Believing himself to be a victim of a smear campaign, presidential candidate Herman Cain suddenly recalled the financial settlement he was a part of years before. In the late 1990's, as the head of the National Restaurant Association, Cain battled two sexual harassment claims involving two different women, although he later remembered the first accusation and denies remembering the second accusation altogether (Oliphant).
"My general counsel said this started out where (an accuser) and her lawyer were demanding a huge financial settlement. I don't remember a number. But then he said because there was no basis for this, we ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement," Cain told Fox News (Grinberg).
Cain told Politico that he did not recall such an instance, but when pressed later by radio host, Laura Ingraham, Cain suddenly remembered the instance. "The word settlement suggested to me some sort of legal settlement," he explained about the mix-up, "and later as I thought about it and thought about it and I did recall an agreement with the lady that left who made the false accusation. So that's when I said yes, there was an agreement." Ingraham and Robin Meade from CNN were reluctant to let it go at that, demanding to know why Cain was just now remembering these events when he was initially asked days before (Oliphant). .
Cain replied to HLN stating, "I just started to remember more. In 12 years, a lot of stuff can go through your head" (Oliphant). .
He then accused his outers of staging a "smear campaign" against him; "When they cannot kill my ideals like .