Once you open the door to ending your candidacy, it’s very, very hard to close it again. But Herman Cain, according to a report in National Review, opened that door in a call with senior staff this morning.
Reporters are scrambling to decipher what exactly Cain said. A Des Moines Register reporter paraphrases it as “@THEHermanCain tells staff on conference call just now that he is reassessing his campaign, like he’s done several times already” — and quotes him as saying, “If a decision is made, different than we should plow ahead, u all will be the first to know.”
Politico has a different read: “one source told POLITICO that the reference had been about how much staff and offices they could afford right now.”
So some possible interpretation conflict here. We’re working to track it down, too.
Late Update: ABC’s Jonathan Karl tweets that Cain’s campaign manager confirmed to ABC that National Review’s initial report is accurate: “Mark Block tells ABC’s @amyewalter the NRO report is true. Cain told his staff today he is “reassessing” whether to stay in the race.”
Later Update: Jennifer Jacobs of Des Moines Register has the most comprehensive account of this morning’s conference call.
David Kurtz
David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.