Here it comes

George HW Bush has issued a second apology after an actor accused him of sexual assault, in which a spokesman admitted the former president had “patted women’s rears”.

Bush issued an initial apology on Tuesday after Heather Lind, who starred in the AMC cable television network’s historical drama Turn: Washington’s Spies, accused the former US president of groping her as they posed for photos together with his wife and others during a promotional event for the show in 2014.

  Guardian

How long before these women get shut down? Because they will.

A spokesman for Bush, who is 93, said then: “President Bush would never – under any circumstance – intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humour offended Ms Lind.”

George HW Bush was CIA director under Ronald Reagan. They caused a lot of people distress.

Confined to a wheelchair, as Bush has been for about the past five years, “his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he take pictures”, McGrath said.

“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,” McGrath wrote. “To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.”

That may be true. But then maybe he needs a minder. Because, apparently, this is the "joke".

Meanwhile a second woman, actor Jordana Grolnick, told Deadspin a similar story.

[...]

“We all circled around him and [former first lady] Barbara for a photo, and I was right next to him,” she told the website. “He reached his right hand around to my behind, and as we smiled for the photo he asked the group, ‘Do you want to know who my favorite magician is?’ As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, ‘David Cop-a-Feel!’”

Grolnick said others in the room “laughed politely and out of discomfort,” while Barbara Bush “said something along the lines of, ‘He’s going to get himself put into jail!’ to which we laughed harder”.

Ha. Ha.

Trying to put people at ease.

Lind’s allegation first appeared in an Instagram post .

[...]

The Instagram post, since deleted, carried the #MeToo social media hashtag spawned by the recent outpouring of sexual assault and sexual harassment accusations leveled against former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Gee, I wonder what made her delete it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 10/26:  Yep, another one.