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George H.W. Bush offers actress non-apology for allegedly groping – Metro US

George H.W. Bush offers actress non-apology for allegedly groping

Bill Cosby. Harvey Weinstein. Roger Ailes. Ben Roethlisberger. Kobe Bryant. Clarence Thomas. Bill Clinton. Woody Allen. Tiger Woods. David Letterman. Ben Affleck. Add former president George H.W. Bush to the list of men in power who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

Actress Heather Lind posted on Instagram that the now-93-year-old groped her at a 2014 event in Houston. She has since deleted the post for as yet unknown reasons.

Lind described the event in her post writing that Bush touched her inappropriately while posing for a photo at a private screening of the AMC show “Turn: Washington’s Spies.”

George H.W. Bush - Credit: Reuters

“He sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo,” Lind wrote, according to a screenshot of her post. “He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side.”

Lind said Bush told her a dirty joke before touching her again and his wife Barbara Bush “rolled her eyes” at him, “as if to say ‘Not again.”

Lind said she decided to come forward now because of other women who have come forward. She added #metoo to her post.

The former president offered a non-apology but stopped short of an actual apology for the groping.

“President Bush would never — under any circumstance — intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind,” the representative said in a statement, Metro UK reported.

Lind said she was blamed for the groping at the time by one of Bush’s security guards who told her she should not have stood next to the former president for the photo, Vice reported.

“What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn’t so different from a president really,” Lind wrote. “I can be a symbol of my democracy. I can refuse to call him president and call out other abuses of power when I see them.”