FACT CHECK: Image Claims Herman Cain Died From Cancer

August 7th, 2020
SCOTTSDALE, AZ - NOVEMBER 8: Republican presidential candidate and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain waits to speak at a press conference November 8, 2011 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Cain is facing pressure after a fourth woman came forward Monday to accuse Cain of inappropriate behavior when he was while CEO of the National Restaurant Association. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

An image shared on Facebook claims former presidential candidate Herman Cain died from cancer, not COVID-19.

 

Verdict: False

Cain’s website and verified Twitter account confirm he died of COVID-19 complications.

Fact Check:

Cain died on July 30 at the age of 74, The Associated Press reported. The businessman and former presidential candidate tested positive for COVID-19 in late June, according to his Twitter account, and had been hospitalized for roughly four weeks for treatment at the time of his passing.

The image falsely alleges that Cain died from liver and colon cancer, despite a statement on his website and Twitter account saying he died from COVID-19 complications. (RELATED: Does The Swab For A COVID-19 Test Take A Sample From The Blood-Brain Barrier?)

“Although he was basically pretty healthy in recent years, he was still in a high-risk group because of his history with cancer,” reads the statement on his website, in part. “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 was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer in 2006 but recovered from it. Multiple media outlets reported that Cain’s cause of death was COVID-19, and Dan Calabrese, the editor of Cain’s website, confirmed that he died from the disease to the Washington Post.

Some people have speculated Cain contracted the disease while attending President Donald Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In a July 31 article on Cain’s website, Calabrese stated that it is “not impossible he contracted it at the Tulsa rally.”

“But most of us on his team tend to think it happened on one of the plane trips, or possibly during his stop in Las Vegas,” Calabrese wrote. “That’s for several reasons, one of which is simply the inherent (and to me at least, obvious) risk involved with being on an airplane these days.”

Trevor Schakohl

Legal Reporter