Billy Bush is apparently looking to re-start his career in TV after being fired last year for his role in the infamous tape in which Donald Trump talked about sexual assault. Trump apologized and called the discussion locker room talk. Billy Bush also apologized but was fired a few days later from his job at NBC’s Today show. Over the weekend, Bush gave an interview to the Hollywood Reporter in which he said he should have changed the topic that day. He also says that he took Trump’s comments as an attempt to shock:

With Donald, there wasn’t much interaction. He sort of talks and performs, and everybody reacts. And the topics were usually golf, gossip or women. And boy, do I wish this was a golf day. But I always had a nervous energy through these situations because he also decided a lot of times from day to day, moment to moment, who he liked, who was in and who was out, and my job was to remain in. I needed to be in, or maybe I’d be out. So that was the Trump environment. Looking back on what was said on that bus, I wish I had changed the topic. I wish I had said: “Does anyone want water?” or “It looks like it’s gonna rain.” He liked TV and competition. I could’ve said, “Can you believe the ratings on whatever?” I didn’t have the strength of character to do it…

Had you heard him speak like that about women before?

I don’t recall anything to that degree. But he’s a provocateur. Shocking statements flow like wine from him. And he likes to captivate an audience…

Trump chalked it up to “locker-room banter.” Is that a fair characterization?

No. I’m in a lot of locker rooms, I am an athlete, and no, that is not the type of conversation that goes on or that I’ve participated in.

So is that seriously how Trump approaches women?

I felt that, in that moment, he was being typically Donald, which is performing and shocking. Almost like Andrew Dice Clay, the stand-up comedian: Does he really do the things that he’s saying or is that his act? And in Donald’s case, I equated it that way. When he said what he said, I’d like to think if I had thought for a minute that there was a grown man detailing his sexual assault strategy to me, I’d have called the FBI.

Bush’s claim that men never talk like this in locker rooms seems somewhat undercut by the fact that he was clearly egging Trump on during the conversation. He later had to explain to his 15-year-old daughter why he was laughing about all of the things being said. Bush now claims he was under to pressure to stay ‘in’ with Trump who was one of his main assignments at the time. I guess that makes sense but for someone who had never heard this kind of talk before he seemed pretty at ease with it.

I wonder if Anthony Weiner has given 2nd chances a bad name. I find myself just expecting this to go badly even though this has no connection to Weiner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo1868B0HN8