Before Thursday, George H.W. Bush was accused of groping during photo ops by six different women. Most (but not all) of the incidents occurred after Bush was wheelchair bound. The stories involved Bush grabbing women’s behinds while cracking the same lewd joke, and Bush spokesperson Jim McGrath attempted to explain the matter as being due to the wheelchair, which meant that “his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures.” McGrath further stated that Bush tells his joke “to put people at ease,” and he occasionally has “patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner.” A new accusation flattens McGrath’s “logic.”
CNN now reports an account from a woman, who wishes to remain nameless out of privacy concerns, who claims that Bush groped her rear in 1992 during a reelection fundraiser photo-op. She described the moment as a “gentle squeeze” that wasn’t noticed by anyone else who was present, and she dismissed the act as “probably an accident” at the time. However, the latest reports about the former president have led her to reevaluate the incident:
“All the focus has been on ‘He’s old.’ OK, but he wasn’t old when it happened to me,” she told CNN. “I’ve been debating what to do about it.”
CNN has spoken with the woman’s ex-husband and her best friend, both of whom she told of the incident soon after it occurred.
“I remember her coming home and her saying he (Bush) said (to her father), ‘Is that your daughter?’ or ‘Who’s that with you?’ and her dad said, ‘It’s my daughter,’ and he said, ‘Well, get her in the picture,'” the woman’s ex-husband said. “She tried to write it off as ‘move in closer’ — but no, it wasn’t. The hand definitely was across the butt. It wasn’t across the waist.”
Along with the above corroborating details from two people with whom the woman confided with at the time, CNN has published the photo in question. The outlet also notes that McGrath did not wish to comment when contacted about this accusation.
(Via CNN)