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Herman Cain 'Reassessing' Campaign

(New material based on NPR reporting added to the top of this post at 1:55 p.m. ET.)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is reassessing "where we stand and the road ahead," his campaign spokesman says in an email sent to NPR this afternoon.

Earlier today, Cain's campaign director in Iowa told The Associated Press and confirmed to NPR that the candidate was assessing the campaign's financial viability but still plans to move ahead at this time.

That Iowa campaign aide, Steve Grubbs, reports Cain said to senior staff today during a conference call that new allegations from a woman who claims to have had a long affair with him have taken an emotional toll on his family. Cain also said the allegations — which he denies — have damaged his fundraising, Grubbs says.

But, Grubbs added during a phone conversation with NPR's Tamara Keith, "as far as I heard, we're moving ahead" with the campaign — even though Grubbs said Cain also spoke of "reassessing" the campaign over the next few days.

The campaign spokesman, J.D. Gordon, says in the email to Tamara that the reassessment is "similar to other times in the campaign's history."

"We're looking forward to getting back on message tonight with the Foreign Policy and National Security speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan," Gordon added.

Earlier, National Review's The Corner blog cast a slightly different take on the news. It wrote that "in a conference call this morning, Herman Cain told his senior staff that he is 'reassessing' whether to remain in the race. He told them he will make his final decision 'over the next several days.' "

Cain's campaign, as we've reported, had earlier been rocked by allegations that he sexually harassed women while he was at the helm of the National Restaurant Association. He denies those allegations as well.

It's All Politics follows the campaign news.

Update at 12:17 p.m. ET. More From The AP — 'Some Uncertainty' From Cain:

"One participant on the call, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the conversation, said that as part of that assessment, Cain's campaign is examining the impact of the newest allegations," the AP now adds. "This person described the tone as positive but also said there was some uncertainty coming from Cain."

And Politico reports that it's been told Cain has also been calling individual supporters "to ask for their advice on how to proceed in the presidential race."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

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