot of slick roadways to say the very least. Thanks to this storm system that you see that stretches over 1,000 miles from north of New England, clear down through parts of the Gulf Coast, everything is going to be sweeping its way to the east. And when it does so, we're going to see some scattered showers and storms in places like say Detroit even into Chicago.

St. Louis and Memphis, some thunderstorms can be expected during the morning and mid-day hours and then wind is really going to kick in into the afternoon. A lot of wind in Dallas may give you some delays around an hour or so. That wind could also cause problems in parts of central and south Texas, along parts of I-35, even into I-10, and even into I-37. Very dry conditions mixed win the strong winds might give you, again, those red flag warnings. Just keep that in mind today.

Keep in mind, it's going to be a comfortable day for you today in Texas -- 68 degrees in Houston, 61 in Dallas; a bit cooler as you might imagine in Denver, 44 the expected high; 60 in San Francisco; 51 in Portland, rain in Seattle -- shocker, I know -- 48 degrees; 55 degrees in Billings; 73 in Los Angeles; 50 in Chicago, watch out for the thunder boomers. Keep, of course, the umbrellas handy.

Sixty-three in Washington, D.C.; 70 in Atlanta; 85 in Miami; 59 in New York; and Boston checking in with 59.

All right, that's your forecast. Time for news with you guys, again. Take it away.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Reynolds. We will.

WOLF: You bet.

COSTELLO: Still ahead on AMERICAN MORNING: a disturbing and graphic video on YouTube sparking international outrage this morning. It shows a father beating his then 16-year-old daughter with a belt.

We won't show it to you right now, but we will show it to you after a break and we'll talk about this issue. The father says he did nothing wrong, but he's a Texas judge who handles child abuse cases. We're discussing that with CNN legal contributor Paul Callan.

ROMANS: Also ahead, remember this, the chatter won't stop. Why Rick Perry's unusually expressive speech in New Hampshire last weekend, it's back in the news today.

COSTELLO: Also coming up next, was one of Rick Perry's campaign advisors behind the sexual harassment allegations leveled against Herman Cain? Cain is pointing the finger blame at one Curt Anderson. We'll talk to Mr. Anderson, himself, when we come back.

It's nine minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Looks so peaceful in Washington right now, doesn't it? It looks pretty beautiful, too -- mostly cloudy, 46 degrees right now. But later on 65.

ROMANS: All right. Welcome back.

Republican frontrunner Herman Cain trying to weather a political storm amid new allegations of sexual harassment. The Cain campaign says these charges are baseless and they accuse one of Rick Perry's key campaign aides of putting this story out there in an effort to bring Cain down.

Joining us now from Washington, CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, with you now is that aide, Curt Anderson.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right.

ROMANS: This is his first TV interview since these allegations were leveled.

BORGER: That's right, Christine.

And so, I'm going to get right to this interview with Curt Anderson. So, let me bring him in.

Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

So, you find yourself in the middle of this fire storm. You went to work for Mr. Cain in 2004, when he was running for the Senate. And he says that he confided in you about sexual harassment charges that he thought might possibly come up in the campaign.

Let me -- let me read you something that he told "Forbes" magazine. He said, quote, "I told him" -- that's you -- "there was only one case, one set of charges, one woman while I was at the National Restaurant Association. Those charges are baseless, but I thought he needed to know about them."

And then he says that you're the leaker. So, we have to ask, are you?

CURT ANDERSON, PERRY CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Well, let me say, first off, something that's going to be sound a little odd to your viewers, but I really like Herman Cain. And, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I remember that campaign in 2004 fondly. He's a great candidate.

BORGER: But he's accusing you of leaking. ANDERSON: Well, you know, he can say what he wants, but I just want to set the record straight that I have tremendous regard for the guy, and I think he's a guy, you know, he's a great conservative leader. He's run a great campaign, and I really enjoy him. You know, you don't enjoy everybody you work with, but I really enjoy the guy. Now --

BORGER: Are you the leaker?

ANDERSON: No, no. Well, there's two problems with that. One is, I didn't know anything about this. 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 not true.

BORGER: So, are you saying Herman Cain is lying?

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

BORGER: My characterization, though, 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 and fishing around trying to figure out what to do and how to get out of this. And it's a lot of stress. I mean, these guys are under tremendous stress in these situations.

And so, they're floundering, and you know, maybe it's a diversionary tactic or something, but I'm not here to discourage Herman. I think he's a tremendous guy, and this is all an unfortunate mess.

BORGER: But you say that maybe they're becoming unraveled. So, what does this tell you about Mr. Cain then under stress as a candidate or a potentially as a president?

ANDERSON: Again, I have great regard for the guy. And I think both he and all the other Republican candidates running would be a great improvement over our current president. I really do believe that. And then, so, I don't have an interest. Here's the thing, the only reason I'm here this morning is this. You don't really have much in this world other than your own integrity and your character.

BORGER: Right.

ANDERSON: And other than that, you may have a house and some cars or something, but I mean, you can't take it with you. And I live my life, you know, as much as I can with simple set of rules, do the right thing, tell the truth. And, so, you know, after I saw this news yesterday, I figured, well, I'm going to have to go out there, and you know, tell the truth. I didn't know anything about this, didn't leak it.

BORGER: Why do you think he fingered you then as the leaker?

ANDERSON: I'm not sure. I think they probably figured it to on diversionary strategy to try to, you know, take them out of the limelight and say, oh, somebody else did it, you know, and I try to, I guess. I mean, I think it's kind of a weak strategy.

The best thing to always do in any circumstance, people in politics get all confused, and they get into tough situations, and then, what they need to do is kind of think back to what my dad used to tell me. Well, when in doubt, tell the truth. Come to think about it, tell the truth all the time.

BORGER: Well, let me ask you this then, you say you didn't leak anything. You're not a public official. Have you thought of taking any legal action against Mr. Cain for some kind of defamation here? I mean, you say all you have is your reputation.

ANDERSON: No, I don't have any interest in anything like that. And I think Herman, if he can get himself back to talking about, you know, the issues and the things that have put him in, I mean, this guy is the front running candidate for the nomination to be president of the United States. And if he can get himself back into gear, I mean, he can recover. But I have no interest in suing anyone or even attacking anybody.

BORGER: So, getting back to the question about why he figured you as the leaker, you, obviously, work for Mr. Perry right now. Mr. Perry would have a lot to gain, obviously, if Mr. Cain drops in the polls. So, is this politically motivated to kind of throw it back at the Perry camp?

ANDERSON: Well, I'm sure it's politically motivated. I mean, you know, that's the kind of the sorry thing about the state of politics we're in. People don't do a lot in terms of just talking about what they really believe. Everything has got a political motive behind it. And, maybe this is convenient for them.

But you know, let me say this, a lot of candidates and Herman included talk about their faith in these issues, and I endorse that. I think that's great. Well, one of the important things there is, you know, the old saying, thou shall not bear false witness. And you have a situation here where Mr. Cain is saying that people are falsely accusing him, and, so, the last thing that he ought to do is falsely accuse somebody else.

BORGER: Let me ask you this. If you never had this conversation with Mr. Cain, you say you never had this conversation with Mr. Cain, have you heard these allegations kind of floating around in the campaigns and as part of sort of campaign opposition research? I mean, are these things you have sort of heard or just totally never heard anything?

ANDERSON: No. I have never heard this stuff. And I would say this, this -- these allegations do not comport to the Herman Cain that I know. And, you know, I said in my statement yesterday, I've always known him as a gentleman and as a guy of strong character. So, no.

BORGER: So, now, the Cain campaign says that you and the Perry campaign, who's categorically denied this, your candidate has denied this, need to apologize to them. What's your response to that?

ANDERSON: Well, that's silly, of course. And it's an attempt to take the limelight off of them. And, you know, this -- again, the best thing in all these circumstances is just stand up to the camera, tell the truth. And that's what everybody needs to do here, and I think we'd be better off for it. And I will tell you this. Here's another thing.

This story that came out that, you know, about all this stuff in the beginning and everything, you know, the allegation that I had something to do with it, there is not a reporter, there is not a human being that will ever say that that is true because it's not.

BORGER: So, the Perry campaign has categorically denied everything. Have you asked people in your campaign who work for you, who work around you, who work with you whether anybody had anything to do with this? Have you sort of put out an APB question?

ANDERSON: No, absolutely not.

BORGER: Because the campaign is categorically denying that anyone in the campaign --

ANDERSON: Well, I'm sure they're telling the true. This is -- I'm sure that they're right about that. I mean, I can only speak for myself.

BORGER: Would you fire someone who had done it or is this just part of the way the campaigns work these days? So, if you found out someone in the campaign had done it, would they be gone?

ANDERSON: Oh, I think so, I think so, because you know, the bottom line is, here we are in a terrible recession, here we have, you know, record unemployment and, of course, in my view, the Republican view, the country going in the wrong direction and that's what we need to talk about. And this is just a silly, circular firing squad, and it's a mess and, yes, I think it would be worth being fired over if somebody was out there leaking this kind of stuff.

BORGER: Have you thought about talking to Mr. Cain and, I gather you have not, and if you could, what would you say to him right now? You could say it here. I'm sure he'll hear it.

ANDERSON: If I was going to talk to Herman, I would do it, you know, personally. I wouldn't do it on CNN.

BORGER: Are you hurt? No?

ANDERSON: You know, you get upset. And I was upset for a little bit, and then, I thought, you know, this is kind of pathetic. I don't have anything to hide. And, again, you know, you have to look deep into your heart and say, where do you stand on this? I like the guy. And I'm not going to let this or anything else I read in the paper change my opinion of that.

Now, I'm disappointed that he tried to use me as a pawn and to get him out of his, you know, mess that he's in, but I'm not going to let that, you know, cover everything I know about him.

BORGER: Sounds like you're not so happy -- I mean, you say he's using you as a pawn, but you also say you still like the guy.

ANDERSON: I know it sounds odd, but, I mean, you know, it's true. I mean, he's a great candidate, by the way. And I knew it in that 2004 race.

BORGER: You think he's behaved well in this whole -- the way he's handled all of this? Is that the way a great candidate would be?

ANDERSON: Obviously not. Listen, this is a guy who has, basically, no financial support, you know, not big money for a presidential standpoint.

BORGER: Right.

ANDERSON: When he first got in this race, people were like, oh, you know, that's -- no one's going to know, you know, that he's even running, and right now, he is the frontrunner for the nomination of president of the United States. That is tremendous.

BORGER: Let me ask you one thing. If these sexual harassment charges are true, can Herman Cain survive as a presidential candidate?

ANDERSON: I'm not going to handicap that. I don't know. And I don't know that they're true, and I'm also going to say this. They just don't ring true to the guy I know. You know, I don't know anything about it, so I'm not going to be judge and jury on that, but it just doesn't comport with the Herman Cain that I know.

BORGER: So, you don't believe the charges. ANDERSON: I think you're innocent until proven guilty in this country. I think it's not a bad standard to go by.

BORGER: OK. Curt Anderson, thanks so much for being with us today. It's important, I think, to hear your side of the story. We'll see what the Cain campaign has to say later in the day.

ANDERSON: I'm sure that will be exciting. Thank you.

BORGER: Thanks. Christine, back to you.

COSTELLO: Gloria, we're not going to let you go quite yet, because we're just wondering. I mean, you're a great political analyst. You just talked to Mr. Anderson. I mean, what do you take away from that?

BORGER: I think he's personally hurt by what has occurred. You heard, you heard what he said. He said -- this is a he said/he said situation in which Mr. Anderson is saying that this conversation never occurred. Herman Cain, specifically, remembers a conversation in which he told Mr. Anderson about sexual harassment charges.

So, we have Curt Anderson wanting to come out and clear his name, but, obviously, we have these two stories that can't be reconciled.

COSTELLO: So, what does this do for Herman Cain? I mean, this can't be good for Herman Cain.

BORGER: No. I mean, the entire story isn't good for Herman Cain. I mean, don't forget, you've got two stories here. One is a political story about who leaked what.

ROMANS: He said/he said about he said/she said.

BORGER: Right. The other story is the real story, which is a question of sexual harassment. And, we have not put faces on the women who have apparently made these charges. We've talked to one of the woman's attorneys. She doesn't want, as he told me last night, she doesn't want to become Anita Hill.

So, she doesn't want to go out there. So, this thing is going to have to play itself out. It's been my experience, though, once you start pulling at the strings of one of these stories, the spool tends to come unraveled. But, we'll just have to see how this story plays out.

ROMANS: Even the nature of the allegations is still unclear because you've got --

BORGER: Exactly.

ROMANS: -- women who chose, in some cases, not to make an allegation or settled instead of making an allegation and the AP saying there's another woman who thought about making allegations, but then didn't. And so, you know, until we know exactly what the nature of all this is -- BORGER: What the specifics are.

ROMANS: Right.

BORGER: We don't know what the specifics are, and we also don't know whether the Restaurant Association would release anybody from a confidentiality agreement. I mean, it's always been my contention that Mr. Cain could ask the Restaurant Association to release him from confidentiality agreement so he could then talk about the case more fully if he thought that the details would vindicate him. We'll have to see if he end up doing that.

COSTELLO: One thing for sure, this story is not over. Gloria Borger, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

BORGER: Sure.

ROMANS: Up next, another story you're all talking about this morning. The disturbing video of a family court judge beating his daughter with a belt. He tells a CNN affiliate he doesn't believe he did anything wrong. Did he? We're going to discuss it with a CNN legal contributor, Paul Callan. That's next. It's about 28 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: President Obama is in Cannes, France, for the start of the G-20 summit. And the big story is Greece's gamble with the global economy. The president already meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is warning Greece it must accept a Eurozone bailout package or face expulsion from the EU.

COSTELLO: Anger on the streets of Oakland. Occupy Wall Street protesters clashing with police overnight. Police in full riot gear shot tear gas into the crowd. Thousands of protesters shut down the city's shipping port, vandalizing banks and a grocery store. Several businesses were forced to close. Some demonstrators are throwing rocks and fireworks. The city is still reeling from last week's violent crash that put an Iraq war vet in the hospital with a fractured skull.

ROMANS: Try as he may, Herman Cain has been unable to move past stories about alleged sexual harassment. Cain blames Rick Perry's campaign for spreading the story and is demanding an apology. Just minutes ago the Perry adviser in the center of this joined us and said he likes Herman Cain. He says he's not the leaker. We're going to get Perry's response when he's interviewed tonight on "JOHN KING USA" at 6:00 p.m. eastern.

COSTELLO: Playful or just plain bizarre. For the first time Texas Governor Rick Perry is talking about the jaw dropping speech he delivered in New Hampshire last week that's gone viral online, Perry dismissing the notion that he seemed to be under the influence of alcohol, calling the address, "pretty typical for me." You decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK PERRY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My plan is really pretty simple. It does deductions for the mortgage deduction for charitable. Yep. You can keep that in there. And your state and local taxes are in there. You put those on, $12,500 for every dependent that you have. You know, it's pretty easy math. Subtract it, send it in. It's awesome. Why not?

That little plan that I just shared with you doesn't force the granite state to expand your tax footprint, if you know what I mean. Like 90 percent expansion.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Perry had spine surgery a few months ago. He denied suggestions that he was on pain killers before last week's speech and said he's back to his regular jogging routine.

ROMANS: All right, a family court judge in Texas now facing a police investigation after a shocking video surfaced on YouTube that shows him beating his then teenage daughter. We want to warn you that the video is pretty difficult to watch, so if you want to look away, this is the time to do it. This is the video that has been seen more than a million times. The judge William Adams is whipping his daughter with a belt and cursing at her for disobeying him. The girl's mom also appears at one point in the video also striking her daughter. She was apparently being punished for downloading music and games. The full video lasts more than seven minutes. It was shot on a webcam seven years ago and posted last week by the daughter, Hillary.

COSTELLO: In the description on YouTube, the daughter, she said she posted it herself and she suffers from cerebral palsy. Both the judge and his daughter talked about the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE WILLIAM ADAMS, ARKANSAS COUNTY COURT-AT-LAW JUDGE: In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, but I have since apologized. It looks worse than it is. There is a story. It will come out in due time, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You do acknowledge that is you in the video?

ADAMS: Yes, absolutely. That's me.

HILLARY ADAMS, JUDGE' DAUGHTER: I don't know if I can call it happy, but I'm very relieved that these things were brought to light, and not because I'm going 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 cannot stress it enough, I cannot repeat myself enough that he just needs help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hillary, the daughter, said she decided to post that video because of a barrage of harassment from her father, new harassment. For now Judge Adams has been temporarily relieved of his duties as a family court judge.

So there are a lot of legal questions surrounding this tape and around what happens to the judge. We want to bring in CNN legal contributor Paul Callan. So it's such a disturbing video to watch and then to find out that this judge is a family court judge. Could he be dismissed for this?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, it's shocking, shocking video. We only saw the first 24 seconds. This supposedly went on from for six minutes, this beating, this horrible beating. Yes, he can be removed from the bench.

And I think when I looked at this initially, I'm thinking charge him with a crime, disbar him as an attorney and throw him off the bench. When I started researching it more carefully, it will be hard to bring criminal charges because the statute of limitations may be gone. This happened back in 2004, and it's going to be hard to prove that she actually had physical injury.

I don't know if he can be disbarred as an attorney. It's certainly something that can be looked at. But thrown of the bench, there's a Texas judicial commission. They can investigate this. He's already under suspension. I mean, can you imagine? He's the guy who's deciding whether people should have custody of their children in his courtroom and whether they handle the children properly.

ROMANS: But he says he's just a father disciplining his child after she was caught stealing. He says when the story comes out that behavior caught on tape, his behavior will be justified. Is there any way to justify it?

CALLAN: Well, all 50 states, believe it or not, Christine, allow what we call corporal punishment.

ROMANS: So a parent can punish their child with a belt.

CALLAN: Well, you can spank a child. The definition of corporal punishment varies from place to place. Obviously it is a matter of degree. That tape is so far over any civilized standard. She looks like she is being flogged or whipped in a public square. That's what I was thinking of when I saw it.

I mean, he actually said to her, if you don't turn around, I'll spank you in the face, meaning he would slap her in the face with the belt.

ROMANS: He told her to turn over and take it like a woman.

CALLAN: That's right. And then the mother shows up later on and gets involved. I understand the judge, I think, and his wife are now divorced.

But getting back to this idea that, can you imagine Texas is allowing him to decide whether people should have their kids and whether they're raising them properly? Get him off the bench, investigate this carefully. You have a D.A. there who is looking at it, it's child endangerment, it's clearly an assault. There are a lot of things you can charge. The only real bug here is has the statute of limitation gone because it's about six years ago. She is 22 now. She was 16 at the time. It's going to be hard to go back and show she was physically injured or even psychologically damaged by this action. But, boy, I'll tell you, shocking, shocking video.

COSTELLO: Just hard to watch. Paul Callan, thank you so much.

Coming up -- she says Herman Cain, coming up, the Rick Perry and Herman Cain campaigns going back and forth about who leaked the story about the GOP frontrunner. But what is the story really about? Is it political finger-pointing, or should it be about the sexual harassment charges levied against Herman Cain?

ROMANS: And continent in crisis, your money on the line. President Obama is right in the middle of it this morning, and so are we. Our friend Ali Velshi live from the G-20 summit ahead of a crucial vote on Greece. It is 38 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Ali Velshi covering the B-20. He joins us live from Cannes this morning. Ali, ironically, the 32nd, I think, largest economy in the world and its internal politics might have more to do with whether we create jobs and get our economy on foot than the do nothing Congress in the world's largest economy.

VELSHI: Christine, it's really important that our viewers understand why what I'm about to tell you matters.

Now, here's what the news is. The news is that this emergency unscheduled meeting of the Greek cabinet has just started. This is one thing we've been reporting all morning. It has been further delayed. We are trying to confirm that after that cabinet meeting the Greek prime minister George Papandreou, will go to the president's office. Now, that is a euphemism in parliamentary democracies. The only time he goes to the president's office is when they're calling an election, they're dissolving parliament, or the prime minister is resigning. So we are expecting that one of those things is going to happen.

A major shift in Greece politics after Papandreou called for this referendum earlier in the week. Now, this is a major crisis and a major problem for the Eurozone because on October 27th they thought they had a deal which largely involved the bailout for Greece. Without Greece that deal goes nowhere and that could plunge Europe into further economic downturn.

And of course, Christine, Europe is the biggest trading partner. Europe as a block is the U.S.'s biggest trading partner. So as Europe weakens, that means fewer people will buy goods and services that America produces. So this is a major, major thing to look at.

You said it correctly, the 32nd largest economy in the world. But right now, right now Greece is the most influential country in the world and things are unraveling there very quickly. We are working on getting confirmations as to exactly what is happening.

But we do know the emergency cabinet meeting is under way right now and there are reports, unconfirmed as of yet, reports that the Greek prime minister George Papandreou is heading to the president's office. Afterwards the implication is that he may be resigning or may be dissolving parliament, or may be announcing a coalition, and there may be an election. We're not sure which of those things is happening. We're keeping a close eye on this. As you can expect, Christine, this has entirely overshadowed what's actually going on here in Cannes, which is the G-20 meeting.

ROMANS: You know, it's almost an ungovernable situation for you think whoever is leading Greece, because the people in Greece have spoken when they take to the streets and they say they don't like austerity. The European Union has spoken and said you are going to have to really even take more austerity to stay in the EU. This is an existential crisis for Europe right now about who will be in the EU and what kind of pain you have to take to stay in it.

VELSHI: And the Europeans, the other 16 countries in the EU have said if you don't take that pain, Greece, we're going to throw you out of the euro zone. This is taken on a referendum on whether you want to stick around in the EU or not.

But the Greeks have been saying we have been taking this pain and frankly it's hurting our economy. So why should we take more pain so that French bankers and German bankers can see some return on their investment?

So you are absolutely right. This is an existential crisis, but it's one that this morning we heard from President Obama and from his spokesman who said this is an internal Greek problem. This is a Greek political crisis. We're not involving ourselves in it. It's not an internal Greek problem. It may be caused by Greek politics, but if something goes bad in Greece today, we're all going to feel it around the world, Christine.

ROMANS: Years ago when I covered the beginning of the EU, you know, the whole idea of a euro and a currency they'd all share, I remember very well that the U.K. said, no, thanks. We'll keep our pound.

VELSHI: That's right.

ROMANS: Interesting that some of those early fears from years ago in the early '90s are turning out bearing fruit today many years later. Ali Velshi, thanks a lot. We'll check in with you again.

Morning headlines next. It's 45 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Years ago when I covered the beginning of the EU, you know, this whole idea of the euro and a currency they'd all share.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: I remember very well, that the UK said, no, thanks. We'll keep our pound.

VELSHI: That's right.

ROMANS: Interesting that some of those early fears from years ago in the early '90s are turning out bearing fruit today many years later.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: Ali Velshi, thanks. We'll check in with you again.

"Morning Headlines" next. It's 45 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning, Atlanta. Partly cloudy right now; 43 degrees, but expecting rain later in the day, but it'll be nice and warm; 69 degrees. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Herman Cain is trying to stay on message, but he can't seem to get away from those sexual harassment allegations. Cain is now accusing the Perry campaign of leaking the story. The Perry adviser at the center of it all just denied to us that he had anything to do with it at all. But lost in all the talk is what actually happened. Was it sexual harassment?

Joining us now: Sally Kohn political commentator and strategist; and in San Diego, Ruben Navarrette, columnist and contributor to CNN.com. Thanks to both of you for being here this morning.

SALLY KOHN, POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR AND STRATEGIST: Thank you.

RUBEN NAVARRETTE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you.

COSTELLO: So Sally, I'll start with you because lost in this is what actually happened. Like what are the exact allegations these women are making?

KOHN: Yes and we don't know. The fact of the matter is, we don't know. Democrats don't know, Republicans don't know. And the larger issue is, you know, sexual harassment is bad. I think regardless of your party affiliation, you can agree that it's bad.

And what I find really troubling is the fact that we respond to allegations without even any facts based not on our concern for the truth on what really happened, but based on our partisan interest. If we like the guy, if we're conservative we're defending him and if we don't, we're a Democrat and we're already jumping to conclusions.

You know let's -- let's just deal with the facts and take partisanship out of this and create a climate where this can't happen to other women, if in fact, it happened.

COSTELLO: Ruben, before you respond I would like for our audience to listen to what Laura Ingraham said -- a conservative radio show host -- what she said on the radio the other day. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: We have seen this movie before and we know how it ends. It always ends up being an employee who can't perform or who underperforms and who's looking for a little green.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Ruben, this sort of goes to what Sally is saying that people are just sort of dismissing these women's allegations and they're just allowing Herman Cain to come out there and say no, this is absolutely not true. How do you feel about that?

NAVARRETTE: Right. Well, that's half the story; it's exactly right. The point is exactly right about partisanship really trumping anything else. If you are a Democrat and you're hoping for the demise of people like Herman Cain, you jump to conclusions and you believe everything that women are saying and you think he's guilty.

And likewise, if you're a defender of Herman Cain, you like his politics, you're suddenly you know doing another kind of twist to say, that you think he's innocent when we don't know -- really know which is the case.

But I think what's also troubling about this is the unavoidable racial angle to this and the fact that we should be thinking long and hard about sexual harassment.

We should also be thinking about how it is that going back to 20 years ago in the Clarence Thomas hearings how it is every time we have a prominent African-American man, the line of attack is this idea of sort of sexual prowess is just -- it has a very familiar and awful ring to it and we ought to be careful with it.

Those liberals who are rejoicing at this really should hit pause and think twice about it.

COSTELLO: Should we, though?

KOHN: Yes.

COSTELLO: I mean, we should look, you know, we should look to see if there's a racial aspect to this. But in the end, does it really matter if it's a black and white issue, if the sexual harassment actually did indeed happen? KOHN: Yes and no, right. So of course, I wouldn't even speculate, of course, there is a racial issue to this. You know whether you're a liberal or a conservative you're going to judge, we all, whether we mean to or not are going judge a black candidate differently than a white candidate.

So of course, there's a racialized component to this and the fact is that if this brings down his campaign, we should all be questioning why didn't it bring down Bill Clinton's campaign, for instance. So that's appropriate.

But at the same time, we also need to look at the serious allegations. And you know, folks like Laura Ingraham, if -- if Obama had been accused of something like this, they'd be all over it. So come on let's take the partisanship out of it. Let's stop attacking these women and blaming these women who -- who you know we don't even know -- again, we don't even know what happened. And let's focus on creating a climate where this can't happen in the future and making sure we elect candidates who are leaders who aren't lecherous and let's take sexual harassment seriously.

COSTELLO: And Ruben, let's say it comes out, one of the women comes forward and they lay out all their allegations against Herman Cain and it's bad.

NAVARRETTE: Right.

COSTELLO: Let's just say -- let's just lay out that scenario for folks. What will that say about Herman Cain as a man who would be President of the United States?

NAVARRETTE: Probably that he's not qualified to be President of the United States. He lacks judgment, the temperament isn't right and he doesn't know how to treat people. He's not a good manager. He's someone who doesn't pay attention.

Any of us who paid attention over the last 20 years, we don't necessarily have to take a course at work about sexual harassment. We know what's right and wrong.

And I think for people out there who are younger -- a younger generation they've learned what it's like to work for female bosses and to work in environments like this. I have hope that this gets better as time goes on, but I would say that this will probably disqualify him from the presidency if, in fact, it's as bad as you speculate it could be because that's not the kind of people you typically like to elect.

COSTELLO: Yes. As Sally said, Bill Clinton survived similar allegations and he's seen as this great statesman right now.

NAVARRETTE: Right. And he's already won once before or twice before re-election as you recall before the Monica Lewinsky scandal happened and the Paula Jones matter really took oxygen. So I think that there's a question about whether or not people want to get into that to begin with or whether in the case of Bill Clinton, we've already voted for him twice, he's in office and they make excuses.

We shouldn't make excuses. And I know the double standard is very powerful here. Even if you're a detractor of the GOP if you're a liberal Democrat, you begin to wonder how it is that we don't judge Newt Gingrich on moral issues. You know, twice divorced, three times divorced. We don't talk about other people and their moral question. We only seem to center in on Herman Cain and that doesn't seem fair and it doesn't seem like we're playing the game by one set of rules.

Ruben Navarrette and Sally Kohn, thanks to both of you for being here this morning.

SALLY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

It's four minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Here's a look at some of the developments this past hour as it pertains to your money. 397,000 unemployment claims were filed for the first time last week. That's down 9,000 less than the week before. And any time this number comes in below 400,000 it means the labor market is thankfully headed in the right direction.

That big monthly job's report comes out tomorrow. We'll see if it is in line with this.

All right, U.S. markets, stock markets open in about 30 minutes. Right now, U.S. stock futures are trading mixed ahead of the opening bell; most of them looking higher there right now. Markets have been rattled all week since Greece decided to put the EU bail plan to a popular vote in December. And quite frankly, there's so much uncertainty around what is going on with Greece and Europe that futures have been very, very volatile.

Also an emergency meeting going on right now in Athens. It's being reported that the Greek prime minister may resign after it. This as leaders including President Obama talk about the economic crisis there at the G-20 meeting.

COSTELLO: And I'm sure Kyra will be covering all of this in depth. Good morning, Kyra.