Former president George H.W. Bush apologized after actress Heather Lind said that he groped her as they posed for a picture at an event a few years ago — and that first lady Barbara Bush saw it happen.
In a response to the allegations, which Lind detailed in a recent Instagram post that she has since deleted, the office of the former president said: ‘‘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.’’
Lind said the incident happened when she met Bush four years ago during a promotion of a historical television show she was working on. Lind played Anna Strong in AMC’s Revolutionary War-era drama, ‘‘Turn: Washington Spies,’’ which premiered in 2014. She said Bush ‘‘sexually assaulted’’ her as she stood next to him during a photo op.
‘‘He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, he touched me again,’’ Lind wrote in the lengthy Instagram post.
Lind said that Barbara Bush ‘‘rolled her eyes as if to say ‘not again’ ’’ when she saw what happened. Jim McGrath, spokesman for the 41st president, said the former first lady has no comment.
Lind also said that a security guard later told her that she shouldn’t have stood next to Bush.
The 34-year-old actress is the latest to accuse a prominent figure of inappropriate sexual conduct.
Dozens of actresses have gone public with allegations that disgraced Hollywood producer and former studio executive Harvey Weinstein either sexually harassed or assaulted them. Explosive reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed previously undisclosed allegations of harassment and criminal sexual abuse that spanned several years. The Washington Post found three more similar cases.
Millions of women and men have since taken to Facebook and Twitter, using #MeToo as they post their own experiences with sexual harassment or assault. Lind also used the hashtag on her Instagram post.
‘‘What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn’t so different from a president really,’’ she wrote. ‘‘I can enact positive change. I can refuse to call him president, and call out other abuses of power when I see them.’’
Lind said she decided to talk about the incident after seeing a photo of Bush and former president Barack Obama shaking hands at an event last weekend. The two, along with three other ex-presidents, appeared at a benefit concert Saturday in Texas to raise money for hurricane victims.
‘‘I found it disturbing because I recognize the respect ex-presidents are given for having served,’’ Lind said. ‘‘And I feel pride and reverence toward many of the men in the photo.’’
Lind’s manager did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
Washington Post
Moderate House speaker in Texas plans to retire
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’s moderate Republican House speaker abruptly announced his retirement Wednesday, clearing the way for the ruling GOP in the nation’s largest conservative state to lurch further to the right.
The departure of Joe Straus, 58, sent shockwaves through the Texas Capitol and removes a check on conservative Republicans such as Governor Greg Abbott, who had grown publicly critical of the House leader. Straus was best-known for thwarting a bathroom bill this year targeting transgender people that had been championed by groups on the far right. He also slowed Abbott’s proposed tax cuts, immigration crackdown, and taxpayer-funded vouchers for private and religious schools.
Straus bemoaned politics growing more ‘‘tribal and divisive’’ in a parting shot that echoed the forceful condemnation Republican US Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona gave the GOP in announcing his retirement Tuesday. Without him, Texas Republicans could embrace many policies that gave rise to President Trump.
‘‘Bread-and-butter issues that are important to people is what I want to continue to be talking about,’’ Straus told reporters in his Capitol office.
Straus is a friend of the Bush family who has remained a traditional business-friendly Republican while the Texas GOP has embraced social issues. One telling sign of his place in Texas Republican politics: Straus announced his retirement in Austin as Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick were set to appear with Trump at a Dallas fund-raiser.
Associated Press
Rule allowing small farmers to sue large firms is scuttled
After years of fighting for an Obama-era rule that would help farmers sue the mammoth companies they work for, advocacy groups for America’s small poultry, pork, and beef growers may have been dealt a final blow by the US Department of Agriculture.
The fight was about whether small farmers can sue if they feel they’ve been mistreated by big companies. Poultry farmers, for example, often get their chicks and feed from big meat producers, which in turn pay the farmer for the full-grown product. If a farmer wants to sue a company for retaliating against him because he complained about his contract — say, by sending him sick chicks or bad feed — the farmer needs to show the company’s actions hurt not only him, but the entire industry.
Under Barack Obama, that high bar would have been lowered. Under the interim final rule, a showing of harm to only one farmer would suffice to support a claim. The Trump administration last week threw out the Obama-era rule in a move hailed by lobbyists for the big agriculture companies.
“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am,’’ said Mike Weaver, a West Virginia poultry farmer and president of the Organization for Competitive Markets, who voted for Trump. “Rural America came out and supported the president, and if it weren’t for us, he wouldn’t be where he is now.
Bloomberg News
