Perry aide: I didn't leak the Cain story
(CNN) – Curt Anderson, a newly hired consultant with Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, denied any involvement in the leaking of allegations that rival candidate Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s.
"I didn't know anything about this, so it's hard to leak something you don't know anything about," Anderson said Thursday on CNN's "American Morning." "I didn't know anything about this, I didn't leak it."
Anderson previously worked on Cain's unsuccessful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign in Georgia and the Cain campaign blamed him Wednesday for leaking the story.
Cain, a former pizza executive, told Forbes he alerted Anderson to one of the alleged incidents during that Senate campaign, a claim Anderson denies.
"Those charges were baseless, but I thought he needed to know about them," Cain said. "I don't recall anyone else being in the room when I told him."
But Anderson said Cain's presidential campaign is "floundering," and placing blame on him is a "diversionary strategy."
"They're grasping at straws," Anderson told CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger. "They figured it's a good diversionary strategy to take him out of the limelight to say someone else did it."
"I'm disappointed he tried to use me as a pawn to try to get out of this mess he's in, but I'm not going to use that to discolor everything I know about the guy," Anderson added.
The Perry campaign also claimed it did not know about the allegations until POLITICO first published the story Sunday.
"No one at our campaign was involved in this story in any way," Perry campaign communications director Ray Sullivan said. "Any claim to the contrary is patently false."
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If Democrats were behind the leak, it would have been dirt on Romney-not Cain
ROTFLMAO! I'm loving this! These clowns are eating each other alive! They tried to blame the lefties when all we want is for this Cain buffoon to run. Romney will be the nominee, even if the majority of republicans don't want him.
But...but...but...Ann Coulter said the Cain story came from the left...Ann wouldn't make things up, would she?!
These Republicans are showing that not ONE is fit for office. Scandals, lies, no plans to get us out of the Recession that they created...AND now the Republican congress spends a whole session debating "In God We Trust" instead of taking up Obama's jobs bill. The conservatives have not proposed even ONE jobs bill since they took over last year. Americans are having severe "buyer's remorse" at this point! Time to get rid of these do-nothings.
Heck...looks like Cain is going to have to switch sides and become a Democrat! With these new credentials, he'll be a shoe-in!
If this gets traced back to the Perry campaign then you can stick a fork in his campaign, he's done. But I definitely wouldn't discount the Obama campaign. They have been targeting everyone in sight because they have nothing but a record of failure to run on.
BTW, nuisance sexual harrassment lawsuits are a dime a dozen and settled to keep from going bankrupt paying lawyers $500/hr.
This is only going to rally people to Herman Cain's defense. People truly despise false accusations and dirty tricks.
It all started with Cain leaking.
Doesn't matter, he wasn't gonna be president anyway.
Who leaked the story is a side issue. The real stories are: (1) are the allegations true?; and (2) Mr. Cain is handling this entire issue in a very un-forthright and an un-presidential manner.
What difference does it make who leaked the story? Is this not this something voters should be made aware of and something that Cain should address?
Mr. Cain has had plently of time by now to simply say "Yes, I really screwed up 15 years ago." An attitude such as that could have worked to his benefit in my book. But instead of accepting responsiblity he has: denied it happened (now shown to be false), denied he knew about any settlement (now shown to be false), denied the charge had any merit (apparently false), blamed the liberal media establishment, and now blamed a Perry aide. And to top it off he can not seem to accept wise counsel or surround himself with people who know better. These are not the behaviors of a president of the USA. Do anyone really believe that running a pizza restaurant qualifies a person to be President?
One heck of the headings in American political life at the pre-presidential level:
Perry's aid: "I didn't leak..."
Perry: "I wasn't drunk".
Cain: "I gradually recall..." (can anyone possibly forget a personal accusation that ended up with a lawsuit and a settlement?)
The list is endless. Just reading those headings would make for a whole hour of any comedy show.
Fellow Americans, can you see at least one star from the bottom of the deep dry well we are currently dwelling in?
Karl Rove probably leaked it and is loving all the negative attention Parry is getting about it. It's all part of Rove's master plan to eliminate all candidates except Romney. And the sooner the better, so he (Rove) can get on with trying to convince voters that Romney is not a flip-flopping, American-job-eliminating, "real Christian" who's not going to do whatever Rove and the corporate masters tell him to do.
Can you believe the antics of any of these Republicans who are running for President of the United States? Maybe, if the Republicans can find out where Sara is hiding, they will be able to get her to ride in on her white horse and save them. LOL
It's known all over Texas that Perry is the most devious and vile campaigner since Bush/Rove. He pulls the dirtiest tricks on everyone. That's just how it is.
Who cares who "leaked" the story. I want to know what happened since now a third woman has come forward as well as a witness to the whole deal. What happened? And why is that Cain, who knew this story 10 days ago was so ill prepared for it? This is a preview pane of what his White House will be like - chaotic and whiney.
If Cain had told the truth from the gitgo, this would be a non issue.
For all of you in a hurry to get to Washington next year remember one thing. Campaigning about things that actually impact the American public and not focusing time and energy on crap like this will make us a stronger nation.
I heard someone on the telephone talking to Chris Matthews (I think) last night, from this restaurant association, who was witness to an incident. He said it was out there because of the amount of people who were first-hand witnesses, and it made those witnesses uncomfortable. Why is it when a Republican gets called out for doing something he or she shouldn't have that it's always someone else's fault? My kids behaved like that when they were too young to know better. Is that what we're seeing here? An emotional maturity level that barely reaches past the age of 3-4? Can someone answer this for me. It's really quite disturbing.
Mr. Cain, Would you do me? Obama can't even stand up to salute me.
Even a Republican would be a fool to vote Republican in this election. Spank them good and maybe they'll get better candidates next time. This bunch is dangerously stupid and casual.
Herman Cain needs to put on his big boy pants and take responsibility for his past actions. No one cares who leaked what to who ... we do care about Cain's past and current actions. He needs to take ownership of his role and quit trying to shift the blame to anyone else.
What did cain do? Were the settlement made because he was found guilty or so as to stop the negative publicity that we are now having. An innocent act on the part of a male in a powerful position towards a female may be construed as sexual harassment by that female (sometime for monetary profit). The negative publicity and economic impact of these cases, even if the male involved was found to be innocent of the charges, caused some companies to settle for this might be seen as the best option. The victims of sexual harassment must be fully supported but let's not forget that there are persons who are calculating in playing the system.
This is a preview pane of what his White House will be like – chaotic and whiney.
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Like it isn't NOW??!!
Cain an identical Obama always putting the blame on someone else. In Obama's case someone else had to have done it for he dang sure is doing nothing accordinbg to the Constitution. But by dictator executive order he is killing America.