Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain died this week after being hospitalized for the coronavirus earlier this month.
Dan Calabrese, the editor of Cain’s website, announced the news on Thursday morning.
“Herman Cain – our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us – has passed away,” he wrote.
“We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight. He had trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. We all prayed that the initial meds they gave him would get his breathing back to normal, but it became clear pretty quickly that he was in for a battle,” Calabrese explained.
“A mere five days ago when doctors told us they thought he would eventually recover, although it wouldn’t be quick,” he added. “Herman was 74. Although he was basically pretty healthy in recent years, he was still in a high-risk group because of his history with cancer. We all prayed so hard every day. We knew the time would come when the Lord would call him home, but we really liked having him here with us, and we held out hope he’d have a full recovery.”
Cain got sick after attending Trump’s rally:
It’s unclear how Cain contracted the virus but he tested positive about 11 days after attending Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June.
Cain posted a photo of himself and other attendees not wearing masks while sitting crowded together in the arena.
Cain praised the Trump rally for not requiring masks.
"Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!" he wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
Cain tested negative before rally:
“At that Tulsa rally, everybody who was going to get close to the president — and that would have included Herman Cain, because I went through it myself — were tested for coronavirus disease,” Fox News reporter John Roberts said Thursday. “They had a couple of tents that were set up outside the center there in Tulsa, and he would have tested negative at that point, otherwise he would not have been allowed into the rally.”
“So, something happened between Tulsa and the 29th where he contracted the virus, he added. “Not to say he got it at the rally. There were some staffers who showed positives, some secret service who showed positive, both prior to the rally and in the aftermath. Not to say that happened to Herman Cain, but it’s likely that he would have been negative for coronavirus on that day because he would have been tested.”
