Billy Bush has confirmed that Donald Trump said ‘Grab ’em by the p***y’ during a 2005 Access Hollywood interview.
He says he would like to set Trump, who is engaging in ‘revisionist history’ by trying to convince people that he did not in fact utter the phrase, straight.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times, Bush writes: ‘Of course he said it.
‘And we laughed along, without a single doubt that this was hypothetical hot air from America’s highest-rated bloviator.’
Billy Bush (pictured with Donald Trump and Arianne Zucker on the set of Access Hollywood in 2005) has confirmed that Donald Trump did say ‘grab ’em by the p***y’ during an interview
Bush penned an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he wrote: ‘Of course he said it. And we laughed along, without a single doubt that this was hypothetical hot air from America’s highest-rated bloviator’
Bush writes that he had a change of heart about Trump after learning of the allegations of sexual misconduct against him. He continues: ‘This country is currently trying to reconcile itself to years of power abuse and sexual misconduct. Its leader is wantonly poking the bear’
But, Bush continues, he had a change of heart upon hearing the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against the current United States president.
He specifically references a report he read shortly after his ouster from NBC in which 20 women detailed their allegations.
He writes: ‘This country is currently trying to reconcile itself to years of power abuse and sexual misconduct.
‘Its leader is wantonly poking the bear.’
He continues: ‘To these women: I will never know the fear you felt or the frustration of being summarily dismissed and called a liar, but I do know a lot about the anguish of being inexorably linked to Donald Trump.
‘You have my respect and admiration. You are culture warriors at the forefront of necessary change.’
It has been a tumultuous year for the father-of-three after losing his hosting job on NBC’s Today after the now infamous p****gate scandal with Donald Trump first emerged.
He did manage to secure a reported $10million severance package from NBC in the wake of the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape.
Bush was recorded laughing along in a 2005 video as Trump – then a newly-wed businessman with no public political ambitions – told how he grabbed women ‘by the p****’.
He married Sydney Davis in April 1998 and as of September 2017 they are separated.
They have three children: Josie, 18, Mary, 16, and Lillie, 12.