REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Herman Cain yesterday told senior members of his campaign he was reassessing whether to remain in the race after a fifth woman accused him of sexual misconduct.
An adviser to Cain told the Washington Postthe candidate would make a decision by the end of this week.
On Monday evening, the local Fox News television station in Atlanta broadcast an interview with Ginger White (48), an unemployed single mother who said she had a 13-year affair with Mr Cain.
“It wasn’t complicated, and I was aware that he was married, and I was also aware that I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship,” Ms White told Fox.
She gave the television station 61 text messages she said Mr Cain sent to her cell phone. Their sexual relationship ended eight months ago, when Mr Cain decided to stand for the presidency, she said.
Mr Cain has been married to his wife, Gloria, for 43 years. She has stood by him through allegations of sexual harassment by four women. Ms White said she met Mr Cain in Louisville, Kentucky, in the late 1990s, when he was chief executive of the National Restaurant Association. They met repeatedly for trysts at the luxurious Ritz Carlton Hotel in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, she said.
Ms White said she made the revelation because she was angered by the way Mr Cain’s earlier accusers were “demonised”, and because she “wanted to give my side before it was thrown out there and made out to be something filthy”.
Mr Cain issued a statement that Americans were “tired of dirty politics and smear tactics”. He has fallen from frontrunner to third place in polls since the sexual harassment accusations surfaced.
Mr Cain admitted on CNN to knowing Ms White, but said he was merely trying to help “a friend because of not having a job”.
Meanwhile, representative Barney Frank announced he will not seek a 17th term in Congress. Mr Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has for 31 years been one of the most pugnacious and outspoken members. He is known for two causes: homosexual rights, and attempting to impose regulations on America’s big banks.
“This country has never had a congressman like Barney Frank, and the House of Representatives will not be the same without him,” President Obama said in a statement.
With typical humour, Mr Frank said it “would be the best thing to happen to Democrats since Barry Goldwater” if his political enemy Newt Gingrich, who is now the Republican frontrunner, won the nomination.