Image: Herman Cain, Gloria Cain
David Goldman / AP

Nightly News   |  December 03, 2011

What Cain’s exit means

David Gregory, host of “Meet the Press,” weighs in on how Herman Cain’s departure from the campaign will affect the remaining candidates.

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This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

LESTER HOLT, anchor: And joining us now is David Gregory , moderator of " Meet the Press ." David , what was the landscape that Cain had to look at, the reality of the situation, in coming to this decision?

DAVID GREGORY reporting: His family situation, as he talked about today, was really what pushed him out of the race. I was told that Cain told people in the last couple of days that the toll was simply too high because of the allegations. Look, let's take this out of the political realm and put it inside a person's marriage. He had a relationship with someone for 13 years, whether it was a friendship or something more, in which he was trying to help her financially, talking about Ginger White , and his wife didn't know. Cain said this publicly. And, as I was told in the last couple of days and we first reported last night, he has a lot of work it do at home. That's what he cited publicly here. The most -- the other piece of the landscape, of course, Lester , politically, in Iowa , his support had plummeted 22 percent in the polls. The latest Des Moines Register poll had him at 8 percent. He had simply lost support, lost the ability to raise money.

HOLT: He plans to endorse, and while we wouldn't suggest any other -- any other candidate would take some joy in his personal problems, one of them is likely to benefit. Who might that be?

GREGORY: I think Newt Gingrich thus far has been inheriting that support. You see it in his own poll numbers in New Hampshire -- excuse me, in Iowa , in other early states as well. And he's been working, Gingrich has, quietly, to get more of that support. So I think that's an early potential for him in terms of endorsements.

HOLT: David Gregory here in New York with us. David , thanks very much.

GREGORY: Thanks, Lester.