Herman Cain 'tweets' two weeks after his death to attack Democrats

Herman Cain, one-time Republican presidential candidate and enthusiastic Trump supporter, sprang an unsettling surprise on Wednesday when his Twitter account abruptly began publishing posts – two weeks after Cain died from coronavirus.

The @THEHermanCain account had lain dormant since Cain contracted coronavirus in June, having posted details of Cain’s memorial service and links to tributes.

When it abruptly came to life, one of the first posts was to attack Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who was unveiled as Biden’s running mate on Tuesday.

“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 @THEHermanCain account tweeted just after 4pm.

The post linked to a Trump campaign video which accused Biden of having “a racism problem”.

At 5am on Thursday morning, Cain – seemingly – tweeted again, criticizing Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor who was also in the running to be Biden’s vice-presidential candidate.

The posts unnerved many other Twitter users, but shortly before the account began tweeting pro-Trump messaging, it had also posted a little-seen pinned tweet which linked to a clarifying post on Cain’s website as to what was going on.

In the website statement, Cain’s daughter Melanie Cain Gallo said: “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 it to go on.”

Cain Gallo said posts from her father’s accounts “will now go under the name The Cain Gang”, a name Cain apparently chose himself. Though his Twitter handle has not yet changed its name.

The social media accounts of other public figures, including David Bowie, have continued after their deaths, but have tended to adopt more of a third-person tone.

The first-person messaging of Cain’s Twitter account makes it less clear whose views the tweets are expressing. Some also took issue with @THEHermanCain having only begun posting after Harris became the first black woman to run on a major party presidential ticket.

Cain died on 30 July, having been ill with coronavirus for several weeks. The former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza had attended a Trump rally in Oklahoma on 20 June, where Cain was photographed not wearing a mask and not observing social distancing guidelines.

A vocal supporter of the president, Cain was co-chair of Black Voices for Trump and was in Tulsa as a surrogate for Trump’s campaign.

He ran for president in 2012, and briefly led the polls, but dropped out of the race after three women accused him of sexual misconduct and a fourth woman accused Cain of sexual assault.