A Louisiana pediatrician on Monday backed up his former girlfriend’s claims that Republican presidential contender Herman Cain touched her inappropriately when she sought his help finding employment more than a decade ago.
“She said that something had happened and that Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner,” Victor Jay Zuckerman recalled his former girlfriend, Sharon Bialek, telling him in 1997 after the alleged encounter. “She said she had handled it and didn’t want to talk about it any further. … I respected her request.”
Bialek told reporters last week that Cain reached up her skirt when she went to him for job advice after she was let go from her post at the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, a group affiliated with the association Cain led at the time. Zuckerman said he had encouraged Bialek to seek Cain’s help after the couple spent time with Cain at an NRA event in Chicago.
Cain, who was president of the National Restaurant Association at the time, denies the allegations and says he has never met Bialek.
Zuckerman said he and Bialek broke up shortly after the alleged incident, but have since remained friends. He made the remarks at a press conference with Bialek’s attorney, Gloria Allred. He did not take questions from reporters.
“I emphasize that I am not making a political statement. I’m speaking as a private citizen,” Zuckerman said. “I hope this information … will aid the public in evaluating the statements previously made by Mr. Cain and Ms. Bialek.”
Allred chimed in after Zuckerman’s remarks with another call for Cain to “come clean.”
“If all of the allegations of all of the women [who have accused Cain of sexual harassment] are true, then he is a serial liar and a serial sexual harasser,” Allred said. “He wants to end this? Let him come clean.”
Cable news shows chose not to air the press conference on Monday.
