Former Today Show host Billy Bush has been hired as a contributor at Fox News, returning to cable television a decade after his career collapsed over a leaked 2005 tape during which Donald Trump bantered with him about sexual assault.
Bush made his debut on Jesse Watters Primetime on Tuesday night and will appear across all Fox platforms, the network announced. In a statement released through Fox News Media, he said he was “excited to join FOX News Media and its loyal audience to share my perspective on the people, ideas and moments shaping today’s culture, as well as the ones trying to undo it!”
The move comes ten years after Bush lost his position as an anchor on NBC’s Today Show following the release of a three‑minute video recording. In the clip, captured on the set of Days of Our Lives while Bush was an anchor for Access Hollywood, Donald Trump made crude remarks about women and bragged about groping them. Bush was heard laughing at the comments. The tape was published by The Washington Post shortly before the 2016 presidential election. In 2023, a federal jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, awarding her nearly $90 million in damages, a verdict Trump is appealing.
Following the disclosure, Bush issued a statement saying he was embarrassed and ashamed of his conduct. In a 2017 essay in The New York Times, he addressed later reports that Trump had questioned the authenticity of the recording and directed comments toward women who had made allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump. Bush, 54, a nephew of former President George H.W. Bush and a cousin of former President George W. Bush, later hosted the syndicated program Extra for five years and launched the podcast Hot Mics With Billy Bush.
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