Billy Bush, the former Today cohost and Access Hollywood reporter who was fired after his hot-mic conversation with a pre-politics Donald Trump made headlines during the presidential campaign, has been booked as a guest on Monday night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
In the now infamous recording – which, according to reports, Trump recently suggested is a hoax – Bush is heard giggling over Trump’s p*ssy-grabbing comments.
Bush’s long-running stint on Access Hollywood ended in 2016 when he took a job as co-host of Today‘s third hour, a short-lived gig that came crashing down when the 2005 Trump recording surfaced.
Lest we forget, the recording featured Trump, then promoting Celebrity Apprentice, telling a snickering Bush about his attempts to seduce Access Hollywood co-host Nancy O’Dell. Trump said he “moved” on O’Dell and tried to “f*ck” her but she was married. Even more notoriously, Trump told Bush, “When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p*ssy.”
Even before the Access Hollywood scandal, Bush’s brief tenure at Today was rocky after his interview with a possibly drunk and definitely lying Ryan Lochte was criticized by, among others, Today‘s Al Roker. Matt Lauer then re-interviewed Lochte over the swimmer’s disputed claim that he had been robbed at gunpoint during the Rio Summer Olympics.
The Late Show booking couldn’t come at a more attention-getting time: Bush’s first time visit follows by four days the firing of Lauer from Today over multiple sexual harassment allegations.