Herman Cain tries to limit damage over sexual harassment allegations / Cain may have broken tax, election laws
Herman Cain tries to limit damage over sexual harassment allegations
GOP contender says he was falsely accused of harassment, and denies making any out-of-court settlement himself
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 October 2011 17.12 GMT
Herman Cain, one of the frontrunners in the Republican race for the White House, is battling to keep his candidacy afloat amid allegations of sexual harassment involving two female workers in the restaurant industry.
In the first stage of a damage-limitation exercise, Cain did a live interview with Fox News in which he categorically denied sexually harassing anyone or making any out-of-court settlement himself. He described the allegations as “trumped-up”.
But he acknowleged that the row was going to do some damage to his campaign, which had seen him take the lead in some polls.
“Obviously, some people will be turned off by this cloud over my campaign, but a lot of people are not going to be turned off,” he said.
Ignoring the traditional advice of public relations consulants to get all the facts out into the open, Cain skirted round some of the details, ensuring the row will rumble on. Crucially, he was unable to say whether the National Restaurant Association had paid the two workers in a deal that bought their silence.
Cain, in a story broken by the Politico website, was accused in the 1990s of sexual harassment by two female staff at the association, a lobbying group for the hotel industry. Cain held a senior post in the association.
According to Politico, two female staff left the company after complaining about inappropriate behaviour by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable. They reportedly received a payout in return for signing an agreement to keep quiet about it.
In his first comments on the allegations, Cain said: “I have never sexually harassed anyone: I can say that. Secondly, I have never sexually harassed anyone, and, yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association. And I say falsely, because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless.”
Cain, when asked about any such settlement, said: “At the restaurant association, no. Outside the restaurant association, absolutely not.”
But, crucially, Cain went on to insist that he did not know whether the restaurant association had made a payment. “If the restuarant association, did a settlement, I was unaware of it,” he said. He added that he hoped that if it had, the payment was low because he had done nothing wrong.
The problem now facing Cain is that journalists will keep pressing until it is established whether, and if so how much, the association paid out. Questions will also be asked, almost certainly at a National Press Club lunch he was attending inWashingtonthis afternoon, about whether Cain, before going public, did not establish whether the association did pay out.
Cain, 65, a former chief executive of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, has been leading the pack in the race for the Republican nomination to take on Barack Obama in November next year. The first electoral test is scheduled for 3 January, whenIowaholds its caucus.
Cain’s humour, his rightwing populism andWashingtonoutsider status have all helped propel him to the front of the pack.
Earlier on Monday, addressing a meeting of the American Enterprise Institute, the main neo-conservative thinktank inWashington, the day after the Politico story broke, he appeared calm, in spite of the mob of TV cameras present. Both at the meeting and in the lobbies afterwards, he showed no sign of nerves, and exchanged polite chit-chat with reporters.
At the meeting, questions about the sex allegations were barred and journalists were told to stick the topic: tax. But Cain said he would deal with all arrows coming at him at the National Press Club.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/31/herman-cain-denies-sexual-harassment
Report: Cain may have broken tax, election laws
By Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones is a staff writer/reporter for Raw Story. Besides covering politics, he is also a freelance sports journalist, as well as a slam poetry and music artist. You can follow him on Twitter @sluggahjells.
Raw Story Monday, October 31, 2011
Even though most media attention was on the sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, his campaign realized Monday that he may face a problem much bigger than misconduct.
According to a report from the Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel, the new frontrunner in the Republican presidential race may have violated federal tax and campaign law.
Documents obtained by the paper show the Cain campaign owing $40,000 to ProsperityUSA, a private Wisconsin-based corporation owned by Cain’s chief of staff Mark Block and deputy chief of staff Linda Hansen. Cain’s federal election filings, however, has no mention of the debt nor do the documents’ figures match any payments made by his campaign.
ProsperityUSApaid Cain for gifts and items such as iPads, chartered flights and trips toIowaandLas Vegas. The Journal-Sentinel reported that the corporation appears to now be defunct.
An unnamed GOP strategist interviewed by the Journal-Sentinel said Cain will have violated tax code law if ProsperityUSAgave his campaign money for those items. “I just don’t see how they can justify this,” she said. “It’s a total mess.”
On Monday morning, Cain was asked on Fox News about the story.
“I’m not aware of this report,” he said. “My staff has not had time to go through it. I’m not aware, there not aware to it. We’re going to look at the report to see if there’s any validity. We will take a look at it.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/31/report-cain-may-have-broken-tax-election-laws/
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