Republican candidate Herman Cain said on Monday that news that a woman has come forward accusing him of having an extensive affair was nothing new. Already beleaguered by sexual harassment claims, the candidate has another storm to weather as part of his bid for greatness. 
The former pizza company executive has had a turbulent time of it lately, but has so far survived what has been thrown at him. Only time and the polls will tell how he fares this time.
Asked if he would withdraw from the campaign as a result of these allegations, Cain said, “I would make that decision depending on the circumstances and how it is impacting my wife and my family.”
Monday saw businesswoman Ginger White approached WAGA-TV to announce that she had a relationship with Cain for thirteen years after meeting him at a short term apartment which was provided to him by an Austin corporate housing company, this took place when he was chairman in the 90s. The relationship ended just before Cain launched his campaign.
In an attempt to pre-empt the exposure, Cain released a statement to CNN stating, “here we go again.” Since the release, Cain’s lawyer, Lin Wood, issued a statement on his behalf, drawing a distinction between this case and the sexual harassment allegations already in the public domain.
“This is not an accusation of harassment in the workplace – this is not an accusation of an assault – which are subject matters of legitimate inquiry to a political candidate. Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults – a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public,” Wood said.
“It wasn’t complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship,” White said in an interview.
White, an unemployed single mother at the time, said the alleged affair had been “fun.” It took her out of her humdrum life. She was flown around the country to meet Cain and stayed in some nice places during her time with him. She has some evidence to support her claim, including text messages sent late at night from Cain’s private phone and copies of his books with personal inscriptions.
White has stated that there was no sexual harassment or ill-treatment, but that she was affected by the allegations put to him earlier this month. This is allegedly what prompted her to come forward during his campaign.
“It bothered me that they were being demonized, sort of, they were treated as if they were automatically lying, and the burden of proof was on them,” White said. “I felt bad for them.”
When Cain tried to pre-empt the release, he said, “This individual is going to accuse me of an affair for an extended period of time. It is someone that I know who is an acquaintance that I thought was a friend.”
“That’s all there is to the relationship,” he said. Asked if it had been an affair, he replied: “No, it was not.”
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