A few minutes ago, Herman Cain spoke at a press conference to address the sexual harassment scandal that’s been plaguing his campaign for the last few weeks. “Good afternoon,” he began, “I am Herman Cain and I am running for president of the United States.” Cain, who is known for speaking with no teleprompters or any other preparation, apologized for using notes but said that he had many important points to get to at the press conference. He began: “I have never acted inappropriately with anyone. Period!” (Those two sentences were repeated later in the conference, also.)
Cain claimed—while acknowledging that he had no proof—to be victimized by a “Democrat Machine” that is trying to ruin his reputation. He suggested that powerful forces want to ruin him because “the American people have wanted a businessman in the White House,” but the powerful forces do not. Cain says more sexual harassment claims will come forward, “not because I am aware of them, but because the machine to keep a businessman out of the White House will be relentless.” He claimed to have never met Sharen Bialek, calling her a “troubled woman,” adding that Karen Kraushaar’s charges were proved false. The rest he dismissed as “anonymous.”
As I wrote this morning, I think this press conference will only strengthen Cain’s base. It perpetuated the persecution complex—his statements were highly reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s “vast right wing conspiracy” statements from the 90s—and framed Cain as a businessman fighting an establishment that’s trying as hard as it can to destroy him. Teabaggers eat that stuff up; I don’t think Herman Cain is going away anytime soon.
(The full, unedited live-Slog can be found after the jump.)
UPDATE 2:04 PM: Nothing’s happening yet, but that’s a hell of a backdrop, isn’t it? Five American flags. Five! That’s about as patriotic as you can get without going full Patton.
UPDATE: 2:06 PM: Herman Cain is standing with one hand coolly in his pocket as someone—his lawyer?—talks about people who were victimized by harassment suits.
UPDATE: 2:07 PM: I think the lawyer called Bialek “Sharon Bydick.” He’s repeatedly hammering the fact that she’s just brought this up “for the first time,” although the alleged incident happened fourteen years ago.
UPDATE: 2:08 PM: “I ask that you at least afford him fairness.” Calls the story “inherently improbable on its face.” Now Herman Cain is taking the podium.
UPDATE 2:10 PM: “Good afternoon. I am Herman Cain and I am running for president of the United States.” He apologizes for using notes. “I have never acted inappropriately with anyone. Period!”
UPDATE 2:11 PM: He says he’s never met Bialek, and doesn’t recognize her name at all. That’s not what the Chicago Sun Times reported.
UPDATE 2:12 PM: “You know, for decades, the American people have wanted a businessman in the White House….Well a businessman named Herman Cain stepped forward. Here I am.” He says of backing out of the race: “Ain’t gonna happen.” Says he will not bow to “false, anonymous, incorrect accusations.”
UPDATE 2:15 PM: He says the American people want him to run. “We will get through this. The fact is, these anonymous allegations are false. And now the Democrat machine has brought forth this troubled woman…I have been married for 43 years to my wife Gloria.” His wife said to him, “That doesn’t even sound like you.”
UPDATE 2:17 PM: “I ask that the media leave my family out of this….I ask you as professionals to direct your questions, your criticisms, toward me. Not my family.” He says these attacks were “expected. I will not allow false accusations to compromise or otherwise shed badly on my character or my integrity.”
UPDATE 2:19 PM: Questions!
UPDATE 2:20 PM: Would Cain do a lie detector test? “Yes! I absolutely would.”
UPDATE 2:20 PM: How would you convince voters to vote for you? Cain says he doesn’t need to win 100% of the vote. He needs to win 51%. He says rebuilding the truth “would be a challenge,” but he wants to stand with the people who trusted him through this.
UPDATE 2:22 PM: Do you believe sexual harassment is real? Cain says “I have seen instances where it could be interpreted as sexual harassment and if I saw it and if it were an employee…I dealt with it immediately, before the other person perceived it.” He says he’s seen women sexually harass men, too.
UPDATE 2:23 PM: What about Karen Kraushaar? “Baseless,” Cain says. “She couldn’t find anyone to corroborate her story. It ended up being an agreement, not a settlement.”
UPDATE 2:25 PM: Are the women making it up? Where is this coming from? “Some people don’t want to see Herman Cain get the Republican nomination,” Herman Cain says. “There will probably be others, not because I am aware of them, but because the machine to keep a businessman out of the White House will be relentless.”
UPDATE 2:27 PM: Lost the feed for a while. Cain intimated that while he didn’t have proof, he suspects a “Democrat machine.” Now he’s saying while he doesn’t “know how the brain works,” he is good at recognizing people. He says he won’t recognize Bialek, he doesn’t think. Now a New York Times reporter is asking him to identify what Karen Kraushaar’s allegations are.
UPDATE 2:34 PM: Cain reiterates his gesture to Kraushaar, saying she was the same height as his wife.
UPDATE 2:35 PM: Says he cannot “slow this campaign down,” and that he’ll address these issues as they come up, but then he lists all the crises he thinks America is suffering and says he’ll keep fighting them “for the grandkids.” Weak applause, and that’s it.
@1 – This formula will put all future teabagger rallies in a new light.
Well, if Gloria says it doesn’t sound like him!
“I have been married to my wife Gloria for 43 years, and she says this couldn’t possibly have happened, but please leave her out of this”
Seriously?
You never go full Patton!
“You know, for decades, the American people have wanted a businessman in the White House….Well a businessman named Herman Cain stepped forward. Here I am.” First of all, nice dig at the first president with an MBA, George W. Bush. And second, have the American people really wanted a businessman in the White House … for decades?
@6: Didn’t you hear? This is all a conspiracy to keep a businessman out of the White House!
Is “businessman” a new codeword for black? Or is he inventing some new prejudice?
“It’s business, it’s business time…”
@5, Hump film title for next year.
Is the 200% support from his spouse a veiled reference to him being a Muslim or a Mormon, or is he going for both GOP voting bases?
Give her a lie detector test. If she passes, make him keep his word and take one, too.
Wrong, Herman. The “Democrat Machine” is giddy over the prospect of you being the Republican nominee. Why would they try to destroy you now?
@13, the funny thing is, it’s surely a Republican machine, terrified at the prospect of a Cain candidacy, that’s behind this coming out now. Karl Rove, working for Mitt Romney, anyone?
At this point he should just adopt Mojo Nixon’s put a sex machine in the white white house.
The Herminator referred to himself in the third-person three times, and 3×3 = ?, also, these “allegations” from the NINE-ties resurfaced nine days ago. all those nines must mean something if his wife supports him 200%, the #9 really is magic..
Oh and it’s for teh grandchildrenz.
This businessman angle is such crap. We didn’t take Ross Perot entirely seriously, and he actually came to the table prepared.
Blaming this on a “Democratic Machine” is a back-door compliment if I’ve ever heard one.
If Herman and Sharen did have dinner together one night many years ago, it is possible that there exists a credit card receipt or similar to prove that an encounter took place. I’ll bet a lot of reporters will be looking for evidence that could sink Cain’s credibility.
The thing that kills me is this has Karl Roves fat slimy fingerprints all over it. Why would Democrats do this now? If anything, we’d really like Cain to be the nominee, why sabotage that? On the other hand, Rove sees that Romney is really the only “viable” candidate the RePugs have. Therefore he destroys Cain.
Cain says more sexual harassment claims will come forward, “not because I am aware of them, but because the machine to keep a businessman out of the White House will be relentless.” [Or rather, he’s harassed so many women, he’s sure that more will come forward].
Damn the Democratic machine and their NRA plants, investigating and making settlements on (obviously baseless) sexual harassment charges decades ago just so they could bring the black businessman down during his preordained run for POTUS.
I bet they’re the same precognitive operatives that placed Obama’s birth announcement in Hawaiian newspapers mere days after he was brought to the US from Kenya, knowing he’d run for POTUS someday.
Oh, and this is the PERFECT opportunity for the muh dik troll to return.
it’s democratIC party, businessman/narcissist.
so, what are the odds NOW, nate silver? still 17%?
One, what’s the difference between an agreement and a settlement?
Two,
“I have never acted inappropriately with anyone. Period!”
sounds a lot like:
“I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”
Herman, you do remember that incident, no?
“I have never acted inappropriately with anyone. Period!”
If this doesn’t paint a great big bullseye for every journalist with an ounce of investigative skill, nothing will. Gary Hart sound familiar at all, Mr. Cain? (I think I got the right name.)
#6
Actually Harry Truman was a small businessman.
@23, it never left.
Break out the butter – Cain is toast.
@27: “am I being paranoid?”
Yes, always.
@12, contrary to what Maury Povich would have you believe, polygraphs are highly unreliable. If there was truly a foolproof way to determine whether someone was telling the truth, we could do away with a lot of judges, right? It’s pseudo-science bullshit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph#V…
Democrat machine… Sounds like a machine that manufactures new Democrats.
Of course, that’s a load of bollocks. It’s the Republicans who are manufacturing new Democrats at a furious pace. Keep up the good work, guys!
Sorry, but as much as this guy makes me want to vomit, the timing (as usual) is just too convenient. While probably not the DNC or any specific organization, seriously, why come out right now specifically?
Wasn’t Cain blaming the other GOP candidates for the first round of Sexual Harassment revelations?
But whatever. I honestly hate this, because we’re stuck with a bunch of he said/she said and we’ll probably never have any better evidence on which to base our judgement. There’s plenty of undeniable reasons to fear a Cain Presidency (like the fact he came up with 9-9-9 plan for destroying the middle class).
@34- Listen, clown, if there was some conspiracy to the timing of this, the fact that it happened during the primaries would indicate a GOP source.
At this point it is not “he said/she said” but rather he said/they said… I look forward to the group press conference of his victims.
Absolutely love this. Political drama, sex, soap opera, intrigue, “who done it” — all rolled up in one.
Cain is making big $$$ off all this drama, so hopefully he’ll be the Repub nominee.
Obama 2012!
@34: “the timing (as usual) is just too convenient”
Yes, Democratic operatives sent people back in time to be molestinated by him, to stop the juggernaut of the CAIN TRAIN. (There’s a paper trail.)
Stupid as ever.