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Politico reported late on Sunday that Herman Cain was twice accused of "inappropriate behavior" by women who worked with him when he ran the National Restaurant Association in late 1990s.

The story, which gives few details of the incidents, says that in both cases the women were given financial settlements and left the company. The settlements included non-disclosure agreements. Politico claims it has seen documents spelling out the accusations and the terms of the settlements and has identified both women, but will not name them. However, their story does leave clues that will surely lead other news organizations to the women, or guesses as to who the women might be.

The behavior included sexually suggestive conversations, physical gestures that made the women uncomfortable. One of the instances may have involved Cain asking one of the women to come back to his hotel room at a conference. Cain was head of the NRA from 1996 to 1999.

Cain and his campaign offered somewhat confusing denials of the story that initially seemed to acknowledge that the accusations that had happened, but that the claims were not true. When approached by Politico for comment, Cain gave a cryptic response.

He responded, “I am not going to comment on that.” He was then asked, “Have you ever been accused, sir, in your life of harassment by a woman?” He breathed audibly, glared at the reporter and stayed silent for several seconds. After the question was repeated three times, he responded by asking the reporter, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”

Part of the exchange with Poltico's Jonathan Martin was captured on this video: