Billy Bush reflects on Today Show, Access Hollywood, and Donald Trump

More than a year has transpired since Billy Bush disappeared from television as a part of NBC’s Today Show. Yet, we don’t think that anyone out there has forgotten the impact that he had on the Presidential Election and a now-infamous Access Hollywood tape that is still making waves. The aftermath to that tape led to him being fired, and until the past week or so he’s been missing in action.

However, some of the recent reports about President Trump denying the tape’s authenticity have led to Bush starting to emerge from hiding. He’s set to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and this weekend he published a lengthy op-ed in the New York Times explaining both his thinking on Trump’s newly reported comments and also his reflections on what happened both back in 2005 and over the past twelve months:

Was I acting out of self-interest? You bet I was. Was I alone? Far from it. With Mr. Trump’s outsized viewership back in 2005, everybody from Billy Bush on up to the top brass on the 52nd floor had to stroke the ego of the big cash cow along the way to higher earnings.

None of us were guilty of knowingly enabling our future president. But all of us were guilty of sacrificing a bit of ourselves in the name of success.

Ten years later, I did speak up. Soon after Mr. Trump declared his candidacy, I let it be known on “Access Hollywood Live” that I thought this was an absurd idea.

Are we getting closer to Billy Bush making a full-time return to television? For the time being it seems like that’s doubtful, if for no other reason than that we don’t quite know any executive that would want to handle what could still be a PR crisis. It’s one thing if his reaction to Trump’s infamous comments were just reports or allegations, but there’s something about hearing the audio that makes it all more real — regardless of whether or not someone may believe the tape’s authenticity. We are nonetheless curious to see if Bush has anything else interesting to say in his Late Show interview — if nothing else, hearing all sides can be important so long as they’re authentic. Also, as mentioned, the timing of Bush’s reentry into the headlines makes the appearance all the more noteworthy.

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