Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told his supporters on Saturday that he’s suspending his campaign, which has become hobbled in recent weeks by accusations of sexual harassment and an Atlanta woman's claim that her and Cain carried on a 13-year affair.
While he will still be able to raise and spend campaign funds because he did not officially drop out, Cain's White House bid is effectively over. Cain said he came to the decision after assessing the impact that the allegations were having on his wife, his family and his supporters. Cain and his wife held hands as they walked up to the podium where Cain made his remarks in Atlanta. Even as he stepped aside under the weight of the allegations that have dogged him, Cain said that he was at "peace with God" and "peace with my wife."
He repeatedly called the allegations untrue and that the media spin hurts. "I am not going to be silenced and I will not go away," Cain said, announcing what he called his Plan B: A website named TheCainSolutions.com, through which he will continue to advocate for his platform.
His catchy "9-9-9" economic plan is not going anywhere, he said.
He will endorse another of the Republican presidential hopefuls soon, he said.
Recently, Cain acknowledged that Ginger White's allegations of an affair had led to a drop in campaign contributions, and a Des Moines Register poll showed his support among Republican Iowa caucus-goers has fallen to 8%, down from 23% in October.
This week, White told the news media that she and Cain engaged in an on-and-off affair for more than 13 years. She described the affair as "very casual." White issued a statement, through her attorney, after Cain's announcement Saturday.
Two women, Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar had previously accused Cain of sexually harassing them in the 1990s while he was head of the National Restaurant Association. Two other women also have said Cain sexually harassed them while they worked at the association, but they have declined to be identified.
Cain told the Union Leader in New Hampshire that he repeatedly gave White money to help her with "month-to-month bills and expenses." But he denied the relationship was sexual, as White contends. He said the two were friends.
Cain's announcement comes a month before the Iowa caucuses, the first formal test of the primary season, scheduled for January 3.
New Hampshire Republican officials who supported Cain began to survey their options Saturday, with several state representatives saying their support could go to Gingrich or Ron Paul. Cain's most prominent supporter in the state, former GOP state party chair Jack Kimball, said he would wait to learn whom Cain would endorse before making his own decision.
He said in the Thursday Union Leader interview that his wife's feelings, as well as the reaction from supporters and donors, would be important factors in deciding whether he will stay the race.
Cain told the newspaper he would drop out of the race if his wife asked him to, but quickly added that she wouldn't.
Though Gloria Cain rarely makes public appearances or statements, she told Fox News last month that she believed the sexual harassment allegations were "unfounded."
The circus.....goes on and on and on. And the guy who is twice divorced and had an extra-marital affair with his current wife hopes to gain the most from this. Amazing! More than ever, as I look at the sorry set of Republican “rivals” on the other side, I am THANKFUL to have Barack Obama as President, and as a viable candidate for re-election. Mr. Obama: your heart, your values, and your basic decency are all in the right place. BUT...your hands are tied. Unfortunately they were tied by us, the electorate.....when we failed to provide you with a Congress that you can work with. Instead, you are saddled with a don’t-tax-the-1%-do-nothing Congress that battles you at every turn, while the people suffer. God, they don't EVEN let you pass your own appointments. It's not Tea-publican gridlock -it's Tea-publican sabotage. Heck, it's Tea-publican treason....while the 99% BLEEDS. And then they try to pin the blame on Mr. Obama. These people have no shame...or else its been purchased by those who can afford to do so. In her last years, Grandma gets her meager Social Security check, and they DARE to call it “socialism”. Give me a break! (and Grandma too!) Thankfully, with Occupy Wall Street, America has found its voice: a voice that reminds us that people -ordinary down-to-earth working people- really DO matter. Not “corporations are people -people” , but REAL people! Tea-publicans want even MORE 1%-tax-break-corporate-loopholes....while these “job-creators” send our jobs overseas, and wish that we’d go away too.... as they buy every politician in sight. And if these politicians don’t have ENOUGH mistresses, I can hook them up with a few gorgeous -and rich!- oil companies. It would be a perfect blind date, except for the fact that they’re ALREADY in bed with them :-). But instead of talking about LESS government, and LESS taxes on the 1%, and MORE corporate welfare, and MORE painful cuts to those who can LEAST afford it....Occupy is a voice that demands a government that WORKS, a government that works FOR ALL OF US, not just for a favored few....not just for the rich. It’s a voice that comes up from the grassroots, and lifts us up in turn: because it insists that this land IS our land...and that we WANT IT BACK! It's a voice that will help us re-elect the President AND give him a more progressive people-oriented Congress to work with. Mr. Obama: I wish you well.... because you STILL give us hope!
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