- Billy Bush made his debut as a contributor on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, where Watters joked about Bush potentially joining the Trump administration.
- Bush’s career was previously impacted by the release of the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape featuring him laughing along with President Donald Trump’s lewd remarks, leading to his departure from NBC’s Today show.
- Despite the controversy, Bush later apologized for his role in the conversation and made his return to television as a contributor on Fox News.
Fox News host Jesse Watters wasted little time welcoming the network’s latest hire Billy Bush to the organization by joking that the new contributor’s cable-news gig puts him one step closer to a job in the Trump administration.
Bush made his debut Tuesday on Jesse Watters Primetime, where Watters ribbed him about a possible future in Trumpworld. Bush played along, floating the Department of the Interior, currently headed by Doug Burgum, before joking about the White House press secretary job following Karoline Leavitt’s recent departure.
The exchange carried an obvious historical twist for Bush, whose career was upended in 2016 by the release of the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape featuring him laughing along with President Donald Trump during the then-future president’s lewd hot-mic remarks.
The previously unreleased recording’s public leak cost Bush his job at NBC’s Today, while Trump survived the political firestorm and went on to win the presidency.
Bush was working for Access Hollywood when he accompanied Trump during the 2005 recording. Trump, then the host of NBC’s The Apprentice, could be heard telling Bush: “When you’re a star… you can do anything. Grab ’em by the p*ssy.” Bush laughed along during the exchange.
The previously unaired footage emerged in October 2016, weeks before Trump faced Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. Bush, then a co-host of Today, subsequently lost his job. Trump apologized for the remarks but remained the Republican nominee.
Bush, the nephew of former President George H.W. Bush and cousin of former President George W. Bush, later apologized for his role in the conversation, saying he was “embarrassed and ashamed” and that he had been “younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along.”
In 2020, he called the encounter an “ugly moment” but said he did not remember hearing Trump’s most notorious remark when the conversation originally took place.
