Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate and enthusiastic Trump supporter, took a restless surprise on Wednesday when his Twitter account abruptly started publishing posts – two weeks after Cain died of coronavirus.
De @THEHermanCain account has been dormant since Cain contracted coronavirus in June, after posting details about Cain’s memorial service and links to tributes.
When it came to an abrupt death, one of the first reports was of attacks on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who were unveiled on Tuesday as Biden’s running mate.
“Just in case you thought Biden’s candidacy would be anything but utterly disgusting, Team Trump has released a new video,” the @THEHermanCain account tweeted just after 4 p.m.
The post linked to a video of the Trump campaign accusing Biden of “a racism problem”.
At 5 o’clock on Thursday morning, Cain – apparently – tweets again, criticism of Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan who was also running to become Biden’s vice presidential candidate.
The posts offended many other Twitter users, but shortly before the account started tweeting pro-Trump posts, it had also posted a little-seen pinned tweet which linked to an explanatory post on Cain’s website about what happened.
In a statement to the website, Cain’s daughter Melanie Cain Gallo said: “We decided here at Cain HQ that we will use this platform to share the information and ideas he believed in. He often talks about the site that “It happened once when he was ready to leave. We had hoped he could enjoy reading in his retirement, but he made it clear that he would continue to do so.”
Cain Gallo said messages from her father’s accounts “will now go by the name The Cain Gang”, a name that Cain apparently chose himself. Although his Twitter grip has not changed the name yet.
The social media accounts of other public figures, including David Bowie, have continued after their deaths, but have the tendency to adopt more of a tone of third persons.
The first-person posting of Cain’s Twitter account makes it less clear whose views the tweets express. Some even took issue with the fact that @THEHermanCain only started posting after Harris became the first black woman to run on a presidential card for a big party.
Cain died on July 30, after being ill with coronavirus for several weeks. The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza had attended a Trump rally in Oklahoma on June 20, where Cain was photographed do not wear a mask and do not observe social distance guidelines.
Cain was a vocal supporter of the president, co-chair of Black Voices for Trump and was in Tulsa as a surrogate for Trump’s campaign.
He ran for president in 2012, briefly leading the polls, but dropped out of the race after three women accused him of sexual abuse and a fourth woman accused Cain of sexual assault.
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