Tag: Herman Cain

Politico reports that two female former employees of Herman Cain received settlements in order to drop their claims that he had sexually harassed them.

The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.

In a series of comments over the past 10 days, Cain and his campaign repeatedly declined to respond directly about whether he ever faced allegations of sexual harassment at the restaurant association. They have also declined to address questions about specific reporting confirming that there were financial settlements in two cases in which women leveled complaints. POLITICO has confirmed the identities of the two female restaurant association employees who complained about Cain but, for privacy concerns, is not publishing their names.

The incidents occurred in the 1990s when Cain headed the National Restaurant Association. Other female employees interviewed for the above-linked report say that Cain always treated them with courtesy and respect. Right wing websites such as Free Republic are claiming that unearthing these old claims was the work of the GOP establishment, who are “terrified” of Cain’s popularity.

In less than one day, Herman Cain has gone from “I have no idea what you’re talking about” to “OK, it did happen but they were lying.”

UPDATE: Now Mr. Cain remembers – just a few hours later – that were WAS a settlement paid, he just doesn’t remember the amount…  SRSLY.
(via JMG)

Many of the GOP believe that the federal government should get out of the student aid business entirely. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), for instance, said that he’d phase out the federal student loan program entirely. Former pizza magnate Herman Cain, meanwhile, said that he doesn’t believe in any form of federal student aid whatsoever, believing that such aid is better off left to the states:

I believe that if a state wants to help with college education, then they should do that.

Secondly, you have people living within communities within states that are willing to help fund those kinds of programs. So I do not believe that it is the responsibility of the federal government to help fund a college education because herein, our resources are limited and I believe that the best solution is the one closest to the problem. The people within the state, the people within the communities, ultimately, I believe, are the ones who have that responsibility.

If you want an education, a college education in America, I believe that people can get it if they are determined to get it. They might have to work a little harder.

Clearly there are issues posed by devolving student loans and aid to the states:

• Would students receive grants from their home state or from the state in which they attend school?
• What if a student’s parents want or need to move midway through a student’s college years?
• Would she lose her aid and have to get it from either her or her parents’ new state?

Federal student loans and programs like Pell Grants have helped millions of Americans access higher education. Without federal aid, students would be pushed into more expensive private student loans, even as student loan debt is en route to eclipsing $1 trillion for the first time.

Herman Cain is gearing up to slow down the pace of his presidential effort, according to one of his top aides.

J.D. Gordon, the campaign’s vice president for communications, said Cain will try to avoid future gaffes by achieving a “more deliberative pace” on the trail.

“We’re trying to slow down a little bit, make sure he’s rested, make sure he’s focused,” J.D. Gordon told CNN’s Howard Kurtz.

Gordon added that mistakes happen when a candidate is conducting seven or eight events a day and does not use a teleprompter, as is the case with Cain.

The comments follow a string of statements and staff defections that have received negative press.

Gordon said a lack of sleep was partially to blame for Cain’s comments to CNN’s Piers Morgan about abortion and his comments to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about the possibility of a prisoner exchange with detainees in Guantanamo Bay that he quickly retracted.

The abortion flare up has yet to die down and the campaign attempted to clarify the former pizza executive’s stance again Thursday. After saying he was “pro-life, no exceptions,” a Cain campaign adviser said he “learned more about the issue” and that he would now support abortions in instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at stake.

Herman Cain has backtracked on his position on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

As early as last week, Cain said that he opposed such an amendment.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Cain told host David Gregory that if elected president he “wouldn’t seek a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but I am pro traditional marriage.”

The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza also stated his opposition to such an amendment during an earlier New Hampshire GOP debate.

Cain’s stance on the issue has previously infuriated the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation’s most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, whose anti-gay marriage pledge failed to win Cain’s endorsement.

But in a videotaped interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s (CBS) David Brody after Cain appeared Saturday at the Iowa Faith and Freedom’s annual banquet, Cain said he had changed his position.

“[In your Faith and Freedom speech] you mentioned marriage as well so you’re also, just so I understand, you’re for a constitutional marriage amendment as well?” Brody asked.

“I think marriage should be protected at the federal level also,” Cain responded. “I used to believe that it could be just handled by the states but there’s a movement going on to basically take the teeth out of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and that could cause an unraveling, so we do need some protection at the federal level because of that and so yes I would support legislation that would say that it’s between a man and a woman.”
(via OnTopMagazine)

Herman Cain’s campaign has run into his first big snag as his position on abortion – that he is personally anti-abortion but believes it’s “not the government’s role to make that decision” – became clearer to conservative Iowa activists.

“That is a pro-choice position,” Bob Vander Plaats, a social conservative leader in Iowa, told The Huffington Post. “It’s not where we’re at on the issue and it’s not where a lot of caucus-goers are at on the life issue. They believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned.”

Cain put out a statement late in the day on Thursday trying to clarify his position, but he still did not address the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, raising questions about whether he believes in the legal right to abortion despite his strenuous rhetoric in the past claiming to be, in his own words, “pro-life.”