Herman Cain sounded a defiant note in an email to supporters sent Monday after announcing Saturday that he had suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for president.
He said he was not surprised that he was attacked. "I was surprised by the nature of the attacks. Me, a womanizer? I would never have thought they'd come up with that one," he said. "But I knew the establishment would not like the idea of my success, because I will not get along by going along like so many do."
Cain announced he was suspending his campaign Saturday in the wake of allegations that he had a 13-year extramarital affair with Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White and sexual harassment charges from his tenure at the National Restaurant Association. Cain denied any wrongdoing.
He also criticized the media for highlighting gaffes. "If you're not warding off some wild accusation, you're explaining away a 'gaffe,' which is usually the sort of slip of the tongue that anyone can make, but because some reporter heard it, it turns into a news-cycle narrative with a shelf life of six or seven days," he wrote. Cain made multiple gaffes in his campaign, including struggling to explain how he would have handled Libya differently from President Barack Obama in an editorial board interview and asserting that China was developing a nuclear capability, even though the country first tested a nuclear device in 1964.
"And while my presidential campaign is suspended, it's important to remember that my pursuit of the presidency was only a means to an end," wrote Cain. "As long as the end is achieved, victory will be at hand."
