Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says he wasn’t being serious when he penned a column in 2006 calling on Republicans to groom golfer Tiger Woods to run for president.
In an interview with The Daily Caller on Sunday, Cain said, “That was a joke. That was a joke, okay. That was a joke. Americans got to learn how to have a sense of humor.”
Cain, a former pizza executive who went on to host a radio show and write columns before running for president, added, “There are some things that you just kind of take tongue-in-cheek, and you don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Cain made the comments Sunday outside NBC studios in Washington after appearing on Meet the Press.
The column didn’t exactly read that way at the time: “Tiger will be 40 years old in 2016. The Republican Party should begin grooming him now for a run at the White House. His personal attributes and accomplishments on the golf course point to a candidate who will be a problem solver, not a politician.”
Cain’s column was written before Tiger Woods’ high-profile extramarital affairs were revealed.