Over the weekend, Cain refused to answer reporters' questions about the accusations, saying only: "End of story". Now his campaign is fast approaching the dead zone. To add to Cain's problems, Joel Bennett, a Washington-based lawyer representing one of the three women who came forward earlier, said his client had described conduct by Cain that was similar to the description given by Bialek.
The big question is whether the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza will limp on to the first of the Republican nominating contests, the Iowa caucus, on 3 January, or pull out before then.
Throughout most of last week, Cain successfully defied traditional campaign wisdom that the allegations of sexual harassment would sink his chances of the Republican presidential nomination. The trend is likely to accelerate after voters see the footage of Bialek giving her graphic account of the alleged sexual advance. Bialek recounted how she had met Cain in over five days of the National Restaurant Association's annual convention in Chicago.
She was then working for the NRA's educational foundation while he was head of the entire organisation. Seated together at lunch, she said she was inspired by him and said to him, paradoxical as it now sounds: "When are you running for president? A month after they met, Bialek was dismissed from the NRA and got back in touch with him to ask for advice on finding a new job. She travelled to Washington in July to have coffee with him.
When she got there she found, to her surprise, that the room her boyfriend, a paediatrician, had booked for her at the Capitol Hilton hotel had been turned into a palatial suite. A few months later, when Bialek was let go from her job with the Education Foundation of the restaurant association, Zuckerman suggested she go see Cain. In a news conference last week, with Allred at her side, Bialek alleged that Cain stopped the car after dinner, forced his hand up her skirt and tried to pull her head to his crotch.
Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner. She said she handled it and did not want to discuss it further. I respected her. The pair stopped dating a few months later, said Zuckerman, but have remained friends and speak every few months.
When news broke at the end of October that Cain had been the subject of at least two sexual harassment complaints that had been settled for five-figure amounts, Zuckerman asked Bialek if she was one of those accusers. I suggested that if she was going to speak out she should contact Gloria Allred. Zuckerman, mindful of the intense scrutiny in a situation like this, preemptively divulged his financial history. I'm a tough girl. Tuesday morning, the blitz continued. She like millions of Americans has financial difficulty.
She's up front about that. Later, Allred denied political motivations, saying though she's given money to President Obama, she also represented one of the women Democratic Rep. Anthony Wiener sexted with before he resigned. And if Cain did "come clean," could Bialek vote for him? I hope that he does and I'd have to think about that one.
Cain is scheduled to counter Bialek's media blitz with a press conference of his own Tuesday afternoon. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic.
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