In his statement to the press yesterday, motivational speaker Herman Cain specifically stated the following about Sharon Bialek:
"My first response in my mind and reaction was I don't even know who this woman is. Secondly, I didn't recognize the name at all… I tried to remember if I recognized her, and I didn't."
Bialek claims she confronted him only a month ago, at a Tea Party event. So there is a very stark and simple empirical conflict on a recent event which occurred in public. Either Bialek is lying or Cain is. I see no way that Cain can credibly claim he doesn't remember a woman who confronted him, as she asserts, only a month or so ago. And then you think: well, if it was in public, there must have been other witnesses. And guess what? There were:
Amy Jacobson of AM560 WIND in Chicago, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, corroborates Bialek's version of the October meeting provided at Monday's news conference…
In a telephone interview, Jacobson said Wednesday that Bialek assertively made her way backstage at the October 1 event and encountered Cain. In a telephone interview, Jacobson said Wednesday that Bialek assertively made her way backstage at the October 1 event and encountered Cain. According to Jacobson, Bialek approached Cain and said hello, and he smiled and they briefly embraced, then stood talking together. "It was more like she put her arms around him. She didn't corner him, but I can use the basketball term, boxed him out," Jacobson said of the encounter.
Jacobson said she was unable to hear the conversation, which continued until an event organizer interrupted them to hustle Cain on stage for his speech. "She talked to him for a few minutes, which made me kind of mad because I wanted to talk to him," Jacobson said. While unwilling to characterize the encounter, Jacobson said that Cain looked "stone-faced" after his initial smile. "There was a smile, and then things got tense," Jacobson said of the encounter.
Why would Jacobson make this up? Why would Bialek? I am inclined to back up the Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed:
The bottom line. I believe Amy.
You, Sir, need to get your act together and off the campaign trail.
(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
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