SAN DIEGO - Gubernatorial front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he has "behaved badly" to women and offered an apology Thursday.
Schwarzenegger's remarks, as he kicked off a four-day bus tour of the state in the final days of the recall campaign, came after a Los Angeles Times story published Thursday in which six women accused him of sexually harassing and groping them.
"When I am governor I want to prove to the women that I will be a champion for the women, a champion of the women," Schwarzenegger said at a rally in San Diego. "Now let's go from the dirty politics to the future of California."
The crowd of Schwarzenegger supporters interrupted him with cheers.
Schwarzenegger said: "Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people."
"Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologize because that's not what I'm trying to do," he said.
The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that six women it interviewed said the Republican actor touched them in a sexual manner without their consent on movie sets and in other settings. The Times said the unwanted fondling and groping allegedly occurred as far back as 1975 and as recently as 2000.
None of the women who spoke with the Times filed legal action against the actor. Two of the six were named.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh had denied the women's allegations in comments to the Times, saying the actor had not engaged in improper conduct toward women. Walsh said the claims were a political attack in the days leading up to the Oct. 7 recall election.
"We believe Democrats and others are using this to try to hurt Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign," Walsh said. "We believe that this is coming so close before the election, something that discourages good, hard-working, decent people from running for office."
In San Diego to kick off a weekend-long bus tour of the state, Schwarzenegger took the stage to chants of "Arnold, Arnold" and immediately addressed the Times story.
Without mentioning specifics, he admitted to wrongdoing and apologized.
"This morning they have begun with the tearing down ... I know, I know the people of California will see through this trash politics," he said.
"A lot of the stuff in the story is not true ... but I have to say that where there's smoke there's fire," he said.
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