Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain alleged that Comedy Central's Jon Stewart mocked him during a recent episode of the "The Daily Show" because he's a "black conservative."
ThinkProgress reports that Cain, former CEO of Godfather's pizza, leveled the charge while speaking during a stop in the key early primary state of Iowa. The remarks from the White House hopeful were made in response to what Stewart had to say about his suggestion that he'd only sign bills no longer than three pages if elected president.
HuffPost's Jason Linkins recently reported on the indication:
Of course, one of the things that Cain says he supports is the enactment of the Fair Tax. But now, he'll be unable to sign it into law, because that piece of legislation is 131-pages long.
Stewart joked on his show that Cain "offers real solutions to fictional issues." After playing a clip of Cain putting his foot down on the issue of the length of bills, the Comedy Central host impersonated Cain and said, "Bills will be three pages. If I'm president, treaties will have to fit on the back of a cereal box. From now on, the State of the Union address will be delivered in the form of a fortune cookie. I am Herman Cain and I do not like to read."
At the Iowa Falls Fire Department on Wednesday, Cain responded to the comedic segment.
"I’m serious about a bill only being three pages the joke’s on him," said the GOP contender. "And I said secondly, as far as him mocking me, look I’ve been called every name in the book because I’m a conservative, because I’m black."
After suggesting that he would not allow words like Stewart's to hurt him, Cain suggested that because "he's an American Black Conservative, an A-B-C" he's been labeled "Uncle Tom," a "sell out," an "Oreo" and "shameless." For that reason, he said that he "does not care" about what Stewart had to say.
During a recent interview with Bloomberg View columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, Cain stressed that he doesn't like "people trying to label" him.
"I am an American. Black. Conservative," he said. "I don’t use African American, because I’m American, I’m black and I’m conservative. I don’t like people trying to label me. African American is socially acceptable for some people, but I am not some people."
Via ThinkProgress comes video of what Cain had to say in Iowa on Wednesday.
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