erin, first to you. from the economic experts you're talking to, i take it this was the right move, but it was an act of desperation. >> i think that's the right way to characterize it. the markets rejoiced. that's a big jump and puts the market solidly above 12,000. that's good news. i will say this, wolf. in talking to some investors, i talked to some people at pimco, the largest bond investor in america, they said the issue here is it's down the line when you start to wonder what happens. what the fed is doing is providing money for european banks who aren't able to get dollars other places. what the fed does is essentially print more dollars. a dollar's a dollar. whether in japan, kazakhstan or mexico. so, we are inflating the value of the u.s. currency to deal with the european crisis. for now, a good thing, but that could carry a heavy price down the road. >> richard, you're in london. what's been the reaction there? do they believe this will revolve the crisis? >> this is got nothing to do with re

live in london, erin mclaughlin. what are people protesting there, erin? >> reporter: to let you know where i am, outside st. thomas' hospital in london where some of the 400,000 public sector workers on strike have turned up to picket today. at the center of all this are the public sector pensions. put simply, government workers want public sector -- i'm sorry. government officials want public sector workers to contribute more to their pension and work for longer. with me is chris remington a union leader. chris har chris, what has brought you out here today? pensions decimated under these proposals. we will see how working life extended, benefits reduced. we will see -- two major -- the pension, does not go back into this, but into the treasury. we've been maligned by these proposals. >> reporter: how has this affected the strike today? >> every hospital entrance restricteded. we have got all in-patient sections reduced. anything non-emergency has been reduced even though we work very hard to make sure emergency and emergency coverage is available for pa

"erin burnett outfront" starts next. >>> i'm erin burnett "outfront" tonight. >> that's right. and given enough time he can transcend them. >> all right. cain as a lawyer issued a statement, this appears to be an accusation of private alleged is consensual conduct between adults. mr. cain alerted his wife and discussed it with her. he has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with the media." paul, true? be on the ballot in nevada on february 4th. he's in over ten states he filed. the herman cain train is full speed ahead. he's got precinct captains in iowa ready to nominate him. the herman cain train is moving full steam ahead. i think that's not only healthy he is a rocket scientist. he worked for the navy. graduated from moore house college. pro-life man and all of that. this really boils down to if you have two african-american men in the general election with opposing political views, the race card goes away. there can be no question of race. they're both black men. and it will change that base. many people who voted for mr. obama in the last electio

>> "erin burnett outfront" at 11:00. >> we're going to continue talking with latest on herman cain, whether he's making a decision on getting out of the race in the next couple of days. the niece of martin luther king is our guest tonight. she's known herman cain for the past 11 years, she spoke with him today what he's thinking and she's has a specific reason believing him. an amazing story of forgiveness and redemption. the oklahoma city bombing, which claimed hundreds of lives, a woman tonight who lost both-of her grandchildren, she's been corresponding for the past seven years with terry nichols who is in jail and she talks about why she chose to forgive him. that's coming up at top of the hour. >>> coming up, a guy in vermont makes t-shirts in his garage and threatened by a major fast food corporation. >>> time now for the ridiculist. congratulations. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bott

i'm erin burnett. "outfront," we begin with breaking news. herman cain losing key support in new hampshire one day after a georgia woman claims she had a 13-year affair with the candidate. one new hampshire state representative, william panic, confirming to "outfront" that he was withdrawing his support for cain and switching to newt gingrich. adding the alleged affair was quote, the final straw. and within the last hour, the presidential candidate sending a message to his supporters. and i read it in part, quote, this woman's story is completely false. i am asking for your friendship. i am also asking for your prayers and support. this is a trying time for my family, my campaign, and for me. i'm looking at the letter here which concludes with, the ability to buy herman cain t-shirts and donate money. money is what this is going to come down to. cain's plea for support comes after telling staffers this morning that he is, quote, reassessing his campaign. a top campaign aide told cnn today, a decision will likely be made within a couple of day

>> "erin burnett outfront" at 11:00. >> we're going to continue talking with latest on herman cain, whether he's making a decision on getting out of the race in the next couple of days. the niece of martin luther king is our guest tonight. she's known herman cain for the past 11 years, she spoke with him today what he's thinking and she's has a specific reason believing him. an amazing story of forgiveness and redemption. the oklahoma city bombing, which claimed hundreds of lives, a woman tonight who lost both-of her grandchildren, she's been corresponding for the past seven years with terry nichols who is in jail and she talks about why she chose to forgive him. that's coming up at top of the hour. >>> coming up, a guy in vermont makes t-shirts in his garage and threatened by a major fast food corporation. congratulations. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the peop

. >> erin, thanks. good evening, everyone. we begin with new word from mike lang, one of three accusers making sex allegations against bernie fine, syracuse university's fired associate men's basketball coach. he spoke to our gary tuchman who joins us shortly. new revelations about what might have been done when first accuser called police with his allegations but wasn't. it's a procedure followed in other big cities but not in syracuse. the accuser's name is bobby davis, a former su ball boy who is now 39. he told espn the abuse started in 1994 when he was 12 and continued for more than a decade. he waited until 2002 to phone syracuse city police who told him they couldn't pursue charges because the statute of limitations had expired. the city's police chief admits they could have done a better job. he said that in 2002 that the procedures which are in effect today were not in effect back then, the procedures that would mean an allegation would be logged into a computer database. back then they did next to nothing. not only d

i'm erin burnett. "outfront," we begin with breaking news. herman cain losing key support in new hampshire one day after a georgia woman claims she had a 13-year affair with the candidate. one new hampshire state representative, william panic, conif i recalling to "outfront" that he is withdrawing his support for cain and switching to newt gingrich. adding the alleged affair was the final straw. and within the last hour, the presidential candidate sending a message to his supporters. and i read it in part, quote, this woman's story is completely false. i am asking for your friendship. i am also asking for your prayers and support. this is a trying time for my family, my campaign, and for me. i'm looking at the letter here which concludes with, the ability to buy herman cain t-shirts and donate money. money is what this is going to come down to. cain's plea for support comes after telling staffers this morning that he is recessing his campaign. a top campaign aide told cnn today, a decision will likely be made within a couple of days. as of ye

. >>> "erin burnett outfront" is coming up at the top of the hour. one of post market bad news dose for the nation's top financial institutions, including bank of america, goldman sachs, how big of a deal is this? >> that's right. obviously, getting a downgrade from standard and poor's, the same agency that downgraded the united states in august, john. they changed the criteria by which they were evaluating banks. so this is not a shock, but it still is not good news especially for american borrowers. look at bank of america, the stock plunged this year. this downgrade means they have to put billions of collateral up and that means that could affect their bottom line, could affect their willingness to make loans and the interest rate at which they will make those loans. they are the biggest mortgage provider in the united states. so these stories are not insignificant. you need strong banks with high ratings in order to have cheap loans. the reason for the downgrade is in part regulation of the united states, but also that exposure to europe, which i

everyone always talks about erin rogers but drew a freeze is also amazing, so is tom brady. they are all going for that dan marino record. >>gary: they are right there. the 49ers the vineyard giants in three weeks ago and they have been on a downward slope. drew breeze is not that tall. by all accounts, he has the leadership skills. those are pretty good guys to emulate. >>darya: it makes for a monster season for these guys. three quarterbacks is showing incredible stuff serious >>gary: as far as pure excitement, you are talking about the three best quarterbacks, rogers, brady and dry breeze. >>darya: if it is not fun to watch like the indiana--like the colts. should you not show that in the market where they are considered the home team? in fort wayne, they have the choice. they were supposed to show the game. they were supposed to show the game of the television station decided, there is more fun and more, watching the bears. they did not show you the colts because they were losing and they lost again. >>gary: the colts have not won a game. that is the only thing i can say

a connecticut judge has agreed to extradite erin thomas to prince william county. he was arrested in march. he is a suspect in attacks of women over the span of a decade. six rapes in virginia alone. >>> the d.c. council is holding a hearing on a bill that would permanently end the practice of arresting drivers for expired license plates. the new bill would impose a $100 fine for tags expired less than 30 days and a $200 fine and vehicle impounding for over 30 days of expired tags. >>> cab drivers could be cashing in big time at your expense. the cab commission is look into an increase that would nearly double the rate a mile. a vote could come on the issue today. >>> dale hunter faces his first test as the coach of the capitals tonight. it's a home game against the st. louis blues. the caps fired bruce boudreau. in spite a record winning start to the season, the caps faltered in recent weeks. the cap's general manager said bruce boudreau had to go after the players stopped responding to him. we have reaction from some of the caps stars now. >> he is a legend here.

erin? >> reza, thank you very much. going to be interesting considering the u.s. put quite a bit of its military on hold. >>> now to russia where putin formally accepted his party's nomination for the 2012 elections. matthew chance, are russians happy about his third presidential run? obviously, he's currently the prime minister. >> in general, i think they are. but we have seen indications that there's a growing sense of unease with vladimir putin returning to the kremlin. recent opinion polls suggest his ruling party may not win the overwhelming majority it usually enjoys. earlier this month, putin was actually heckled by a crowd, which is unprecedented for a man who's often hero worshipped by the russian public. erin? >> thank you very much, matthew. >>> it's been three weeks since 2-year-old sci metawala disappeared in washington. so far investigators have not come up with a solid lead. according to his mother, she ran out of gas and left 2-year-old sci alone in the car as she walked fo

erin? >> reza, thank you very much. going to be interesting considering the u.s. put quite a bit of its military on hold. >>> now to russia where putin formally accepted his party's nomination for the 2012 elections. matthew chance, are russians happy about his third presidential run? obviously, he's currently the prime minister. >> in general, i think they are. but we have seen indications that there's a growing sense of unease with vladimir putin returning to the kremlin. recent opinion polls suggest his ruling party may not win the overwhelming majority it usually enjoys. earlier this month, putin was actually heckled by a crowd, which is unprecedented for a man who's often hero worshipped by the russian public. erin? >> thank you very much, matthew. >>> it's been three weeks since 2-year-old sci metawala disappeared in washington. so far investigators have not come up with a solid lead. according to his mother, she ran out of gas and left 2-year-old sci alone in the car as she walked fo

. >>> erin, thanks. good evening. we begin with breaking news. new explosive sexual allegations against gop presidential hopeful herman cain. these do not involve allegations of inappropriate contact or harassment. they're allegations of a consensual affair. an atlanta businesswoman claims she had an affair with cain that lasted 13 years, an affair that only ended some eight months ago when he began running for president. here's what ginger white told waga, an atlanta television station about the alleged affair. >> it was pretty simple. it wasn't complicated. i was aware that he was married, and i was also aware that i was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship. >> ginger white on the affair she claims she had with herman cain. she also showed waga cell phone records showing 61 calls for tex messages she claimed were from cain's private cell phone. >> we've never worked together, and i can't imagine anyone phoning or texting me for the last 2 1/2 years just because. >> cain upstaged his accuser's announcement when he appeared on

erin burnett out front" starts right now. >>> thanks, john. in egypt, voters go to the polls today and an american college kid who was jailed in cairo comes home. he's out front tonight. >>> and late breaking news on herman cain's campaign. a woman claims she had a 13-year affair with him. is this the end of cain's candidacy? and the latest on the economy. something nice to say tonight. something nice to say tonight. let's go out front. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, ratings agency fitch affirms of the united states aaa credit rating but says guess what, we're going to downgrade your outlook to negative from stable. this happened after the markets closed. obviously, something negative and all relate the to the lack of action and the failure of the supercommittee, still stocks is soared on wall street. because the markets closed before that action happened. the dow up by nearly 300 points. the reason was a wow weekend for the american economy. retail sales over thanksgiving surged. that's a fair wo

. >> now, erin, mr. cain also said this, explaining the relationship with the new accuser -- >> trying to help a friend because not having a job, et cetera, and this sort of thing. that's all there is to the relationship. and here again, i don't know what's going to be claimed in the story. it was someone who was supposed to be a friend, but obviously they didn't see it as a friendship. >> now, he's trying to get ahead of the story by going on earlier before it came out. was that smart or not, erin? >> it depends on what there is. if it comes that there are pictures or hotel receipts or text messages of some kind that prove him wrong, he's in trouble. he should have gotten out in front of the story before, if he knew this was coming. gingrich has affairs in his past but we knew about them. people don't seem to care about gingrich's past as much. but cain -- these accusations are new. if we see some evidence, he's in trouble. >> perry, mr. cain's attorney just released this statement. let me show you to i

erin burnett "outfront" is coming up at the top of the hour. she is here to give us her take of the start of the holiday season. with all these bargains, everybody gets in early, and pull back. the markets sure liked it today. >> the market sure did. nearly 300 points higher and that was the reason. there's been so much doom and gloom. and a lot of the punditry is saying we'll have a double dip recession. even though a lot of the business executives around the country did not see it coming, it still surprised the markets when we saw this. when you give the numbers for what we saw over the week, the $52 billion, it is 16% higher than a year ago. a big jump. the big question to your point will be whether a lot of that was just people who said, hey, look. things are cheap. things are on sale. i get it. i'll front load my spending. the overall might not be as strong. it was nearly four 00 on average spent this weekend which is a big total. it could show more strength than people think and on the same day we found out that debt in america, the avera

joining me donna brazile, ari fleischer, dana loesch, erin burnett. david gergen, the patriot act, conservative libertarian split that has existed since this was passed right after 9/11 came out in full force tonight however. >> absolutely. ron paul, i should tell you, john, he continues to speak well for the libertarians and you can see him on twitter, they're cheering him on because they thought he was strong tonight. but at the same time, i think when newt gingrich came back, as did mitt romney, they really speak for the majority of the republican party. a much stronger patriot act would be tough on terrorism, the war continues from their point of view. >> that's a question that essentially puts the legacy of the president you worked for in question, you want to continue in strength under the policies put in by bush or as congressman paul says walk way from it? >> it is 8% to 10% group that follows ron paul on this earn. i remember this, arlen specter, former prosecutor, senator from pennsylvania, sat in a meeting with bush that bin laden has been

joining me donna brazile, ari fleischer, dana lohse, erin burnett. david gergen, the patriot act, conservative libertarian split that hasekisted since this was passed right after 9/11 came out in full force tonight however. >> absolutely. ron paul, i should tell you, john, he continues to speak well for the libertarians and you can see him on twitter, they're cheering him on because they thought he was strong tonight. but at the same time, i think when newt gingrich came back, as did mitt romney, they really speak for the majority of the republican party. a much stronger patriot act would be tough on terrorism, the war continues from their point of view. >> that's a question that essentially puts the legacy of the president wyou worked for i question, you want to continue in strength under the policies put in by bush or as congressman paul says walk way from it? >> it is 8% to 10% group that follows ron paul on this earn. i remember this, arlen specter, former prosecutor, senator from pennsylvania, sat in a meeting with bush that bin laden has been i

erin? >> all right. thank you very much. and silvio still making a lot of money no matter what role he has. >>> as we told you earlier, the failure of the super committee to reach a deal to cut $1.2 trillion from america's debt is going to have a tremendous effect on our nation's military. the defense department is going to bear about half of the cuts. they already agreed to cuts of $450 billion. when you add in the automatic cuts as a result of the super committee's failure, the total will be $1 trillion in cuts for defense over the next ten years. that means men and women in armed services, that means the joint strike fighter. does it move the needle or not? some think it would and a lot. it's something leon panetta described as a doomsday scenario. our next president will be the one tasked to deal with the economic shortfalls, cutting the deficit and dealing with our military. joining us to talk about all of these challenges, starting with the super committee, general wesley clark. the formernato supreme allied commander.

erin burnett is here at constitution hall. national security defense and yesterday because of the failure of the super committee, we know there's supposed to be $600 billion over the next ten years starting in 2013 defense cuts. so you've been looking at this part of the story. what do you see? >> you've got to add that to the cuts thaf agreed to. you get around a trillion dollars. what panetta calls a howling out of the force. i've talked to a lot of defense analysts today. we could see cuts of 100, 150,000. a new ground combat vehicle, so there would be real cuts, but there's also a lot of waste. when you look around the world, $1.5 trillion on defense, more than half of that on this country. we spend ten times more than china. six times more than russia. we spend a lot, so we can afford to make the cuts. >> i think yesterday, our pentagon spore respondent's piece, he said we spend more on defense in the united states than the next 16, 17 countries combined. >> it's amazing. when you look at it that way, we can make cuts. bu

he got a call in to cnn erin burnett last night. >> we put things on the table that were very difficult for us. i had thousands of people demonstrate against me for the things we put on there. but we also put 1.2 trillion of additional revenue. they said, no, that's too much. then it turned out that a trillion was too much. 900 was too much, 600 was too much. 250 was too much. we wound up not being able to get this because they wanted to know that the tax cut for the wealthiest people in the country was going to be made permanent, protected. and we just couldn't do that in good conscience. >> an angry john kerry there. we'll have senator jeff sessions from the republican side of the hour respond to that later in the show. we'll be right back. mary? what are you doing here? it's megan. i'm getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon? they'll figure it out. getting you the discount

erin burnett needs to prepare four her show. when we come back, mayor michael bloomberg will join us. he will tell us who he thinks should be blamed for the failure. and the man singularly responsible for the republican refusal to put tax hikes on the table. ok look, when gas prices jump... you still gotta work. so suddenly you're cutting back on everything from family vacations to cell phone minutes. well here's a thought - how bout cuttin' back on gas? here's how: the ford f-150. it gets 23 highway miles per gallon. that's the best. so you can get the job done and get a break at the pump. yeah, can you hear me now? this is the future. this is the ford f-150. >>> breaking news, the collapse of that super committee. design with coming up with reduction plans. the president after it collapsed is prolsing there will be no easy off-ramp when it comes to deficit reduction. moments ago at the white house, he said he would veto any effort to get around the automatic spending cuts. defense or domestic program that are now call for in t

he'll be up with some ads in new hampshire tom orrow. >> erin, one of the things that was stunning to me, the thanksgiving forum, rick santorum actually said suffering, i mean like it was just all right to suffer. look at this. >> suffering, if you're a christian, suffering is part of life, and it's not a bad thing. it is an essential thing in life, and that, we -- we suff -- there are all different ways to suffer. one way to suffer is through lack of shelter and food and another way to suffer is lack of dignity and hope and there's all sorts of ways that people suffer, and it's not just tangible. >> i mean, suffering is a part of life, but do we need a presidential candidate to act like that's expected? yeah, i'm a christian, rick. i understand the crucifixion. i also kept reading we got to the resurrection, rick. you don't just stop at the suffering. you talk about how you suffer through until you can resurrect. what are they talking about? get a bath, get a job. suffering's part of life. it's all right. have they lost it? >> as far as rick santorum is concerned, let's just remember

erin said, i imagine it'd be a thing i don't even know ever happened. it would be that opportunity that never manifested, and i'll never know it was even possible. so a decision is made in a back room or high level office by someone you'll never see about whether or not you get a home or home loan or a job or admission into a school or perhaps never allowed to know a home in a certain area or job is available. this is how modern institutional racism functions, and it weighs on and shapes a black person differently than the more avert racism of the past did. people who told me the most racist thing that happened to me is unknowable gave me the answer quickly. it's in the minds that secret incidences happen behind their back. they walk around constantly and consciously aware of race racism as a ghost in a machine following them. there's a sense of ghost darting around you screwing with you out of sight, but never out of mind. the poet and yale professor dr. elizabeth alexander who wrote a poem at obama's inauguration said the most racist thing for me is t

meanwhile, a former syracuse quarterback talked about the allegations and the investigation with our erin burnett. >> you take these kinds of accusations very, very serious ily. which the university has do. putting him on leave. the troublesome part of this, it comes on the heels of a very explosive case at penn state that involved a grand jury investigation. in this case, we don't have that proof. we have a story that did -- what was revealed several years ago, investigated and found to be nothing and now we have this second kind of claim that -- >> a relative of the first person. >> exactly. relative of the first person. where this concerns me most is that it clouds the issue of child sexual abuse as something that happens in these big time sports environments and not something that happens on an everyday basis. i think stories like this tend to cloud the issue. >>> bernie fine has been an assistant coach at the syracuse school with the basketball team for the past 35 years. we're at 13 minutes past the hour. i want to you turn up the volume a bit on your television and pay close attent

. >>> erin burnett is coming up at the top of the hour. >> we are following the story of a young boy who came forward a few years ago, syracuse said they looked into it. didn't find anything. now a second man has come forward. we're talking to a man who played football up at syracuse and knew the assistant basketball coach, bernie fine, very well. known him for 25 years. he talks about who this man is and whether he thinks he could have been a pedophile. plus we have a passionate plea tonight, candy, passionate plea to the super committee. this is a really important moment. they really can make a difference. i know down in washington they're coming, it looks like, to a point where they say, we don't need to do a deal and we can get rid of these automatic triggers. but the implications for this country could be huge and great for all americans. we have that coming up, top of the hour. >> and politically the good news is they always work better under pressure and it's there. >> that's right. let's hope so. >> thanks so much. we'll see you at the top of the hour. >>> is syria on the bri