Gingrich: Cain accusations don't mean he's "dead"

UPDATED 2:22 p.m. ET

Newt Gingrich empathized with opponent Herman Cain Tuesday, telling CBS News' Nancy Cordes that allegations of sexual harassment and an extra-marital affair don't necessarily mean the end of Cain's candidacy.

"Remember I was supposed to be dead in June and July. I am not going to go around declaring anybody else dead," Gingrich said in an interview with CBS News in South Carolina.

"I think any candidate has the right to try to recover. They have the right to to try to get back in the game," added Gingrich.

Cain is reassessing whether to stay in the race after a woman claimed she had a 13-year relationship with Cain on Monday.

Cain would not be the first presidential candidate to survive accusations of marital infidelity. President Bill Clinton famously survived accusations of an affair with Gennifer Flowers in his 1992 campaign for the White House. And Clinton was re-elected in 1996 after Paula Jones accused him in 1994 of sexual harassment

Gingrich himself has had to deflect accusations of his own moral shortcomings. His current wife, Callista, is a former congressional staffer with whom he had an affair while still married to his second wife.

"I like Herman Cain personally. We've known each other for many years," Gingrich said. "I think it must be very painful to go through what he's going through right now."

Gingrich spoke with CBS News in key primary state South Carolina, where he is currently leading in polls.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, another Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday that the people around her believe Cain is "done" in the wake of the affair claim.

"Everyone has said to me yesterday - when it came out yesterday, everyone said this is it, he's done," she said on the Scott Hennen radio show. "People just don't see that there is an ability for him to be able to come back after that."

Watch an excerpt of Cordes' interview with Gingrich at left. More from the interview will appear on Tuesday's "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley."

[OrangPuteh]

The Republican Fruitcake just gets nuttier and nuttier!

[michigal1]

I'm appalled that Newt Gingrich is considered the frontrunner over Romney..Newt is nothing but a washington insider elite who knows absolutely nothing about how the rest of America lives or how the economy actually works. Add to that all of the lies he's told throughout the years regarding his positions and the womanizing and all you have left is an empty arrogant shell willing to say and do anything to be SOMEBODY. If Newt is the nominee, expect 4 more years of Obummer. BIG MISTAKE AMERICA.

[Charleston Voice]

Where does the Establishment find these losers?

Newt Gingrich's Skeleton Closet
If character doesn't matter to you, then Gingrich is your man!

http://chasvoice.blogspot.com/2011/11/newt-gingrichs-skeleton-closet.html

[memphispiano]

I have never seen so many hypocritical brainless partisans than on this post. Over and over you act like adultery is a main issue for a presidential candidate when talking about Newt Gringrich...yet you are the same jokers that absolutely trashed Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones when they talked about your man Bill Clinton. You didn't think adultery was important then...so why is it an issue for Newt Gingrich? I think it also is worth noting that Newt Gringrich has always admitted his imperfections while Bill Clinton completely destroyed the lives of those who made claims against him (and they were proved TRUE under oath!).
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, is there anyone out there that will hold the same standards for those they like as those they dislike?

[catmomtx]

Most Democrats didn't think consensual affairs between adults was anyones business until Republicans figured out they could ruin the Democratic President over it. Republicans with their phony outrage decided to hunt for anything in the world that they could use to destroy Bill Clinton and any other Democrat that they wanted to destroy. Their phony outrage seems to be limited to strictly for Democrats. They always use Democrats indiscretions to justify the very same behavior in Republicans, ala Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.

[bajajohn1]

Gingrich, the man with the multiple extra-marital affairs is one to know. He is leading the Republicans in some polls. What happened to all the evangelicals? Seems like the evangelicals have lost their voice.

[kevjustice]

toast?

[noloyalisti]

Gingrinch is all you need to know about the state of the failed and obsolete Republicon Party. An immoral, two faced former politician who resigned his post in disgrace. But compared to the current crop of extremist clowns, he is now OK. You can't make up this idiocy.

[noloyalisti]

This is just another chapter in the cheap dime store fiction of the Republicon Party of the Top 1%. The GOP is almost dead and will soon be a memory on the scrap heap of history. They have not done even one thing good for America since before Reagan.

[Jesus_Loves_Children]

Sexual Conduct and Newt

"Newt Gingrich empathized with opponent Herman Cain Tuesday, telling CBS News' Nancy Cordes that allegations of sexual harassment and an extra-marital affair don't necessarily mean the end of Cain's candidacy."

When they are heartbreakingly true it does!

P.S. You are next *******...

[OrangPuteh]

I'll bet Jesus_Loves_Children. So many are molested in his name.

[RandallRichard]

Gingrich should know, he has come back from the dead more often than Jason Voorhees.