Herman Cain and Sexual Harassment Accusations

Introduction

Herman Cain is member of the Republican party running for President of the United States. He has been accused of sexual harassment by women that he has known throughout his career. This video posted on youtube.com is Cain’s press conference with regard to these allegations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyvKAZbMsE

This argument begins at approximately 10:45.

Paraphrase

Herman Cain says, “The fact is these allegations are false”, but provides no evidence to support that. His argument is based on there being a democrat machine in America backing a troubled woman. The second argument presented is that his wife said it doesn’t sound like anything he would ever do.

Cain: The fact is these allegations are false and now the democrat machine in America has brought forth a troubled woman to make false accusations.

Cain: I have been married for 43 years, to my wife, Gloria. After watching that press conference yesterday, I called her and I said, sweetheart, did you see it? She said, yes. I said, what did you think? And my wife said, and this is a direct quote, “I have known you for 46 years, because we were engaged for 2 years. That doesn’t even sound like anything that you would ever do to anyone.

P_1: There is a democrat machine in America.

P_2: A troubled woman is making false accusations.

P_3: I have been married to my wife for 43 years. My wife says that this doesn’t sound like anything I would do to anyone.

C: The allegations against Herman Cain are false.

Analysis

In this argument, Herman Cain provides reasons for these allegations being false by stating that there is a Democrat machine in America that is prompting women to come forward with false allegations and the fact that his wife says he did not do this. When he refers to Sharon Bialek as a woman being backed by the democrat machine, he commits an argumentum ad Hominem or argument against the person. Cain goes on to present his wife’s statements as reasons that he could not have committed sexual harassment based on the fact that they have been together for 46 years and married for 43 years. This actually commits two fallacies simultaneously. The first is an appeal to unqualified authority based on the fact that she can only know how he behaves when he is with her or people she knows. She does not qualify as an expert on his behavior independent of her and therefore is unqualified. This can also be considered a hasty generalization for the same reason. The fact that he has never committed the act of sexually harassing someone in her presence does not then apply to every aspect of his life. Also, the fact that she has been with him for only a portion of his life reinforces the hasty generalization in that he is applying the fact that she has known him for 46 years and then applying it to all aspects of his entire life. This argument is DOA because Cain does not present any facts as to why he could not be possible of sexual harassment.