Billy Bush Slams Trump’s Attempt to Deny “Hot Mic” Lewd Comments in 2005
It was Billy Bush who, in 2005 over a “hot mic” ( a microphone inadvertently left on), was bantering with Donald Trump in what the Washington Post said was “an extremely lewd conversation about women.” (Source: Fahrenthold, D.A., “Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005,” The Washington Post, October 8, 2016.) The incident occurred when Billy Bush was at Access Hollywood. And when it surfaced, the intended target was Trump just a month before the 2016 vote.
His cousin George Prescott Bush may have chosen to take up the family business, but Billy Bush wants to stay in entertainment. Billy Bush is the nephew of former President George H.W. Bush. He’s hosted radio shows and was a correspondent for Access Hollywood (2001-2004), becoming its primary anchor before moving on to the Today Show. Unlike some of the other Bush family members, Billy Bush had a chance to enjoy more cordial relations with Donald Trump, now President Trump.
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Perhaps, to avoid tainting his cousin’s (and who knows how many other family members) political career, Bush has decided to establish more distance between his Access Hollywood locker room agreeableness and his family’s political legacy. In an op-ed piece featured in the prim and proper New York Times, Bush himself confirmed that the recording, the object of the “lewd conversation,” is true. President Trump had tried to portray it as fake. (Source: Billy Bush: Yes, Donald Trump, You Said That, The New York Times, December 3, 2017.)
Billy Bush Believes Misconduct Allegations Against Trump
Bush says he believes the accusations of sexual misconduct that many women out forth against Trump. The times are in little Billy Bush’s favor. The Harvey Weinstein scandal last October has triggered an avalanche of sexual abuse or harassment cases in the United States and beyond. It’s in this context that Billy Bush noted that “President Trump is currently indulging in some revisionist history…telling allies…that the voice on the tape is not his.” (Source: Ibid.)
Apparently, this has hit a nerve with Billy, and the NYT op-ed is the result.
Bush, who admits that Trump was the biggest star on NBC as host of The Apprentice, said that playing him up got him promoted and better paid. Why, NBC even paid for his moving van from Los Angeles to New York. It’s hard to believe that Billy Bush’s cousin was none other than President of the United States at the time. You would think he could afford a moving van.
But, Bush has taken the opportunity to deliver some mainstream soundbites to distance himself—and even more importantly, his political dynasty-inclined family—from Trump. Billy Bush cites examples of Trump’s trash talk from 2005 as having convinced him that Trump was not a worthy candidate for the office of the Presidency.
Meanwhile, the good news is that though he was fired from his show, Bush doesn’t need fame to “know God” and he’s also a better father to his teenage daughters. (Source: Ibid.) It sounds like another Bush will run for political office, somewhere in the U.S., and sometime soon.
