MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Herman Cain and his campaign manager, Mark Block, are sending different messages about the embattled Republican presidential candidate’s future.
In remarks to reporters over the past two days, Cain gave the impression that the future of his campaign is still in doubt, pending an in-person discussion with his wife when he arrives home on Friday.
“It’s a little bit of both,” Cain said on Thursday, when asked if the self-described “reassessment” of his campaign was an evaluation of strategy or whether to stay in the race. He was leaving an editorial board meeting with the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he reportedly said that he provided a friend, Ginger White, with financial assistance without his wife’s knowledge. White has alleged the two had a 13-year affair.
But not long after Cain left the editorial board meeting, his Iowa communications director, Lisa Lockwood, e-mailed reporters to tell them that Block had met with the four-person Iowa staff to tell them the campaign was “full steam ahead.”
“Herman Cain is in it to win it. He always has been and that has not changed,” Lockwood wrote in the e-mail.
Cain told reporters on Thursday that he will be considering the reaction of his family, his supporters, and his donors, as well as his overall campaign strategy. In a press conference the night before, he said he had spoken to his wife over the phone, but not in person, about the most recent round of allegations. He also admitted that his fundraising, while back on the upswing, was still below the level it was before various charges of sexual harassment were raised against him.
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