Left to right: Billy Bush, Donald Trump and Arianne Zucker
The Washington Post releases a videotape from a never-aired interview on the NBC show Access Hollywood that correspondent Billy Bush -- a cousin of then-President George W. Bush -- did of The Apprentice star Donald Trump in September 2005. On the tape, Trump and Bush are on a tour bus, outside the Hollywood studio where NBC taped the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Arianne Zucker, one of the show's stars, was waiting to greet them.
While waiting for the signal to get off the bus, Trump started talking about Bush's co-host on Access Hollywood, Nancy O'Dell:
I moved on her, and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, "I'll show you where they have some nice furniture." I took her out furniture -- I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn't get there. And she was married. Then, all of a sudden, I see her, she's now got the big phony tits and everything. She's totally changed her look.
That was bad enough. But there's a difference between sounding like a sexist pig who cheats on his wife, which Trump was already known to be; and sounding like a violent criminal. As they got ready to get off the bus, Trump started talking about Zucker, and then confessed to committing sexual assault on multiple occasions:
I better use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.
Zucker was also married at the time, to her co-star, Kyle Lowder. They have since divorced.
NBC kept the tape hidden, because Trump's reality show, The Apprentice, meant big ratings, and thus big money, for them. At the time, the tape would have destroyed Trump, and ruined the show.
But by the time the tape was released, Trump was the Republican nominee for President, running against a woman. It should have destroyed him.
Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Republicans' 2012 nominee for Vice President, canceled a campaign appearance with him set for the next day, saying in a released statement, "I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified."
In a televised interview, Senator Mike Lee of Utah directed these words at Trump: "Step down. Allow someone else to carry the banner of these principles, rather than weighing down the very principles that will help us win in November." And Republican National Committee Chairman Rance Preibus told Trump, "You need to step aside, or you are going to suffer a historic landslide of a defeat."
Trump released this statement: "This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course -- not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended."
Of course: The classic "if anyone was offended" apology, when he knew damn well that millions of people, including millions in his own Party, were offended. Equally "of course": "Whataboutism," bringing the opposition, and in particular his opponent's husband, the former President, into it.
Trump was lying, of course. There is no way in hell that Bill Clinton would say something worse than what Trump said. You gotta be an actual Ku Klux Klansman to say something worse than that.
Trump doubled down. In a televised interview that night, he said, "Bill Clinton has actually abused women. And Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims."
Bill Clinton is the most-investigated President in American history, much more so than Trump was while in office. There is no proof that Clinton has ever abused a woman.
Trump did not give a damn what the truth was. He knew that there were millions of people in America who would believe every word he said, because he had given them permission to be bigoted in public again, and they were grateful to him for this, to the point of near-worship. He also knew that there were millions of people in America who wanted tax cuts for the rich, deregulation of business, an end to civil rights progress, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and that they wanted these things so much, that they would vote for the Devil himself if he were the Republican nominee for President.
The one thing Trump believed could stop him is if he stopped himself. He saw dropping out of the race as a sign of weakness. And the appearance of weakness was the one thing he hated more than nonwhite people. So he made himself look defiant, bullish, strong, standing up to his enemies.
The RNC could have removed him from the ticket. They gambled that they had a better chance of winning with him than without him.
Trump's wife Melania said, "The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know." She added that she hoped "people will accept his apology, as I have." Only she knew for sure whether she was telling the truth at that moment.
Things actually got worse for Trump that day: U.S. intelligence agencies publicly accused the Russian government of using computer hacking to interfere with the U.S. election process. Trump had previously invited them to do it: At a news conference the preceding July 27, he said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
And, also on October 7, WikiLeaks -- run by convicted rapist Julian Assange, who had ties to Russia -- released thousands of private emails from inside the Clinton campaign. And that may have, literally, made all the difference in the world: It gave a little more life to Trump's claims of his opponent as "Crooked Hillary," even though there was nothing in the emails that suggested any criminal activity on her part. Clinton.
Two nights later, there was a Presidential debate, at Washington University in St. Louis, which had hosted such debates before. Trump not only invited, but held a press conference with, and seated in the front row of the debate, 3 women who had previously accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct: Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, all of whose accusations had been proven false. Interestingly, he did not invite Monica Lewinsky, whose story, which did not include any form of abuse on the President's part, was proven true. Or, if he did invite her, she turned him down.
The idea of putting those women in the front row was that Hillary would have seen them, been reminded of Bill's cheating on her, and been thrown off her game. She wasn't: As she did in the other 2 debates, she kicked his ass.
Nevertheless, Trump again reiterated his lies about Bill, and his lies about Hillary, and his lies about the Democrats, and his lies about himself. And the rubes bought it. As the historian Will Durant put it, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of them to be elected the leader of a country."
As a result of the tape being released, the only person who had to step down from any role was Billy Bush, who did nothing wrong -- except, I suppose, remain silent about the tape for 11 years. By 2016, he was a correspondent on NBC's The Today Show, and he had to resign that post. In 2019, he was back on the air, on another show-business-themed show, Extra! -- which had been on NBC, but had since moved to, of course, Fox.
*
October 7, 2016 was a Friday. The NBA and NHL seasons were about to start. There were 4 college football games:
* Number 3 Clemson beat Boston College, 56-10 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
* Number 19 Boise State beat New Mexico, 49-21 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
* Old Dominion beat the University of Massachusetts, 36-16 at S.B. Ballard Stadium in Norfolk, Virginia.
* And the University of Tulsa beat Southern Methodist (SMU), 43-40 at Skelly Field in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
And Major League Baseball had begun its Division Series:
* Both American League series were in Game 2. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 5-3 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The Jays completed the sweep 2 days later.
* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-0 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Corey Kluber (7 innings) and 2 relievers completed a 3-hit shutout. The Indians completed the sweep 3 days later, and beat the Jays for the Pennant.
* Both National League series were in Game 1. The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jon Lester pitched 8 innings of 5-hit shutout ball. The Cubs went on to win the series, 3 games to 1.
* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals, 4-3 at Nationals Park in Washington. Clayton Kershaw outpitched Max Scherzer. The series would go the full 5 games, before the Dodgers won it. The Cubs beat them for their 1st Pennant in 71 years, then beat the Indians for their 1st World Series win in 108 years.
