Former “Today Show” co-host Billy Bush said he offered his former “Today” colleague Matt Lauer some words of encouragement after he was fired by NBC following sexual misconduct allegations in 2017 — even though Lauer previously chose to give Bush the cold shoulder after his hot mic scandal in 2016 with President Donald Trump got him fired from the network.
“He and I had a very stern conversation. I laid into him because I said to myself, ‘If I speak to him again I’m going to lay into him.’ And I did,” Bush told Rob Lowe on the season premiere of his “Literally! With Rob Lowe” podcast, which aired Thursday.
Bush, who now hosts his own “Hot Mic” podcast, recounted that fallout in detail for Lowe, revealing that Lauer phoned him seven months after NBC fired him over the leaked “Extra” tape from 2005 that saw the president discriminating women on mic. During that call, he expressed his disappointment with Lauer — who was still at “Today” — for not standing up for him and his character as the network weighed his dismissal.
Watch Bush’s full interview with Lowe below:
“Basically, I said in short, ‘I was at Access Hollywood for 15 years. I was the big cheese there, like you were the big cheese at the “Today Show.” Now, I know we’re dealing between a Cadillac and a jalopy, but nonetheless, I was the main man there,” Bush explained, saying that he felt the other male talent at the network was jealous that he was the younger, more vibrant energy and threatening member coming onto the team. “‘If a young guy who had joined us was a good guy, he’s a good guy and he’s helpful to the show and he’s good on air, he’s got everything that is good for the team.’”
Bush was booted from “Today” in October 2016 after the Washington Post released a 2005 clip of him and Trump, who was running for president at the time, having a crude conversation on a bus about the now-president saying women will let anything slide with him because he’s rich and famous.
“Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” Trump said in the video. In the same clip, Bush is heard saying actress and model Arianne Zucker “hot as s–t.” After the incident, Bush issued an apology, saying he was “younger, less mature and acted foolishly in playing along. I’m very sorry.”
He continued, saying that at one point it felt as if Lauer coddled his feelings by claiming he privately backed Bush to higher-ups during the entire ordeal.
“‘You could have stood up for me, have them suspend me, have them do whatever. But the blowing out of me and taking my entire livelihood and career and making me unemployable and just wiping me out for something that’s 11 years old, you should have stood up and you didn’t,’” Bush shared. “‘And you didn’t because you’re small and you didn’t want me around.’ I just laid into the guy, and he’s like, ‘No, no, no. I defended you in private.’ I’m like, ‘No, you didn’t. Get the hell out of here.’”
Bush then detailed that he gave Lauer a call himself when the longtime “Today” figure was fired in 2017 over alleged “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”
“So afterwards, when I got it all out. I called him like a few months later when he got fired and I said, ‘So how you doing? Here’s three books you want to read to help you start to get off your ass.”
By the end of it, Bush said he hopes no one listening thinks he has ill feelings.
“The good news is I hope I don’t come off as super bitter because the gift that came is the gift that’s behind me and doing what I authentically was meant to do,” Bush said, indicating the signage for his podcast. “I think if I was at ‘The Today Show’ and I was making $12 million a year or something, I still wouldn’t be fulfilled because I’d still be super safe. If you watch ‘GMA,’ you watch ‘Today Show,’ they can’t do anything — and the race is on. Whoever shrinks the slowest wins.”
