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Billy Bush tells Colbert it was Donald Trump's voice on 'Access Hollywood' tape

The former 'Access Hollywood' anchor rejects any effort by president to suggest he didn't make groping remarks, expresses admiration for his accusers.
Former 'Access Hollywood' and 'Today' host Billy Bush, left, talks to Stephen Colbert Monday on CBS' 'The Late Show.'

President Trump may have suggested it isn't his voice in the explosive Access Hollywood recording that threatened his 2016 presidential candidacy, but Billy Bush, who was with him at the time, isn't having it.

During a Monday taping of CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Bush, who was with Trump on a bus in 2005 when he uttered crude comments about being able to grope women, rejected any effort by the president to say it wasn't him speaking, as The New York Times reported last week.

"You can't say that. That is your voice. I was there. You were there. That's your voice on the tape," Bush said as if he were speaking to the president.

More: Billy Bush begins comeback tour with 'Trump said it' op-ed, Stephen Colbert visit

Bush, a former Access Hollywood correspondent and anchor, was making his first late-night appearance since he departed NBC's Today show shortly after the Access recording became public in October 2016.

During the visit, he reiterated statements he made in an opinion piece printed in Monday's New York Times, including an expression of admiration for women who have come forth to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct.

"I will never know the fear you felt or the frustration of being summarily dismissed and called a liar, but I do know a lot about the anguish of being inexorably linked to Donald Trump. You have my respect and admiration," he wrote in the Times.


Despite apologizing for making crude remarks about grabbing women years ago, President Trump is now reportedly questioning the authenticity of the leaked 'Access Hollywood' tape, and Billy Bush isn't having it. USA TODAY
On the Late Show, Bush told Colbert that the number of women accusing Trump and their stories made a strong impression on him.

"As I read (their accounts), I said (16) women don't get together and say, 'Hey, you know what would be really fun? Let's take down a powerful guy, ha ha.' No, they don't," he told Colbert. "And I said, 'OK, you're reopening wounds on them, too. Enough's enough. Stop playing around with people's lives.' That upset me."

The Late Show runs weeknights at 11:35 ET/PT on CBS.

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