A woman accused former President George H.W. Bush of inappropriately touching her buttocks during a photo opportunity in 1992 while he was still in office, according to a report Thursday.
“We got closer together for a family photo and it was like ‘Holy crap!'” the Michigan woman told CNN of the photo with Bush and her father after a fundraiser in Dearborn, Mich., in the lead-up to the 1992 election.
“It was like a gentle squeeze,” she added.
The now 55-year-old woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she had dismissed the encounter “as probably an accident” until at least six other women came forward with similar accusations of Bush groping them between 2003 and 2016.
“All the focus has been on ‘He’s old.’ OK, but he wasn’t old when it happened to me,” the woman said. Bush is now 93 years old and was in his late 60s at the time of the latest alleged incident.
“He was a sitting president who was running for election. He gave a fairly lengthy speech that day and all the big heavy hitters were there from the Detroit area,” she continued.
Bush spokesman Jim McGrath declined the Washington Examiner’s request for comment regarding the latest allegation.
“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,” McGrath said of previous accusations that allegedly occurred when the former president was much older and told women he was “David Cop-a-feel.”
“Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely,” McGrath added.
