HILLSDALE, Mich.—from www.chicagotribune.com – Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain is slated to speak tonight at Hillsdale College in Michigan, about 85 miles southwest of Detroit, one day after his campaign was dealing with yet another scandal tied to alleged inappropriate behavior.
An Atlanta woman who says she carried on a 13-year affair with Cain said she came forward because she believed the story eventually would surface.
“I’m not proud,” Ginger White [pictured] told Atlanta’s WAGA-TV in a report that aired Monday evening.
“I didn’t want to come out with this. I did not.”
Cain preemptively addressed White’s allegations in a CNN interview before the WAGA report aired. Without naming White, he denied they had an affair but admitted to a friendship.
It was more than that, White told reporter Dale Russell.
She said the two met in the late 1990s, while Cain was on a business trip for the National Restaurant Assn. She ended up in his hotel room. From there, she said, he began flying her around the country to meet him at speaking engagements.
They often stayed at a hotel in Atlanta. He autographed two of his books for her, she said.
White said the physical relationship ended about eight months ago, according to the report, right before Cain announced he was running for president.
As for proof of the relationship, White handed over her cellphone, which contained dozens of calls and texts from a number she said was Cain’s private cellphone. The last one had been as recent as September.
When Russell, the WAGA reporter, texted the number, Cain called back. He said he knew White but was only helping her financially. Cain has been married to his wife, Gloria, for 43 years.
White told the station she came forward because she had seen Cain disparage other women who have accused Cain of sexual harassment while he was at the restaurant group.
“It bothered me that they were being demonized, sort of, they were treated as if they were automatically lying, and the burden of proof was on them,” White told the station.
“I felt bad for them.”
The Cain campaign went after one accuser, Sharon Bialek, detailing a history that included lawsuits and a bankruptcy filing. White told the station that she expected the same thing to happen to her.
The report noted that White filed for bankruptcy 23 years ago and has been evicted from several residences. She filed a sexual harassment suit in 2001, the station said, which was settled.
She described herself as an unemployed single mom trying to make ends meet.
“I don’t think that makes me out to be a bad person,” she told the station.
“It makes me out to be one of the millions of people right now trying to keep a roof over their head.”