WASHINGTON — Embattled GOP presidential candidate
Herman Cain took the unusual step Monday of taking to the airwaves to
pre-emptively defend himself against allegations that he carried on a
13-year-affair before the report detailing the accusations had aired.
“I
wanted to get out in front of it,” Cain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer as news
of the impending report by an Atlanta television station began to
spread. “I have nothing to hide.”
WAGA-TV in Atlanta is reporting that the woman in question is Ginger White, an Atlanta businesswoman.
“It
was pretty simple,” White says in a report to air Monday evening. “It
wasn’t complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also
aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”
Cain insisted to CNN that the woman, whom he did not name, was a “friend.”
“That’s all there is to the relationship,” he said, adding that he tried to help her because she did not have a job.
Asked by Blitzer whether it was an affair: “No, it was not,” he said.
Cain
said he would respond to specific allegations through his attorney, Lin
Wood. “When we know the story, we will respond,” he said.
Even
as Cain was denying the allegations to Blitzer, Wood sent a response to
the television station suggesting that the candidate would not be
addressing them. And while Cain told Blitzer that the allegations were
false, Wood’s statement did not contain an unequivocal denial.
“Mr.
Cain has been informed today that your television station plans to
broadcast a story this evening in which a female will make an accusation
that she engaged in a 13-year long physical relationship with Mr. Cain.
This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace — this is not
an accusation of an assault — which are subject matters of legitimate
inquiry to a political candidate,” Wood wrote.
“Rather,
this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct
between adults — a subject matter which is not a proper subject of
inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private
citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be
questioned about his or her private sexual life. The public’s right to
know and the media’s right to report has boundaries and most certainly
those boundaries end outside of one’s bedroom door,” he said. “Mr. Cain
has alerted his wife to this new accusation and discussed it with her.
He has no obligation to discuss these types of accusations publicly with
the media and he will not do so even if his principled position is
viewed unfavorably by members of the media.”
Pressed
by Blitzer, Cain on CNN for the first time suggested that the mounting
allegations of sexual impropriety could push him to drop out of the
presidential race because of the toll they are taking on his family.
“That’s my No. 1 concern,” he said.
Cain was
accused of sexual harassment by at least two women during his tenure as
the head of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. Both
entered into confidential settlements. A third woman, Sharon Bialek of
Chicago, has publicly accused Cain of an improper sexual advance while
the two were parked in a car on a Washington street in 1997.
The
allegations have also appeared to have damaged his candidacy, perhaps
critically. Cain acknowledged as much to Blitzer. “I know I have fallen
in the polls,” he said. “But I didn’t fall to the bottom.”
___
©2011 Tribune Co.
Visit Tribune Co. at www.latimes.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
