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American Morning
Former Penn State Football Coach Accused of Child Molestation; Identity of Woman who Accused Herman Cain of Sexual Harassment Revealed; Rallying Around Paterno; Cain Fights Back; Borrowing Blow for Italy; Obama and Sarkozy Caught on Tape; Election Day 2011; Cain Denies Sexual Harassment Allegations; Where Does Cain Go From Here?; Brain Size Is Possible Key to Autism Cause
Aired November 09, 2011 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A huge show of support for Penn State's legendary football coach, Joe Paterno. But can he survive the child sex abuse scandal that he's engulfed his football program?
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Herman Cain fighting back insisting he doesn't even remember the woman who has publicly claimed that he groped her.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And this is not just any old test. Why today's test of the emergency broadcast system is way different than anyone that's ever taken over your TV before.
ROMANS: An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier whizzes by the earth. We're still here to talk about it. Still to show you some cool pictures, too, on this, AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Good morning. It is Wednesday, November 9th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I saw that picture of that asteroid, by the way. It may be the size of an aircraft carrier, but it looks like a potato as we --
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: It looks like a big potato.
VELSHI: And the only piece of good news we have this morning is that it missed earth, because everything else is a little bit grim this morning.
COSTELLO: That's true. It is grim.
Let's start with Penn State, shall we, because up first the clock may be running out on Joe Paterno's 46 year reign as Penn State's head football coach. Paterno planned to address sex abuse claims involving a former top assistant yesterday, but the school cancelled his news conference. The board of trustees plans to investigate this growing scandal, and that board is reportedly trying to manage a Paterno exit strategy.
Hundreds of students and supporters held a rally on campus late last night. Paterno's son said his father does not intend to resign and plans to be on the sidelines on Saturday when Penn State takes on Nebraska.
Jason Carroll is live at State College, Pennsylvania. Some are actually wondering about that. Will Joe Paterno actually show at that game?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to his son he will be there. And it was fascinating to see the outpouring of support that started here on campus at Penn State, Carol, and then moved to the Paterno home not too far from here, hundreds of students and supporters showing up in front of that home. Joe Paterno pulled up in a car, got outside, was very emotional, and then he addressed the crowd. I want you to take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: We want Joe! We want Joe!
JOE PATERNO, PENN STATE FOOTBALL COACH: And I want you. And I want you guys.
It's hard for me to tell you how much this means to me, you know. With the kids that were victims, whatever they want to say I think we ought to say a prayer for them, because, you know, it's a tough life when people do certain things to you. But, anyway, you've been great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: So you heard those chants, "We want Joe! We want Joe!" We heard some of those chants here at the university as well. But despite all that there are a number of critics, including students, faculty, alumni who say Joe Paterno did not do enough legally. Obviously he did what he was supposed to do in terms of reporting that allegation of that sexual assault of that 10-year-old boy to his superior. But morally, that's the question, did he do enough? So there's been a lot of critics who say he should have stepped down. And there was a report that he would in fact been stepping down, but his son Scott came out and said no way. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT PATERNO, SON OF JOE PATERNO: Any discussion on strategy has not taken place that's advising Joe. That's all I can tell you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing between the university --
SCOTT PATERNO: There's been no discussion between the university and Coach Paterno.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as he is concerned, he's coaching Saturday and for the foreseeable future?
SCOTT PATERNO: Yes. Nothing has changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: "Coaching Saturday and for the foreseeable future." Carol, you know was interesting about this as well is a lot of folks are saying that this, all of this anger seems to be directed at Paterno because he is the face of Penn State football. This is the man that everybody knows.
But some of these people are also saying if you want to direct anger that anger should be directed at Penn State's president Graham Spanier. They say the buck really stops with him. And what's interesting about that is that tonight Spanier was supposed to attend a fundraising dinner with his wife. That was suddenly cancelled. He won't be doing that. So perhaps that's some indication that he's feeling the pressure as well.
COSTELLO: Well, unfortunately for Joe Paterno, the guy accused of doing these terrible things was part of the football program. We got word from a local reporter too, Jason, that Joe Paterno may well hold a press conference today sometime. Even if the board of trustees doesn't want Joe Paterno to speak out, Joe Paterno kind of does what Joe Paterno wants.
CARROLL: Well, everybody knows that here, that this is a man. He is his own man. He said last night and in fact he actually said before last night he said yesterday afternoon when we caught up with him here at Penn State very briefly, he said that he wanted to speak and said that he would try to arrange something. That was Joe Paterno himself. Then Scott Paterno said last night in front of the home they are trying to arrange something offsite. We'll see if that happens. Carol?
COSTELLO: Jason Carroll reporting live for us this morning. Thanks. Coming up in just a few moments, Roxanne Jones, founding editor of "ESPN" the magazine and a former Penn State cheerleader, she will tell us why she thinks Paterno has to go.
ROMANS: Herman Cain is fighting back against the sexual relations allegations that now threaten to derail his big for the White House, a bid he says he has no intention of quitting. At a news conference yesterday Cain said he doesn't even remember Sharon Bialek, the single mom from Chicago who says he groped her 14 years ago. Joe Johns joins us live from Washington. Hi there, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Christine, you get the feeling someone here is operating in a parallel universe. The question is whether it's Herman Cain or his accusers. Cain went into that news conference and basically denied everything. I think you can describe him as defiant. He appeared resolved and reasonably poised. You have to judge whether his performance was believable, but he looked like he believed what he was saying.
If there were any big takeaways, he said all assertions that he engaged in inappropriate behavior are false and he suggested one of the women making these claims against him is troubled, apparently talking about Sharon Bialek, who held that news conference, and that she was somehow served up by Democrats, even though each and every democratic strategist I've talked to said they'd absolutely love it if he's the Republican nominee for president. So take a listen now to Herman Cain last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fact is these anonymous allegations are false and now the Democrat machine in America has brought forth a troubled woman to make false accusations. We are not going to allow Washington or politics to deny me the opportunity to represent this great nation. And as far as these accusations causing me to back off and maybe withdraw from this presidential primary race, ain't going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Cain says Americans want a businessman in the White House. But this is a problem for Republicans, because with all the focus on Herman Cain, the party's message is about unemployment, the economy, trying to unseat President Obama really are not on center stage at the moment. It's all about he said/they said right now.
ROMANS: And you know, Joe, it's not just his message on those things that are not center stage, but it's the entire Republican field message about those things, which is why I think some of his colleagues want some clarity, his competitors and colleagues want some clarity and a resolution to all this.
JOHNS: It's being drowned out, it's very true. And it's as if he's not the only one who has been knocked off of message here because if that's all you're talking about, you know, what about the real issues? It's definitely a problem for Republicans.
ROMANS: Joe Johns, thanks.
VELSHI: All right, our next guest is a friend and former colleague of Herman Cain's accuser, Karen Kraushaar. In fact she once hired the woman, and she says Kraushaar never wanted to come forward and now fears for her safety. CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona joins us from Washington. Maria, thanks for being with us.
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure, Ali.
VELSHI: I want to ask you, you have since spoken to Karen since she has been identified. What's happened now? What's the situation that she's in? How is she feeling?
CARDONA: Well, as you can imagine, this whole situation has been gut-wrenching for her. This is something that she, first of all, lived through 12 years ago and has had to maintain her silence up until now, has not wanted to go public but clearly has been forced to do so. And she had a conversation with our own Gloria Borger last night where she basically stated that because this has now become an issue of public interest she is going to be talking limitedly. And what's she interested in doing now, Ali, is to get all the other women together --
VELSHI: Yes.
CARDONA: -- and to get their stories out publicly, because, as you can imagine, as any woman can imagine it's incredibly humiliating to stand there at a microphone and have to talk about the lurid details about what happened, the same way that Sharon Bialek had to do two nights ago.
VELSHI: And Sharon Bialek said she will participate in this effort. But, you know, we spoke to her after Herman Cain's press conference where she referred to Sharon Bialek. Then you watched the press conference last night where Herman Cain made reference to Karen Kraushaar. What was your response? What was her response to that?
CARDONA: Well, my response personally was sickening. I felt sick to my stomach, Ali, because, frankly, ever since I found out that Karen was one of the original accusers, my jaw dropped because my experience with her as her former employer is that she, her credibility is beyond reproach. She always exhibited nothing but the utmost of professionalism. She is a classy individual, incredibly hard-working, the consummate team player.
In fact the clip that you all are playing of her down in Miami as she's approaching the microphones was when we were in the middle of the Elio Gonzalez firestorm and I had to choose somebody on my team who I could trust 100 percent to be the face of INS in Miami, and she was the person I chose.
And I think it's also important to point out the Herman Cain's accusations that this is a Democratic machine, first of all, and I think Joe pointed this out, Democrats would love nothing than to have Herman Cain as the nominated person on the Republican side. But secondly, these two women, including Karen, are Republicans. And thirdly, her work for me had absolutely nothing to do with political strategy, with partisanship. She's a civil servant then and she still is.
VELSHI: Let me ask you this -- did you when you hired her hear this story?
CARDONA: Absolutely not. I had no idea whatsoever. I do know that even then she was incredibly grateful to me for having hired her. She often said to me, Maria, thank you so much. You took a chance on me. You didn't know me. That was all that she said back then.
Ever since we've been in touch since these allegations have come forward and her name was made public she told me, Maria, now know why I've been incredibly grateful to you for hiring me out of the National Restaurant Association because you saved me from this monster. Clearly she was talking about her terrible -- what she went through with Herman Cain at the National Restaurant Association.
VELSHI: What happens when people bring forth complaints and they become public is that we start to dig into their past and find out a bit more about them. And now there's a report circulating when she was at the INS she filed another complaint, a complaint while she was working there, that also did allege sexual harassment. What do you know about that?
CARDONA: That's not true. I had heard that also. And I talked to Karen about that. That part is absolutely not true. She did not file an additional complaint about sexual harassment. What she did do, though, was -- I don't know if it was officially filed, but she did complain about a situation where, and this was after I left, Ali, where she had gotten into a car accident and had requested the ability to work from home, which is something that when I was there as the head of communications director I had granted another worker in our office who needed it medically and who was a terrific worker as well. I granted her the ability to work from home.
VELSHI: Right.
CARDONA: When I left and Karen went through what she went through with her car accident she asked for the same courtesy and the same privilege, and she was denied it. She filed a complaint. When she was told no, she dropped it.
VELSHI: I want to correct my question. I misread that entirely. It very specifically did not include a sexual harassment complaint.
CARDONA: Exactly.
VELSHI: That's right.
CARDONA: It did not.
VELSHI: It did not. She did not file a sexual harassment claim. It's a separate claim which you are saying got dropped.
CARDONA: Correct.
VELSHI: All right, Maria, thank you very much for joining us. Maria Cardona is a CNN contributor with CNN. She is a Democratic strategist but she had hired Karen Kraushaar in her days at the INS.
In 30 minutes we'll talk about the Cain campaign and where it goes from here with CNN contributor David Frum and columnist Will Cain of "The Blaze."
ROMANS: All right, Italy's debt crisis is deepening this morning. The country's borrowing costs soaring above seven percent. Why is that important? It's the rate at which other countries have had to seek an international bailout. And there are big concerns that Italy is too big for a bailout. It's the third largest economy in Europe and the biggest bond market on the continent.
This debt crisis is driving Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from power. Berlusconi announced yesterday he will resign after his parliament approves a new budget. That spending plan includes austerity measures meant to keep Italy from defaulting on its debt.
VELSHI: And you heard it all your lives, "This is only a test." But today will much different. The Federal Emergency Alert System will have its first nationwide test today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. Before today this system has only been used on a local level. This is the first time the test will be done at the same time across the entire country.
COSTELLO: I'm just grateful we didn't play that horrible sound.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: NBA fans hoping for a buzzer beater. Locked out players have asked for one last bargaining session before today's 5:00 p.m. deadline. The players snubbed the league's latest contract offer. All games through the end of this month have already been canceled.
COSTELLO: And still to come this morning, an embarrassing moment for President Obama, how a private conversation with the president of France just became a very public problem.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back.
Penn State's legendary football coach Joe Paterno may soon be out of a job because of the child sexual abuse scandal involving a former assistant that has engulfed his entire program, but he still has lots of support on campus. Hundreds of students rallied around the coach's house last night and rallying around him.
But not everyone is cheering this morning. A former Penn State cheerleader has joined the chorus calling for Paterno to resign. Writing for CNN.com, Roxanne Jones says today, "I'm putting my pompoms down. I'm done covering up Happy Valley's secrets. And it's time for others in the program starting with Coach Paterno to do the same thing. And then Joe has got to go immediately."
Roxanne is also the founding editor of ESPN the Magazine. She joins us now. Welcome to the program.
ROXANNE JONES, FOUNDER, "ESPN THE MAGAZINE": Thank you. Good morning.
ROMANS: Why do you want to see him go?
JONES: He has to go. He's the figurehead and he's the leader of the sports program there and this has happened on his watch. And it's -- there's so many -- we don't know all of the facts yet, but there are so many places where his system of excellence and integrity broke down and he broke down.
ROMANS: So what are you saying, that he, you know, technically didn't break a law. He put this allegation up the chain of command and then was done with it. In a world where Joe Paterno is God, is that good enough? JONES: It's absolutely not good enough. He doesn't tell his football team to go out there and do just what you need to do to get by. He's never been that kind of person, not on the field and not in the classroom.
And so because he did just what he needed to do to get by legally, you know, apparently, he knows that's not sufficient. It's not sufficient if you're the father or the mother of those boys. It's ot sufficient for a football coach. It's absolutely horrible.
ROMANS: Last night when we were showing those pictures of all of the kids surrounding him and, you know, Sara Ganim, our reporter from the local paper said until 2:00 in the morning kids were marching, you know, in support for him.
He said, you know, we should say a prayer for the children who are victims. That's what he said.
But many this morning are saying they don't need -- wouldn't need a prayer today if they had an advocate then. How can such a powerful football program with so many grownups who are tuned to excellence, how can no one stop this for so many years?
JONES: They didn't care enough. They put the football program above and the money that the football program brought in and their own reputations above the lives of those boys. And that's just flat out what happened. They didn't care. They covered it up.
And just on a basic level, if you see a child being abused, you don't have to be Joe Paterno or Tim Curley to know that something is not right there and you need to stop it. You need to stop it and you need to report it.
ROMANS: That's what's so shocking to me that -- that the red flags were flashing for so long and that the first boy in 2002 who may have been 10 years old, someone witnessed a sexual assault and now he's a grownup and nothing -- and this is now just coming -- just coming to light.
Let me ask you about what other alums are saying about this, because we see support on campus for Joe Paterno and sort of a circling of the wagons around him and the football program, quite frankly.
But outside -- outside you're hearing corporate branding experts and people who know about, you know, strategy and sponsorship saying this whole program -- this is done. You're going see mass heads roll. This is -- this is a massive failure of this entire program. What do people -- what do alums say?
JONES: Well, I think that in this incident it is a massive failure. I think heads should roll. And going up to the president, we don't know what the president knew, when he knew. But if that needs to happen and it sounds like the board of trustees is serious about this, it may happen.
But I -- I want to caution -- I'm proud that I went to Penn State, proud of the education. I've done extremely well.
ROMANS: But you say you're tired -- but you say --
JONES: But I --
ROMANS: -- you're tired of covering up for Penn State. It's not perfect.
JONES: I'm not trying to cover up anything. Nothing is perfect and this is horrible. But I do think just because the sports program has failed miserably, they do need to clean it up, but I don't -- I'm not willing to say that the whole program is corrupt and it's horrible and, you know --
ROMANS: Yes.
JONES: -- that it's been a failure because it has not. It has educated and groomed very fine young men and women, and you can say that and still say that this needs to be cleaned up, it needs to end and people need to be fired. But it's a -- it's a wonderful sports program and a wonderful university.
ROMANS: And I -- and I think that's -- I think that's an important point too that's being overshadowed by a very stunning failure of leadership that we're just -- I mean we're just beginning of figuring out how this all will play out.
Roxanne Jones, thank you so much. Founding editor of "ESPN Magazine" and a great piece on CNN.com.
JONES: Thank you.
ROMANS: We'll take that out again so people can read it for themselves. Ali?
VELSHI: Yes, absolutely. Well, good conversation.
Still to come this morning, a potential diplomatic disaster for the White House. President Obama caught on tape saying something not so nice about a key U.S. ally.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. "Minding Your Business" now.
Stocks closed higher yesterday but stock futures are trading much lower this morning. Dow futures are down right now more than 200 points. Why? Because of the instability in Europe where markets are lower now as well particularly focused on Italy. Bond yields there reached seven percent this morning and that is the level at which other countries have had to seek international bailouts. Investors seeing a danger zone in Italy.
Back here in the U.S., the housing market continues to be a big part of what's holding back growth in the economy. According to the credit reporting firm, TransUnion, U.S. homeowners who are 60 days late on their mortgage payments rose in the third quarter. That's the first increase since the end of 2009.
OPEC saying it expects the price of oil to hover around $85 to $95 a barrel over the rest of the decade. That's a $10 increase from just a year ago. OPEC says the increase is because of economic recovery taking place faster than it expected.
Some good news, more help want forward a change. Employers posted more jobs in September than at any other time in the past three years, according to the U.S. Labor Department. At the end of September, according to the agency, there were 3.4 million job openings in the United States.
Don't forget, for the very latest news about your money, check out the all-new CNNMoney.com.
AMERICAN MORNING back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Time for our top stories. They came to praise Joe Paterno.
Students and fans staging a rally outside the home of the legendary Penn State coach whose job is now threatened by a child sex scandal involving his former top assistant. Paterno joined the crowd briefly telling the crowd he's praying for the victims.
ROMANS: Herman Cain said he's never been inappropriate with any woman and sexual harassment allegations against him are false.
Cain called a news conference yesterday insisting the Democratic machine is out to get him and that he will not abandon his bid for the White House.
VELSHI: Uncertainty in Italy is crushing investor confidence this morning. The price Italy has to pay to borrow money is up to 7 percent. This comes after Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he'll resign after the next budget is approved by parliament.
COSTELLO: The White House has a rather delicate diplomatic dilemma on its hands this morning. It seems President Obama and the French President Nicholas Sarkozy were bashing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a private conversation at last week's G-20 Summit. And there happened to be a hot microphone nearby. Here's more from Brianna Keilar.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An open mic during last week's G-20 Summit caught President Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy complaining about Israel's prime minister according to a report by Reuters. "I cannot bear Benjamin Netanyahu. He's a liar," said Sarkozy. Obama according to a French interpreter who is translating his remarks replied, "you're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you."
The president didn't exactly come to the defense of Netanyahu, whom he most recently saw at the U.N. in September. It's not surprising says Martin Indyk who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
MARTIN INDYK, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: It reveals the inner feelings of the president towards Prime Minister Netanyahu. I don't think it's any secret that these two leaders have not gotten on basically from their first meeting on.
KEILAR: An oval office encounter this past May further revealed the frosty relationship between the leaders.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines.
KEILAR: Netanyahu is essentially lecturing a stern-faced President Obama. Today, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in an off-camera briefing would not comment on the open mic gaffe.
He instead stressed the president's support of Israel, most recently in opposing a vote to give the Palestinian Authority membership in the U.N.'s cultural agency, UNESCO, a move France supported.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakable.
KEILAR: It's an embarrassing incident as both the U.S. and Israel keep a close eye on regime changes in the Middle East and on the growing threat of a nuclear Iran. But says Indyk, it may have no real effect on U.S.-Israel relations.
INDYK: It's unlikely that these personality differences that have been highlighted by this mic that wasn't turned off are going to infect the coordination on Iran.
If you like the subject is too serious to be affected by personalities. They agree on the nature of the threat and they also agree on the way to deal with it. That is by ratcheting up sanctions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Of course, this does give ammunition to President Obama's critics, namely Republicans who have said he hasn't backed Israel enough. We've heard from the pro-Israel group expressing disappointment and saying this was un-presidential exchange. Brianna Keilar, CNN, The White House.
ROMANS: All right, some election results now including some controversial ballot measures decided yesterday. Ohio voters by a nearly 2-1 margin repealed a new law restricting the collective bargaining rights of state and local employee unions. It's a blow to Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich. He had championed that measure.
VELSHI: Arizona voters recalled Republican State Senator Russell Pearce. He's the lawmaker who sponsored the state's strict immigration law requiring police to check the immigration status of anyone they stopped and suspect of being illegal.
COSTELLO: And Mississippi voters defeated the so-called "Personhood Initiative" that declares life begins at conception. The proposal could have outlawed abortion and restricted some forms of birth control.
ROMANS: Mississippi also elected a new governor, Republican Phil Bryant formerly the states' lieutenant governor will succeed Hailey Barbour who wasn't eligible to run again after serving two terms.
VELSHI: And in Kentucky, Democratic Governor Steve Bashear was elected to a second term defeating his two opponents by a wide margin.
COSTELLO: Now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should Joe Paterno resign? Let's not mince words.
Legendary college football coaches are gods. Joe Paterno, Penn State University administrators are powerless in the face of his 409 wins and all the money that comes with them. Mr. Paterno retired at 84.
Joe Paterno decides what Joe Paterno does, but maybe not now. According to a grand jury report, Paterno was informed back in 2002 that Coach Jerry Sandusky was sexually assaulting a young boy in the shower.
Paterno did tell Penn State's athletic director the minimum by law. Paterno wants to explain, but the university won't let him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell --
JOE PATERNO, PENN STATE HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: I know you guys got a lot of good questions and I would like to do it. I can't do it now. We're going try -- I'm sorry the press conference didn't turn out. I'll have another one soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Still, Paterno is beloved for 46 years he taught his players about life as well as football.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATERNO: I think you've got a tremendous impact on a kid. You're not teaching them facts you're teaching them about character. You're teaching them about success. You're teaching them things about what it takes to get along with other people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Paterno is known for running a clean program. You don't hear about paying players or falsifying SAT scores, not Penn State, not Paterno.
But now his reputation may irrevocably be harmed. Sa.com columnist, Michael Rosenberg writes, "We don't yet know who is legally guilty but several prominent employees at the state university are morally guilty and one of them is Joe Paterno."
So the "Talkback" question today, should Joe Paterno resign? Facebook.com/americanmorning. I'll read your comments later this hour.
ROMANS: All right, still to come this morning. Herman Cain denying he sexually harassed anyone insisting he's not about to give up his bid for the White House, but will he have a choice?
VELSHI: And the brains of autistic children. Could size matter when it comes to this disorder? It's 37 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Welcome back. Four women now claim they were sexually harassed by Herman Cain. Two of them now have gone public, but Cain insists none of their accusations are true.
He's even willing to take a lie detector test to prove if he has to and for anyone who thinks Cain should end his bid for the White House, the candidate says simply it isn't going to happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The charges and the accusations are absolutely reject. They simply didn't happen. They simply did not happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: All right, so where does the Cain campaign go from here. I have two conservatives in the house. Let's ask David Frum of frumforum.com, he's in D.C. and Will Cain, columnist with the "Blaze." Both you guys, good to see you.
David, let's start with you. You have written in fact that part of the problem with Herman Cain is he's had no executive experience in government whatsoever and that maybe he shouldn't be in the campaign because of this.
Now we have taken an entirely new twist, which doesn't really speak to the executive experience thing. This is a whole other legal of problem. What are your thoughts? DAVID FRUM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Right. Well, now, he's running for the job he really wants. I don't think he ever really planned seriously to be president. This isn't a presidential campaign.
He's running for the role of conservative martyr, the person who is beset by the liberal media, by people who bring him down because of his proud ideology. That is a potentially very lucrative role. Sarah Palin has made a large fortune out of it and it's a game that conservatives are often willing to play to the detriment of real world politics and real world governance.
VELSHI: Will, let me just ask you this. He went all in as you like to say in his press conference yesterday. He used language that I want to you listen to because this one stuck out. Let's listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAIN: With respect to the most recent accusation, I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: That's a bold and broad statement. One that most of us couldn't ever make in life, which now invites the idea that if he actually ever acted inappropriately with anyone now he's not only dealing with these accusations, but this could make him a liar.
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That wasn't the only example, Ali. Herman Cain has made a habit of painting a very bold box and saying, I live in this box. And then within a short of period having to say, well, actually, I'm over here just to the right of the box I stayed.
He's done it on the substance with the border fence. He's done it on abortion and now he's doing it in his press conference regarding these sexual harassment claims. Not only did he say, he's never acted inappropriately with anyone, he said he would take a lie detector test. I mean, that is a bold claim. It makes David's opinion and mine worthless. That's the complete story going forward. Well, how will that lie detector test turn out? I mean, he's creating more questions than conclusions in the story.
VELSHI: What would be a better way to handle this or was there a better way to handle this?
CAIN: That's a great question, is there a better way? Because I don't know that we can look at the politician whose faced a sex scandal and say he had his Ts crossed and his Is dotted.
I mean, Bill Clinton's camp did not say in the Monica Lewinsky trial ahead of the time let's challenge the definition of "is," that's not plausible. So what Herman Cain had to have done is admit the truth should the truth be for him or against him. I mean, that's the bottom line.
VELSHI: David, we now have Sharon Bialek who has come forward. We now have Karen Kraushaar who she has acknowledged that she is the person who was in that initial complaint that we talked about.
And they are talking about getting together with the other two women and going public with this. This thing at some point continues to snowball out of control unless, I guess, Herman Cain, does something to stop it.
FRUM: Well, there's nothing he can do to stop it. He has challenged people. He's called implicitly called the other women in the case liars. So they will now step forward to defend their reputations and will all be transfixed.
When you ask the question how should he have handled this? The answer how he should have handled this is he should have ran for mayor of Atlanta or maybe governor of Georgia.
He should have, had he been serious about a political career gone through the steps that make a political career and dealt with the charges that arose from his business life and earlier place made whatever apologies were necessary.
Reconciled with people to the extent necessary and done not in the glare of first time political campaign, but in a serious way the people interested in real world politics really have to do.
CAIN: Ali, I want to challenge David on this one thing. Herman Cain's fault is not his lack of executive experience in the public arena. He has an impressive executive resume from running massive companies, Godfather's Pizza.
Herman Cain's fault -- and by the way, he has run for office before. He ran for Senate in Georgia. His fault is he's completely unprepared. He has a lack of knowledge. That's not a direct correlation to his lack of experience, of executive experience, in the public arena. He's just not prepared to deal with issues, substantively or scandalously.
FRUM: I don't know that -- If that's meant to be a corrective, if that's meant to be like a feature rather than a bug, I'm not sure it's much of one. Yes, it is true he's tremendously ignorant. But one of the ways you become less ignorant is by wielding these kinds of public responsibilities and seeking them in a serious way. The reason he allows himself to be so ignorant is precisely that he's not serious. He's not running for a job. He's running for a place in the conservative pantheon of victimhood. And he's found it.
VELSHI: You're saying though that if these things had come up earlier, he would have had some opportunity to face them earlier and we wouldn't be doing it in a presidential campaign.
The two of you, who are conservatives, what does this do for that part of the conservative movement that is doing what you said, David, they are feeling this might be a media attack or a liberal attack on conservative values. Do those people who have now in greater numbers been raising money for Herman Cain and supporting him, is this going last very long or do they fine themselves somewhere else to park themselves FRUM: The record is that the air goes out of that balloon very slowly. It took 2.5 years for Sarah Palin to lose altitude. There will be a super constituency for Herman Cain for quite some time.
VELSHI: Will, your thoughts on that.
CAIN: That's impossible to predict. It doesn't look like there's another place for this crowd to move to right now. There will be a rallying around Herman Cain, in effect. There will be a circling of the band wagons, some for legitimate reasons and some of it for illegitimate reasons. He's a charming man. He has an impression biography. We have a habit in the conservative base of rallying around people like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann who, for some reason, put a charm on the electorate.
VELSHI: He brought his charm back a little bit in the press conference because he went through a few very uncharming days.
CAIN: He did, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CAIN: We'll see if can hold it up.
VELSHI: Will, thanks very much for that.
Will Cain is a CNN contributor and a columnist for "The Blaze." David Frum, also a CNN contributor and also the editor of frumforum.com.
Carol?
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: I was like really into that.
ROMANS: Yes, totally.
COSTELLO: I wish it could go on.
It may be the key to autism. Researchers say the size of the autistic brain may help explain what causes the disorder. Elizabeth Cohen will explain.
It's 47 minutes past the hour.
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COSTELLO: Forty-eight minutes past the hour. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
An extraordinary show of support for embattled Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno. Fans and students rallying outside of his home as a sex abuse scandal involving Paterno's former assistant threatens to end his 46-year career. Herman Cain says there's no way he's abandoning his bid for the White House. At a news conference, he called the four women's' accusations against him false insists he'll take a lie detector test if he has to.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is on his way out. He agreed to resign after losing his majority in parliament. Berlusconi's resignation will take place after Italy's next budget is approved.
You've heard it on your radio or TV, "This is a test, this is only a test." For the first time ever, a test of the Emergency Alert System will be made nationwide at 2:00 p.m. eastern time today. Previously, the tests have been conducted by states and local communities, never from coast to coast at the very same time.
Seven missing mariners were discovered on a deserted Pacific island between Hawaii and Australia. A USA Coast Guard air crew dropped boxes of food until rescue crews could arrive. The men were reported missing last week. Everyone is OK this morning.
And this is NASA video of that asteroid that came same close to smacking into the earth last night. It's the size of an aircraft carrier. And at 6:28 eastern time last night, it came within 202,000 miles of our little blue planet. That's closer than the moon.
You're now caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING, back after a short break.
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VELSHI: Welcome back. Autism spectrum disorder, the CDC estimates that about one in 110 children in the United States have it. Researchers still can't pinpoint exactly what causes it.
ROMANS: And a new study is out that may shed some light on this mystery.
CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us live.
Elizabeth, it has to do with the size of children's brains, or at least we're learning that children who have autism spectrum disorder, their brains look a little different.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. It's really fascinating research because no one's ever really tried -- you know, really tried like this to figure out what's different about the brains of children with autism.
So these researchers looked at seven boys with autism, who drowned, and they did autopsies on their brain and compared them to the brains of children who died who did not have autism. They looked in one particular area, the prefrontal cortex. And that's the area where language and communication develop, all of the things that are unusual in autism. What they found is that in the boys with autism, they had many, many more neurons. About 67 percent more neurons than the boys who didn't have autism. and their brains were much heavier. And the thinking is that perhaps what's going on here is that having too many neurons in this area makes it hard for the brains to develop normally.
COSTELLO: So what does that mean for maybe unlocking the mystery of autism?
COHEN: The first question that the researchers asked is, when do these neurons develop? The answer to that is they develop prenatally. They develop when the child is still in their mother's belly. So it tells them that autism perhaps is starting really when a mom is pregnant. It's not so much a matter of they come out and are raised a certain way, or it's what their parents are like. Really, it's something that starts in-utero. And hopefully, they can do more studies and they can confirm these findings and maybe this will lead to some treatment for autism some day.
VELSHI: But for the moment, no treatment, no -- not entirely sure what causes it. Maybe this gets us further. We can't prevent it at the moment, so what is the best advice for parents who are watching this, who suspect their children might be on that autism spectrum?
COHEN: The best advice for parents is to watch your child. If you're concerned that your child is not developing like other children, is to watch for those symptoms, bring them to the attention of your pediatrician and then get treatment as soon as possible. The earlier that you get your child in treatment, the better. Don't wait until they're 4 or 5 or 6. If, at age 2, they're not communicating the way other children are, pay attention to that.
If you go to CNN.com/empowerpatient, you'll see links that will show you actual videos of children with autism and compare them with children who don't have autism and all sorts of links where you can get services for children with autism.
ROMANS: If you have a good pediatrician, your pediatrician is really doing all of this for you. They're pointing out all kinds of milestones and asking you questions to kind of suss out, in those first couple of years, where your child is on the development track, right?
COHEN: That's the way it is supposed to work. There have been some concerns that not all pediatricians are doing this. And parents raise concerns and some pediatricians might say don't worry about it, all kids develop at a different rates. Well, that's true, but you know your child best. If you feel that something is not quite right here, listen to that inner voice.
ROMANS: If a pediatrician tells you, he's a boy, he'll talk eventually, stand up, walk out the door and get another pediatrician.
(LAUGHTER)
COHEN: If you're still concerned, go get a second opinion, absolutely.
ROMANS: All right, thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
COSTELLO: We asked you to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question this morning, should Joe Paterno resign?
This from Joanne. "If Joe Paterno is forced to retire, this will kill him. Joe has done so much good for the Nittany Lions and he is such an incredibly good man. I do not believe he did anything wrong, morally or otherwise. Last week, he was dubbed America's winningest coach. Leave him alone."
This from Eric. "He should resign because he failed to protect children when he could have. Here's a wonderful opportunity for a large university to demonstrate that there's something more important than football."
And this from Donna. "OK, let me get this straight. You mean to tell me no one, and I mean no one, called the police on this sick puppy when he was raping that little boy, and it's OK? And those people cheering him on? I'm sick. Where is the support for the child whose life is ruined forever"?
Keep the comments coming. Facebook.com/Americanmorning.
Very passionate responses this morning. It's good hearing from you.
ROMANS: I got an e-mail saying, can you find for "Romans' Numeral" how many telephones there were in the entire sports building --
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: -- and why no one picked one up.
VELSHI: And why no one called the police.
COSTELLO: And called the police, right?
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: Right, calling the police.
VELSHI: All right, coming up next hour, the crisis watch across the pond. Why Italy's economy has hit -- may have just hit the point of no return as the prime minister heads for the door.
It's 56 minutes after the hour.
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