Two more women accuse Bush of groping
TWO more women have come forward to accuse former US President George HW Bush of groping them as they posed for photos, bringing the total to four.
Christina Baker Kline, a British-born novelist, claims Mr Bush put his arm around her as they posed for a photograph before dropping his hand to squeeze her “butt”.
And Amanda Staples, a former Republican state senate candidate from Maine, wrote in an Instagram post that Bush fondled her in 2006.
Two actresses have made similar allegations. Ms Kline writes in Slate that he asked her to guess his favourite book at a literacy event in Texas in 2014. “His comic timing was impeccable,” she says. “‘David Cop-a-feel,’ he said, and squeezed my butt, hard, just as the photographer snapped the photo.”
A spokesman for Mr Bush issued an apology and said that at the age of 93, and confined to a wheelchair, his arm often drops to the lower waist of people beside him so he uses the joke to put them at ease. “Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate,” he said.
Jordana Grolnick and Heather Lind, the actresses, also alluded to the “dirty joke” Mr Bush made.