What Access Hollywood Left Out of Its Report on the Donald Trump, Billy Bush Tape

By Chris Ariens 

Access Hollywood found itself reporting on Access Hollywood tonight.

The NBC-owned syndicated led with a story explaining the logistics of a 2005 videotape in which Donald Trump crudely suggests, among other things, that he tried to have sex with former Access Hollywood co-host Nancy O’Dell, who is now co-host of Entertainment Tonight. “I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump says in the video, though off-camera, likely unaware he was being recorded.

It was left to former Today show anchor Natalie Morales, now co-host of Access Hollywood, to report the story.

Advertisement

What Access Hollywood didn’t show was Billy Bush‘s part in the crude banter, in which he says “Sheesh your girl’s hot as shit. The girl in the purple,” describing a Days of our Lives actress Trump was about to meet.

Why Access Hollywood left out the Bush portion is not known, but ep Rob Silverstein is known to be close to his former colleague, Bush, who effectively replaced Morales on the Today show when she replaced him on Access Hollywood.

Hours after the story broke Bush apologized. “I’m embarrassed and ashamed,” he said in part.

CNNMoney reports the show had been planning to air a story next week on the found videotape. Show producers were blindsided when the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold got a hold of a copy first.

The discovery of the videotape was also a story on all three evening newscasts tonight: CBS’s Major Garrett reported the story 3 minutes into the CBS Evening News, NBC’s Katy Tur reported it 6 minutes into Nightly News, and Tom Llamas reported on it 17 minutes into ABC’s World News Tonight.

Advertisement