CAMPAIGN 2012

Santorum: Cain Charges ‘Very Troubling’

Ex-senator also laments child-abuse scandal engulfing Penn State's football program.

Updated: November 8, 2011 | 4:53 p.m.
November 8, 2011 | 4:43 p.m.

Rick Santorum on Tuesday joined the growing chorus of GOP presidential candidates expressing concern about the sexual-harassment allegations against rival Herman Cain, calling them “very troubling” and declining to offer an opinion on their veracity.

“I think that is a decision the public has to make,” Santorum said in an interview with ABC and Yahoo. He was one of several presidential candidates who broke their silence on the story one day after the emergence of Cain's first accuser who was willing to be publicly identified.

Santorum, a former House member and senator from Pennsylvania, also lamented the child sex abuse scandal enveloping the football program at Penn State University, his alma mater.

“I am devastated,” Santorum said of the charges that university officials ignored child sex abuse by a former assistant football coach. “This looks horrible for the university and the football program,” added the ex-senator, who has made family values and his Catholic faith a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. “I think it is very serious and that needs to be taken care of.”

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