dropping out of sight. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we begin with today's damming new report on penn state's university's cover-up of coach jerry sandusky's sexual attacks on young boys. it says the top people at the university including the legendary football coach, joe paterno, hid what they knew and had no regard for the young victims. just now university officials are promising it will never, never happen again. >> you should know that our hearts remain heavy. and we are deeply ashamed. >> we're in no way lessening our focus on our own failings. we also are committed to helping to build greater awareness of the societal issue of child abuse. >> cnn's susan candiotti is joining us now. louis freeh led this study. it was very, very bitter and damming. >> reporter: it was, wolf. right out of the gate, louis freeh made it clear that children were victimized because four top penn state officials did nothing to stop jerry sandusky. and named names including a man's name synonymous with penn state university, the late coach joe paterno. from the moment jerry sandusky was marched before the public branded a predatory pedophile, a troubling question lingered, what did those at penn state university do to stop him? now the public has an answer. >> our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at penn state. >> reporter: louis freeh, hired by the university to investigate its role in the jerry sandusky scandal delivered a scathing 267-page report. 430 interviews, 3.5 million pieces of evidence adding up to one major finding about what they did with evidence of child rape. >> the most powerful people in penn state university made a decision to conceal this information. >> reporter: the powerful people named are former president graham spanier, former vice president gary schultz, former athletic director tim curley, and the man that made penn state a national football giant, former head coach, joe paterno. the report suggesting they engaged in a cover-up exchanging damming e-mails first revealed by cnn. the four men never demonstrated through actions or words any concern for the safety and well being of sandusky's victims until after sandusky's arrest, freeh wrote. the board of trustees issued this statement. we expect a comprehensive analysis of our policies, procedures and controls related to identifying and reporting crimes and misconduct. the report stating a top four penn state leaders knew all about 1998 allegations sandusky abused boys in the shower. but feared opening a "pandora's box of victims" freeh said sandusky's 1999 retirement was not connected to the allegations. he continued to abuse children and had access to the university until his arrest. >> they were worried about sandusky showering with a boy because of bad publicity. >> reporter: janitors who witnessed "horrific abuse" feared reporting it. >> if that's the culture on the bottom -- top. >> reporter: when graduate coach mike mcqueary did report it, officials kept quiet. in a statement joe paterno's family said, he is still the only leader to step forward and say that with the benefit of hindsight, he wished he had done more. to think however that he would have protected jerry sandusky to avoid bad publicity is simply not realistic. however, freeh's report disagreed stating that those four top penn state officials were more worried about bad publicity for penn state than having empathy for child abuse victims. and, wolf, it appears as though the fallout from this scandal is growing because several attorneys representing victims in this case were at today's press conference with louis freeh and said they are gaining even more ammunition for their expected lawsuits. wolf. >> i'm sure there will be a lot of lawsuits. the question is will there be any criminal charges filed against any of these high-ranking penn state university officials for allegedly covering up what they saw? >> reporter: well, remember two of them are already charged, curley and schultz, vice president and former athletic director are charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report child abuse. graham spanier, the former president, has not been charged. it is possible certainly this is in the hands of state prosecutors here in pennsylvania as a part of their ongoing criminal investigation. they didn't originally have these e-mails until just a few months ago when louis freeh's group turned them over to authorities. >> susan, thanks so much. this note during our new 6:00 p.m. eastern hour of "the situation room," we'll get reaction from the campus, jason carol is talking to students, faculty and others. now to presidential politics. both the romney and obama campaign say their opponent is a liar. team romney makes the accusation in a new campaign ad. and the obama campaign's pouncing on a new report that raises serious questions about exactly when mitt romney left his job at bain capital management. cnn national political correspondent jim acosta has a look at the accusations. these are getting nasty. they're getting ugly. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. the romney campaign is sticking to its claim that the gop contender left his former private investment firm, bain capital, in 1999. but democrats are pointing to government documents that appear to show otherwise. >> what a day. >> reporter: mitt romney has said repeatedly he left his private investment firm, bain capital, in 1999. >> i left that business in 1999 to help with the salt lake city olympics back on track. >> reporter: but this bain capital filing at the securities and exchange commission first reported by talking points memo in "the boston globe" and obtained by cnn shows romney as the coo and president two years after the gop contender says he left the firm. the obama campaign pounced on the document as proof romney has misled the public about his career. >> either mitt romney through his own words and his own signature was misrepresenting his position at bain to the s.e.c., which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at bain to the american people. >> reporter: the obama campaign says the s.e.c. documents are crucial because they prove their attack ads are accurate in claiming romney was at bain when the firm was advising companies on outsourcing. >> show mitt romney's firms were pioneers at helping companies outsource manufacturing. >> reporter: in its own spot the romney campaign insists the obama ad is a lie because the republican candidate had left bain before the outsourcing work began. democrats say it's romney who's lying pointing to the massachusetts financial disclosure form from his time as governor saying he made more than $100,000 in 2001 from bain. roberta says the government documents raise serious questions. >> either the statements in the s.e.c. filings are untrue and as a former s.e.c. commissioner, i regard that as a serious problem. or they're true but he wasn't really on the job. >> reporter: but in a statement to cnn, a romney campaign official said s.e.c. regulations are complicated and do not square with common sense in this case. although governor romney was not involved with bain capital after he left to head the winter olympics in 1999, he was still listed on some technical filings. this is nothing more than a quirk in the law. a bain capital executive also a democrat said romney's name remained on documents due to his sudden departure from the firm, adding mitt romney left bain capital in february 19990 run the olympics and has had absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities with the firm or any of its portfolio companies since the day of his departure. and the romney campaign is also pointing to a report from factcheck.org which recently described that obama outsourcing ad as misleading, factcheck.org says today it is sticking to that assessment of the obama outsourcing ad. wolf, i want to share with you a document we just obtained from a democratic official in the last hour. it is a document filed by bain capital with the massachusetts secretary of state's office in the year 2001. it was signed and filed with that office in 2001. the document shows mitt romney listed as the president of bain capital. wolf. >> but the company bain capital and the romney campaign says that was just a technicality, a quirk in the law i think was the exact quote coming from the campaign. >> reporter: that's right. >> they have a little more explaining to do i assume. >> reporter: that's right. i did ask the romney campaign for a statement about this new document which we just obtained. i haven't gotten that response back from the romney campaign. but what they've said all day long, wolf, is that, yes, his name does appear on some of these government documents, but that does not prove that he was doing anything more than having his name officially still with the company. they claim and they've been claiming all day long, wolf, they're not backing away from it, that mitt romney left this company in 1999 to run the olympics. and that's all they're saying about that point at this point, wolf. >> are they saying he did earn $100,000 a year in 2000, 2001 salaries in both of those years? >> reporter: they have not explained why that massachusetts financial disclosure form shows he was still earning some kind of large income from bain capital. and when i talked to that woman with the s.e.c. roberta karmel, she explained to me there are some serious questions being raised here, wolf, because if an s.e.c. form shows mitt romney as the president of bain capital in 2001, that is a form that investors look at, that firms look at, that outsiders look at to see who's in charge over at bain capital. and so if people inside bain capital knew that mitt romney was not leading that company at that time, was not involved in running that company at that time, that information according to this s.e.c. commissioner might not have been widely known to the rest of the world. and so she said they do have more explaining to do. >> yeah. all right. good. we'll stay on top of this. thanks so much, jim acosta. meanwhile, the booing turned to rousing cheers over the naacp convention in houston. the vice president, joe biden, he gave a speech jabbing mitt romney on health care reform, on a lot of other issues opening a new line of attack on voting rights as well. white house correspondent brianna keilar has the story. >> reporter: president obama appeared at the naacp convention in houston, but not in person. >> if you keep standing with me, if you keep persevering like the naacp always has, then i know we can arrive there together. >> reporter: it was vice president biden who showed up to slam mitt romney. he talked about romney's support for voter id laws that biden described as counter to the group's vowing principles. >> it was about the right to vote. because when you have the right to vote, you have the right to change things. they see a different future. voting is made harder not easier. >> reporter: the obama campaign cited a scheduling conflict for the president's absence though there were no public events on his schedule. in the afternoon, president and mrs. obama sat down for an interview with cbs news. but the white house wouldn't say that was the reason for the no-show. >> he has meetings all the time. i don't know who his presidential daily briefing -- >> reporter: the campaign suggested this was a snub. michelle obama's speech there in 2010. present or not, the president and vice president remain popular with this crowd. mitt romney, not so much. as proven by the response he got wednesday during his speech where he outlined how he would cut government spending. >> so to do that i'm going to eliminate every nonessential expensive program i can find. that includes obama care. and i'm going to work to reform and save -- >> reporter: now, wolf, biden was booed as well, but only when he mentioned he was wrapping up his speech. you better believe that the obama campaign is pointing that out. >> he got a rousing reception today, the vice president at the naacp. our producer, reporter, shannon travis does tell me that as recently as a week ago top officials of the naacp thought there was a good chance the president himself would attend this convention in houston. he decided in the end not to go. to send a video and joe biden instead. more on this story later this hour. also in our new 6:00 p.m. eastern hour as well. the obama campaign blames a scheduling conflict, but lots of people aren't satisfied with the obama campaign's excuse for why the president skipped the naacp convention. we're also hearing demands for a fuller explanation of what's wrong with congressman jesse jackson jr. he's dropped from sight. his staff says it's for treatment of what they call mood disorder. and hackers claim 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mutual auto insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? let's get to jack cafferty right now. he's got the cafferty file. jack. >> thanks, wolf. see what this quote reminds you of. this is not a football scandal and should not be treated as one. it's not an academic scandal and does not in any way tarnish the hard-earned well-deserved reputation of penn state university. in this case the voice belonged to the late, once great, joe paterno, who wrote that letter shortly before he died. paterno achieved legendary status at the coach of the penn state football team. yet he was busy just like everyone else on that campus turning a blind eye to the pedophile on his staff who had been given carte blanche by mr. paterno and the administration at the university to prey on young boys. a newly released scathing investigation by former fbi director louis freeh says everybody knew about jerry sandusky for 14 years and did nothing. kids were raped. kids' lives were ruined. and these hollier than now football coaches and school administrators turned a blind eye rather than jeopardize one of the most successful college programs ever. the money and prestige of the football program were more important to joe paterno and his bosses than the ruined lives of young children who were molested, sodomized, raped and otherwise abused by jerry sandusky, who was a high-ranking member of that e louse trous football program. had joe paterno lived, he should have gone to prison with jerry sandusky. in the end, joe paterno lived in denial. here's the question, how wrong was the late joe paterno when he said the sandusky scandal didn't tarnish penn state? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on our blog or go to our post on the "the situation room" facebook page. i will venture a guess that that school will never recover from this. >> yeah. it's sickening. it's so painful to a lot of us. a couple years ago i gave the commencement address at penn state university, got an honorary degree, i met some of those high ranking administration officials over at penn state university. it's just so shocking, so hurtful to see what was covered up for so many years when i heard louis freeh talk about it today. it just made me sick to think about. >> turns your stomach. >> oh, yeah. awful. jack, thanks. we'll get a lot of reaction to that. back to politics right now. former massachusetts governor mitt romney is now the target of new accusations stemming from his association with bain capital. at issue are when he left the firm and how he documented it with the securities and exchange commission. joining us former deputy white house communications director under president obama. she is now his campaign press secretary. she's joining us in "the situation room." serious, ugly, nasty accusations being hurled by both campaigns. stephanie cut tar, the deputy campaign manager working for the obama campaign on a conference call today said this. >> either mitt romney through his own words and his own signature was misrepresenting his position at bain to the s.e.c., which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at bain to the amican people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments. >> that generated this reaction from the romney campaign manager. i'll put it up on the screen. president obama's campaign hit a new low today when one of his senior adviso made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge that calls into the integrity of the entire campaign. he ought to apologize for the out of control behavior of his staff. campaigns are supposed to be hard-fought. but statements like those made by stephanie cut tar belittle the process and candidate on behalf she works. you're speaking for the obama campaign right now ready to apologize for those words. >> i think that statement is traditional distraction politics by the romney campaign. this wasn't a random person at a dunkin donuts making accusations about mitt romney and how long he was at bain. these are official s.e.c. government documents. what stephanie cutter was saying on the call today was you have one choice here. you can't have both. either the information is inaccurate in these documents, and he was misleading in terms of how long he was at bain. or he's been misleading the american public. it doesn't take us -- >> there's a third choice which is what they say and what baib executives say. there was a quirk in the law. he left in 1999 to go run the winter olympics in salt lake. severed his ties. but a quirk in the law put his name on those s.e.c. documents even though he had no involvement whatsoever in the firm. that's a possibility. >> well, wolf, the documents listed him as being the ceo of the company. i think it's hard for most people to believe that he wasn't involved in the decision making during that period of time. >> the guy at bain capital who is a democrat says he has no -- just complications in the s.e.c. filing. why would stephanie cutter jump to this felony accusation. no one suggested mitt romney ever did anything criminally wrong. >> by no means, wolf, i think what she was saying was if he did mislead, which we don't know, the problem with mitt romney is unanswered questions. >> before you make an accusation, shopt there be more investigation when you start raidsing the possibility in her words felony, that's a serious accusation. >> this is a case that's very much in mitt romney's camp. they can release more documents, they can release tax returns, they can share with the american people where his investments are and what it's all about and get the questions answered. it's as simple as that. >> you have a new ad, the romney campaign has a new ad. i'll play a clip of the ad they have about the obama campaign. i want to get your reaction. >> i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> when a president doesn't tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? the obama outsourcing attacks, misleading, unfair and un