Cain Denies Sexual Harassment; Cain, Romney Still Lead Polls; Millions Without Power After Storm; World Population at Seven Billion; Cain Speaks at D.C. Think Tank; Cain Denies Sexual Harassment
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's the top of the hour now, 9:00 Eastern Tim. Welcome to more from the CNN NEWSROOM. Republican candidate Herman Cain this morning, he sits atop several polls and straddles a potential powder keg. As he is preparing to deliver a speech at a Washington think tank. He faces new questions of sexual harassment. According to Politico, two women filed complaints against him in the 1990s. And last night, the campaign issued a denial, but only after this awkward exchange with the reporter who broke the story.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you ever been accused, sir, of harassment?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last one, guys.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last question, last question.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, have you? Yes or no? Have you ever been accused, sir, of sexual harassment? Have you, sir?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the last question. Thanks. Thanks.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you, sir? Yes or no. Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Joe Johns has the details now, and Paul Steinhauser has the rest of the campaign fallout. Joe, let's go ahead and start with you. Do you expect Cain to address this issue this morning?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, a million-dollar question, you know? He is the center of attention right now. A lot of people are going to be watching him. He is appearing at the American Enterprise Institute giving a speech. So questions are going to follow Herman Cain about this for quite a while. And at some point he'll probably have to say more. We need to be as transparent as we can about this story. We don't know a lot about the allegations right now. In fact, all we do know is that Herman Cain is the center of attention. Not in a good way. We've heard denials from his campaign. They call this rumors. Here's the quote. They say, among other things, that, "Dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from Mr. Cain's tenure as the chief executive officer at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, political trade press," they call them, "are now casting aspersions on his character, spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts since Washington establishment critics haven't had much luck in attacking Mr. Cain's ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they're trying to attack him any way they can." So that is sort of a non-denial denial there. Honestly, there's just a lot of questions. More questions than answers. Cain has been, he says, vaguely familiar with the allegations. So the first question is whether it's true that he's just vaguely familiar. The second question is pretty much about a nondisclosure agreement we're hearing about. This is the type of agreement all parties to an allegation sign in order to keep any of the information from going public. Where is the pressure point on that? Who signed the nondisclosure agreement? And now that Herman Cain is running for president, would everybody who signed that nondisclosure agreement give their consent to lift it so we can get at the truth? A lot of questions, Kyra, and we'll certainly be looking for Herman Cain to issue his own full and complete denial if all of this is simply not true.</s>PHILLIPS: Sure. And just to reiterate, he is going to be speaking live any moment now. We will take that live. But, Joe, you know, through your sources, you've been on this beat a long time. Do you think right now that there really is enough here to cause him problems in this campaign?</s>JOHNS: You know, it's very difficult to say. But you know as well as I do, Kyra, the arc of these stories is, you have an allegation out there, and you don't have a name associated with it or a lot of names, the first thing you look for is for the individual who made the allegation to come forward and talk about it. And if that individual does not come forward, it's very difficult to move the story forward. So that's the first thing. Let's see who's going to come out and talk.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. And we're standing by for that. We'll take it live as soon as it happens. Joe, thanks so much. Meanwhile, a CNN poling -- another new poll shows that Herman Cain is still at the top in Iowa along with Mitt Romney Our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser with more of the story behind those numbers. And it's going to be interesting to see if indeed those numbers are impacted by these allegations coming forward -- Paul.</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Exactly, Kyra. Both these polls conducted obviously before the Politico story. We're just over two months away from the first votes in Iowa. Take a look at this. A "Des Moines Register" survey of Republicans who are likely to vote on those GOP caucuses on January 3rd. Look who's at the top there, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney. Basically a dead heat, 23 percent for the former Godfather's Pizza CEO, and 22 percent for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who's making his second bid for the White House. Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas, at 12 percent. Everybody else in single digits. Let's go take a look at a CNN/"TIME"/ORC poll that came out middle of last week. And basically the same story. Romney and Cain, dead even just about at the top there. You know, Kyra, as Herman Cain has risen in the polls, remember, a dramatic rise, national polls and state polls, he's come under more scrutiny. His 9-9-9 plan which boosted him in the polls had been picked apart by his rivals for the GOP nomination. His -- every word he said on abortion has also come under scrutiny. And now this story from Politico -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. And let's follow up as we are monitoring this and monitoring this live event where he'll be speaking at this think tank very soon. Rick Perry didn't stay out of the debates for very long.</s>STEINHAUSER: Yes. That was a storyline last week, right, would Perry go to all these upcoming debates? Remember his debate performances in those five debates in September and October did not help. It probably was one of the reasons why he went from the frontrunner in the polls much further down. And deteriorated in the polls. But over the weekend, his campaign and the candidate himself saying that he will take part in the four debates -- yes, there are four debates scheduled next month. Go to the calendar and all. Quickly go through them. On the 9th of November, you've got a CNBC debate in Michigan that's supposed to be entirely on the economy. You've got a CBS debate in South Carolina on the 12th. And a CNN debate on the 22nd here in Washington, D.C. Both of those debates supposed to focus on national security and foreign affairs. And finally, a CNN debate in Arizona, a state that's moved up its date on the primary calendar. That debate on November 30th. So a crowded calendar for debates. Rick Perry says I will be there. And he also says, Kyra, that he hopes by -- when this is all over he's a better debater.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be following it. Thanks so much, Paul. And once again this morning, Herman Cain facing new questions of sexual harassment. He will be speaking live at a Washington think tank any minute. As soon as he begins, we're going to monitor that to see if he responds to those allegations while he is making that speech. All right. We're going to have your next political update in just about an hour. And a reminder, for all the latest political news, you can always go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com. Now across much of the northeast, the workweek begins under a blanket of snow and misery now. From Maryland -- Maryland, rather, to Maine, this freak snowstorm dumped more than two feet of snow in a lot of areas. And that shattered snowfall records for the entire month of October. At least five deaths now blamed on that storm. More than 2.4 million homes and businesses are still without power, too. Those outages are scattered across the United States. Convoys of power crews are streaming into the disaster areas to clear the fallen trees, restore the service. But a lot of people will still face several freezing nights before their electricity is back on. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is actually in York, Pennsylvania, for us this morning. So, Chad, describe the scene there for us.</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this was a snowman Saturday afternoon.</s>MYERS: It's going to take a long time to get this back up, isn't it?</s>BARRY BAUMGARDNER, METROPOLITAN EDISON: Absolutely.</s>MYERS: How many days, do you think?</s>BAUMGARDNER: I would say probably Wednesday.</s>MYERS: Wednesday.</s>BAUMGARDNER: Yes. We've got a lot of crews coming in from other areas, other states.</s>MYERS: Here's the deal. We were down to about 25 degrees here. If you're in a house without power, and you can't turn on the furnace without power, because the blower won't go, the natural gas won't turn on, you should not just use your gas grill or your gas oven because that will bring carbon monoxide into your home. Another problem there, Kyra. So people are actually moving into hotels. All the hotels in the area were completely booked last night. I guess that's great for the hotels but bad for people that have now spent an extra $200 to $300 over the past couple of nights, that what they are telling me that was their Christmas fund in order to just stay warm. So although things are moving again today, it's not like it should be with a couple of million people without power for a few more days. It's still going to cost those people more and more money -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: We'll keep an eye on it, Chad. Thanks. And people are occupying Wall Street this morning despite the rough weather. Check out these pictures. It was at</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's trademarkable, someone is going to trademark it. And why not me?</s>PHILLIPS: Our Poppy Harlow has that in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. And the world may seem a bit larger today. That's because the U.N. says the world population will hit seven billion people. Our Zain Verjee, she's not counting that high, but she is somewhat tracking that big number. Let's talk about the headlines, talking about how symbolic this number is.</s>ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, Kyra. You have to stop having more babies now because we are going to be --</s>VERJEE: We have enough. Seven billion. We passed that mark today. Let me show you some of the newspaper headlines here. "Gulf News" in the United Arab Emirates puts the numbers out here. Here are all the zeros. Seven billion is its headline. And inside this paper there's an editorial that basically says that governments need to assess whether they have the right policies in place to improve the environment, protect natural resources, and have enough jobs for all these people. Take a look at the "Dominion Post," this from New Zealand. It's actually kind of a cute headline with a cute picture. It says, "How many people will Boo share the beach with?" And that there, Kyra, is Boo. That's a baby temporarily named Boo actually. It's a story about the baby whose parents moved home to just escape all the people and wanted to bring her up in uncrowded waters near the surf. But it asks, what will Boo face in our world when she gets older? Finally, look at "The National". This is also in the United Arab Emirates. Again, seven billion, the figure, and it talks about, Kyra, the population of the world is growing and different countries need to find solutions to different strains on power, food, water, and resources around the world. Because that's really the question. Are we going to run out of resources to support seven billion people -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Zain Verjee, it's really hard to kind of wrap your mind around that number. But I'm glad my twins got to contribute to it. And I'm stopping there, by the way. Thanks, Zain.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. We want to remind you once again we are monitoring an event that's going to take place in Washington, D.C. at this think tank. Herman Cain going to be speaking live. And this comes just after he faces allegations of sexual harassment. We're going to see if he's going to take any questions from those within the crowd. We're monitoring that, and we'll bring it to you live. And JetBlue passengers spent eight hours stranded on the snowy tarmac with little food, little war, and backed up bathrooms.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're filled. They're totally filled. Nobody can go in them anymore. You just have to hold it.</s>PHILLIPS: If you think passengers sound frustrated, just wait until you hear from the pilot.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tens of thousands, they started handing out the gear. Trying to get a good look. I believe his wife Elaine is --</s>PHILLIPS: And how does St. Louis honor its new world champs? Well, it brings out the Budweiser Clydesdales, of course. That's how they roll.