Political Theater

An hour after Herman Cain announced on live television that he expected to soon face another accusation of infidelity, Atlanta’s FOX 5 news aired a segment with a local woman named Ginger White who claimed to have engaged in a thirteen-year affair with the Republican presidential candidate.

FOX 5 contacted White after receiving a phone tip from someone who knew her, and White — who says she had already been contacted by several other news outlets that had been similarly tipped off — agreed to a taped interview.

“I wanted to give my side, before it was thrown out there and made out to be something filthy,” she told reporter Dale Russell. “Some people will look at this and say that is exactly what it is. I’m sorry for that.”

White says she met Cain and their affair began in Kentucky in the late 1990s, when they shared drinks after he gave a presentation she attended. The alleged relationship continued until shortly before he entered the race for president last spring.

“I was aware that he was married,” White told FOX 5. “And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation — relationship.”

When FOX 5 texted a number that appeared on White’s phone bill 61 times over four months — a number that White said belonged to Cain — Cain called back and denounced the claim as “more false allegations.” The extent of their relationship, he said, was that he was “trying to help her financially.”

On “The Situation Room” earlier in the afternoon, Cain told Wolf Blitzer he wasn’t sure if the latest accusations would lead him to abandon his bid for the White House. “I would make that decision depending on the circumstances and how it is impacting my wife and my family,” he said.

The Cain campaign released a statement shortly after the broadcast claiming White’s allegation was the latest attempt by Cain’s critics to “derail the Cain Train with more accusations of past events that never happened.”