Former NBC host Billy Bush finally spoke out about the 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which President Donald Trump made derogatory statements about women to Bush, speaking candidly about how the video affected his career in an interview Sunday.
Bush pointed to the “ironic” fact that he was dismissed from his position at NBC shortly after the tape was published in October, but Trump went on to win the White House, according interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I felt that, in that moment, he was being typically Donald, which is performing and shocking. Almost like Andrew Dice Clay, the stand-up comedian. Does he really do the things that he’s saying or is that his act?” Bush said. “And in Donald’s case, I equated it that way. When he said what he said, I’d like to think if I had thought for a minute that there was a grown man detailing his sexual assault strategy to me, I’d have called the FBI.”
Video footage captured Trump’s comments during a 2005 interview with Bush. The president made the comments before the interview began while the two were riding a bus to an event and discussing groping and kissing women.
Although the former host asserted that the president’s statements didn’t sound like “locker room talk,” as Trump suggested when the tape was leaked, Bush stated that he didn’t believe that Trump’s statements were accurate at the time.
“Shocking statements flow like wine from him,” Bush said about the president.
WATCH:
The dismissed NBC host took the time away from his work to reflect on his reaction to Trump’s statements and checked himself into a self-help retreat in California to explore why he didn’t change the subject of the conversation, according to the report.
“Looking back upon what was said on that bus, I wish I had changed the topic,” he said. “Trump liked TV and competition. I could’ve said, ‘Can you believe the ratings on whatever?’ But I didn’t have the strength of character to do it.”
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