Two more women are coming forward to accuse former President George H.W. Bush of groping them.
Author Christina Baker Kline said the nation’s 41st president made the same joke others have mentioned before grabbing her buttocks in 2014 in Houston. She said a Bush driver told her she hoped she would be “discreet.”
Amanda Staples, a former candidate for state Senate, told the Portland Press Herald in Maine that she was groped by Bush in 2006 in Kennebunkport.
Two actresses have accused Bush of groping them.
Actress Heather Lind, 34, said Bush did the same to her four years ago at an event to promote the TV series “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” according to the Daily Mail, which saved a screenshot of a lengthy Instagram post she wrote and later deleted.
The former president’s office says the 93-year-old Bush has “patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner.” The statement says he apologizes “to anyone he has offended.”
It is the latest in an outpouring of sexual harassment allegations against powerful male figures in entertainment, fashion and finance that followed the downfall of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who stands accused of assaulting and raping actresses.
Lind added she decided to share her story after seeing Bush Sr. appear onstage at a benefit concert to raise money for victims of the hurricane-ravaged southern United States and Caribbean.
“I found it disturbing because I recognize the respect ex-presidents are given for having served,” she wrote.
“But when I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo.
“He did not shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke,” she added.
Later on, as pictures were being taken, Bush repeated the act, while “Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say not again.’”
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