Herman Cain Press Conference: Sharon Bialek Allegations Addressed By Candidate (VIDEO)

Herman Cain says he's going to set the record straight now that someone's publicly detailed an alleged instance of his sexual misbehavior. The former Godfather's Pizza CEO told late night host Jimmy Kimmel that he'll fight the latest harassment allegations head-on because there is not an ounce of truth to the claims.

Cain responded to the charges at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix. On the prospect he could drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Cain asserted, "Ain't gonna happen." He accused the "Democratic machine" of manufacturing the controversy.

In response to a question from a reporter, the presidential candidate signaled he'd be willing to take "a lie detector test" to prove he's not guilty of any wrongdoing when it comes to the charges. He added, however, "But I'm not going to do that unless I have a good reason to do that."

Cain also attempted to clarify that he was not undermining the issue of sexual harassment, and said that it was not an act only perpetrated against women.

"Let me reiterate that sexual harassment is a very serious charge," Cain said. "I've also seen situations where women have attempted to sexually harass men."

On Monday a Chicago woman graphically described an incident she said took place in 1997 when she sought job advice from Cain. At the time he headed the National Restaurant Association.

With her attorney Gloria Allred at her side, Sharon Bialek said she had hoped Cain would acknowledge the incident as wrong and apologize. She is the fourth woman who alleged that Cain engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

Earlier in the day, Cain sought to undercut the credibility of the latest woman whose accusations are threatening his Republican presidential campaign. His chief rival, Mitt Romney, weighed in for the first time, calling the allegations "particularly disturbing."

On whether he anticipates additional charges of sexual harassment could arise on top of the handful that came to light over the past week, Cain said on Tuesday, "There will probably be others" because there's "a machine" working to keep "a businessman out of the White House." He added that if more accusations continue to surface, he "will continue to respond."

Comments

[Elizabeth Berry]

12:14 PM on 11/11/2011

Note on Cain's comment "there will probably be others". Yes there will probably be others because there ARE no doubt others. Now four women have made such allegations against Cain. At what point does Cain begin to have a problem with this? Apparently he hasn't reached it yet as he was recently caught on video tape joking about Anita Hill.

[BeIntelligent]

03:14 PM on 11/11/2011

Exactly what I thought when I read that line!

[hatenomor]

07:57 PM on 11/09/2011

Funny, Mr. Cain never held a job in Chicago, but the allegations come from there? Home of the Daley machine and Obama consigliere David Axelrod. Suspicions had already fallen on Sheila O'Grady, who is close with David Axelrod and went straight from being former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff to president of the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), as being the person who dug up Herman Cain's personnel records from the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

The Daley-controlled IRA works hand-in-glove with the NRA. And strangely enough, Cain's short, three-year tenure at the NRA is evidently the only period in his decades-long career during which he's alleged to have been a sexual predator.
A.C.

[Steve Peters]

07:07 PM on 11/09/2011

Sound advice from another famous spin doctor, Herman! "Demand me nothing;
What you know,you know: from this time forth I wii never speak word."
Iago

[awellkeptwomanllc]

06:38 PM on 11/09/2011

Thank you Illegal Beagle for your remarks.Where would I be without hater please keep on just like running for office if your name isnt within their mouth how could one run for office!

[Jimbo2001]

10:42 PM on 11/09/2011

What????!!!!!!

[Mil-ford]

05:34 PM on 11/09/2011

Why are all you Dems beating the Crap out of Cain, when you say he is easy to beat and he is not even been nominated? Also, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? Libs are true Flip Floppers, " we will take a stand and then change it when we are afftected"

[nazztea]

06:00 PM on 11/09/2011

Please see @SocratesFan below.

[jwcmass]

12:08 AM on 11/19/2011

I said this elsewhere, but it needs repeating. As a voter I do NOT owe Herman Cain the benefit of presumption of innocence. He is not being charged in court with a crime. I (and other voters) are NOT jury members, and we do NOT have to presume that Cain is innocent of anything. As a voter, my job is to determine the character of Mr. Cain, just as I would ALL the candidates. Now this is impossible to do directly. I have never met the candidate, and don't personally know any of them. So I have to rely on what I can find out about them. And when I hear that FOUR women, in separate incidents, have filed complaints, or have stepped forward with accusations, then I conclude that where there is this much smoke, there is probably fire. The fact that Cain refuses to personally address these accusations, but instead has his campaign minions go out and attack their credibility, then I have all the information I need to make a decision. No one has the RIGHT to be President. In previous elections, there were much better candidates, who were never accused of this sort of behavior, who never got elected. Mr.Cain, does not have the RIGHT to my vote, or the votes of anyone else. He is applying to work for ME (and you, and other voters) -- NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

[syhersch]

05:09 PM on 11/09/2011

Considering that the vast, vast majority of men (and women) in America have never been accused, let alone settled allegations of sexual harrassment in the workplace, how does it come to pass that the Republican Party has been able to hoist this man, who has been accused by four different women at different times of such sleeze, upon the American people. Just imagine, this conservative, family value Christian (the right kind of Christian, too) is going to help American women find jobs by putting his hand under their skirts. What an inspiration to men everywhere.

[nazztea]

04:59 PM on 11/09/2011

"Herman Cain" — A BLR Soundbite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uE5xZKszXMQ#!

[luckincan]

04:05 PM on 11/09/2011

Cain should be in jail.

[flsense]

03:46 PM on 11/09/2011

Let's delete Rush like posts. Baggers stay on Fox please.

[effCanada]

04:10 PM on 11/09/2011

Typical liberal trying to limit peoples freedom of speech.

[nazztea]

04:51 PM on 11/09/2011

Personally, I don't have a problem with your speech as long as you're original and not just parroting Limbaugh.

[jwcmass]

12:16 AM on 11/19/2011

I can't say I approve of your attitude toward Canada, if your username means what I think it does. But you should understand that freedom of speech does not apply to a privately owned company. The first Amendment and subsequent Supreme Court rulings are very specific in stating that it is CONGRESS (and governmental agencies at all levels) may not restrict your freedom of speech. Huffington Post CAN (and does) restrict speech that doesn't meet with their guidelines -- which are posted and are very clear and specific in what is allowed and what is not. Your comments and mine, and flsense's comments are ALL subject to moderation. They CAN be deleted. Personally, my opinion is that unless a comment is in flagrant violation of the guidelines, it should stand. If the comment has no merit, most of the viewers and posters will pick that up VERY quickly. False assertions are usually very quickly addressed in a replying post. But we do NOT have the right to post whatever we want. If we are unable to follow the posting guidelines, then that post WILL be deleted. And that is NOT a violation of your rights. No one is trying to put anyone in jail for what they have said.

[Jimbo2001]

07:13 PM on 11/09/2011

Sorry, but you lose all credibility when you reveal yourself to be a testicle sucker.

[BeIntelligent]

03:22 PM on 11/11/2011

So intelligent. You prove my point--nice imitation of Limp-head!

[Biblebelt Socialist]

03:44 PM on 11/09/2011

What about the other women?

[effCanada]

04:11 PM on 11/09/2011

Ditto.

[monkee61]

08:01 PM on 11/09/2011

No. I actually was talking abuot your Mother. Don't write again since you can't produce an intellectual first reponse.

[flsense]

03:59 PM on 11/09/2011

You must be talking about your mother.

[flsense]

02:49 PM on 11/09/2011

Cain lied during his press conference. He stated that for the first charges against him at NRA there was a finding of no basis for claims. When asked who came to that conclusion, he couldnt answer.

[effCanada]

04:11 PM on 11/09/2011

Cain lied during his press conference­. -- And YOU know this how? Are you a human lie detector.

He stated that for the first charges against him at NRA there was a finding of no basis for claims. When asked who came to that conclusion­, he couldnt answer. -- He wasn't around when the NRA finally came to their seperation agreement. The one HE DIDN'T sign.

[flsense]

04:58 PM on 11/09/2011

You answered you own question. If he wasnt around how did he know there was no basis found for allegations? Eh

[Mil-ford]

05:39 PM on 11/09/2011

What is worse is Obama lying daily.

[jwcmass]

12:48 AM on 11/19/2011

In what way is this happening? I certainly have seen no lying to the extent that the previous Administration lied about WMDs in Iraq to take the nation into an unnecessary and costly (in American and Iraqi civilian lives). Obama is not perfect -- no President is. But as I look about, he seems to be doing his best to fulfill his campaign promises. He is not always able to do that -- there are many circumstances that are beyond his control (he has no choice to close Gitmo, because Congress will not appropriate the necessary funds to do so.) But he has been eliminating the major terrorists -- something Bush was unable or unwilling to do for 8 years, and he passed a health care bill (as he promised in his campaign -- no one can claim that was a surprise) as well as a bill which is attempting to regulate the finance industry. Were those bills perfect? Far from it. But that is a function of our political system, which badly needs reform - and that is something NO President can do alone. ctd.

[jwcmass]

12:49 AM on 11/19/2011

p2 We even knew (had people really looked) that Obama's instinct is to try to bring people of various political views together and forge a consensus. However, I think Obama underestimated how the Republicans (who were not supportive of compromise -- indeed any Republican who WAS compromising was a target of a GOP purge). They made the mistake of interpreting Obama's attempt to unite the nation as a weakness to be exploited for political gain. That is NOT how a responsible party acts. Indeed, there are many Republicans who are wondering what has happened to their party. All the wild poll swings show that even REPUBLICANS are not happy with the GOP candidates. Even with the economy -- there are large factors over which he has NO CONTROL -- namely what is happening in Europe, which will probably be a bigger factor than anything happening in the US (welcome to the global economy). Then there are areas where a President CANNOT tell the truth. A good example of this was then Vice President Truman's meeting with FDR, when Truman realized how ill he was. But the US was in the middle of WWII, and it would have been very bad policy to tell the unvarnished truth (which for all Truman knew at that time, could have extended the war). So just what are we talking about here?

[Biblebelt Socialist]

01:27 PM on 11/09/2011

So can we get that photo of Sharon hugging Herman at that recent event in Chicago, now that Herman has spent so much effort stating that he has NEVER seen her before?

[ABraut]

01:57 PM on 11/09/2011

The event she "confronted" him at, by giving him a big hug, hanging on his arm, and whispering in his ear? There was a witness:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/8592168-452/witness-sharon-bialek-hugged-herman-cain-during-tea-party-meeting-a-month-ago.html

[Biblebelt Socialist]

02:18 PM on 11/09/2011

I'm not saying it didn't happen. HE spent like 5 minutes yesterday saying it didn't happen.

[Lloyd Pinchback]

02:29 PM on 11/09/2011

Well if all that occurred so recently, according to Cain in his press conference, upon seeing Sharon Bialek on his holtel room TV set on Monday, he told members of his staff watching the tube with him that he had "no idea who this woman is", that he had "never seen her before". Which is it? Is his mind really that bad off that he can't remember a second chance meeting and an opportunity to interact with Ms. Bialek, or is Cain simply lying about it? He remembers her but with some pain. If his mind is really that bad off, the U.S. presidency is certainly not for him.

[flsense]

01:19 PM on 11/09/2011

It's very easy to tell when someone is lying. Cain is the perfect example. Cain couldn't "recollate" the signed agreement by the NRA from 1999. However, Cain remembers in vivid detail of the incident when he claims he was pointing out the height of the woman. He can remember from 12 years ago that the door to his office was open and his secretary was sitting there. Suddenly amazing detailed "recollation". Mark of a very bad liar.

[Lloyd Pinchback]

12:56 PM on 11/09/2011

So far we’ve heard from at least four women who’ve accused Herman Cain of inappropriate sexual conduct in their presence. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I think four female victims of sexual harassment from one man represents a fairly credible consensus to trust in; however, I also believe that we’re only hearing about those sexual harassment cases that were 1) subject to a cash settlement and a non-disclosure (or “confidentiality”) agreement, or 2) not settled legally but has come forward and the victim maintains her version of an event with Mr. Cain was she’s described it as being true and factual. However, there’s possibly a third tier of female victims of Cain’s unseemly philandering: those that indeed may have submitted to his sexual advances out of fear, intimidation, and possibly even a mutual interest.

Although we haven’t heard from them yet, there have got to be some victims of his amusement who didn’t report him to the authorities, complain to a friend or relative, but actually submitted to Cain’s sexual advances. Perhaps they’ve remained silent out of utter embarrassment and personal humiliation for their seeming dalliance or complicity with him. Maybe some are married and cannot come forward out of shame. Consider these real possibilities. They ARE out there, trust me.

[koromuso]

12:46 PM on 11/09/2011

I pray nightly that Herman Cain is the Republican nominee. I do. I do.

He would be so much easier for Obama to defeat in a national election than Romney. But if it can't be Cain, oh, please, please, please let it be Newt or Santorum.