[Christine Romans, Cnn Anchor:] A third accuser Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain trying desperately to keep the focus on his campaign this morning as new allegations of sexual harassment surface.
[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] Chaos in Oakland. Police use tear gas on occupy demonstrators after they shut down one of the country's busiest shipping ports.
[Romans:] Crisis mode, President Obama arriving in France for the G-20, but the big story is Greece. It's gamble with the global economy, and how could it cost the membership in the E.U. on this
[American Morning. Costello:] Good morning to you. It is Thursday, November 3rd. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. Ali Velshi is in stormy France. It's bad weather there. We will be talking to him in a few minutes about the G-20 Summit.
[Romans:] Stormy weather and stormy politics. Global politics in France. We'll get to that in a minute, but up first, the scandal dogging Herman Cain's presidential campaign, growing larger this morning. The Associated Press is reporting there is a third woman who accused Cain of unwanted sexual advances when she worked for the National Restaurant Association. The report says she considered filing a complaint but didn't. Cain for his part is trying to stay on message. Here he is facing reporters at an event in Northern Virginia.
[Herman Cain , 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 about. OK? Don't even bother.
[Unidentified Male:] But are you concerned about the fact that these women want to
[Cain:] What did I say?
[Unidentified Male:] Aare you concerned about
[Cain:] Excuse me. Excuse me! What part of "no" don't these people understand?
[Romans:] This morning his campaign maintains the charges are baseless. He's the victim of a political smear campaign even pointing the finger at Texas Governor Rick Perry. We begin our coverage this morning with CNN's Joe Johns. Good morning, Joe.
[Joe Johns, Cnn Senior Correspondent:] Good morning. That's what we know. The Cain campaign has blamed the Perry campaign of leaking the story. The Perry campaign has flatly denied it. And like everything else on the story so far there isn't much proof certainly nothing conclusive. What is interesting here, though, is that while some conservative supporters of Cain originally suggesting the story was a product of some kind of liberal plot to discredit Cain. This is a clear signal that at least from the view point of the Cain campaign, the leading suspect for the leak of this story is the campaign of another contender for the Republican presidential nomination. Cain said at a town hall that they had been able to trace the story back to the Perry camp. Mark Block, Cain's chief of staff, was more accusatory than that saying on Fox, that the actions of the Perry campaign are despicable. Rick Perry and his campaign owe the Herman Cain and his family an apology. The Perry camp fired back saying, nobody at our campaign was involved in this story in any way and any claim contrary is patently false. The first we learned of it was when we read the story in "Politico." So a lot of back and forth and as I said, nothing conclusive.
[Romans:] All right, nothing conclusive. We don't really even know many details, quite frankly, of the allegations because of confidentiality agreements and because now a third seems to be missing according to the AP. What can you tell us about this one?
[Johns:] Well, I mean, what you reported there at the top is just about all you can say about this. And that is that a third woman came forward according to the Associated Press and said she considered filing a complaint. However, it is pretty clear she did not file a complaint. So you put that on top of what we heard about the other two. There really aren't any solid facts on the record and the fact of the matter is this is not a situation where you are going to get some type of a fact finding because it has been so long. So who knows at the end of the day, this could be just a lot of shooting back and forth. More troublesome perhaps for Herman Cain is that a pollster and a former employee of the National Restaurant Association. Where all of this business is said to have occurred in the 1990s has said that whatever Cain was allegedly doing was a topic of conversation back in the day and was pretty much assumed that it would end up out in the open. Can we just listen to that?
[Chris Wilson, Former Pollster, National Restaurant Association:] I was actually around a couple of times when this happened. It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place. So many people were aware of her situation. The fact she left after this. That it was it was everybody knew at the campaigns, with every campaign, that this would eventually come up.
[Johns:] So there you go. Chris Wilson's take on the whole matter and we are waiting because we'd love to hear a little bit more information. Some indication that the attorney for one of the accusers is actually in a conversation with the National Restaurant Association to try to release some type of statement. But it is also clear that this accuser that attorney represents doesn't want to go out public at least now because she just doesn't want to become another sort of Anita Hill-type figure. So a lot of if you will pieces to the story moving and nothing real clear this morning.
[Romans:] All right, Joe Johns. Thanks, Joe.
[Costello:] You heard Joe say that the Cain campaign claims Rick Perry's camp is behind the sexual harassment story and the Cain camp is demanding an apology from the Texas governor. On "AC 360" Cooper asked "Politico's" editor-in-chief if they were tipped off by a rival campaign.
[Anderson Cooper, Host, Cnn's "ac 360":] Was "Politico" tipped off to the story by one of Cain's rivals? Some including Cain himself now seemed to be suggesting.
[John Harris, Editor In Chief, "politico":] Jonathon was on message last night, Anderson. I will try to stay on message. I will tell why you I think it is important. This is a sensitive story. We haven't been reporting on innuendo or things we think we know. So in our public comment we try to stick closely to what is in our published story. That story was edited pretty extensively and we're comfortable with it. So I'm not trying not to go beyond that. I would say the question of motive to me, Anderson, is pretty secondary to the question of facts. Everybody or anybody rather who speaks to a reporter any time on any subject presumably has some motive for doing so. What's important is not the motive, but the but the facts. "Politico's" two main facts in that initial story, one that there have been complaints and two, those complaints have been settled or agreed agreements reached, to use Mr. Cain's phrase. Both those things have been validated by Mr. Cain himself as true and accurate.
[Romans:] All right, coming up at 8:15 Eastern, we're going to talk live with Kurt Andersen, the Perry campaign adviser, who Herman Cain blames for leaking information about these allegations.
[Costello:] "Politico" says it wasn't him. So it's getting uglier and uglier. As it is in Oakland, California, anger in 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 had to close their doors. Officers are trying to get the crowd to disperse right now. They say some demonstrators are throwing rocks at them and setting off fireworks. The city is still reeling from last week's violent clash that put an Iraq war veteran in the hospital with a fractured skull. What you are looking at now is cell phone video from downtown Oakland. A couple of "Occupy Wall Street" protesters hit by a car. Keep your eyes on the Mercedes in the back. See it there? You can see one of the people banging on the car's hood. Then the car runs smack into them. Police say the man and woman were hurt, but their injuries are not life threatening. The driver was questioned, but was allowed to leave the scene.
[Romans:] OK. In France, the G-20 Summit is under way. Greece has been put on notice accept the euro zone bailout package or get out. Prime Minister George Papandreou rattled a lot of world leaders when he announced the bailout plan would be put to a vote by the Greek people. That could happen within a month and now, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is warning Papandreou that pass this plan or else Greece must exit the E.U. Our Ali Velshi is covering the G-20. He's in live in Cannes, France this morning. Ali, didn't take long for the sparks to fly. Even this morning now, we hear the Greek minister is calling an emergency meeting with his cabinet. There's so much uncertainty around all this, every little development and rain, every little development gets so much attention.
[Ali Velshi, Cnn Chief Business Correspondent:] Where am I? What is this? Is this Cannes? Is this the south of France? It was a dark and stormy night when the G-20 started. This is probably this is kind of indicative of what is going on. This was supposed to be, you know, relatively stayed meeting. They have these couple of times a year. Christine, you followed them to deal with sort of the global crisis and global growth and things like that. But yes, it was all sparks. Last night, two-and-half-hour meeting between Sarkozy of France, Angela Merkel of Germany and Papandreou of Greece. Basically, they were telling him number one, if there is until the uncertainty is settled not a cent more will go to Greece. They are supposed to receive much more money that's not going to happen. They also said that while it is technically not a referendum on staying in the euro zone, Christine. If Greece votes against this plan that the Europeans came up with on October 27, it will essentially be a referendum on stating the euro zone. Papandreou reinforced that last night saying it is very clear that this is a referendum. It almost, Christine, seems as if he was looking for Sarkozy and Merkel to be tough on the Greeks and tell them that if you go the wrong way on this vote, you may end up leaving the euro zone. Papandreou went back to Greece. He has an emergency cabinet meeting under way right now. Tomorrow morning, there is a confidence vote on his government. He only has a two-seat lead in parliament. Once he passed that they are looking on a referendum on December 4th, which means between now and then about five weeks. We will have continued uncertainty in the euro zone about whether a deal is going to get done and this crisis is going to be averted Christine.
[Romans:] Five weeks or more uncertainty when so many people are hoping the bailout deal would put this all behind them.
[Velshi:] You know what is you know what is certain, Christine? What is certain is I'm not going to get a chance to use these.
[Romans:] My goodness, Ali in a Speedo in the south of France. We had to go there at 6:11. Thank you, my friend. See you soon.
[Costello:] I'm in shock. I can't speak.
[Romans:] Keep the mental picture with you as you go through all of your stories throughout the hour Carol.
[Costello:] My God, my head is going to explode. Let's talk about news now, shall we? Closing arguments begin today in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor. After six weeks of testimony, 49 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, the jury will soon decide the fate of Dr. Conrad Murray. He faces four years in jail if he is convicted. The big question, did Murray give Jackson the fatal dose of Propofol? Casey Wian joins us live from Los Angeles. Good morning, Casey.
[Casey Wian, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. That's right. Twenty two separate days of testimony over six weeks in the manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. It is finally nearing an end. Here is what happened so far.
[Unidentified Male:] Now the entire question
[Wian:] Dramatic moments at the Dr. Conrad Murray manslaughter trial including an audiotape of Michael Jackson slurring his words and disturbing pictures of the singer's dead body. In court a procession of Murray's former girlfriends and a constant presence of Jackson family members. Outside supporters of both sides. Several prosecution medical experts testified about the dangers of treating Jackson's insomnia with the powerful anesthetic Propofol, especially outside of a hospital. Murray declined to take the stand. His former patients did.
[Unidentified Male:] I'm alive today because of that man. Do you have an opinion about whether Dr. Murray treats his patients with care and caution?
[Unidentified Female:] I have never had a doctor that was more caring.
[Wian:] Prosecutors clashed with medical experts for the defense who sought to portray Jackson as a drug addict and could have injected himself with Propofol.
[Unidentified Male:] Is there any reason why it is so difficult for to you answer my questions and so easy for to you answer Mr. Chernoff's questions? Objection, argumentative. Sustained.
[Wian:] The judge find defense expert Dr. Paul White, an anesthesiologist for suggesting that Michael Jackson had his own supply of Propofol, allegation not in evidence. Prosecution also extracted a seemingly key concession from Dr. Wyatt that he never would have treated Jackson the way Murray allegedly did.
[Unidentified Male:] If Michael Jackson had come to you, Dr. White, and indicated he would like to hire you to administer Propofol to him, to put him to sleep each night in his bedroom, would you do it? Absolutely not. That would be a job that I would never consider accepting.
[Wian:] Murray faces four years in jail and the loss of his medical license. Now in closing arguments later today, prosecutors are expected to argue that no matter how Michael Jackson received that fatal dose of Propofol, Dr. Murray is still responsible because he was in violation of the standard of care that's required with administering that drug. The defense team is likely to counter with its theory that Michael Jackson was so desperate to get to sleep in preparation for his upcoming world tour that he could have actually injected himself Carol.
[Costello:] Casey Wian reporting live in Los Angeles, California. Thanks so much, Casey. Again, closing arguments do begin today in the trial of Dr. Conrad Murray. HLN has wall-to-wall coverage that begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern and will be talking to our own court analyst, Paul Callan on why he thinks that the jury will make its decision like in a day.
[Romans:] Wow. Things happen quickly.
[Costello:] Yes.
[Romans:] All right. Good. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a Texas family court judge, a family court judge admits beating his daughter. We are going to show you the stunning YouTube video that has exploded on the Internet. A million people watching this video and talking about the future of this judge this morning.
[Costello:] It's pretty hard to watch. And visual proof that you should not do everything your GPS tells you to do. The story behind this wreck, coming up. Fifteen minutes past the hour.