WASHINGTON — Herman Cain on Monday described a Politico report that he sexually harassed employees while he was chairman of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) in the 1990s as “baseless.”
“I have never sexually harassed anyone,” the GOP presidential candidate said during an appearance on FOX News Channel’s “Happening Now.”
“Yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association,” Cain said, but noted, “It turned out after the investigation to be baseless. It is totally baseless and totally false. Never have I committed any sort of sexual harassment.”
Politico reported Sunday that at least two former female staff members at the NRA complained to colleagues about “sexually suggestive behavior” by Cain and received five-figure separation packages from the association, complete with non-disclosure agreements.
The complaints against Cain, Politico reported, included allegations of “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature, taking place at hotels during conferences, at other officially sanctioned restaurant association events and at the association’s offices.”
“Obviously some people are going to be turned off by this cloud that someone wanted to put over my campaign,” Cain said Monday, repeating, “these are false accusations.”
Cain, president and chief executive of the NRA between 1996 and 1999, did not deny the story when first questioned point blank by Politico reporter Jonathan Martin on Sunday.
“I am not going to talk about that,” he said, before strangely turning the tables on Martin, asking the reporter if he had himself ever been accused of sexual harassment.
On FOX Monday, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO said he was unaware of any settlement with the former employees.
“If the restaurant association did a settlement I am not — I was not even aware of it, and I hope it wasn’t for much because nothing happened,” he said. “So if there was a settlement it was handled by some of the other officers that worked for me at the association.”
The NRA released a statement prior to the interview saying it does not “comment on personnel issues relating to current or former employees.”
The allegations come as Cain remains at the top of the Republican 2012 field with several recent national surveys showing him in the lead, ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
A Des Moines Register poll released Saturday also showed Cain leading in the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
In an appearance at DC’s National Press Club later Monday, Cain joked, “As a result of today’s big news story, I really know what it feels like to be number one.”
Asked whether he believed one of his Republican rivals was responsible for the story, Cain said, “I told you, this bull’s-eye on my back has gotten bigger. I have no idea — we have no idea the source of this witch hunt.”