There is a pattern emerging of former President George H.W. Bush, a/k/a ‘David Cop-A-Feel’ being a serial groper. This time, it is a former Republican politician from Maine. From the Portland Press Herald:
A former Republican state Senate candidate from Standish has become the fourth woman to say she was groped by former President George H.W. Bush.
In 2006, Amanda Staples, who was 29 and running for the Kennebunkport area’s Senate seat, visited the former president at Walker’s Point when he “grabbed my butt and joked saying ‘Oh, I’m not THAT President,’ ” Staples wrote on Instagram alongside a picture of her standing next to Bush.
“I can only imagine how many women have had their butt grabbed in a photo op,” she added, noting that if she had a daughter “I’d never tell her to shrug it off because he was president.”
That’s right! Don’t shrug it off. There is no excuse. Amanda Staples has already made her Instagram account private, no doubt after a barrage of insults and excuses for ‘David Cop-A-Feel’ came rolling in, but you can see a screenshot of the photo she shared on Instagram at the Portland Press Herald link above. George H.W. Bush was not using a wheelchair at the time and is standing tall next to the former Republican state Senate candidate.
One gets the feeling he’s been getting away with this creepy behavior for a very long time.
Friday, Oct 27, 2017 · 6:39:39 PM +00:00 · Jen Hayden
Author Christina Baker Kline was the third woman to come forward. Her account:
Novelist Christina Baker Kline became the third woman this week to make such allegations, writing in Slate that Bush inappropriately touched her in April 2014 at a fundraiser for the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. While she was taking a picture with Bush at the event, Kline wrote, Bush asked: "You wanna know my favorite book?"
"Yes, what is it?" she recalled responding. According to her article:
"By now the photographer was readying the shot. 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. Instinctively, I swiped his hand away."
A friend of the Bush family, Kline said, later asked the best-selling author to be "discreet" about the incident.
Emphasis added. This is what enabling looks like.