Cain denies sex-abuse claims

Herman Cain, a surprise leader in the Republican race for the presidency, acknowledged Monday that he had been accused of sexual harassment while chief of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, but he denied wrongdoing in an episode that has consumed his rising candidacy.

Facing the biggest test of his campaign just as it was being taken seriously by a political world that had not seen him coming, Cain spent the day in a whirlwind of television interviews and media briefings that were originally supposed to highlight his economic plans, but became an exercise in damage control.

He maintained that he had been falsely accused and that internal investigations at the association had corroborated that. But his explanations evolved during a day in which conservative supporters rallied against what they called an unfair attack from the media, while others expressed fresh doubts about a campaign that has yet to prove it has the mettle to survive a national nominating battle.

Cain's shifting explanations and the gaps in the story made it hard to determine the impact of the revelations on his long-term political prospects in states like Iowa, whose crucial caucuses are just two months away.

In the early afternoon, Cain told a gathering of reporters in Washington that "I am unaware of any settlement" related to harassment accusations. But in an interview with Greta Van Susteren of the Fox News Channel shown Monday night, he acknowledged that, in at least one case, "there was some sort of settlement or termination," which he said had been worth "maybe three months' salary."

The allegations against Cain were first reported Sunday by Politico, which detailed separate incidents between Cain and two women on the association staff that included "conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature" - and led to paid separation packages.

Cain described one of the incidents in interviews with Fox and PBS, telling PBS anchor Judy Woodruff: "I referenced this lady's height, and I was standing near her, and I did this saying, 'You're the same height of my wife,' because my wife is 5 feet tall, and she comes up to my chin." He said, "So obviously she thought that that was too close for comfort."