Cain forced to confront sex claims

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Mr Cain has promised to “set the record straight” over claims he sexually assaulted a woman.

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Mr Cain has promised to “set the record straight” over claims he sexually assaulted a woman.

Mr Cain has dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign designed to spoil his rise to the top of the polls.

“There is not an ounce of truth to all these allegations” and the graphic, televised account from the latest woman to come forward, Sharon Bialek, was “totally fabricated,” the former businessman said.

Mr Cain will answer reporters’ questions on the issue later, reversing course after saying on Saturday that he had finished talking about the claims of sexual harassment that first became public with the airing of anonymous complaints by two other women more than a week ago.

Ms Bialek went on television on Monday and became the fourth woman to accuse Mr Cain, and the first to go public. Her accusations – that Mr Cain groped her in a car after she asked for his help finding a job – spun his unorthodox campaign into an uncertain new territory.

Mr Cain, a novice politician and surprise entrant into the presidential race, has risen to the top of public opinion polls and emerged as the main conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. Tea party activists and conservatives unready to support former Massachusetts governor have flocked to Mr Cain’s tell-it-like-it-is style and self-styled outsider image in recent weeks.

There were, however, growing signs of unease in conservative circles as, one by one, a handful of women claimed Mr Cain acted inappropriately toward them while the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

But his backers remained solidly behind the former pizza company executive. They pointed to the presence of Gloria Allred – a high-profile lawyer with Democratic ties – alongside Ms Bialek at a news conference as proof that the latest claim was a partisan smear.

At least two women who worked at the restaurant group under Mr Cain filed sexual harassment complaints and received payouts to leave the association.

A third woman said she considered making a workplace complaint against Mr Cain over what she deemed sexually suggestive remarks and gestures that included a private invitation to his corporate apartment. And a former pollster for the restaurant association has said he witnessed yet another episode involving a different woman.

Ms Bialek said Mr Cain – an acquaintance – made a sexual advance in 1997, when she had travelled to Washington to have dinner with him in hopes he could help her find work or get her job back at the National Restaurant Association after she had been fired from a job in the group’s education arm.

The two met in Washington, she said, and after having dinner were in a car for what she thought was a ride to an office building.

“Instead of going into the offices he suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals,” she said. “He also pushed my head toward his crotch.”

She said she asked Mr Cain what he was doing and recalled he replied, “You said you want a job, right?”

Minutes after Ms Bialek’s news conference, the Cain camp flatly denied the charges.

“Mr Cain has never harassed anyone,” a spokesman said.

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