Newt Gingrich On Herman Cain's Anita Hill Quip: 'It's Not Something To Be Joked About'

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Herman Cain should not have joked about Anita Hill, during an interview Friday on Laura Ingraham's radio show.

Cain was at a campaign stop in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Thursday, when someone in the crowd mentioned Hill, the law professor who accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment 20 years ago. He laughed and said, "Is she going to endorse me?"

On said Friday, Cain followed-up and said, "It was no way intended to be an insult to Anita Hill or anybody else."

"I think if you look at the concerns we have about issues like sexual harassment, if you look at the tragedy at Penn State, if you look at how people feel in general about this kind of stuff, it's not something to be joked about," said Gingrich, according to Politico. He added that Cain "may well be innocent...but these are not things, I think, that you joke about."

Despite Gingrich taking the allegations seriously, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said he may have issues with women voters Friday on Fox News. "I think he'll have trouble with women, because I think women will excuse one or two issues, but he does have some significant issues when it comes to women and, I think, with women voters."

Perkins also said that he was giving Herman Cain the "benefit of the doubt" on recent sexual harassment allegations against the former Godfather's Pizza CEO because of the "liberal media."

Cain, meanwhile, lost nearly half of his support from women voters since October, according to a new CBS News poll. Gingrich garnered 19 percent support from men and 10 percent from women.

Gingrich has been married three times. Gingrich's first wife said she surprised him by discussing terms of a divorce while she was recovering from cancer surgery in 1980. Gingrich disputes the account. Gingrich has admitted that he had an affair with the woman who is now his third wife, Callista Gingrich, while married to his second wife and about the same time when he was attacking President Bill Clinton for his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At the time, Gingrich was Speaker of the House.

Comments

[musicka]

05:04 PM on 11/15/2011

Newt smells a gain in the polls, suddenly he finds reason.

[linnwood]

08:49 PM on 11/14/2011

Newt said the right thing,but with his past we know why he said it ........votes....This is a man that said the reason he was a serial cheater was that he loved his country soooo much.He doesn't need to be running for President, he needs to be getting some help.

[OneFluOverTheWooWoosNest]

07:48 PM on 11/14/2011

Wow.

Newt said something a grown up would say.

I'm amazed.

[jojojo]

02:40 PM on 11/14/2011

Newt's ex-wife...well, one of them:

http://www.esquire.com/features/newt-gingrich-0910

[Connie Vanderpool]

10:26 PM on 11/13/2011

and this guy thinks he is so pious? Give me a break!!! Ethics violations, 3rd wife in tow...oh me!

[prodemlib]

10:30 AM on 11/13/2011

Newt Gingrich is schooling Cain on sexual harassment??? Seriously??? The TeaGOPer party has really gone downhill, and this is just a new low for them

[plzchuteme]

09:23 AM on 11/13/2011

Cain has ducked making good on his offer to take a lie detector test. Perhaps, he should be waterboarded to get to the bottom of this.

[pherron lowe]

08:52 AM on 11/13/2011

Nice try newt,stand up for for women..Now if women voters remember THIS & forget the REST..you'll be home free..good luck with that..........

[lazingaro]

08:31 AM on 11/13/2011

So, lemme get this straight. Serial cheater/marrier/divorcer/impeacher/hypocrite is giving sensitivity advice to the pizza guy/harasser/idiot? This makes 90210 look like high society.

[quedog]

10:43 AM on 11/13/2011

veryt funny

[zanzig]

02:54 AM on 11/13/2011

Perkins also said that he was giving Herman Cain the "benefit of the doubt" on recent sexual harassment allegations against the former Godfather's Pizza CEO because of the "liberal media."

This is a new take on having the actual victims (the harassee, if you will) appear in living colour, live on air, but be dismissed as a figment of the liberal media. How does he do it?

[GaryNMaine]

09:14 AM on 11/13/2011

Isn't Perkins' group the same Christian group who gave GOP Rep Joe Walsh (yes the same Joe Walsh who is $117,000 in errs on his child support to his children) an award for supporting family values. I guess Perkins doesn't believe any of that even with legal papers all over the place regarding Joe's lack of family values.

The Republican Party is in a strange place these days. How anyone with any character at all could vote for these losers is beyond me.

[thepoliticalcat]

12:13 AM on 11/13/2011

Luke Johnson: Your final paragraph makes no sense as written. I believe what you MEANT to say was that Gingrich's first wife stated that HE surprised HER by discussing a divorce while she was still in hospital recuperating from uterine surgery. Pls fix.

[MissRoseNylund]

06:51 AM on 11/13/2011

I noticed the same thing. They need to fix the story.

[thepoliticalcat]

01:50 PM on 11/13/2011

Great minds think alike, MissRose.

[planetjeffy]

11:42 PM on 11/12/2011

Newt's recommendation for Cain...
next time just buy them expensive jewelry

[logic-a-go-go]

11:22 PM on 11/12/2011

Gingrich is one of the most immoral politicians in the U.S. No one with an ounce of ethics should even consider the guy. He is truth-challenged.

[ebanks84]

11:20 PM on 11/12/2011

Cain got a bad habit of running his mouth too much and not knowing when to just be quiet. When you talk that much, you've got to put your in your mouth on more occasions than not. Shut up Cain. I think you love hearing yourself more than anybody else does that's for sure.

[wakeup804]

11:29 PM on 11/12/2011

I feel sorry for his wife, Can you imagine listening to this idiot for decades??

[MissRoseNylund]

06:55 AM on 11/13/2011

Notice that Herman's wife hasn't shown up anywhere? She's probably so happy to have some quiet with him out of the house.

[ebanks84]

07:01 AM on 11/13/2011

Nope! Can't imagine that at all. I would rather be deaf :).

[HawaiiShira]

10:37 PM on 11/12/2011

Newt is now playing the role of psychologist to Herman Cain on how to to act more appropriately toward women......what a joke!