WASHINGTON?? Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign denied allegations that emerged Sunday saying he was twice accused of sexual harassment while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
In the campaign’s most definitive statement today, campaign manager and chief of staff Mark Block said that Cain had never engaged in any sort of sexual harassment, disputinga Politico report that said Cain had been accused of sexually suggestive behavior toward at least two female employees during his time as head of the restaurant lobby.
“Herman Cain has never sexually harassed anybody. Period. End of story,” Block said on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown.
The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.
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Block said he was not “personally aware” of any settlement, and invited reporters to contact the NRA for comment.
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Cain was speaking simultaneously Monday morning at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, at a previously scheduled appearance. He is set to speak this afternoon at the National Press Club, where he’ll likely face questions on the story.
The initial report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.
Cain’s campaign told the AP that the allegations were not true, and amounted to unfair attacks.
NBC News has not independently verified the Politico report.
“Inside-the-Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain,” spokesman J.D. Gordon said in a written statement Sunday evening.
‘Casting aspersions’
“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 are now casting aspersions on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts,” he added.
“Since Washington establishment critics haven’t had much luck in attacking Mr. Cain’s ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they are trying to attack him anyway they can,” the statement continued. “Sadly, we’ve seen this movie played out before ? a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics.”
Video: Report: Cain twice accused of sex harassment (on this page)
Asked if Cain’s campaign was denying the report, Gordon said, “Yes.”
“These are baseless allegations,” Gordon said in a second interview later Sunday evening. “To my knowledge, this is not an accurate story.”
In its report, Politico said it confronted Cain early Sunday outside of the CBS News Washington bureau, where he had just been interviewed on “Face the Nation.”
Politico said Cain’s campaign staff was given the name of one woman who had allegedly made a complaint and this name was put to Cain directly Sunday. Politico said Cain responded, “I am not going to comment on that.”
“Have you ever been accused, sir, in your life of harassment by a woman?” the Politico reporter then asked.
“He breathed audibly, glared at the reporter and stayed silent for several seconds. After the question was repeated three times, he responded by asking the reporter, ‘Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?” Politico reported.
A message seeking comment from Peter Kilgore, listed on the National Restaurant Association website as its chief legal counsel, was not immediately returned.
Video: More evidence that Cain is for real (on this page)
Cain plans to continue with several planned appearances in Washington on Monday.
He is slated to discuss his tax plan at the American Enterprise Institute, appear at the National Press Club and hold a healthcare briefing on Capitol Hill.
Cain ? a self-styled outsider relatively new to the national stage ? is facing a new level of scrutiny after a burst of momentum in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. He’s been steadily at or near the top of national surveys and polls in early presidential nominating states, competitive with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The former pizza company executive has been pointing to his long record in business to argue that he has the credentials needed to be president during a time of economic strife.
Earlier Sunday, Cain said that an Internet ad featuring his campaign manager smoking conveyed a message about letting “people be people” and was not intended to suggest that smoking is cool.
The video went viral this month with some 1 million clicks on Cain’s campaign website. The ad shows Cain’s top adviser, Mark Block, taking a deep drag from a cigarette and slowly exhaling into the camera.
“I’m not a smoker. But I don’t have a problem if that’s his choice,” Cain said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“So let Herman be Herman. Let Mark be Mark. Let people be people. This wasn’t intended to send any subliminal signal whatsoever,” the candidate said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45099767/ns/politics-decision_2012/
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