A third woman has now come forward with her accusation that former President George H.W. Bush had groped her.
In 2014, author Christina Baker Kline was invited to a fundraiser for the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy in Houston.
After a luncheon and having met former First Lady Barbara Bush, she and her husband then met the former president for a photo op. He told her that she was “beautiful” and she thanked him. After confirming with her that she was a writer, he then whispered, “You wanna know my favorite book?”
With “impeccable” comic timing, Bush reached his arm around her lower back, “squeezed [her] butt hard,” and answered “David Cop-A-Feel” as the photographer took the picture.
Afterwards, a woman who claimed to be a friend of the Bush family drove her and her husband back to their hotel. It wasn’t until they were in the car that Kline told her husband what had occurred.
Then this happened:
“Our driver, who was stopped at a light, sat there
for a moment, then leaned back and looked at us. ‘I do trust you will be … discreet.’
When Slate reached out for a comment from Bush, the former president’s spokesman responded with the same statement that had already been released:
“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.”
Earlier this week, two actresses came forward with similar allegations against Bush.
[image via Christina Baker Kline]