Ex-president George H.W. Bush, who has now been publicly accused by two actresses of sexual assault and harassment, released a new statement Wednesday night admitting he "patted women's rears" in what his spokesperson has characterized as "a good-natured manner," whatever that's supposed to mean.
Tuesday, Turn: Washington's Spies star Heather Lind recalled being sexually assaulted by the one-term president during a private screening event in 2014. Bush, Lind recalled in the since-deleted post, touched her from behind and said his favorite magician was "David Cop-A-Feel."
"[Bush] didn't shake my hand," Lind wrote. "He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again." In Bush spokesperson Jim McGrath's initial statement to CNN, the incident was called an "attempt at humor."
Wednesday, theater actress Jordana Grolnick spoke withDeadspin about a similar incident that happened last year. Grolnick said she was working on a production of Hunchback of Notre Dame in Maine when Bush came backstage for a photo op with the cast. "I guess I was thinking, he's in a wheelchair, what harm could he do?" Grolnick said of actors' warning her that Bush had "a reputation for fondling" during photo ops.
"[Bush] reached his right hand around to my behind, and as we smiled for the photo he asked the group, 'Do you want to know who my favorite magician is?'" Grolnick recalled. "As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, 'David Cop-A-Feel!'"
In the latest statement via his spokesperson, Bush apologized "to anyone he has offended" by touching them. "At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures," McGrath said. "To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke—and on occasion, he has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely."
