Herman Cain's Twitter account posts about Kamala Harris 13 days after his death
Former presidential candidate's staff plan to keep his social media, website active despite his death
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A tweet from Herman Cain suggested the campaign of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was going to be "completely nuts" on the day that Senator Kamala Harris was announced as his running mate.
"Just in case you thought Biden's candidacy was going to be anything other than completely nuts, team Trump has released a new video," the tweet said.
The comment was unusual for Mr Cain, not because it was ideologically inconsistent with his usual commentary, but because he died a week prior.
Mr Cain died on 30 July as a result of Covid-19. He was 74 years old.
His social media and website team - including his daughter, Melanie Cain Gallo - announced that they would continue tweeting from Mr Cain's account.
"We've decided here at Cain HQ that we will go on using this platform to share the information and ideas he believed in. He often talked about the site going on once he was ready to step away from it. We had hoped he could enjoy reading it in his retirement, but he made it clear he wanted to go on," Ms Gallo said.
Mr Cain tested positive for coronavirus on 29 July and was hospitalised on 1 July. He was in the hospital for several weeks before he succumbed to the virus.
There was speculation online that Mr Cain caught the virus while attending Donald Trump's dud rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where social distancing and face mask usage were not enforced.
Mr Cain was the co-chair of Black Voices for Trump.
The former presidential candidate's communications team claimed Mr Cain had frequently been travelling to meet with supporters and attend events in the days leading up to his diagnosis, and claimed there was no way to know if Mr Cain contracted the virus from Mr Trump's rally.
"There's no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr Cain contracted the coronavirus," Mr Cain's account tweeted following his hospitalisation.
Mr Cain was especially at risk from the virus, as not only was he in his 70's, but he was also a stage 4 cancer survivor.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments