Republican White House candidate Herman Cain acknowledged Monday that he was the subject of what he called false accusations of sexual harassment. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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He said he never harassed anyone and that the claims were investigated and found to be false.
“I have never sexually harassed anyone, let’s say that,” Cain told Fox News on Monday. “Secondly, I’ve never sexually harassed anyone.â€
“Yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association. I say falsely because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless.”
Asked if there was a settlement, regardless of the truth of the accusation: “If the restaurant association did a settlement I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much because nothing happened,” Cain said.
Cain was responding to an explosive report by Politico.com Sunday claiming that two women had accused him of improper sexual behavior in the 1990s.
The two women complained about comments full of sexual innuendo and improper gestures they said Cain made when he headed the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s, according to Politico.
Confronted by reporters outside the CBS studios in Washington, where he appeared Sunday on “Face the Nation,†Cain refused to answer questions about the seamy allegations.
He said he would not comment “until I see some facts or some concrete evidence.â€
Politico reported that two women, who worked for the National Restaurant Association, aired their complaints about Cain’s behavior with colleagues and senior association officials.
The women, sources told Politico, received five-figure payouts to leave the association and keep their mouths shut.
“I happen to know there were sealed settlements reached in the plural. I think that anybody who thinks this was a one-time, one-person transgression would be mistaken,†a source told Politico.
Cain, whose poll numbers have skyrocketed in the GOP race, served as president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association from late 1996 to mid-1999.
