Cain Accuser's Ex Backs Up Her Claims

UPDATE: An ex-boyfriend of Sharon Bialek came forward Monday to publicly back her claim that Herman Cain touched her in an inappropriate manner back in the late 1990s.

Dr. Victor Zuckerman went public with his support for Bialek at an afternoon press conference in Louisiana that was arranged by Gloria Allred, the high-profile attorney who is representing Bialek. The timing of the event comes the same day that Fox News is set to air an interview with Cain's wife, Gloria, in which she defends her husband on camera for the first time since the allegations first surfaced.

Reading from a prepared statement, Zuckerman confirmed that Bialek returned "upset" from a dinner with Cain in Washington, D.C., and said that she told him at the time that "something had happened and that Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate matter." He said that she became "livid" when Cain denied the sexual harassment claims by the original two women when they were first reported in the press, and that he was the one who suggested that she contact Allred.

Zuckerman, a self-described Republican, said that he had no political motivation to come forward and that he was speaking out now only to help the public "in evaluating the statements previously made by Mr. Cain and Ms. Bialek."

Zuckerman did not take questions from reporters, with Allred instead opting to run the show from the podium. She said that the public can evaluate "all of the facts that have been provided" and weigh the four women's claims "against the denial of one man who obviously has a significant motive to deny all the allegations."

Cain's team has steadfastly denied that the GOP candidate has ever acted inappropriately toward anyone.

Monday, Nov. 14 at 10:06 a.m.: Gloria Cain finally sat down with Fox News to talk about the harassment allegations against her husband and, as Herman Cain promised, she defended the GOP candidate as someone incapable of behaving in the sexually aggressive way his accusers claim he did on multiple occasions.

"To hear such graphic allegations and know that that would have been something that was totally disrespectful of her as a woman and I know that’s not the person he is," she said according to a partial transcript of an interview with Greta Van Susteren that is set to air later Monday. "He totally respects women."

The Republican contender has been accused of sexual harassment dating to the late 1990s by at least four women, although only two have gone public with their accusations. Of those two, only one, Sharon Bialek, has provided a detailed account of the incidents in question. At a press conference last week, Bialek said that Cain sexually harassed her and grabbed her in a sexually aggressive manner while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association.

"I looked at especially this last lady and the things that she said I’m thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that she said," Gloria Cain said of those allegations.

The Fox News interview was the first time that Gloria Cain has been interviewed on TV since her husband entered the race for the GOP presidential nomination, and is her first public appearance since she was on hand for her husband's campaign launch in Atlanta in May.

Friday, Nov. 11 at 4:10 p.m.: Herman Cain on Friday defended his Anita Hill joke, telling a New York radio host that the media was blowing the incident out of proportion.

The GOP hopeful was caught on tape Thursday joking about Hill, the college professor who lodged her own sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas in the 1990s.

Cain explained how Thursday's exchange took place to journalist Fred Dicker like so (quotes via Politico): "We walked into this room and someone said that – one of my supporters said, ‘Anita Hill was trying to contact you’ and my response was, ‘Is she going to endorse me?’" Cain said. "He said it in a humorous way. I gave a humorous response."

He added: "It was in no way intended to be an insult to Anita Hill or anybody else."

Friday, Nov. 11 at 10:13 a.m.: Herman Cain sure isn’t making this whole thing any easier for himself.

The GOP hopeful was caught on tape Thursday joking about Anita Hill, the college professor who lodged her own sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas in the 1990s.

The exchange between Cain and a supporter occurred at a campaign stop in Michigan, and was caught on camera by Fox News, which first aired it on Thursday Night.

Real Clear Politics has the video here. In it, a member of the crowd mentions Hill to Cain, who responds: "Is she going to endorse me?" It is difficult to make out the supporter’s original comment, but it prompted a hearty round of laughter from those in the room, including Cain, which continued after the candidate made his follow-up joke.

Cain and his backers have likened his current situation to the one Thomas faced during his confirmation hearings in 1991, branding the media coverage of the accusations a "high-tech lynching."

The New York Times reached out to Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon, who offered what has become a typical response from the campaign concerning its candidate’s occasional controversial attempts at humor. "It was a joke," Gordon said, adding that Cain was simply "repeating what a supporter said."

The incident came one day after Cain apologized for calling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "Princess Nancy" during Wednesday’s GOP debate, and follows previous jokes from the former pizza exec about electrifying the fence on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Thursday, Nov. 10 at 5:32 p.m. Looks like it's all or nothing.

An attorney for Herman Cain accuser Karen Kraushaar says that his client won't go through with a press conference unless all four women who have accused the GOP candidate of sexual harassment join her.

"Ms. Kraushaar has decided not to hold a press conference unless and until the other women come forward," Joel Bennett told reporters, NPR reports. "She will have no future comment until that time and she and I will not be granting any interviews to the media before any such press conference."

Bennett had previously said that his client had agreed to join Sharon Bialek, the first Cain accuser to go public, at a press conference where the women would tell their stories together.

Bialek held her own press conference Monday, during which she detailed what she says was sexually aggressive behavior by Cain during an encounter in the late 1990s.

Kraushaar went public on Wednesday after she was outed by News Corp.'s The Daily, but has not yet provided a full account of what led her to file a sexual harassment claim against Cain more than a decade ago when both worked at the National Restaurant Association. She was the one who first floated the idea of a joint press conference involving all four of Cain's accusers.

The other two women have not yet come forward publicly, and Bennett said that Kraushaar's attempts to contact them have failed.

Thursday, Nov. 10 at 10:20 a.m.: As expected: Herman Cain was asked during Wednesday night’s GOP debate about the sexual harassment claims that have threatened his campaign. Somewhat less expected: the Republican crowd booed the CNBC moderator for asking the question.

Here was Maria Bartiromo’s Q that drew the crowd’s ire: "You know that shareholders are reluctant to hire a CEO where there are character issues. Why should the American people hire a president if they feel there are character issues?"

And Cain’s response that had the crowd cheering: "The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations."

The audience also reacted with audible boos when another moderator asked Mitt Romney whether, as a CEO, he would have fired someone who was accused of the same thing that Cain has been. "Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions. He just did," Romney said, drawing his own round of applause.

Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 1:37 p.m.: The two women who have publicly accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment have agreed to hold a joint news conference so they can tell their stories together, the Washington Post reports.

The details of the event are still being worked out, but according to the lawyer of one of the accusers, Karen Kraushaar, his client and Sharon Bialek will appear together. The other two accusers—who have not gone public with their claims—are not reported to be involved.

Bialek held her own press conference Monday, during which she detailed what she says was sexually aggressive behavior by Cain during an encounter in the late 1990s.

Kraushaar went public on Wednesday after she was outed by News Corp.'s The Daily, but has not yet provided a full account of what led her to file a sexual harassment claim against Cain more than a decade ago when both worked at the National Restaurant Association. She was the one who first floated the idea of a joint press conference involving all four of Cain's accusers.

Cain has steadfastly denied all of the allegations against him.

Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 9:50 a.m.: Herman Cain’s chief of staff insisted Tuesday evening that the latest accuser to come forward is the mother of a reporter who works at Politico, the news outlet that first broke the story of the past sexual harassment allegations against the GOP candidate.

There are two problems with that claim: One, the reporter he was talking about, Josh Kraushaar, doesn’t work for Politico and, two, he isn’t related to the accuser, Karen Kraushaar.

Speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Block had this to say: "At the press conference it was brought up that Karen Kraushaar had come out as one of the women, so we've come to find out that her son works at Politico.”

Hannity responded, “I’ve been hearing that all day—you’ve confirmed that now?”

To which Block answered, "We've confirmed that he does indeed work at Politico and that's his mother, yes."

Josh Kraushaar previously worked for Politico, but left for a job at a competing D.C. publication, the National Journal, in 2010. In a statement, he denied any relation to the accuser

"Mark Block doesn't have his facts straight," he said. "I am not related in any way to Karen Kraushaar, and I haven't worked at Politico since June 2010."

The Cain campaign later conceded that Block was wrong, but failed to explain what led Block to believe that the false information had been confirmed.

"Based upon information available at the time of Mr. Block's Tuesday night interview on Fox News, the campaign was led to believe that Mr. Josh Kraushaar, currently with the National Journal and a former employee of Politico, was the son of Karen Kraushaar," Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon acknowledged in an email to CNN. "Mr. Josh Kraushaar is in fact, not related to Ms. Karen Kraushaar."

Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 6:25 p.m.: Herman Cain again issued a complete denial of any and all allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him, telling an Arizona press conference on Tuesday that the story that has dominated the news cycle for the past week and a half won't force him to give up his bid for the GOP nomination.

"We are not going to allow Washington or politics to deny me the opportunity to represent this great nation," Cain said. "As far as these accusations [causing] me to back off or maybe withdraw from this presidential primary race: Ain’t going to happen. I’m doing this for the American people and for their children and their grandchildren."

The former pizza executive suggested that the "Democratic machine" was behind the around-the-clock coverage of a story that has threatened his standing atop the GOP field -- although he stopped short of saying that it was a full-blown conspiracy to take him down.

"The Democrat machine in America has brought forth a troubled woman to make accusations, many of which exceed common sense," he said.

Cain called the press conference to, in his words, "set the record straight" after Sharon Bialek came forward Monday to publicly detail what she says were sexually aggressive actions by Cain. In the hours leading up to the event, a second of Cain's four accusers spoke out publicly for the first time, suggesting that she is interested in holding a press conference with the other accusers to tell their stories.

That woman, Karen Kraushaar, had been outed earlier in the day by News Corp.'s tablet newspaper The Daily against her requests for privacy. She later came forward to confirm her identity to the press (see previous update).

During his press conference, Cain rejected the complaints made against him. "The charges and the accusations, I absolutely reject,” he said. "They simply didn’t happen. They simply did not happen."

At one point during the Q-and-A session with reporters, Cain was asked whether he would be willing to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence. The GOP contender responded he would -- but stopped short of promising to do so. "Yes, I absolutely would," Cain responded. "But I'm not going to do that unless I have a good reason to do that. Of course I would be willing to do a lie detector test."

Nov. 8 at 4:58 p.m.: One of the two women who received a cash settlement after filing a sexual harassment claim against Herman Cain confirmed her identity to the press on Tuesday and floated the idea of holding a joint press conference where all of the GOP candidate's accusers could share their stories.

Earlier Tuesday, News Corp.'s tablet newspaper The Daily outed Karen Kraushaar as one of the two original Cain accusers, apparently against her will, and a number of other news outlets followed by printing her name. Kraushaar later confirmed to NPR that she did indeed lodge a formal complaint against Cain, although she declined to provide further comment to the broadcaster.

Later, she made a brief statement to the New York Times. "When you are being sexually harassed in the workplace, you are extremely vulnerable," she told the paper. "You do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job some place safe and that is what I thought I had achieved when I left."

Kraushaar stopped short of providing details about her claims, but suggested that may not be the case for long. She told the paper that he has been warming "to the idea of a joint press conference where all of the women would be together with our attorneys and all of this evidence would consider together."

The 55-year-old is a career federal employee and a registered Republican who characterizes herself as an independent, according to NPR. She currently works as a communications director at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Kraushaar holds an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a master's degree from the University of Michigan. She has been married for 26 years and currently lives in suburban Maryland with her husband, who is a lobbyist and a registered Republican.

It is unclear why The Daily chose to name Kraushaar, whose identity had previously been protected by a number of media outlets who have reported on the details of her allegations and settlement.

Kraushaar released a statement last week through her lawyer standing by her original complaint but making it clear that she had no desire to come forward publicly. "She and her husband see no value in revisiting this matter now, nor in discussing this matter further, publicly or privately," her lawyer, Joel Bennett, said then. "In fact, it would be extremely painful to do so."

Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 2:45 p.m.: Herman Cain denied the latest round of sexual harassment allegations against him on Tuesday, saying that he does not remember meeting Sharon Bialek, the woman who has publicly accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior that dates to the late-1990s.

"I am honestly telling you, I don't even recall knowing her at the time," the Republican presidential candidate told ABC News in an interview Tuesday afternoon. Asked if Bialek was lying, Cain responded: "Yes, I’m saying that as nice a way as I can."

Cain also repeated his denial of the original sexual harassment allegations made by two former National Restaurant Association employees during Cain's tenure as head of the trade group. "I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period," he said.

While Cain flatly denied Bialek's detailed account of their 1997 encounter, he repeatedly mentioned that he did not recall meeting her -- comments that somewhat echo his original denials of the cash settlements two of his accusers were given by the National Restaurant Association.

On the day after the original story first broke, Cain said: "If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much." As the news cycle wore on, however, he later confirmed that he was aware of at least one of the settlements and later accused a former adviser who he briefed on the matter of leaking the story to the press.

Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 12:22 p.m. News Corp.'s tablet newspaper The Daily has outed one of Herman Cain’s accusers who had previously made clear that she had no desire for her name to be made public.

It is unclear why The Daily chose to name the woman, whose identity has been protected by a number of media outlets who have reported on the details of her allegations and settlement.

The woman released a statement last week through her lawyer standing by her original complaint but making it clear that she had no desire to come forward publicly. "She and her husband see no value in revisiting this matter now, nor in discussing this matter further, publicly or privately," her lawyer, Joel Bennett, said then. "In fact, it would be extremely painful to do so."

The report, along with the woman’s name, was quickly picked up by a small number of other Web outlets, including The Daily Caller and the Business Insider. Although, perhaps noteworthy, the Wall Street Journal and other News Corp.-owned outlets have not yet reported the woman’s identity.

According to The Daily, the woman in question now works in the communications department of a federal agency. She is reportedly one of the two former National Restaurant Association employees who received a cash settlement from the group after filing a sexual harassment claim against Cain in the 1990s, during his tenure as the association’s president and CEO. Previously, Politico and other news outlets that had reported the details of the settlement opted against naming either of the two accusers out of a concern for their privacy.

The woman did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily, but the newspaper spoke to two sources that claim to know her: one was her brother-in-law and the other is said to be one of her friends, both of which defended her.

Here’s what the brother-in-law had to say: "She wouldn’t be the type to make false allegations. … This happened [more than] 10 years ago. It’s not like she wanted to try and hurt the Republican Party."

The friend called her "an extraordinarily good person," adding: "She is very reliable and has lots of integrity. I don’t know what happened. I don’t want to know. Enough is enough. She is quality."

Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 10 a.m.: Herman Cain says that he will "set the record straight" at a news conference in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon, one day after a new accuser came forward publicly to accuse him of inappropriate sexual behavior that dates to the late-1990s.

"There is not an ounce of truth to all these allegations," he told ABC's Jimmy Kimmel in a late-night interview Monday, adding that the latest accusations were "totally fabricated."

Cain's Tuesday press conference is set for 3 p.m. local time, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I'm going to talk about it," Cain said Monday, adding "we are taking this head on."

The GOP candidate's decision to hold a press conference to discuss the allegations is a stark reversal from his previous stance that his campaign was moving on and that he would get "back on message." But that was before Sharon Bialek came forward Monday with a graphic account of what she cays were Cain's aggressive sexual advances toward her in 1997.

Bialek made those allegations at a New York City press conference on Monday afternoon, and then later embarked on something of a mini-media tour with appearances on a number of news programs to re-tell her side of the story.

She told CNN that she is not after money and has nothing to gain personally from coming forward. She said that a large part of the reason she decided to go public was because her 13-year-old son encouraged her to.

"He said, 'Mom, I think you need to do the right thing. I think you need to tell on him," Bialek  told American Morning. "That confirmed it for me. If my son is saying it, I want to be the role model for him and other kids growing up."

Monday, Nov. 7 at 2:47 p.m.: Accuser No. 4 officially came forward Monday afternoon to claim that Herman Cain sexually harassed her and grabbed her in a sexually aggressive manner while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.

The woman, Sharon Bialek, went public with her accusations at a New York City press conference organized by her high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred, a woman with a flair for the dramatic who lived up to that reputation on Monday.

Allred opened the press conference by accusing Cain of "serial sexual harassment toward women" and "actively lying" to America to cover it up, before turning the microphone over to Bialek, who went on to detail Cain’s alleged unwanted sexual advances toward her.

Bialek claimed that during a 1997 visit with Cain, the current GOP hopeful made sexual advances toward her—including reaching for her genitals and also pressing her head toward his crotch—and, when rebuffed, responded: "You want a job, right?" She added that she asked Cain to stop, and he did.

Cain’s campaign immediately released a statement denying the latest accusations of sexual harassment against the White House hopeful.

"Activist celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred is bringing forth more false accusations against the character of Republican front-runner Herman Cain," the statement said. "All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false. Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone. Fortunately the American people will not allow Mr. Cain’s bold '9-9-9 Plan', clear foreign policy vision and plans for energy independence to be overshadowed by these bogus attacks."

Bialek was not employed by the National Restaurant Association at the time of the incident. Previously, she had worked in Chicago for an educational foundation connected to the trade group but had recently lost her job. She said that she reached out to Cain—whom she had met previously—for help in finding new employment and that, during her trip to Washington, Cain had secretly upgraded her hotel room before meeting with her for drinks and dinner to discuss her possible job options.

Bialek is at least the fourth woman to accuse the GOP presidential hopeful of inappropriate conduct during his tenure as president and CEO of the Washington trade group, but the first to speak publicly about her claims.

One of the two former employees who filed formal complaints against Cain in the late '90s released a public statement this past Friday, but stopped short of revealing her own identity and detailing the specifics of her claims.

According to Allred, her client is not filing a lawsuit against Cain and has not been in touch with any of the other women who have accused Cain of personal misconduct.

Bialek said that she was going public with her accusations now because she wants the former pizza executive to "come clean" about what he did. "Mr Cain, I implore you, make this right," she said. "Just admit what you did. Admit you were inappropriate to people, and then move forward."

The press conference was delayed for roughly 20 minutes, possibly because Howard Stern Show contributor Benjy Bronk had commandeered the stage in a move that echoed his past performance at Anthony Weiner’s press conference this summer.

Monday, Nov. 7, at 10:43 a.m.: This isn't going to help Herman Cain's bid to get back on message.

The Associated Press reports that a new woman will come forward Monday to accuse the GOP presidential hopeful of sexual harassment. The woman and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, plan to hold a news conference in New York later Monday.

While it is not exactly clear from the report, it appears as though the woman (at least the fourth to accuse Cain of inappropriate actions) plans to appear in person, which would be the first time that one of Cain's accusers has stepped forward publicly to make their claims.

It is also not clear if the woman actually filed a sexual harassment complaint against Cain. The first two women from the original Politico story did file complaints and subsequently received cash settlements. The third woman did not file a formal complaint, but recently told the AP that she had considered filing one against Cain over what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior.

Allred has represented a number of clients in the middle of major media stories, including two of Tiger Woods' mistresses and porn star Ginger Lee, who played a minor role in Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal.

Sunday, Nov. 6: Just a few days ago, many were noting that Herman Cain’s poll numbers seemed to have weathered the media storm, even after the Republican candidate’s week of woes related to allegations of sexual harassment while he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

But maybe even in this fast-evolving 24/7 media environment, Cain’s resilience was announced too soon. A new Reuers/Ipsos poll conducted over the weekend shows the candidate dropping 9 points among Republicans and 5 points among all registered voters.

“The most striking thing is that Herman Cain is actually seeing a fairly substantial decline in favorability ratings toward him particularly among Republicans,” pollster Chris Jackson told Reuters.

Other noteworthy nuggets from the poll, conducted online among 1057 respondents: 53 percent of respondents believe allegations against Cain of sexual harassment are true despite his denial of wrongdoing. And a high number — 80 percent of Republicans — knew of them, suggesting the amount of media coverage last week had a significant impact on their view of the candidate.

Three separate women have now leveled accusations that Cain harassed them while working as the restaurant industry lobbyist in the 1990s. Last week the former pizza company CEO gave conflicting accounts of the incidents, and despite emphatically denying they ever occurred, the story seems to have put Cain and his campaign off balance.

Saturday during an unusual and friendly “Lincoln-Douglas” debate set up just between Newt Gingrich and Cain, the former executive only hinted once at the story that had plagued him all week, according to Talking Points Memo. When Gingrich asked Cain what about the campaign has most surprised him, he responded:

“The nit-pickingness of the media…If there is a journalistic standard, a lot of them don’t follow it. And as a result, too many people get misinformation and disinformation.”

Of course, the story that seems to have dealt Cain a damaging blow in the polls was also about not following basic standards of proper behavior in the workplace. Reuters reports that one of the accusing women’s lawyers shot back at Cain’s denials on Friday, saying she suffered a “series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances.”

Friday, Nov 5 at 5:56 p.m.: Well, that was just a bit anti-climatic.

The National Restaurant Association on Friday gave one of Herman Cain's accusers permission to release a short public statement regarding her past sexual harassment claim against the GOP candidate. But the statement (via her lawyer) doesn't shed much light on what happened between the two.

The biggest takeaway is that the woman is standing by the complaint she made back in the late-1990s, and that she maintains that there was more than one incident of inappropriate conduct by the current White House hopeful.

CNN reports that the woman's lawyer, Joel Bennett, said that his client "made a complaint in good faith about a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances" from Cain and that she "stands by the complaint that she made." Still, the woman sees "no value" in revisiting the issue now.

Bennett also confirmed that the alleged harassment occurred in 1999 over a period of "at least a month or two" and that there was "more than one incident."

Friday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m.: While we await word from the National Restaurant Association on whether the Washington trade group will allow one of Herman Cain's accusers to go public with her side of the story, here's the latest gift from the gods to political bloggers and headline writers:

The settlement between the woman and trade group was signed in September 1999, or if if you will: 9/99 (the numerical catchphrase of the GOP hopeful's tax plan).

Cain had already left the group at the time the settlement was finalized, so his signature is not on the document, which includes the confidentiality agreement that is currently blocking the woman from speaking out publicly.

"That's another interesting legal question, whether someone who was the accused and was the CEO would be bound without signing it, and I really don't know the answer to that right now," the woman's lawyer, Joel Bennett, told ABC News in an interview Thursday.

Bennett has formally requested that the restaurant group allow his client to release a statement. The group is expected to make a final decision sometime Friday afternoon.

Friday, Nov. 4 at 9:45 a.m.: Herman Cain’s team is hinting that it may sue Politico over its investigative story that uncovered past allegations of sexual harassment against the GOP hopeful.

"This is likely not over with Politico from a legal perspective," one campaign official told the Washington Post, which said that the source stopped short of explaining exactly what he meant.

Cain’s campaign says that it has had an attorney advising it since Saturday (one day before the story broke) on crisis management.

Politico’s top brass, however, appears unafraid. The publication’s executive editor, Jim VandeHei, had this to say in a statement to the Post: “We have heard nothing from the Cain campaign. We stand confidently behind every story Politico reporters have written on the topic.”

Meanwhile, the D.C. outlet has pressed on with its coverage of the story that it first broke. Its latest scoop came Thursday, when it reported that there were "urgent discussions" about one of the accusations "at top levels of the National Restaurant Association within hours of when the incident was alleged to have occurred."

Politico:

The new details—which come from multiple sources independently familiar with the incident at a hotel during a restaurant association event in the late 1990s—put the woman’s account even more sharply at odds with Cain’s emphatic insistence in news media interviews this week that nothing inappropriate happened between the two.

By most accounts, Cain's team has struggled mightily to control the story, and the candidate's constantly evolving version of events has raised as many questions as it has answered. Still, the fallout appears to have done little to erode Cain's support among his backers. In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, he remains virtually tied with Mitt Romney at the top of the field.

WaPo:

Seven in 10 Republicans say reports that Cain made unwanted advances toward two employees when he was head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s — allegations which have been stiffly rebutted by Cain’s campaign — do not matter when it comes to picking a candidate.

Thursday, Nov. 3, 3:34 p.m.: We should know by Friday whether one of Herman Cain's two accusers will get the chance to tell her side of the story.

On Thursday, a lawyer for one of the two women formally requested that the National Restaurant Association allow the woman to break her confidentiality agreement that was part of her settlement in order to release a statement about the incident. The trade group has confirmed that it is currently reviewing the statement and will weigh in sometime Friday.

"Our outside counsel was contacted by Mr. Bennett today and was asked to provide a response to a proposed statement by tomorrow afternoon," Sue Hensley, the group's senior VP for public affairs communications, said in a statement. "We are currently reviewing the document, and we plan to respond tomorrow." 

Thursday, Nov. 3 at 1:44 p.m.: Politico's latest scoop on the Herman Cain story: One of the women who accused the Republican hopeful of sexual harassment back in the 1990s received a payout of roughly $45,000 as part of her settlement with the National Restaurant Association.

That figure is noteworthy because it would appear to be substantially more than the two or three months' salary that Cain has claimed was given to the woman, said to have been a mid-level staffer at the trade group at the time. It is also more than the $35,000 that the other woman reportedly received.

The latest revelation comes as Cain scrambles to contain the fallout from the story by accusing Rick Perry's campaign of orchestrating the original investigative piece that first uncovered the allegations, which date to Cain's tenure as president and CEO of the restaurant trade group.

But the latest severance report will likely shift the attention back toward the inconsistencies of Cain's evolving version of the events. He initially denied being aware of any settlement, then later "gradually recalled" the existence of at least one. By Wednesday, he was telling the media and his supporters that he had briefed a former adviser on the accusations years ago and that the adviser, now with the Perry campaign, was the one who had leaked the story to Politico (charges Perry and the adviser deny).

Thursday, Nov. 3 at 10:32 a.m.: It appears as though Herman Cain has finally settled on a strategy to deflect all the attention concerning past allegations of sexual harassment: Blame Rick Perry.

While Perry's team denies the accusation that they helped orchestrate the story that has engulfed Cain's campaign, intentionally or not, the Texan's team managed to add fuel to the blame-game story themselves by quickly pointing the finger at Mitt Romney.

"I wouldn't put it past them," Perry communications director Ray Sullivan told CBS News on Wednesday, adding that "there are much closer connections between the restaurant association, Cain and the Romney camp than there are with us."

Sullivan was asked in a follow-up interview with Politico if he had any evidence to link Romney to the story, to which he responded: "I'm simply citing the ties between Romney camp and [the National Restaurant Association] based on the facts."

Cain on Wednesday began blaming Perry's campaign for being the ones to provide Politico with the tip behind its investigative story that uncovered the sexual harassment claims against Cain. (According to the Georgia business man, he had briefed Curt Anderson, who at the time was one of his advisers but now is part of Team Perry, on the existence of the accusations in the past.)

“We now know and have been able to trace it back to the Perry campaign that stirred this up, in order to discredit me and slow us down,” Cain reportedly told supporters by phone Wednesday evening, shortly after his campaign began floating the possibility to a number of media outlets.

While the finger-pointing appears to have provided a new angle -- one that is potentially less damaging to Cain -- to the story that has dominated the D.C. news cycle this week, the reprieve may be short-lived. A lawyer for one of the two women who received a cash payment to settle her sexual harassment allegations against Cain is set to ask the National Restaurant Association Thursday for permission to release a statement from his client explaining her side of the story.

Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 6:57 p.m.: Herman Cain's team is accusing the Rick Perry campaign of orchestrating the Politico story that uncovered past allegations of sexual harassment by the GOP hopeful during his tenure as the head of a Washington trade group.

"The actions of the Perry campaign are despicable. Rick Perry and his campaign owe Herman Cain and his family an apology," Cain's chief of staff, Mark Block, said in an interview with Fox News Wednesday evening. "Both Rick Perry and Politico did the wrong thing by reporting something that wasn't true."

Cain also made similar claims in an interview with Forbes magazine earlier in the day.

Block accused Perry adviser Curt Anderson of being the link between the Texan's campaign and the  story, a charge that Anderson and the Perry campaign have flatly denied. As Politico notes, Anderson also has his own ties to Cain, having served as his adviser during his failed 2004 Senate campaign. 

The charges that Perry's team was behind the leak comes as Cain and his advisers continue to struggle to contain the political fallout from the sexual harassment story that has dominated the news cycle since late Sunday when it first broke. On Wednesday, Cain grew combative with the press and ducked a number of questions from reporters who followed him around D.C.

Wednesday, Nov.2 at 5:17 p.m.: The Associated Press has the latest scoop: A third former employee says that she considered filing a workplace complaint against Herman Cain over what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior.

Like the other two women who did file complaints of sexual harassment during the mid-1990s, the third woman also worked for the National Restaurant Association when Cain was its president and CEO, according to the report. She told the AP that Cain’s sexually suggestive actions occurred about the same time that the other two women settled their own complaints against Cain.

From the AP: “The employee described situations in which she said Cain told her he had confided to colleagues how attractive she was and invited her to his corporate apartment outside work. She spoke on condition of anonymity, saying she feared retaliation.”

Cain's campaign declined to comment to the AP.

Meanwhile, a veteran GOP pollster who formally worked at the restaurant association has come forward to say that he witnessed Cain sexually harass a woman at a Washington, D.C.-area restaurant in the late 1990s.

"This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it," Chris Wilson told Oklahoma City's KTOK radio station. "It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left—everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up."

Politico points out that Wilson, the principal of an Oklahoma-based GOP consulting firm, is a Rick Perry supporter who does polling for a Super PAC that supports the Texan's presidential bid. In a follow-up interview with the political outlet, Wilson declined to elaborate on what exactly Cain did or said, but added: "It was very uncomfortable."

Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 2:06 p.m.: Herman Cain appears to have moved on to a new phase in his campaign's handling of the sexual harassment story: No more questions.

The Associated Press reports that the GOP hopeful was slated to take questions on Wednesday after a speech to health care professionals, but he ultimately refused and left the Washington-area event through a back door.

"I'm here to visit with these doctors and that's what I'm going to talk about, so don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about, OK?" Cain told reporters. "Don't even bother."

The press, of course, continued, asking Cain whether he would request that the National Restaurant Association release the two women who accused him of sexual harassment from their confidentiality agreements, clearing the way for them to tell their sides of the story.

"What did I say? Excuse me. Excuse me!" Cain responded. "What part of 'no' don't people understand?"

Campaign manager Mark Block told reporters that Cain would answer questions "when it’s appropriate."

Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 12:04 p.m.: A lawyer for one of the two women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment may have got ahead of himself when he said that she wanted to go public with her story.

The lawyer, Joel Bennett, originally told the Washington Post that she wanted out of her non-disclosure agreement that was part of her settlement deal. But in a subsequent interview with CNN, he appeared to walk back those comments, saying merely that the woman was "mulling over what she wants to do."

The Post, citing an unnamed person who knows the woman in question, reports that the unnamed accuser may be having second thoughts because of the potential ramifications of her name becoming public. The woman in question "did not create this story," the source told the paper," adding that the women has been "completely swept up in this hurricane."

The paper reports that the woman is a federal employee and that her husband is a registered lobbyist, according to public records.

Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 9:43 a.m.: One of the two women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the late-1990s wants the chance to tell her side of the story.

The Washington Post reports that her lawyer has contacted the National Restaurant Association asking for her to be released from the confidentially agreement she signed as part of her settlement. The lawyer's argument is basically that Cain has gotten to tell his side of the story through his denials, so she should be able to tell hers.

"It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement," the lawyer, Joel Bennett, told the paper. "The National Restaurant Association ought to release them and allow them to respond."

Cain has called the allegations against him "totally baseless and totally false," among other things.

The New York Times, meanwhile, has shed some light on the "five-figure" cash settlement that the second woman received as a result of her sexual harassment claim.

Citing three unnamed sources, the paper reports that the specific severance payment she received was $35,000, a year's salary.

It remains unclear exactly what happened between Cain and the woman. The GOP hopeful has said that he joked with one of the two women about her height, but has not addressed what happened with the second woman (the one who is reported to have received the year's salary.)

Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 4:45 p.m.: Herman Cain says that the reason his story continued to change throughout a series of media appearances Monday was that he was able to "gradually recall" the details of what happened.

"This was 12 years ago and I was trying to recollect this in the middle of an already busy planned day," Cain told CNN sister network HLN in an interview Tuesday. "After 12 hours during the day, I was able to gradually recall more and more details about what happened 12 years ago. … I wasn't given the opportunity to think about it for the day before starting to answer questions."

It should be noted that according to the original Politico story, reporters first contacted his campaign about the allegations of sexual harassment more than a week before they published the story.

The Cain campaign's official response to the story has shifted quite a bit from when it first broke Sunday night. A spokesman initially denied the entire report late Sunday, but the following day Cain and his staff slowly confirmed more and more details of the story, including that Cain was in fact accused of sexual harassment (claims he says were "baseless").

In a number of media appearances Monday, Cain also denied having knowledge of any cash settlements his accusers may have received. "If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much," he said at morning appearance. But before the day was out, he had conceded in a Fox News interview that he did indeed remember at least one of the settlements.

Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 1:45 p.m.: How's this for a silver lining: Herman Cain's campaign says that it brought in more than $250,000 in donations since Politico broke the story of past sexual harassment allegations against the GOP candidate.

Cain's chief of staff, Mark Block, made the claim Tuesday morning during a Washington panel hosted by the National Journal. NJ has the video here. If accurate, the flurry of donations would appear to fuel the perception that for many Cain supporters, the story—and ongoing media coverage of his handling of it—won't change their perceptions of their preferred candidate.

The latest donations also add to what had already been a relatively impressive haul for the former Godfather's Pizza exec in October. Prior to the sexual harassment story breaking, the campaign had already reported that it brought in more than $3 million in the month.

Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 9:47 a.m.: Enter Gloria Cain.

Herman Cain announced Monday that his wife—who has not been seen on the campaign trail with her husband since he announced his presidential bid in May—will sit down with Fox News for an interview sometime soon.

"You will meet my wife publicly, in an exclusive interview that we are currently planning and anticipating," the GOP hopeful said Monday during his first of two interviews on the network addressing the sexual harassment claims that have dominated the political news cycle.

"She will be introduced in terms of some limited exposure. But it's not her style for her to be with me on every campaign stop," Cain added.

No word on the exact timing of the interview, but it will probably come sooner than later as the campaign attempts to turn the page.

Monday, Oct. 31 at 5:33 p.m.: Conservative pundits are taking aim at Politico, the D.C. publication that first broke the story about Herman Cain being accused of sexual harassment by two women he worked with in the late-1990s.

Rush Limbaugh characteristically had some of the harshest words for the publication, calling its story a "racially stereotypical attack" on Cain, and Ann Coulter dubbed it "another high-tech lynching." A third prominent conservative radio personality, Laura Ingraham, went as far as to suggest her listeners "Occupy Politico” by picketing outside the outlet’s offices in protest of the story.

The Washington Examiner reports that the general idea was first floated by one of Ingraham’s listeners, a woman named Natalie who said: "You could rouse everyone up to set up pickets outside the news station, saying, 'We want to hear the sources, come out, speak, you know, be identified,' and literally try to shame these people and stand up for Herman Cain."

The call was named the radio program's "Call of the Day" and Ingraham quickly attempted to coin a name for for pickets. "You’re saying Occupy Politico, in other words,” Ingraham said. "They're occupying Wall Street, we need to occupypolitico.com. I got it."

It appears, however, that Ingraham and any would-be "Occupy Politico" supporters didn’t move nearly quickly enough. The occupypolitico.com address currently redirects to the same Politico story conservatives are angry about.

Despite the conservative fury over the Politico story, its anonymously-sourced details have held up. The Cain campaign's official response to the story has shifted from a complete denial of the facts in the investigative piece (namely: that Cain was accused of sexual harassment by two women who later were given cash payments as part of settlements related to their accusations) to an admission that Cain was in fact accused of sexual harassment (claims he says were "baseless") and that at least one cash settlement did indeed occur, despite Cain's previous assertions that he had no knowledge of it.

"My general counsel said this started out where she and her lawyer were demanding a huge financial settlement," Cain told Fox News in an interview to air later Monday, according to the Washington Examiner. "I don't remember a number…But then he said because there was no basis for this, we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement."

Previously, Cain and his staff had repeatedly denied any knowledge of a settlement.

In the Fox News interview, Cain also went on to offer some specifics of one of the incidents in question: "She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying -- and I was standing close to her -- and I made a gesture saying you are the same height as my wife. And I brought my hand up to my chin saying, ‘My wife comes up to my chin,’” Cain said. "And that was put in there... as something that made her uncomfortable...something that was in the sexual harassment charge."

Monday, Oct. 31 at 2:50 p.m.: Herman Cain is calling the reporting on sexual harassment claims made against him in the 1990s a "witch hunt."

Not to be outdone, Rush Limbaugh went even further Monday, calling the Politico story "an unconscionable, racially stereotypical attack on an independent, self-reliant conservative black" man.

Speaking on his radio show, Limbaugh said the media would be covering the story much differently if it was about President Obama.

"Let's say that some conservative publication ran a story exactly like this: Unnamed sources, 15 years ago, with every detail of Obama sexual harassment," the radio host said, according to a transcript on Real Clear Politics. "What would the Democrat national committee and what would the media be doing? They would be going after the women. They would be targeting these women, and they would name names, and they would destroy them. That is what the Democrats and the media would do. They would set out to find out who these women are that talked to the conservative publication and they would destroy them."

Meanwhile, in a Q-and-A with reporters during an appearance at the National Press Club, Cain had this to say: "This bull’s-eye on my back has gotten bigger. We have no idea the source of this witch hunt, which is really what it is."

Monday, Oct. 31 at 1:46 p.m.: NBC News says it has confirmed that one former National Restaurant Association employee was given a cash settlement from the trade group after she complained about inappropriate sexual conduct by Herman Cain.

The news is the latest development in the story that has dominated Monday's political news cycle a day after Politico reported that two women had accused the GOP contender of sexual harassment during the 1990s and that both were given cash settlements as a result.

The Cain campaign's response to the report has evolved somewhat since the story first broke. A spokesman denied the report itself late Sunday, but the campaign's chief of staff appeared to soften that denial Monday morning, saying only that Cain was not guilty of sexually harassing anyone (but not ruling out the accusations themselves were made) and that he was not aware of any settlement.

Later Monday, in an interview with Fox News, Cain admitted that he was accused of sexual harassment while he was the head of the trade group, but called those claims "totally baseless and totally false." He added that he had no knowledge of the reported settlements.

At separate appearance in Washington, D.C., Cain elaborated on his knowledge, or lack thereof, of any settlement. "When the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and human resources officer to handle it," he said at the National Press Club.

Monday, Oct. 31 at 12:07 p.m. Herman Cain admitted Monday that he had been accused of sexual harassment while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association, but called those claims "totally baseless and totally false."

The GOP contender chose a Fox News interview as the platform for his first comments on the story, which was initially broken by Politico on Sunday.

"I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association," Cain said, adding that: "Never have I committed any sort of sexual harassment."

Cain said he was unaware of any cash settlements that the two women cited in the Politico story may have received. "If the restaurant association did a settlement, I wasn’t even aware of it and I hope it wasn’t for much," he said. "If there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers at the restaurant association."

Politico, citing unnamed sources, reported that two women were given settlements in the "five-figure range" as part of agreements they signed before leaving the trade group. The Cain campaign has repeatedly directed questions about the settlements to the restaurant association, but the group has said that it does not comment on such matters.

Monday, Oct. 31 at 10:06 a.m.: Herman Cain wasn't talking about the subject Monday morning on his way to an economic policy speech in Washington, D.C. His campaign team, meanwhile, was doing all it can to put out the fire -- with somewhat mixed results.

Mark Block, Cain's cigarette-smoking chief of staff, told MSNBC's Daily Rundown that Politico's anonymously sourced article claiming the GOP candidate had sexually harassed a pair of former employees was wrong -- although his comments concerning any cash settlement the women may have received appeared much less definitive.

"Let me tell you that Herman Cain has never sexually harassed anybody, period. End of story," Block said at the start of the interview. "The only people who spoke publicly about the story in that article are the ones that were in the best position to know. They were the chair, vice chair and immediate past chair of the National Restaurant Association during Herman Cain's tenure. Yet all three -- and all three said that he was a man of total integrity. Every negative word and accusation in the article is sourced to a series of unnamed or anonymous sources, and this is questionable at best."

But here's the line that left the door open on the settlement front: "I am not personally aware of any cash settlement relating to sexual harassment charges to Mr. Cain," he said. Block was then asked a number of follow-ups by NBC's Chuck Todd on the topic, but Block directed Todd to pose those questions to the National Restaurant Association.

Sunday, Oct. 30 at 11:50 p.m.: Here’s the top talker of the day/week, if not much longer:

Politico reports that Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment by two female employees who worked with him at the National Restaurant Association in the late-1990s. The women reportedly later took financial payments in the "five-figure range" before parting ways with the Washington trade group, which Cain led as president and CEO from late 1996 to mid-1999.

Cain’s campaign, which Politico says declined on multiple occasions over the past 10 days to directly address the allegations prior to the story’s publication, scrambled Sunday evening to deflect – and then deny – the report, spinning it as a politically-motivated attack aimed at marginalizing the candidate.

"Fearing the message of Herman Cain who is shaking up the political landscape in Washington, Inside the Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain," the campaign said in a statement. "Sadly, we’ve seen this movie played out before – a prominent Conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics."

That statement appeared to avoid directly denying the report, something a number of outlets – including Politico and The Daily Beast – quickly pointed out. But in a follow-up interview with the Associated Press, Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon went one step further, answering "yes" when asked explicitly whether the campaign was denying the report.

Gordon told Politico prior to the publication of its story that Cain was "vaguely familiar" with the allegations and that the trade group’s lawyers had resolved the matter.

The original Politico piece, which relies on unnamed sources, does not identify the two women by name and also does not specifically explain what allegedly Cain did to upset them. According to the report, the women are barred from discussing their departures under their agreements with the restaurant trade group.

Citing unnamed sources, the paper claims that: "the women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable"; one of the women was the subject of what one source described as "an unwanted sexual advance" from Cain; and there were "conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature," as well as "descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable."

Cain’s alleged behavior is said to have occurred at hotels during conferences, at the restaurant association’s offices and at other officially sanctioned association events.

The piece, which runs more than 2,000 words and includes four bylined reporters and another two contributors, goes to great lengths to detail the paper’s attempts to get Cain to directly address whether he ever faced allegations of sexual harassment while at the restaurant association.

Here’s Politico on its final attempt before it published the story Sunday evening:  

The latest statement came from Cain himself. In a tense sidewalk encounter Sunday morning outside the Washington bureau of CBS News — where the Republican contender had just completed an interview on “Face the Nation” — Cain evaded a series of questions about sexual harassment allegations.
 
Cain said he has “had thousands of people working for me” at different businesses over the years and could not comment “until I see some facts or some concrete evidence.” His campaign staff was given the name of one woman who complained last week, and it was repeated to Cain on Sunday. He responded, “I am not going to comment on that.”

He was then asked, “Have you ever been accused, sir, in your life of harassment by a woman?”

He breathed audibly, glared at the reporter and stayed silent for several seconds. After the question was repeated three times, he responded by asking the reporter, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”