Screenshot via Tucker Carlson Network
Former Access Hollywood correspondent and Today co-host Billy Bush opened up to Tucker Carlson about the infamous tape featuring President-elect Donald Trump that got Bush fired and he claimed he had “no recollection” of the most shared and condemned line from the recording.
Bush appeared on Carlson’s podcast this week ahead of the Jan. 13 premiere of his own show, Hot Mics with Billy Bush. The reporter chalked up his firing from NBC to the network’s “inner workings” and “politics,” arguing he’d ruffled some feathers when he moved from Access Hollywood to Today.
The infamous tape where Trump at one point brags about being able to “grab” women “by the pussy” was recorded all the way back in 2005 before it was released just weeks ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Bush told Carlson he was well aware of the tape when it was recorded and he’d told his bosses at the time about Trump’s comments about taking
“It’s unbelievable. I was playing catch up the whole time. I found out that the Access Hollywood bus tape was in the NBC News building by Matt Lauer. Matt Lauer came to me after I got off the air at The Today Show on a Tuesday morning and he said, hey, what are you going to do about the tape?” Bush said.
The interview with Trump was filmed as part of a cross country series for Access Hollywood that ran from Miami and then back to Los Angeles. The segment featured Bush accompanying Trump to the studio of Days of Our Lives where he was set to make an appearance. While the cameramen left the bus Bush and Trump were on to set up for an arriving shot, Trump started going off about women and appeared to reference Bush’s colleague Nancy O’Dell.
“The Donald at that point, while we’re waiting, he gets into his — what he likes to talk about and, you know, you don’t choose the agenda with Donald Trump. He talks at you. He started by talking about my co-host Nancy O’Dell, and he [says], you know, she’s so hot, whatever. I handled that beautifully, and he keeps going,” Bush said.
“I’m sorry, I’m just too amused,” a laughing Carlson replied.
Bush claimed
Bush said:
He just starts talking and talking and talking and everybody knows what he talked about, and then when we arrive for the shot, except for the end part, the most amazing thing about the whole famous line that starts with ‘grab’ — I just can’t even say it because it’s never funny to me, but the amazing part about all of that is I have no recollection, the first time I ever heard that was 2016, days before they fired me because I always remembered, for the personal connection, him talking about taking Nancy O’Dell furniture shopping and I thought, ‘oh my God, that is so funny.’
Bush added it all timed out horribly for him as cameras then caught him introducing actress Arianne Zucker to Trump and encouraging a hug.
“The whole thing lines up. It looks like I’m feeding this lovely damsel to this wolf after what has just been said, but nobody knows what’s just been said, and I don’t even recall hearing the thing,” he said. “I didn’t hear that until 11 years later. It’s just a giant shitshow.”
Watch above via The Tucker Carlson Show