This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," December 1, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: A buzz today on the campaign trail surrounds presidential candidate Herman Cain and whether or not he intends to continue his bid for the White House.
Now earlier this week a woman surfaced claiming that she had had a 13-year extramarital fair with Cain, an allegation that he flatly denies. However, Cain has acknowledged that this relentless media frenzy has taken its toll on his family and as a result he plans to discuss the status of the campaign with his wife Gloria at their home tomorrow.
But less than 24 hours before a possible decision is made regarding his political future, well, the man himself joins me, presidential candidate Herman Cain.
Herman, welcome back, sir. Thanks for being with us.
HERMAN CAIN, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hey, thanks, Sean. You've been very fair. That's why I'm happy to be with you.
HANNITY: I appreciate it. And you know I want to be fair. And I've known you a long time, Herman. And --
CAIN: Yes.
HANNITY: We've been on stage together. We've been on radio stations and radio shows going back over a decade now.
CAIN: Right.
HANNITY: And -- what started the -- what do you mean by your campaign is reassessing?
CAIN: Well, four things. First, as you know, my family, that's important. You know with the media frenzy coming out of the media every day and all the publications, you know, it's not like my family is isolated from that, and it has taken an emotional toll.
I have been talking to my wife every day this week, many times during the day, with respect to this, and as you indicated, tomorrow I will be at home so we can sit down and talk face-to-face. But the good thing is, my wife told me again today she loves me. It's not that she's doubting me. It's that all of the media frenzy and all of the speculation and all the twisting and the turning that never stops, it takes a toll on your family.
So that's my number one priority.
HANNITY: All right. So you're --
CAIN: Many of my --
HANNITY: Go ahead.
CAIN: Many of my supporters -- the response has been overwhelmingly positive that they are behind me. But I've got to consider family considerations first. And then the third thing that I have to consider here is what happens to contributions.
And so, like a businessman, Sean, when you have a bump in the road, you reconsider and re-evaluate, and it's as if some people in the media don't want to give me that opportunity, but I'm going to take that opportunity to re-asses and re-evaluate so we can decide where do we go from here.
HANNITY: There -- you acknowledged you've known this woman for 13 years. You have been adamant in saying that there was no sexual relationship whatsoever with this woman.
If all of these texts were released, some 60 that we know of or whatever, is there any flirting, any inappropriate talk, is there anything that your wife would be mad at if she read, Herman?
CAIN: Absolutely not. And in fact The Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article today, because her attorney was willing to turn over the records that she had to the newspaper but wouldn't give them to my attorney. So we didn't have a chance to look at them. But the story that came up today indicated that there were 70 text messages between a certain date -- I don't even remember the date. Forty-seven of them were initiated by --
HANNITY: I think it was October to November.
CAIN: October to November. Right. Forty-seven of them were initiated by her, and as I have indicated before and -- 47 by her and they were all asking for financial help.
Sean, unfortunately, I'm a softy, and I feel sorry for people when they get in deep financial trouble, especially given the economy and people being out of work. This isn't the only person I have happened. They are members of my church, members of my family, you know, of friends that I have helped all the time in terms of trying to help them during these tough economic times. And so I was --
HANNITY: That does not surprise me at all knowing -- knowing you --
CAIN: Right.
HANNITY: That does not surprise me at all.
Herman, isn't this something, though, that would be easily confirmed? She is saying that you flew her around the country. She's saying that you were meeting in hotels. Can't we get plane tickets, confirmations? Can't we get hotels? Don't a lot of these hotels have videotapes that they -- some of them, I would assume, hang on to those tapes forever. And --
(CROSSTALK)
CAIN: Sean --
HANNITY: Go ahead.
CAIN: Sean, do me a favor. Let's not play detective. Here's the deal. I am going to prove that -- I am going to re-establish my character. OK? We're working on that. My attorney is working on that. We're going to work on that.
But I don't want to play detective right now, with all due respect. OK? Because I want to -- I want to do the assessment that we've got to do, and every time a new bit of information comes up, that stimulates another story in the media, and that hurts my family and my wife and it hurts me.
So I really rather not go there anymore with respect to trying to play detective about how do we resolve this.
HANNITY: No, I --
CAIN: We are working on it because I'm going to re-establish my reputation.
HANNITY: Well -- and re-establish your character, and this is why I think it is important for you -- I'm not playing detective, Herman. I've known you a long time. But it's --
CAIN: Yes.
HANNITY: You are so adamant in your denial, and this charge is so damaging -- not just to your presidential campaign. As you pointed out, this goes to the heart of your character.
CAIN: Right.
HANNITY: And this goes to -- you know, the issues that would involve your family, your children, your grandchildren. This goes very deep here.
CAIN: Right.
HANNITY: And I would just assume, if she's making these allegations, considering she is claiming all these things happened, that this would be easily proven false. It may take time but is that something that you think can be worthwhile doing?
CAIN: We -- we are going to do that, OK? For example, relative to the telephone messages, the text messages, we have already gone back and pulled my phone messages to see if they match up. OK? And we're going to do that. Pull the analysis from the standpoint of calls and text messages that were exchanged.
But, Sean, let me share with you the most hurtful part of this. I thought it was a friend that I was trying to help. And so when you get blindsided like that, you can imagine what it felt like when in fact it didn't turn out to be a friend at all. And so that's another aspect of this that was not only hurtful to me but also hurtful to my wife.
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