Seventh woman accuses George H.W. Bush of groping her — this time while he was president

(Image credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

published 16 November 2017

An unnamed woman accused former President George H.W. Bush of groping her during a photo-op at an event for his 1992 re-election campaign, CNN reported Thursday. The unnamed woman is the seventh woman to allege that the former president groped her while posing for a photo.

The unnamed woman, who asked not to be identified by CNN, said that she and her father were taking a picture with Bush at a campaign fundraiser in Dearborn, Michigan, when the then-president grabbed her rear. The woman said that at the time, she convinced herself the contact was "probably an accident," but said the stories from other women who claimed to have similar experiences with Bush convinced her to speak out.

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While Bush spokesman Jim McGrath declined to comment on this specific allegation, he dismissed a previous allegation of sexual harassment that occurred years later by saying that the former president's physical condition — he is confined to a wheelchair — made it so that "his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures." McGrath has also said that "on occasion, [Bush] has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner."

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Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.

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