ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman claims she had a 13-year affair with Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.
Cain, who has seen his popularity fade since reports surfaced one month ago of sexual harassment allegations, preemptively denied the claims hours before the woman’s interview with the local television station WAGA-TV reported Monday.
In an apparent effort to get ahead of the story, Cain appeared on CNN before the story broke to deny the woman’s claims. He described the woman as “someone who I know, who is an acquaintance, who I thought was a friend.”
In the interview with WAGA-TV, Ginger White said she met Cain in the late 1990s at an event he attended in his former role as president of the National Restaurant Association (NRA).
“It was pretty simple,” White told the station. “It wasn’t complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”
She said the physical relationship ended about eight months ago — before Cain announced he was running for president — but said her friendship with the candidate had continued. “I think it is safe to say that after this interview, that will be the end of it,” she added.
As evidence, White presented cell phone bills with 61 text messages and phone calls over a four-month period from a phone number she said belongs to Cain’s private cell phone. The last calls and texts occurred in September.
The local station said it sent a text message to the number and received a return phone call from Cain. He told the station that he “knew Ginger White” but said her claims of an affair were just “more false allegations.” He said he had been “trying to help her financially.”
The station said White came forward after a “tipster” called WAGA-TV and other media outlets to reveal the affair.
White said she also decided to tell her story because she was upset that the women who accused Cain of sexual harassment had been “demonized.”
White said she expected her own background to be scrutinized. According to WAGA-TV, White filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against an employer in 2001.
A judge also ruled against White in a libel lawsuit filed by a former business partner. White’s lawyer confirmed that a judge ruled against White in that instance because White had failed to respond to the lawsuit.
But White insisted that her claims against Cain were accurate, saying it would make “no sense for me to come out with these allegations against Herman if it absolutely wasn’t true.”
Cain’s attorney, Lin Wood, did not deny the allegations — as Cain did on CNN — but said in a statement to WAGA-TV that “private, alleged consensual conduct between adults” is not “not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public.”
The new allegations are only the latest setback for Cain, who was publicly accused last month of sexual harassment during his tenure as president of the NRA in the 1990s.
Although the latest report involves an alleged consensual relationship, the claims may further weaken his support among conservative Republicans concerned about social issues, including the institution of marriage.
Cain has been married for 43 years. His wife, Gloria, rarely appears on the campaign trail but agreed to her first televised interview after the sexual harassment allegations broke.
“I seriously, in my soul, don’t think he’s that type of person,” she said of the charges during the interview on FOX News Channel’s “On The Record with Greta Van Susteren.”
She acknowledged, however, that their marriage was not perfect.
“There have been troubles … [but] we have loved each other for 43 years,” she said.