Cain Responds to Accusations

It was almost two weeks ago that we first heard the news about the allegations against Cain for sexual harassment when he was the CEO of the National Restaurant Association (Bacon and Eggen). At first Cain denied the rumors. Then he chose not to address them at all, telling reporters who asked him specifically about the allegations that he would not answer those questions. The first allegations were sexual in nature, but did not include physical contact. The women who brought up these allegations said the conversations with Cain were, “filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature” and “regarded as improper in a professional relationship” (Garment). However, it was last Monday that a face was put on the allegations and the allegations themselves became more serious in nature. Sharon Bialek and her attorney Gloria Allred had a news conference Monday where Bialek charged Cain with “groping her and trying to force her into a sexual act” (Bacon and Eggen). Since the allegations became too serious to ignore, Cain was forced to address them head on with a news conference on November 8, 2011.
In the news conference he denied the accusations and said that he has “never acted inappropriately with anyone.” He also said he was seeing Sharon Bialek for the first time at her news conference and did not even recognize her name. He said that the allegations are completely false and nothing of that nature ever happened. He also said that these accusations will not cause him to drop out the race for presidency because he believes he is the best choice for the American people and will not be “deterred by false, anonymous, incorrect accusations”. He also believes that it was the” democrat machine” that brought the fourth woman forward to make accusations. One of the reporters asked Cain if he was willing to take a lie detector test to prove his story and Cain said that he was willing if he had a good reason. During the question and answer part he also addressed the accusations against him when he was the CEO of the National Restaurant Association and said all those allegations were “found to be baseless.” However, the most interesting part of the news conference was when Cain mentioned his wife. He mentioned the fact that they have been married for over 40 years and when the allegations were first made public his wife told him that that does not even sound like something he would do. I was a little confused about why Cain thought it would be a good idea to say that. When I heard that I thought to myself that I hope his wife does not think that sexually harassing women at work is something that does “sound” like him.
The sexual allegations were even brought up during the presidential debate in Michigan. Amidst boos, the female moderator brought up the allegations during a question to Cain about character. She asked if the American people will vote for a president with character issues. Cain once again said the accusations are not true and that he values his morals and integrity above anything else. He also said that for every person who makes these allegations there are “thousands others who would say otherwise”. A CBS News Poll shows that Cain’s support among women went down from 28 percent in October to 15 percent (Backus, DePinto, Dutton, and Salvanto).So even though he is leading in the polls, it seems that Cain has lost support among Republican women.
Works Cited
Backus, Fred, Jennifer DePinto, Sarah Dutton, and Anthony Salvanto. "Poll: Cain Tops 3-way Race with Romney, Gingrich - Political Hotsheet - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .

Bacon, Perry, and Dan Eggen. "Herman Cain Faces Sexual Harassment Allegations from Fourth Woman - The Washington Post." The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - The Washington Post. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .

Garment, Suzanne. "Opinion: Cain Reaction: Not by the Book." Politics, Political News - POLITICO.com. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. .