Billy Bushis back on television and opening up about his firing fromTodayin 2016 over the notorious 2005 Access Hollywood tapeof him and PresidentDonald Trump.
“I was not prepared for what happened, because it happened, like so often things do these days, like that,” Bush, 47, toldGayle King. “Took the car to the airport, got on the plane, and boom.”
“And you knew there was a tape?” asked King, 64. Bush confirmed that “everyone at the network” knew of the tape’s existence.
“I was comfortable that it wasn’t going to be weaponized,” he added.
“Is that how you feel it was? Weaponized?” King asked.
“Oh, sure,” Bush said. “I got taken out, but I wasn’t the target.”
Bush told King that after the tape was released, he did not anticipate that he would be terminated fromTodayand was even assured his job was safe.
“I was told that, ‘You’re good. Don’t worry about it. It’s not you. You didn’t say anything,'” Bush said.
Gayle King and Billy Bush.CBS This Morning
“It was my first year as the co-host of the show,” he said of his life in 2005. “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.”
However, Bush said that he is “not angry” at Trump: “I mean, he was being him … I think part of that personality and character was why he was successful in a boardroom, making people fight over lemonade stands.”
Rob Kim/Getty
Returning to television after three years off the grid, Bush said he feels that he’s “picked up some missing elements in the last few years.”
“Like a deeper empathy, patience,” he told King. “I think people that I’m working with now would say, ‘Boy, he’s good to work with.’ Because I don’t freak out if something’s not right. I say, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’ll get better.”
Extraairs weekdays (check local listings).CBS This Morningairs from 7-9 a.m. ET on CBS.
source: people.com
