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Former President George H.W. Bush Accused of Groping a 16-Year-Old
Former President George H.W. Bush has been accused of groping a 16-year-old girl in 2003 after five other women claimed the politician sexually assaulted them. Roslyn Corrigan says she was a teenager when the now-93-year-old grabbed her butt during an event in Texas.
“My initial reaction was absolute horror. I was really, really confused,” she tells TIME. “The first thing I did was look at my mom and, while he was still standing there, I didn’t say anything. What does a teenager say to the ex-president of the United States? Like, ‘Hey dude, you shouldn’t have touched me like that?’”
George H.W. Bush (left) in November 2003.
The president previously issued an apology on Wednesday, Oct. 25, after actress Heather Lind accused the Texas native of inappropriately touching her during an event in 2014. The retired father-of-six’s spokesperson, Jim McGrath, issued a statement to the Huffington Post.
“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 statement read. Bush’s apology came one day after Heather, 34, took to social media to share her story in a since-deleted Instagram post.
Heather Lind. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
According to Heather, the 41st POTUS “sexually assaulted” her during a photo op at a private screening of her AMC show, Turn: Washington’s Spies, in 2014. “He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side,” she claimed. “He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again. Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say ‘not again.’ His security guard told me that I shouldn’t have stood next to him for the photo.”
Heather continued, “We were instructed to call him Mr. President. It seems to me a President’s power is in his or her capacity to enact positive change, actually help people, and serve as a symbol of our democracy. He relinquished that power when he used it against me. … What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn’t so different from a President really. I can enact positive change. I can actually help people. 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. I can vote for a President, in part, by the nature of his or her character, knowing that his or her political decisions must necessarily stem from that character.”
At the end of her post, the Demolition star explained that her co-stars comforted her in the wake of Bush’s alleged behavior. She also added that she does “not respect [Bush].”
