Cain refuses to discuss sexual harassment report

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Herman Cain refused to directly address a media report saying he had been accused of sexually suggestive behaviour towards at least two female employees while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

Cain said: “I do have a sense of humour and some people have a problem with that.”

The former businessman said he would discuss the allegations later: “I will take all your arrows.”

His campaign is in full-scale damage control in the wake of a Politico report on Sunday that suggested Cain had been accused of sexual harassment towards two female employees.

The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.

The report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution.

Cain — a self-styled outsider relatively new to the national stage — is facing more scrutiny after a burst of momentum in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.