There are a few things we learned during Herman Cain’s appearance on Fox News. The first is that the central claim in the Politico story has now been corroborated: Cain himself admits that he was accused of sexual harassment while CEO of the National Restuarant Association, though he claims the accusations were false.
“I have never sexually harassed anyone,” Cain told Fox. “And yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association, and I say falsely, because it turned out, after the investigation, to be baseless.”
Where Cain began to depart from the Politico story is that he said he wasn’t aware of any settlement that had been reached with the accusers.
Asked if there was a cash settlement, he said, “Outside of the restaurant association, absolutely not. 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. So if there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers that worked for me at the association.”
It seems unrealistic that if a settlement were reached concerning his behavior that he’d be unaware of it. And if it is possible that a CEO can be totally unaware of a settlement, how could he be “absoutely” sure that no such settlements were made at his other employers?
To be clear, overall, I think Cain did pretty well on Fox. If all there is to the story is anonymous accusers from back in the 1990s versus his emphatic denial, I think he’ll be able to survive this without many problems, especially given natural conservative distrust of the media. If, however, more details emerge that begin to contradict his initial statements, and the situation turns out to be a lot broader than he lets on, it will become a major problem.
