Despite gaffe, Billy deserves 2nd chance
It’s time to cut Billy Bush a break and allow him back into the celebrity TV fold.
The host lost his gig at the “Today” show after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was released last fall at the height of the presidential election.
Somehow Donald Trump was able to overcome the hideous comments and go on to win the White House. Yet, the guy heard giggling during the sexist exchange about grabbing women by their private parts remains shunned by society.
“I will admit the irony is glaring,” Bush told The Hollywood Reporter, breaking his silence about the scandal that has rocked his world.
He apparently has done some serious soul searching and walked on hot coals with spiritual guru Tony Robbins. He’s taken up yoga and meditation and checked himself into a Napa Valley healing retreat. This guy has done all any person could do to ask for forgiveness.
Let’s just remember, he didn’t harm anyone. He just showed lack of character with a reality TV star known for making comments to shock people a decade before the idea of a President Trump was even conceivable.
“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,” Bush told the magazine.
“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,” he added.
Bush claims NBC knew about the tape for a long time. However, he was only fired when the public turned on him. Clearly, the executives only cared about the inappropriate conversation when their bottom line could be damaged and not on the basis that it was wrong.
Politicians guilty of much worse have been given a second chance by TV executives and Bush should be no different. Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer got caught up in a hooker scandal — but he still landed his own show on CNN. Maybe it’s because he’s a Democrat that he is forgiven.
Bush has a very famous last name. His uncle — George H.W. Bush — is a former president. Perhaps if he was a Kennedy, America might be kinder. Or maybe if Trump lost the race women could forgive Billy.
We’ve always celebrated comeback kids and this guy deserves a second look. He said he didn’t “have the strength of character” to change the subject that day.
Maybe next time he will. If it’s true we learn from our mistakes, then Billy Bush should be allowed to rebound from this one, too. Because that mistake was a whopper.