Billy Bush says he flagged President Donald Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” interview back in 2005 but claims NBC executives ignored it to protect their “cash cow.”
During Thursday’s episode of the “Literally! With Rob Lowe” podcast, the television host said he raised concerns with a producer at the time because of a vulgar story Trump told about co-host Nancy O’Dell, which was caught on a hot mic.
While Trump’s crude remarks about grabbing women by the genitals are what dominated headlines when the tape surfaced weeks before the 2016 election, he also boasted in the audio about unsuccessfully trying to seduce O’Dell during a furniture shopping trip.
“The day of the filming in 2005, I called my producer [and] said, ‘You’re not gonna believe what Trump said. … He is going after Nancy,’” Bush recalled. “All I said was ‘Nancy O’Dell,’ because I didn’t hear the other stuff.”
Bush said he didn’t initially register Trump’s now-infamous line about how “when you’re a star” you can “do anything” to women but he was still shocked by the conversation.
“This is crazy. He’s done it again! The guy’s an animal!” he remembered telling his boss.
But his report went nowhere, something Bush blames on the blockbuster ratings of “The Apprentice” and Trump’s massive value to the network at the time.
“I report it, basically, to my superior. It sits in a desk forever because … had that tape leaked out when it actually occurred in 2005, I would’ve been fired for an entirely different reason: killing their cash cow,” he said.
“Trump was a protected, revered source,” Bush added. “He was a hundred million dollars in profit for NBC. He was the king of the ratings.”
When the tape emerged over a decade later following sexual misconduct allegations against Trump, it didn’t cost the then-candidate the election but did derail Bush’s career.
After being widely criticized for laughing at Trump’s comments during the interview when the audio went public in 2016, the TV personality was forced to resign from the “Today” show.
“We’ve learned later nothing takes him out,” Bush said, adding that at the time the thinking was, “Whoever’s the collateral damage around it, tough shit. The bigger mission is this man not becoming president.”
Bush told Lowe that getting ousted from NBC’s flagship morning show and losing that “huge paycheck” was a major low point for him.
“I did everything I could think of to keep myself from jumping off the building,” he told the “Parks and Rec” star.
While talking to Lowe, Bush maintained that Trump’s “grab ’em” comments didn’t even register during the noisy bus ride back in 2005.
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“The first time I actually hear that on a tape is sitting in the general manager’s office at the ‘Today’ show,” he said. “But, it’s the optics. … I [have] no recollection of those words ever being said until I listen to it Oct. 3, 2016, a month before the election — one month and two days before the second [presidential] debate when they’re rolling this thing out.”
