Kashfa za ngono zamuandama mpinzani mtarajiwa wa Obama

Herman Cain

Herman Cain said he has no memory of a Chicago woman who accused him of groping her 14 years ago, while a second woman stepped forward publicly Tuesday to put her name on allegations of sexual harassment that she had lodged in 1999.

Mr. Cain, a Republican presidential candidate, said at a press conference carried live on national TV that he didn't recognize the Chicago woman, 50-year-old Sharon Bialek, who had alleged Monday that he made an unwanted sexual advance when she sought him out for help finding a job in 1997.

"I tried to remember if I recognized her, and I didn't. I tried to remember if I recognized her name, and I didn't," he said. He also said, "I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period."

GOP officials and conservative leaders urge Herman Cain to directly address allegations of sexual improprieties. Neil King has the latest on The News Hub.

Ms. Bialek is one of four women to have accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment during the late 1990s and the first to do so publicly.

A second woman, a Treasury Department employee named Karen Kraushaar, decided to come forward Tuesday to detail her claims that Mr. Cain sexually harassed her when she worked at the National Restaurant Association, where Mr. Cain was president.

In an email exchange with the Journal, Ms. Kraushaar said that she wanted to bring together the women who have alleged inappropriate behavior by Mr. Cain for a joint press conference. She did not say when that might occur.

In a recent conversation, Ms. Kraushaar, 55, said that Mr. Cain made unwanted advances to her shortly after she took a job at the restaurant trade group in 1999. She said she rebuffed him, but that his advances continued for several months.

She filed a complaint and later left her job with what people knowledgeable about the situation described as a $45,000 payment from the trade group.

The restaurant association has acknowledged there was "an agreement to resolve the matter, without any admission of liability.''

Speaking to reporters outside Phoenix, Mr. Cain said he recognized Ms. Kraushaar's name but described their interaction far differently, saying all he could remember of her complaint was that he had made a gesture that she was the same height as his wife. He said her complaint had been investigated and found to be "baseless."

Herman Cain held a press conference in which he denied allegations of sexual misconduct and said he would not let the accusations derail his campaign.

At the press conference, aimed at ending a tumultuous period that has distracted his presidential campaign, a defiant but measured Mr. Cain said there was no way the stream of accusations of sexual assault would sway him from his presidential campaign.

Despite his travails, the former corporate executive continues to run neck-and-neck with Mitt Romney in polls of likely Republican voters.

"As far as these accusations causing me to back off or maybe withdraw from this primary presidential race—ain't going to happen," Mr. Cain said. "Because I am doing this for the American people and the children and grandchildren."

Ms. Bialek had worked for a foundation run by the National Restaurant Association at the time Mr. Cain was its president.

Weeks after she lost her job there 14 years ago, she said, Mr. Cain put his hand up her skirt and pushed her head toward his crotch in a car after she asked him for help in finding a job.

Ms. Bialek said she is a Republican. But referring to her, Mr. Cain blamed what he called "the Democrat machine" for bringing forth "a troubled woman to make accusations."

Earlier Tuesday, the Cain campaign sent an email to reporters that laid out lawsuits and bankruptcies involving Ms. Bialek over the last two decades or so.

"As Ms. Sharon Bialek has placed herself in the public spotlight through making patently false allegations against Herman Cain, it is only fair to compare her track record alongside Mr. Cain's," the email said.

The campaign argued in the email that Mr. Bialek's "long and troubled history" may "help explain why she has come forward" with the accusations.

Ms. Bialek did not reply to interview requests. In several TV appearances Tuesday, Ms. Bialek said she decided to speak not for financial gain but to aid other women who have accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment in the past.

"I have had bankruptcy," she said on CNN, saying she faced financial problems after the death of her mother and during a custody battle over her son. "Like millions of other people out there you know, I'm struggling," she said.

Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway said that no matter how the scandal turns out, Mr. Cain is likely to see an erosion of GOP support. "Cain now risks being looked at as just another typical Washington politician . . . and that is a toxic mix for someone who has built his entire candidacy on the image of being the competent, authentic outsider," she said.

For now, many Cain backers say they will continue to support the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza.

"Anyone can say anything about anyone," said Rita McCrerey of San Diego, who is 63 years old and retired. "Until things are proven, to me it's gossip.

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Clyde Eisenbeis, a 62-year-old tea party supporter from Marshalltown, Iowa, said he thought the allegations were baseless.

"You could have 100 women come forward," Mr. Eisenbeis said. "Unless you have evidence like video, I don't believe it."

But for Carl Nielsen, a registered Republican from Woodstock, Conn., said the Bialek accusations pushed him over the edge.

"One or two anonymous? I'd say maybe it's something that could have been politically motivated," Mr. Nielsen said. "But when you get three and four . . . that's a full house."

"It's hard to believe" they're making it up, he said.