WASHINGTON – Herman Cain is rethinking whether to remain in the Republican presidential race in the face of new allegations that he had a 13-year affair with a Georgia woman that ended only eight months ago.
Cain has informed his staff that he’s reassessing his decision to continue his bid for the nomination following Monday’s explosive allegations by 46-year-old Ginger White as he acknowledged that continuing accusations of sexual impropriety are taking their toll.
“It’s also taken a toll on my wife and family, as you would imagine,” Cain said in a transcript of a Tuesday morning conference call obtained by the National Review Online.
“Any time you put another cloud of doubt, unfortunately, in the court of public opinion, for some people, you’re guilty until proven innocent. And so the public will have to decide whether they believe her or whether they believe me. That’s why we’re going to give it time, to see what type of response we get from our supporters.”
White, an unemployed Atlanta businesswoman, claims that she and the one-time pizza executive engaged in a prolonged sexual affair that started in the late 1990s, when he was head of the National Restaurant Association.
She alleged Cain, married for 43 years, flew her across the country to visit him as he travelled, lavishing her with gifts and expensive dinners. Their relationship ended just before he decided he was going to run for president last spring, she said.
Cain denied the affair even before White’s interview with an Atlanta TV station had aired. White, however, provided Fox 5 with phone and text messaging records of dozens of messages and calls between the two of them at all hours of the day and night. The latest correspondence took place as recently as September.
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Cain, 65, added he had no intention of dropping out of the race despite the cloud of controversy hanging over his campaign. He has also denied sexually harassing two women who came forward with their own accusations over the past several weeks.
“As long as my wife is behind me, I’m staying in this race,” he said on CNN. “If I drop out because of this kind of mess … the system wins.”
He reiterated his campaign’s beliefs that the women were being put up to lying by sinister forces trying to “derail the Cain Train.” The finger of blame has variously been pointed at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the “Democratic machine” and even Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff for U.S. President Barack Obama.
All three women have denied they received any financial compensation for coming forward. White said she decided to go public in part because she was bothered by the way the Cain campaign had responded to the two women who have accused him of sexual harassment.
Fox 5 also reported White decided to speak publicly because the media was beginning to circle her, having heard whispers of her alleged affair with Cain. Cain has confessed to a long friendship with White, and told his staff on Tuesday that he helped her out financially because she was “she was out of work and destitute, desperate.”
But as is often the case with the Cain campaign, there was conflict and confusion among his staff – this time over what the candidate actually meant during the conference call.
One adviser said Cain would spend the next two days assessing his candidacy, and would base his ultimate decision on two factors – whether he has enough support to continue and how the allegations are affecting his family.
Another Cain staffer said the reassessment is simply about campaign strategy.
“We are full speed ahead,” J.D. Gordon told ABC News. “People are reading way too much into this…. We are looking at what states we visit, what interviews we do, how we allocate resources – things like that.”
Cain himself, however, suggested there was more to his deliberations than campaign strategy.
“If a decision is made, different than to plow ahead, you all will be the first to know,” he said.
Mixed messages, indeed, have become a hallmark of the inexperienced Cain campaign. That was apparent again on Monday, when Cain appeared on CNN and flatly denied the affair.
His lawyer, meantime, sent a statement to the Atlanta TV station that contained no denial at all. Rather, Lin Wood said it’s no one’s business if two people engage in a consensual sexual relationship.
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