As more details emerge, some Republicans rise to Cain's defense

A number of key Republicans defended Herman Cain from allegations of sexual harassment as details continued to trickle out about the alleged incidents when the GOP frontrunner was president of the National Restaurant Association.

Cain is accused of making inappropriate comments to at least two women who later received settlement packages. After initially denying knowledge of the incident, Cain conceded that he had been aware of at least one of the settlements Monday night but maintained that he had not acted improperly.

But Republicans are tentatively rallying behind the candidate, criticizing early reports about the alleged incident for being short on details.

Mississippi governor and former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, who himself was considering a presidential run and is considered a fundraising force within the party, said he was "surprised if there's any more" to the allegations.

"You know, what was the sexual harassment? Was it something that was suggestive or was it actually something worse than that? But it's hard to see -- it's hard to know exactly how it'll turn out, but you do know this. This isn't what Herman Cain wants to be talking about today or any day during his campaign," Barbour said during an interview on CNN.

The governor went on to say that the reports of sexual harassment didn't jive with the Herman Cain he knew.

"Well, I'm very surprised to hear this. I've never seen any indication of anything like this. I've known him 15 -- well, more than 15 years. I knew him when he was a very successful businessman, as he has been in all of his career from what I can tell. So I was very surprised by this. That being the case, I would be surprised if there's any more to it," Barbour said.

Mike Huckabee, himself a former southern governor, also doubted the validity of the charges and said in an interview on The Laura Ingraham Show he "would almost guarantee" a rival Republican campaign had planted the story.

“If it is such a real deal, how come they didn't bring it up before? You know I always wonder when people say that 'You know, my conscience got to me,' did their conscience just light up after 20 years and only when a guy was running for president. If a person really thought that there was something incredibly improper, the time to have dealt with it was then, not 20 years later," Huckabee said.

The former governor also said that the story reflected "the very worst of American politics."

Self-appointed Republican kingmaker and possible presidential candidate Donald Trump told Fox News that he found the accusations "very unfair."

"You know, you become a leading candidate and you become a person of prominence, and somebody sues you and they say all sorts of things. Perhaps he settled just because he didn't want to go through the legal fees and spend a lot of money," Trump said.

Conservative commentators rose to Cain's defense as well, with radio host Rush Limbaugh accusing the media of using “the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative" and saying a Democratic candidate would never receive similar scrutiny. 

“This is gutter partisan politics, and it’s the politics of minority conservative personal destruction,” Limbaugh said.

Ann Coulter also saw a racial element to the story and said she was "spitting mad" about the allegations.

"Liberals are terrified of Herman Cain. He is a strong, conservative black man. Look at the way they go after Allen West and Michael Steele, and they aren't even running against Obama. They are terrified of strong, conservative, black men," Coulter said on Fox News.

Fox News host Sean Hannity asked his Twitter followers if they saw similarity between Cain and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a parallel Cain himself drew in an interview Monday with the Hill.

But while some of the conservative establishment has rallied behind the candidate, most acknowledged that the controversy would inevitably hurt his campaign. Others flatly criticized the campaign's handling of the story.

Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) said Cain was handing the story "terribly at this point."

"They raise more questions than they're answering at this point. This campaign I don't think is suited for the long term anyway. They hadn't built the infrastructure, but I think this may hasten the downfall," Davis said on MSNBC.

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