Billy Bush has very little to say to President Trump after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was leaked just weeks before the election, prompting his firing from NBC’s “Today.”
“I guess if the president of the United States calls, you take the call,” Bush responded when asked what he would say to the president if Trump called him after reading Bush’s interview in the Hollywood Reporter — his first since he was fired seven months ago.
“I would listen and say thank you,” he said.
Bush, who hasn’t spoken with Trump since before he announced his bid for president, said he wouldn’t ask Trump if he’s remorseful for making lewd comments about women.
“I’d just say thanks and move on. There is nothing I need from him,” he said.
He wishes he would have changed the topic to TV ratings, but he “didn’t have the strength of character to do it.”
Yet Bush doesn’t recall Trump making comments “to that degree” about women before a hot mic caught him making remarks about grabbing women “by the pussy” back in 2005, and he doubts Trump knew he was being recorded.
“I’ve done many interviews with him, and he always knew when the camera was on and when the camera was off because [he] changed. He was very aware of the camera,” Bush said. “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.”
