A third woman has accused former President George H.W. Bush of groping her backside during a photo op.
Christina Baker Kline, a 1982 graduate of Bangor High School and author of “Orphan Train,” came forward with a detailed account of the incident in an article for Slate, an online news site, Thursday evening.
Kline was attending the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy fundraiser in 2014 when she and her husband were offered an opportunity to take a photograph with Bush, who was seated in his wheelchair.
[Second woman accuses George H.W. Bush of groping her at Maine theater]
“When it came time for my husband and me to be photographed with him, President Bush beckoned me close,” Kline said. “He cocked his head at me for a moment, then said, ‘You’re beautiful.’”
Kline then claims that Bush asked, “You wanna know my favorite book?”
“By now the photographer was readying the shot,” Kline said. “My husband stood on one side of the wheelchair, and I stood on the other. President Bush put his arm around me, low on my back. His comic timing was impeccable. ‘David Cop-a-feel,’ he said, and squeezed my butt, hard, just as the photographer snapped the photo.”
Kline also claims that a woman who introduced herself as a friend of the Bush family escorted Kline and her husband back to their hotel. As Kline told her husband about the unwanted advance from Bush, she says that the woman said, “I do trust you will be … discreet.”
[Actress Heather Lind accuses former President George H.W. Bush of groping her]
“Her comment wasn’t menacing,” Kline wrote. “But in that moment I thought: She has heard this before. The people around President Bush are accustomed to doing damage control. There must be many of us, I remember thinking. And now I know there are.”
Kline’s account is similar to that of actress Jordana Grolnick, who on Wednesday accused Bush of groping her at the Ogunquit Playhouse in 2016.
A spokesman for the former president released a statement Wednesday night apologizing for “inappropriate” behavior, according to The Washington Post.
“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 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,” the spokesman, Jim McGrath, said.
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