Cain Tells Beck His Muslim Cabinet Comments Were ‘Misconstrued’

Herman Cain is out to set the record straight. If elected president, he now claims that he will consider appointing Muslims.

Two months ago, Cain set off a liberal firestorm when he allegedly told the ultra-leftist blog ThinkProgress (TP) that, if elected, he wouldn't appoint any Muslims. When asked in a March interview with TP's Scott Keyes if he would be comfortable nominating individuals who embrace the Islamic faith to his cabinet , he said:

No, I will not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.

This morning, Cain appeared on Glenn Beck's radio show where he discussed the incident. In reference to the comments posted by TP, he said, “That statement is not what I said. It has been misconstrued." Politico reports that Cain has some regrets about his initial statement:

“I immediately said – without thinking – ‘No, I would not be comfortable,’” he said. “I did not say that I would not have them in my cabinet. If you look at my career, I have hired good people regardless of race, religion, sex gender, orientation and this kind of thing.

Misstatements happen, but there is definitely a difference between TP misconstruing interview content and Cain regretting his own words. So, which is it? Watch Cain's comments to TP below:

Plus, you can watch and listen to Beck ask Cain about his controversial statement on today's show (skip to 10:22 for the Muslim appointee discussion):