Billy Bush Says He Was Promised ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape Wouldn’t Be “Weaponized”: “I Got Taken Out”

Nearly three years after the Access Hollywood tape first surfaced, Billy Bush is returning to television, and he’s not doing so quietly. In a new interview with CBS This Morning‘s Gayle King, Bush discussed his October 2016 firing, as well as why he feels that the tape was “weaponized” against him. The new Extra host told King that “everybody at the network” knew about the Access Hollywood tape, and before it leaked, he was told that he was “good” and shouldn’t “worry about it.” Said Bush, “I got taken out, but I wasn’t the target.”

During their sit-down interview, Bush told King that he “was not prepared for what happened” with the tape because it happened so quickly. “It happened, like so often things do these days, like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Took the car to the airport, got on the plane, and boom.” King asked if he “knew that there was a tape,” and Bush insisted that it was common knowledge at NBC. “Everybody did,” said Bush (at which point King insisted that she didn’t know about it). “Oh, well, everybody at the network,” he added.

“I was comfortable that it wasn’t going to be weaponized,” Bush continued. “Is that how you feel it was? Weaponized?” asked King. “Oh, sure. Yeah. I got taken out, but I wasn’t the target,” he replied. Bush went on to say that the day the tape was released, he was told, “‘You’re good. Don’t worry about it. It’s not you. You didn’t say anything,'” but two days later, that changed. “Remember, it was leaked on a Friday,” said Bush. “And then Sunday morning, I walked out that door, right over there, with my bags to go back to work. And the driver said, ‘I’m sorry, they’ve canceled the car.’ I said, ‘Oh, that must be a mistake.’ I called my lawyer, and I said ‘Uh are we okay?’ And he said, ‘Nope.'”

Bush acknowledged that when he first interviewed Trump in 2005, he was “a very different guy.” Explained the host, “It was my first year as the co-host of the show. You know, you want people to like you, and you’re a little eager. I became a very different guy, so the guy that got fired, no question, was a very different guy.” King challenged him, asking if he felt that he “had to ‘go along to get along'” with Trump, and Bush admitted that he did. “Well, Trump’s the kinda guy who would say, you know, ‘Forget Billy Bush,'” he said. “And then, I might have gotten, ‘Hey, why did you lose Trump? He’s the biggest guest we ha–?’ I mean, there was always a little bit of — you’re a little anxious around him because you just want it to end well and get out.”

Watch a portion of Billy Bush’s interview with Gayle King in the clip above.

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