Bush ‘Cop-a-feel’ joke as he gropes
Another woman accuses former president
FORMER US president George W Bush Sr has apologised again after a second woman accused him of groping her.
Actress Jordana Grolnick said Mr Bush touched her bottom at a theatre last year – while making a crude joke playing on the name of illusionist David Copperfield.
She said that, as the wheelchairbound 93-year-old posed for a picture, he reached around her and asked: ‘Do you want to know who my favourite magician is?’
‘As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, “David Cop-a-feel”,’ Ms Grolnick told US website Deadspin.
The New York actress had been working on a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Maine, where Mr Bush often spends his summers in the town of Kennebunkport.
The claim follows accusations earlier this week by actress Heather Lind that Mr Bush, who suffers a condition similar to Parkinson’s, had groped her in the same way three years ago.
The ex-president’s spokesman Jim McGrath said: ‘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.
‘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 goodnatured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologises most sincerely.’
According to Ms Grolnick – who posted the picture on Instagram – after the incident others in the room laughed while former first lady Barbara Bush ‘said something along the lines of, “He’s going to get himself put in jail!”’
‘He’s going to get himself put in jail’