Sharon Bialek told reporters Monday in New York that she met with Cain to ask about getting her old job back at the National Restaurant Association when the incident happened in Washington. At the time, Cain was chief of a restaurant trade group.
Bialek says that, when she asked Cain what he was doing, Cain said, “You want a job, right?“
“Come clean,” Bialek challenged Cain, demanding he confess to any inappropriate behavior with her or other women.
Cain’s campaign instantly issued a denial. “All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are false,” it said.
Bialek appeared with her attorney, Gloria Allred, at a news conference in New York.
Cain, one of the Republican presidential front-runners, had downplayed previous allegations of sexual harassment as anonymous attacks. He now has a woman who has come forward to directly accuse him of improper behavior.
At least three other women have accused him of sexual harassment from his time as the restaurant industry’s top lobbyist in the mid-1990s. Cain, 65, insists the claims are baseless and that he was wrongfully accused.
Cain, a former pizza company executive with no experience in political office, has been leading many opinion polls in the race to become the Republican presidential nominee to face Democratic President Barack Obama in next year’s election.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed the percentage of Republicans who viewed Cain favorably dropped 9 percentage points, to 57 percent from 66 percent a week ago.
