Cain Facing New Harassment Allegations, Perry Link Emerges
Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011 04:41 PM
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A third former employee of the National Restaurant Association has come forward to say that Herman Cain sexually harassed her, inviting her up to his corporate apartment when he was chairman of the group.
She told the Associated Press that she considered filing a complaint against Cain for his “aggressive and unwanted behavior,” but eventually decided against it.
The woman’s revelation was just one of many hits that Cain took on Wednesday as it became clear that the accusations against him are threatening to grow into a full-blown scandal with the potential to derail his campaign.
Other developments included:
- Conservative radio host Steve Deace complaining that Cain made “inappropriate comments” to two female staff members during a visit to his studio in Des Moines, Iowa;
- A man who worked for the restaurant association giving an eyewitness account of Cain’s alleged harassment;
- The lawyer for one of the women who made formal complaints against Cain approaching the National Restaurant Association asking for his client to be released from the confidentiality agreement that prevents her from speaking publicly; and
- Cain snapping at reporters who tried to ask him questions about the burgeoning scandal.
She described his actions which, she said, included making sexually suggestive comments, as “inappropriate and it made me feel uncomfortable.”
This third woman is not believed to be subject to any confidentiality agreements with the restaurant association, unlike the two who made formal complaints, and there is no record that she received any pay-off when left the group.
However, she insisted on anonymity because she feared retaliation.
She said she did not make a formal complaint because as time went on, she had less and less contact with Cain at work.
Cain has spent the past three days battling allegations that he harassed two female employees in the late 1990s when he headed the restaurant association. Details have only now started to trickle out about what he is alleged to have done.
Joel Bennett, the lawyer for one of the women, said he had asked the association to allow his client to speak, although the association said they had had no contact with him.
The third woman’s accusations capped a terrible day for Cain, which started when he went to Alexandria, Va. to give a talk on health care. He curtly told reporters “I’m here with these doctors and that’s what I’m going to talk about. So don’t even bother asking me all of those other questions that you are all curious about."
When one reporter tried to pin him down on whether he would agree to release his accusers from their confidentiality agreements, Cain snapped, “Excuse me! Excuse me! What part of no don’t some people understand?”
His day got worse when Chris Wilson, who worked for the restaurant association in the 1990s – and now works as a pollster for the campaign of Cain rival, Texas Gov. Rick Perry – told a radio station in Oklahoma City that he had witnessed Cain in a restaurant in Crystal City, Va. with one of the women who made formal complaints about his behavior.
He said that for him, too, there were legal reasons why he could not go into details of what happened. But he said Cain’s actions were so bad that if the woman in question came forward and talked about it, “It’ll probably be the end of his campaign.”
In an interview on KTOK radio, Wilson described the woman as a low-level staffer, a couple of years out of college. “Everybody was aware of it,” Wilson said. “It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left.”
He said he believes the restaurant association will be left with no choice but to agree to allow the women to speak publicly about Cain’s behavior and that the candidate is only digging himself deeper into a hole by continuing to challenge the women.
Deace’s claim was even more bizarre. It only came after Cain’s own campaign manager, Mark Block, had insisted that Cain had “never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story.”
But then, unprompted, Block revealed a new allegation.
“As the hours go by, it’s interesting that we even hear from a radio talk show host of Iowa that a receptionist thought that Mr. Cain’s comments were inappropriate,” he said.
The website Politico, which originally broke the sexual harassment story on Sunday, asked Deace to explain. The nationally syndicated host replied with a cryptic email, saying, “Like awkward/inappropriate things he’s said to two females on my staff, that the fact the guy’s wife is never around…that’s almost always a warning flag to me.”
When Politico pressed him to be more explicit, Deace wrote, “Many a man has been done in by the inability to control his urges. I am no different and just as vulnerable as any other man, which is why I put safeguards around me and hold myself accountable to my wife and other men in my life.
"Especially since I have very talented employees that happen to be women. I go out of my way to treat them like my sisters. For example, I wouldn't tell them or any other woman I am not married to nor related to how pretty she is."
Deace told Politico he had no idea how Block would know about his staff’s unease.
“To the best of my knowledge neither me nor anyone on my staff has ever spoken to Block.”
Cain Mum on Latest Harassment Twist
Wednesday, 02 Nov 2011 02:33 PM
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — His presidential campaign in turmoil, Republican Herman Cain refused to say Wednesday whether he will ask his former employer — the National Restaurant Association — to terminate confidentiality restrictions on women who accused him of sexual harassment in the 1990s while he was head of the trade group.
The candidate was supposed to take questions after a speech to health care professionals but he ultimately refused and left the hotel through a back door.
"I'm here to visit with these doctors and that's what I'm going to talk about, so don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about, OK? Don't even bother," a testy Cain told a throng of reporters who were peppering him with questions.
When pressed about the allegations, Cain raised his voice and said "What did I say? Excuse me. Excuse me!" as hotel security led him through a hotel hallway jammed with journalists in a Washington suburb. "What part of 'no' don't people understand?"
Try as he might to project an image of campaign business as usual, the former Godfather's Pizza chief executive appeared frazzled and couldn't escape the questions that have dogged him since the allegations surfaced three days ago — two months before the leadoff Iowa caucuses and just as polls show him at the head of the GOP field alongside former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
In the latest twist, a lawyer for one of his accusers is asking the National Restaurant Association to free her from a confidentiality agreement so she can talk openly about her allegations and respond to Cain's claims that the complaints were "totally baseless and totally false."
"I know her very well," lawyer Joel P. Bennett told CNN late Tuesday, "and I'm sure she would not make a false complaint."
Cain's campaign manager, Mark Block, repeatedly refused to say whether the campaign was in discussions with the trade association over letting the woman talk freely. Block said the campaign would address that question "when it's appropriate."
A spokeswoman for the restaurant association, Sue Hensley, said Tuesday night that the group had not been contacted by Bennett. Messages seeking comment Wednesday were not immediately returned.
The pressure on Cain only increased early Wednesday when a pillar of the GOP establishment suggested that the Georgia businessman should ask the association to waive the agreement so that the woman can talk openly about her allegations.
"What are the facts?" asked Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on MSNBC. "If you have a confidentiality agreement that keeps the public from finding out something that the public is interested in knowing the facts, you ought to go on and get the facts out."
"Herman Cain's interest is getting this behind him," added Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman.
As the day began, Cain spoke to the Northern Virginia Technology Association, saying: "There are factions that are trying to destroy me personally, as well as this campaign." He didn't say to whom he was referring, but he said "the voice of the people" is stronger.
Over the past two days, Cain has admitted he knew of one agreement between the restaurant association and a woman who accused him of sexual harassment. He has said the woman initially asked for a large financial settlement but ultimately received two to three months' pay as part of a separation agreement. Cain also acknowledged remembering one of the woman's accusations against him, saying he stepped close to her to make a reference to her height and told her she was the same height as his wife.
He has said he is not aware of agreements or settlements with any other women, though Politico — which first disclosed the allegations — reported that the trade group had given settlements to at least two female employees who accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior.
The New York Times reported Tuesday night that the trade group gave a female employee a year's salary in severance pay, $35,000, after she said an encounter with Cain made her uncomfortable working there. The newspaper cited three people with knowledge of the payment to the woman, who was not Bennett's client.
For Cain, Wednesday was supposed to be the culmination of a three-day attempt at courting official Washington — and the GOP old guard that seems to be tilting ever more toward Romney.
A former talk show host, Cain is a self-styled political outsider who has attracted tea party support and, for now at least, weathered a series of stumbles that have many GOP luminaries questioning his ability to run a viable campaign much less win the party's nomination. Conversely, Romney is running his second national campaign and has spent the past few weeks shoring up support among the GOP establishment for a nomination fight many Republican insiders think is his to lose.
Cain has spent the past three days defending himself and giving conflicting accounts as to what happened in the 1990s.
By Tuesday night, Cain had begun to try to pivot toward Congress and the war for lawmakers' endorsements that could mean critical on-the-ground support and campaign cash. Cain's rival in Iowa, Romney, has a sophisticated network of surrogates in Congress trying to coax their colleagues into his camp. So far, they've rounded up at least 33 endorsements. Cain has none.
But lawmakers remained interested.
The delegation from Cain's home state, Georgia, helped set up a series of private events intended to introduce Cain around Capitol Hill.
Cain dined near the Capitol with a gathering of Republican senators Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, after a speech in nearby Alexandria, Va., Cain was heading to Capitol Hill for a speech to House members on health care.
From there, it was back-to-back events set up by Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga. First, Cain was to meet and greet House members at the discreet Capitol Hill Club for a conversation about health care policy. Then it was on to the Republican National Committee, where Cain was to speak with members of the Georgia delegation, a spokesman for Graves said.
At some point, Cain was to meet House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Ryan is meeting presidential candidates in his role at the Republican National Committee.
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