from www.guardian.co.uk – Herman Cain, one of the front runners in the Republican race for the White House, faces more questions over allegations of sexual harassment after making contradictory comments within the space of just a few hours.

He dismissed allegations of sexual harassment against him as a “witch hunt” but failed to quell the clamor that grew during Monday.

Over the course of two public appearances before the media and a series of television interviews on Monday, Cain went from initially saying he was unaware of any of the women receiving settlements over the claims to later admitting there had been a settlement.

On Sunday night, Politico revealed that two female employees of the National Restaurant Association had received payouts after making harassment claims against Cain while he was the organization’s president.

According to Politico, the women left the association after complaining about inappropriate behaviour by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable. They reportedly received settlements in return for signing non-disclosure agreements.

In his first comments, Cain confirmed that he had been the subject of sexual harassment complaints involving two female workers in the restaurant industry‚ but insisted he had been “falsely accused”.

In the morning, he had described the claims as “trumped up” and said he was “unaware of any sort of settlement. I hope it wasn’t for much, because I didn’t do anything”.

But in interviews broadcast on Monday night, he admitted there had been “some sort of settlement or termination” and it had been worth maybe two or three months’ salary.

Cain initially played down the alleged incidents but in later interviews he began to fill in some of the details. He told PBS: “I referenced this lady’s height, and I was standing near her, and I did this saying: ‘You’re the same height of my wife,’ because my wife is five feet tall, and she comes up to my chin. This lady’s five feet tall, and she comes up to my chin. So obviously she thought that that was too close for comfort.”

On Monday, Cain refused to answer questions about the claims during an appearance at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. He then gave an interview to Fox News in which he said: “I have never sexually harassed anyone, and, yes, I was falsely accused while I was at the National Restaurant Association. And I say falsely, because it turned out after the investigation to be baseless.”

Later, during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, Cain repeated his denials, saying: “In all of my over 40 years of experience running businesses and corporations I have never sexually harassed anyone.”

Suggesting the story had come out now as a response to his popularity in the Republican leadership contest, Cain added: “This bullseye on my back has gotten bigger. We have no idea of the source of this witch hunt.”

During his National Press Club appearance, Cain gave a little more detail about the complaints, saying that as president of the association he had “recused” himself from the investigation, and left it to the lawyers and a human resources official. He said they had “concluded after a thorough investigation that it had no basis”.

But soon after Cain’s comments, Politico published another story detailing how the association’s HR chief at the time, Mary Ose, had told the website last week that she was unaware of any allegations about Cain’s behaviour. A reporter spoke to her again on Monday to ask about Cain’s insistence that HR officials had run the investigation, to which Ose reponded: “You and I have talked and I have nothing more to say.” She then put the phone down.

Cain’s apparent failure to address the allegations head-on will ensure that journalists keep pushing until they find more details of the accusations, including how much was paid to the women, and who authorised any settlement. That could be even more damaging for Cain.

In his Fox interview, Cain acknowleged that the row was going to do some damage to his campaign, which has seen him take the lead in some polls.

“Obviously, some people will be turned off by this cloud over my campaign, but a lot of people are not going to be turned off,” he said.

Cain, 65, a former chief executive of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, has been leading the pack in the race for the Republican nomination to take on Barack Obama in November next year. The first electoral test is scheduled for 3 January, when Iowa holds its caucus.