Southwest passenger invokes Trump after groping charge

A man charged with groping a woman aboard a plane, who after being arrested cited US President Donald Trump’s past statements about women, appeared in federal court in New Mexico Tuesday. Bruce Alexander, 49, was arrested after a woman on Sunday accused him of twice grabbing her breast as they were seated on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Albuquerque. Alexander, a heavy equipment operator from Tampa, Florida, later told authorities: “The president of the United States said it’s OK to grab women by their private parts,” according to the court document. The White House had no immediate comment on Alexander’s statement. During the 2016 presidential campaign, a videotape surfaced of then-candidate Trump bragging about groping women. After it aired, Trump said in a video, “I said it, I was wrong and I apologize.”<br/>