(Jonathan Ernst, Larry Downing, Downing, Jason Reed, Reed / Reuters)
Join us at 5 PM ET for Herman Cain's latest attempt to dispel the sexual harassment allegations against him. It's been billed as a press conference, but with Cain you never know what you'll get. Whatever happens, we'll be blogging it live right here, so get out the popcorn and join the conversation.
1:57 PM PT: Here's a live video feed:
1:59 PM PT: A second accuser has now gone public, Karen Kraushaar:
Ms. Kraushaar, a spokeswoman at the Treasury Department in Washington D.C., said in an interview with The New York Times that she was upset that her name had leaked into some press reports. But she said that she decided to speak out now that her identity is known.
“When you are being sexually harassed in the workplace, you are extremely vulnerable,” she said. “You do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job some place safe and that is what I thought I had achieved when I left.”
How long will it take before Herman Cain's campaign tries to destroy her like they've been trying to destroy Sharon Bialek?
2:03 PM PT: All three cable channels are glued to this, currently showing an empty podium in Scottsdale, Arizona. A guy came out signaling what appeared to be a 2 minute warning just a few minutes ago. Cain will be standing in front of four flags and behind a semi-transparent podium.
2:06 PM PT: Cain's press conference is opening up with a statement from one of his lawyers. His lawyer is blasting Cain's accusers and praising Cain, but let me just say: beginning a press conference in which you are protesting your innocence with a lawyer is one hell of a bad idea.
2:09 PM PT: Cain's lawyer is tearing into Sharon Bialek, saying her memory may have faded, but I still haven't heard him say there was absolutely no basis to her claims. In fact, saying that she's coming forward 14 years later raises a question: "14 years after what?"
2:09 PM PT: Again, if nothing happened, and Bialek totally made this up, what does it matter that "it" happened 14 years ago. If nothing happened, how could her memory have faded?
2:13 PM PT: Herman Cain takes the podium. "I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period." Cain says he saw Allred and Bialek "for the very first time" yesterday. "I don't even know who this woman is," he says. "I didn't recognize the name at all," he says.
2:14 PM PT: Cain issues a blanket denial on the allegations: "They simply didn't happen." Now he's descending into rhetoric about "A businessman by the name of Herman Cain" who "stepped forward" to save America.
2:15 PM PT: Markos on Twitter:
RT @KeithOlbermann: The #HermanCain lawyer dude represented JonBenet Ramsey's parents, Richard Jewell, Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer, et al.
2:16 PM PT: Cain is blathering on about decency and honesty and a bunch of other rhetoric. The question I have though is that Sharon Bialek said she and Herman Cain had a discussion in Chicago at a tea party convention. There must be video of that. And the fact that they met was corroborated by a radio host earlier today.
2:17 PM PT: Herman Cain calls Sharon Bialek "a troubled woman" and accuses Democrats of pushing her forward.
2:18 PM PT: Cain says his wife doesn't the harassment allegations sound like him. Not sure why he's saying that. By speaking on her behalf, it just raises the question of what she really believes.