Herman Cain On China Nuclear Capability: 'I Misspoke' (VIDEO)

Herman Cain is having a tough week.

On top of struggling to effectively respond to multiple allegations of past sexual harassment made against him that have resurfaced, Cain stumbled on foreign policy when he incorrectly claimed China is trying to develop nuclear capability. In fact, the country's first test on a nuclear device was back in 1964.

Cain addressed the gaffe in an interview with Ginni Thomas of The Daily Caller on Wednesday evening, and attempted to clarify his comments.

"Maybe I misspoke," he said. "What I meant was China does not have the size of the nuclear capability that we have. They do have a nuclear capability. I was talking about their total nuclear capability."

Earlier in the week, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO told PBS' Judy Woodruff that he sees China as a military threat, explaining, "They've indicated that they're trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have."

This was not the first time Cain has come under fire for foreign policy flubs.

In October, he said he could envision a situation as president in which he'd negotiate with terrorists -- and then quickly backtracked. Below, a rundown on what Cain had to say.

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer before the Republican presidential debate, Cain was asked to weigh in on the recent prisoner transfer between Israel and Palestine in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was swapped for hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Blitzer put the situation in an American context.

"[If] there were one American soldier who'd been held for years, and the demand was al Qaeda or some other terrorist group, you gotta free everyone at Guantanamo Bay, several hundred prisoners at Guantanamo, could you see yourself as president authorizing that kind of transfer?" Blitzer asked.

"I could see myself authorizing that kind of transfer," Cain responded.

Cain took a different position in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper after the debate, however, saying that he would not negotiate with terrorists. He said that his earlier statement was not reflective of his actual position.

"I misspoke," Cain said flatly. "It was moving so fast, I misspoke. I would not do that, I simply would not do that."

Comments

[fgrammit]

10:46 PM on 11/06/2011

he does not follow much of anything does he.and he seem to have alot of MISSingSPOKES

[xiaozhang]

04:38 PM on 11/05/2011

Is something wrong with China increasing its nuclear ability to begin with? Or what?

[LiberalAsTheDayIsLong]

02:43 PM on 11/05/2011

Cain has no idea what China's nuclear capacity is, no one outside of China does.

[Bike Commuter]

01:09 PM on 11/04/2011

Sometimes I think there is another Republican candidate, Miss Poke.

[Illuminarts]

11:45 PM on 11/03/2011

Dude misspeaks a lot.

[addisonsteele]

07:12 PM on 11/03/2011

"Misspeaking" is the new excuse for being as dumb as a mollusk.

[dmm1047]

07:05 PM on 11/03/2011

No Hermie, it's not that you "misspoke," it's that you speak.

[Cognitorsj]

07:04 PM on 11/03/2011

Yeha, with a little training he'll make a darned fine president.

"ooops, did I say 'China'? Sorry, must have meant Iraq, or Iran, or one of those other countries in Asia's South America... "

"Now, which button was I supposed to push?"

[JeanPaulSatire]

07:00 PM on 11/03/2011

In politispeak, "misspoke" means "I didn't have a freakin' clue so I tried to wing it but got caught."

[scooter1]

06:52 PM on 11/03/2011

You cannot "misspeak" about China's nuclear capabilities. No one talks about China's nuclear capabilities because its a non-issue. They have them. The only reason you would bring it up is because you have no clue, Herm.

[Fretmaster 2]

04:50 PM on 11/04/2011

Herman Cain has done a radio show for years that have been recorded where he talks often about China and their Nuclear Weapons. So what do you say now?

[reasonshouldrule]

06:45 PM on 11/03/2011

I'm sick and tired of hearing the word "misspoke" by politicians trying to weasel out of taking responsibility for mistakes. Imo, it would add a lot to these guys' credibility if they could just say: "I made a mistake," or "I was uninformed and now I have the facts," or something of that kind.

[benjita]

06:15 PM on 11/03/2011

"I didn't know China had nuclear weapons", "I didn't know I was accussed of sexually harrassing women". Damn Cain. What do you know?

[Silence Dogoody]

04:56 PM on 11/03/2011

Similar to Obama's "I didn't bow to the King of Saudi Arabia, aka the ruler of Mecca, I uhh, lost a contact lens at his feet."

or Obama's infamous "The Harvard police acted stupidly" National Press: "Oh is that so?" Obama:... Uhh I meant to say "The Harvard police acted stu-pendously!!! Let's have a Beer Summit at the White House!"

[Bike Commuter]

10:52 PM on 11/03/2011

The police did act stupidly. The President was completely correct.

[Fretmaster 2]

04:51 PM on 11/04/2011

Hey.....Herman Cain has done a radio show for years that have been recorded where he talks often about China and their Nuclear Weapons. How are you going to spin this when the facts come out?

[jbg9617]

12:38 PM on 11/04/2011

You are comparing apples and oranges. Cain mispeaks out of ignorance, Obama mispoke out of hubris. Cain mispeaks everytime he speaks, why would anyone vote for such an ignorant person for President?

[Fretmaster 2]

04:53 PM on 11/04/2011

Wow.....you are going to regret your statement when the truth comes out......Herman Cain has done a radio show for years that have been recorded where he talks often about China and their Nuclear Weapons. So stop looking stupid out there!

[elicourey]

10:19 PM on 11/04/2011

People voted for Bush....I'm still trying to figure that out.

[imfedup]

04:46 PM on 11/03/2011

He doesn't need to know anything about Chi-chi-chi-chi-na.

He can learn that all AFTER we elect him.

[JeanPaulSatire]

07:02 PM on 11/03/2011

That's "Chi-chi-ch­i-chi-na-STAN-STAN," thank you very much.

[moslef]

04:20 PM on 11/03/2011

Seems that every time Cain speaks, he later must clarify that he misspoke.