Politico Wrong Again? Cain Staffers Dispute Report He’ll End Campaign; UPDATE: ‘Full Speed Ahead’?
Posted on | December 3, 2011 | 32 Comments
Been kind of busy this morning, as readers might imagine, working up an exclusive for The American Spectator:
While some published reports indicate that Herman Cain plans to announce today that he will suspend his Republican presidential campaign, even top staff on the campaign still have no idea what Cain’s decision will be.
“I don’t know anything,” said one staffer who was working in a key early state this morning. The campaign’s field director Jamie Brazil “doesn’t know anything,” the staffer said in a brief phone interview.
Politico cited “multiple sources” for its report that the Atlanta businessman was “leaning toward suspending the campaign,” a report dismissed by the staffer.
“Nobody knows. The honest answer is, nobody f–king knows. I don’t know. I don’t even know if Mark Block knows. My guess is that he probably does not. … Everybody’s just waiting. I think the honest truth is, whoever talked to Politico … is speculative. I mean, everybody’s got their opinion of what he might say or do, but nobody knows for sure.” . . .
It’s kind of funny how much easier it is to get exclusives once you threaten to beat the campaign communications director into a bloody mess. Many “sources close to the campaign” wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. If the Cain campaign continues, J.D. Gordon will almost certainly be fired.
UPDATE: “Everybody hates J.D.,” says a source close to the campaign, after describing how one longtime Cain adviser “laughed for five minutes” when told about my sarcastic remarks about Gordon.
One veteran political correspondent to whom I spoke this morning said that he had long been in direct e-mail communication with top Cain campaign staffers Mark Block and Linda Hansen, and even with the candidate himself. “That all stopped in October,” said the reporter, who never had any dealings with Gordon. “Who is this guy, anyway?”
Meanwhile, another source close to the campaign said, shortly before noon, that “all the internal communications” indicate that Cain’s plan are to go “full speed ahead” with the campaign, and predicted that the candidate will give a “defiant” speech in Atlanta.
RECENTLY:
- Dec. 3: E-Mail to a Cain Campaign Staffer
- Dec. 2: Excrement Impacts Air-Circulation Device UPDATE: Dear Mr. Cain … $7 Million?
- Dec. 1: Cain in N.H.: ‘I’m Not Finished Yet!’
- Nov. 30: CRISIS LOOMS FOR HERMAN CAIN CAMPAIGN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE UPDATE: Cain Tells CNN He’ll Make Decision ‘Within the Next Several Days’

Pingback: HERMAN CAIN ANNOUNCEMENT : The Other McCain