Cain lashes out as second woman breaks silence

Republican Herman Cain slammed on Tuesday what he called the "Democrat machine" behind a spiralling scandal threatening his White House bid, as a second woman went public with sexual harassment claims.

Struggling to keep a lid on mounting allegations against him, the former pizza company boss said he will not be forced to quit the race -- and said he was willing to take a lie detector test to prove he was telling the truth.

"We will get through this. The fact is these anonymous allegations are false, and now the Democrat machine in America has brought forth a troubled woman to make false accusations," he told reporters in Arizona.

And he said: "As far as these accusations causing me to back off, and maybe withdraw from this presidential primary race, ain't gonna happen, because I'm doing this for the American people."

"I will not deterred by false, anonymous, incorrect accusations," he said at the press conference.

His comments came after a woman, Sharon Bialek, accused Cain on Monday of groping her in a car in 1997 after she asked for help in finding a job when he was president of the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

Asked on Tuesday if Bialek was lying, Cain replied: "Yes, I'm saying that in as nice a way as I can. I can categorically say I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period."

Minutes after Cain's comments in Arizona, Bialek's lawyer Gloria Allred fired back at Cain over his claim that Democrats were behind her client's claims.

"Is he suggesting that I'm the Democratic machine or I'm manipulated by the Democratic machine, if there is one?" Allred said on CNN.

"I'm an attorney, if he's saying that the Democratic machine had something to do with my representing my client, that is an absolute bold-face lie, and he needs to retract it."

Meanwhile a second accuser, Karen Kraushaar, broke her silence to say she was one of two women who had settled a claim against Cain for sexual harassment back in the 1990s, when she was employed by the NRA.

"When you are being sexually harassed in the workplace, you are extremely vulnerable," Kraushaar, now a spokeswoman with the Treasury Department, told the New York Times.

"You do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job some place safe, and that is what I thought I had achieved when I left," she added.

Cain, once seen as the rank outsider in the race to be crowned the Republican Party's presidential nominee, has been fighting mounting accusations of sexual harassment now involving four women.