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Former NBC host Billy Bush on "The Late Show."
- Former NBC host Billy Bush sat down with Stephen Colbert in his first public appearance since being fired over a year ago.
- Bush condemned President Trump for reportedly claiming that the voice on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape isn't his.
Former NBC host Billy Bush made his first late-night appearance since being fired over a year ago, chatting with Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show" Monday night.
Bush addressed the reports that Trump is denying his voice is in the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that leaked prior to the election last year, which resulted in NBC firing Bush. An anonymous source told The New York Times last week that, in January, Trump mentioned he had doubts about the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape, and reportedly told a Republican senator, "We don't think that was my voice."
"Last week, for some reason, he came out with 'That's not my voice on the tape,'" Bush told Colbert. "Like I said, you can't say that. That is your voice. I was there, you were there, that is your voice on the tape."
Bush said that when he was filming the "Access Hollywood" segment with Trump back in 2005, he was unaware that there was any truth to what he was saying, and assumed that he was just putting on a "crass stand-up act" for him and his crew.
"If I had thought there was a man detailing a sexual assault strategy to me, I would have called the F.B.I., not just reported it to my executive producer," Bush said.
Bush also brought up the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
"As I read these I said 20 women don't get together and say, 'You know what would be fun? Let's take down a powerful guy together.' No, they don't. [Trump is] opening wounds on them, too. Enough's enough. Stop playing around with people's lives," said Bush.
When Colbert asked what Bush thought of the recent cultural shift and the notion that women need to be believed, Bush agreed, saying that "Women must be believed."
In addition to speaking with Colbert, Bush also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday, condemning Trump for his reported comments on the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape.
"To these women: I will never know the fear you felt or the frustration of being summarily dismissed and called a liar, but I do know a lot about the anguish of being inexorably linked to Donald Trump," Bush wrote. "You have my respect and admiration. You are culture warriors at the forefront of necessary change."
You can watch the full interview here: