Herman Cain: Jon Stewart Attacked Me ‘Because I’m Black’

By Judd Legum/Think Progress

Earlier this month, ThinkProgress reported that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain told an audience in Pella, Iowa that he would not sign a bill longer than three pages. (Cain later said he was “exaggerating.”)

Jon Stewart picked up on the story, imitating Cain and joking that if Cain was president he would require everything to be shorter: “Treaties will have to fit on the back of a cereal box … The State of the Union Address will be delivered in the form of a fortune cookie.” You can watch the segment here. (Chris Wallace later replayed the segment during Stewart’s appearance on Fox News Sunday.)

Speaking Wednesday at the Iowa Falls Fire Department, Herman Cain lashed out at Jon Stewart, claiming that Stewart was only targeting him “because I’m black”:

I did an interview on Sean Hannity’s show on the way over here. I had been traveling the campaign so much I did not hear what Jon Stewart said on Chris Wallace’s Sunday morning show last Sunday. Where he was mocking my three page bills. Did you see that show? And then he mocked me with a, you know, Amos and Andy type brogue. And Sean said you didn’t see that? And I said no Sean, I didn’t see that, I’m out campaigning. And so they played the clip. And I said well Sean first of all if he really thinks that I’m serious about a bill only being three pages the joke’s on him. And I said secondly, as far as him mocking me, look I’ve been called every name in the book because I’m a conservative, because I’m black.

Sticks and stone may break my bones, words are not going to hurt me. I was on that radio show because a happen to be an American black conservative. I labeled my self. I’m an American Black Conservative, an A-B-C. They keep trying to put labels on me. I have been called “Uncle Tom,” “sell out,” “Oreo,” “shameless.” So the fact that he wants to mock me because I happen to be a black conservative, in the words of my Grandfather, “I does not care. I does not care.”

Watch it:

Full Transcript:

If you elect me president of the United States of America my commitment to you is I will not just be the president of the Congress or the party. I will be a president, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, of the people, by the people and for the people.

This is why you heard me say bills will be bills that you and I can understand. I said in one presentation about a month ago: “No bill is going to longer than 3 pages.” Remember that.

Some of these idiotic reporters thought I was serious. The joke’s on them. The message was short bills. Understandable bills. No it’s not literally going to be three pages. The executive summary will be three pages.

But they want to jump all over me, Jon Stewart. On the way over here, true story, on the way over here I did a radio interview on Sean Hannity’s show. Do you all get that here? Sean Hannity’s show. He pretaped it so I’m telling you when you hear it its not always live. He makes it sound like its live. I did an interview on Sean Hannity’s show on the way over here. I had been traveling the campaign so much I did not hear what Jon Stewart said on Chris Wallace’s Sunday morning show last Sunday. Where he was mocking my three page bills. Did you see that show. And then he mocked me with a, you know, Amos and Andy type brogue. And Sean said you didn’t see that. And I said no Sean, I didn’t see that, I’m out campaigning. And so they played the clip. And I said well Sean first of all if he really thinks that I’m serious about a bill only being three pages the joke’s on him. And I said secondly as far as him mocking me look I’ve been called every name in the book because I’m a conservative, because I’m black.

Sticks and stone may break my bones, words are not going to hurt me. I was on that radio show because a happen to be an American black conservative. I labeled my self. I’m an American Black Conservative, an A-B-C. They keep trying to put labels on me. I have been called “Uncle Tom,” “sell out,” “Oreo,” “shameless.” So the fact that he wants to mock me because I happen to be a black conservative, in the words of my Grandfather, “I does not care. I does not care.”

Cain Energy Plan: Put Oil And Coal CEOs In Charge Of EPA Regulations

By Lee Fang/think Progress

Today at a campaign stop with the group American Principles Project, Herman Cain took a question about how to increase domestic oil production. Without missing a beat, Cain said that, as president, he would create a special commission to remove environmental and energy regulations at the EPA. Cain explained that the commission would be comprised of businessmen from the coal, oil, shale oil, and natural gas industries because they are the “people closest to the problem.”

Cain then said he would literally appoint the CEO of Shell Oil, presumably current CEO Peter Voser, to the commission because Shell Oil has “been abused by the EPA.” Earlier in his remarks, Cain had riffed for a few moments about how Shell had faced delays in a drilling plan due to EPA regulations:

CAIN: The EPA is the biggest barrier to more permits, more drilling, more shale oil production. So I’m going to have a regulatory reduction commission that I’m going to appoint that’s going to go in and determine how we make things move faster. Some regulations we need. I’m not anti-regulation. I’m just anti-too much regulation. And the people on this commission are going to be people who know something about coal, oil, shale oil, natural gas, and they will be people whose businesses or individuals who have been abused by the EPA. If you’ve been abused by the EPA like Shell Oil, I’m going to ask the CEO of Shell Oil would he like to be on this commission, and give me some recommendations. The people closest to the problem are the ones who can solve the problem.

Watch it:

Later in the day, at his next campaign stop in Iowa Falls, Cain told a campaign supporter about his EPA plan, and said his energy executives-led commission would kill off regulations.

Cain is particularly close to oil CEOs. Shortly after announcing his intention to run for the presidency, Cain met with Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries in Palm Springs, California. As ThinkProgress reported, other oil executives were in attendance.

Cain Trips Over The Constitution Again, Bungles The 14th Amendment At GOP Debate

By Travis Waldron

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has had his struggles with the Constitution lately, confusing it and the Declaration of Independence, misunderstanding a clause about bankruptcy, andfailing to grasp the unconstitutionality of religious tests in determining someone’s fitness for employment.

At last night’s GOP primary debate in New Hampshire, Cain stretched his misunderstanding of the Constitution into a new subject: birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment. During the debate, Cain said the law needed to be changed so children of undocumented immigrants were not granted citizenship upon birth. He elaborated on his position after the debate:

CAIN: The 14th Amendment doesn’t talk about people that were here illegally. The 14th Amendment applies to slaves, black people, and their descendants who were here.

REPORTER: So you’re suggesting that the 14th Amendment does not say that people who are born in this country are naturalized citizens?

CAIN: …It does say people who are born here. But when it was written, it was written in the spirit of the slaves who were brought to this country. It was not written in the spirit of people who came here illegally. That’s where I’m coming from.

Watch it:

While the 14th Amendment was ratified following the Civil War and granted citizenship to blacks and former slaves who had previously not been considered citizens, its language in no way limits its protections to former slaves: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has ruled that the amendment’s protections extend to anyone under the jurisdiction of the United States, even undocumented immigrants:

…the Fourteenth Amendment extends to anyone, citizen or stranger, who is subject to the laws of a State, and reaches into every corner of a State’s territory. That a person’s initial entry into a State, or into the United States, was unlawful, and that he may for that reason be expelled, cannot negate the simple fact of his presence within the State’s territorial perimeter. (Plyler v. Doe)

Cain said he did not believe in changing the 14th Amendment but wanted to change the law or add an amendment to clarify it, and he pleaded ignorance when asked if he’d support legislation proposed by Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and David Vitter (R-LA) that would significantlynarrow the amendment’s scope. But recent polling shows his view is out of touch with primary voters in New Hampshire, where 65 percent of Republicans prefer not to change America’s birthright citizenship laws.

Conservative think tank: Herman Cain’s rise proves the tea party is not racist

By Sahil Kapur

WASHINGTON – Former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain's rise in the Republican primary polls refutes charges of racism within the tea party movement, the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute argued Thursday.

"The [tea party] movement is, in the mind of many in the Democratic Party and liberal organizations, rooted in a fundamentally racist view of America and of the president," wrote AEI scholar Lazar Berman in an article posted to the institute's online journal TheAmerican.com. "Then why is Herman Cain, a conservative black businessman and radio host from Georgia, generating such excitement among the very people maligned as angry white racists?"

A staunch conservative who has wholly embraced the tea party's rhetoric and agenda, Cain was tied for second in a poll of Iowa Republican voters Wednesday. He came 5th among Republican primary voters in a national Gallup poll last week. Six weeks ago he received just 1 percent support in the same survey.

"[T]he Left loves to hurl the racist label at those who stand in the way of their policies and candidates," Berman wrote, adding that Cain proves the "grassroots anti-Obama movement is about ideas and the future of the country, not race."

"Racism is by no means dead in America," Berman concedes, but "the idea one must be racist to oppose Obama’s policies is cheap and intellectually feeble."

Motor City Liberal: If you're a friend of mine on Facebook you know what message I wrote about Herman Cain yesterday afternoon. Again the only time white conservatives what to hear from their black counterparts is when they cheering louder for their half brain policy ideas or they use them as  shields to launch attacks on President Obama. And I think cons are only propping him up for two reasons 1. Get people to forget the summer of racism where tea baggers were carrying racist signs while screaming racist b.s. and spitting on black congress people. and 2 they think black people are so tribal they will flock to him because he's 100% black. 

Herman Cain’s Bankruptcy Rant Shows Bankrupt Understanding Of The Constitution

By Ian Millhiser and Zaid Jilani

Herman Cain kicked off his campaign last week by lecturing the country on its need to “reread the Constitution” — even though Cain himself couldn’t tell the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Sadly, this does not appear to be an isolated incident. Last October on his radio show, Cain launched into a impassioned rant about how federal bankruptcy law violates the Constitution:

All of the talk about a national foreclosure freeze . . . all they’re trying to do is appeal to people’s emotions. You see, the United States federal government, folks, has no jurisdiction over bankruptcy law. States do!

So, if some states decide that they want to investigate some of these phony or incomplete foreclosures, it’s up to the states. This is not even under the jurisdiction of the federal government! But it sounds good. It really sounds good, though.

Watch it:

Once again, Cain really should try reading our founding document before he lectures others about it. According to Article I of the Constitution, “[t]he Congress shall have power . . . [t]o establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.” So the Constitution actually says the exact opposite of what Cain claims it says, because Congress power to make “uniform” bankruptcy laws prevents the states from creating their own rules for bankruptcy.

Or, to put it another way, claiming that helping foreclosure victims is unconstitutional may “sound good” to Cain’s right-wing supporters, but it has no basis whatsoever in the actual Constitution.

Cain To GOP Field: Admit Ryan Medicare Plan Is A Voucher System

By Marie Diamond 

On the heels of last night’s Senate defeat of the Republicans’ Medicare-ending budget, presidential contender Herman Cain went on Fox News to defend the plan. Cain has recentlypulled ahead of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) in the polls, and used his new credibility to admonish the rest of the GOP field for backing away from the plan authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

As national backlash to Ryan’s Medicare privatization plan has grown, Republicans have become increasingly divided about how to sell something so deeply unpopular. Many, including Ryan himself, have cynically tried to deny that it’s a voucher scheme at all, but rather the much more appealingly-named “premium support” plan. Speaking with Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson, Cain crtiticized this hedging and urged his fellow candidates to call the Ryan plan what it is — a voucher system:

CAIN: Nobody’s talking about the fact that the centerpiece of Ryan’s plan is a voucher. Now, a lot of people don’t like to use that termbecause it has a negative connotation. That is what we need. [...]

CARLSON: It sounds, Mr. Cain, like you’re supporting Congressman Ryan’s plan. It’s interesting becuase other Republican candidates like Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are not outright supporting it because they say they’re going to come up with their own plans. How do you respond to that?

CAIN: I support Ryan’s plan 100%. We don’t need to come up with another plan. The people who are backing away from Ryan’s plan, which is very well thought out…they simply lack courage. I don’t know another way to put it. They lack courage. Don’t back away from something simply because it’s controversial or because it’s difficult to explain to the American people.

Watch it:

To placate the conservative base of the party without destroying their chances with a national audience, GOP contenders have had to walk a fine line — endorse the idea of Medicare reform and applauding Ryan for his “bold” attempt, but stop short of coming out for the plan itself. But Cain, who has never had a problem with bluntness, sees their rhetorical acrobatics as nothing but dishonest pandering.

Lecturing Americans To ‘Reread’ Constitution, Herman Cain Confuses It With Declaration of Independence

By Ian Millhiser

During GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign announcement on Saturday, the former pizza executive took a moment to lecture the country on its need to “reread the Constitution”:

CAIN: We don’t need to rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America, we need to reread the Constitution and enforce the Constitution. … And I know that there are some people that are not going to do that, so for the benefit of those who are not going to read it because they don’t want us to go by the Constitution, there’s a little section in there that talks about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

You know, those ideals that we live by, we believe in, your parents believed in, they instilled in you. When you get to the part about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” don’t stop there, keep reading.Cause that’s when it says “when any form of government becomes destructive of those ideals, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.” We’ve got some altering and some abolishing to do!

Watch it:

Cain really should have taken his own advice, however, before he decided to lecture the entire country about the Constitution. The phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” does not appear anywhere in the Constitution’s text. Nor does the Constitution include a phrase about the right of the people to alter or abolish a government that is destructive of their ideals. Both of those phrases appear in theDeclaration of Independence, which, in case Mr. Cain is not aware, is actually an entirely different document than the Constitution — written over ten years earlier.

Sadly, Cain’s Bachmannesque ignorance of the nation’s founding documents makes him well-suited to compete in a GOP presidential primary. Republicans invented anutterly meritless constitutional objection to the Affordable Care Act, they’ve called everything from Social Security to Medicare to child labor laws unconstitutional, and they’ve even pretended that the Constitution allows them to strip Americans of their citizenship. So Cain needs to look no further than his own party if he wants to find people who are more interested in rewriting the Constitution than in actually reading it