Access Hollywood Tape Recorded

The Recording

On October 7, 2005, Donald Trump arrived at the set of the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives” for a cameo appearance. He was accompanied by Billy Bush, then a co-host of the NBC entertainment news show “Access Hollywood,” who was recording a segment about Trump’s visit. While the two men rode together on a bus to the set, their conversation was captured by a hot microphone.

In the recording, Trump described his approach to women in graphic terms. He boasted about kissing women without their consent, saying “I don’t even wait,” and described grabbing women by their genitals. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said. “You can do anything.” He also described a failed attempt to seduce a married woman, saying he had “moved on her like a bitch.”

Eleven Years in a Vault

The tape sat in NBC’s archives for more than a decade. It was recorded during a period when Trump’s star was rising rapidly thanks to The Apprentice, and the crude conversation was treated as unremarkable industry material at the time. Billy Bush laughed along with Trump’s remarks and encouraged the conversation.

The recording was discovered by a producer in the fall of 2016, during the final stretch of Trump’s presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton. The Washington Post obtained the tape and published it on October 7, 2016, exactly eleven years after it was recorded, sending shockwaves through the political world just two days before the second presidential debate.

Political Fallout

When the tape surfaced during the 2016 campaign, it triggered the most severe crisis of Trump’s candidacy. Dozens of Republican officials called on Trump to withdraw from the race. His running mate, Mike Pence, said he could not “condone” the remarks. Trump released a late-night video statement calling the conversation “locker room talk” and apologizing “if anyone was offended.”

At the second presidential debate on October 9, 2016, Trump dismissed the recording as a distraction and pivoted to attacking Bill Clinton’s treatment of women, a strategy he previewed by holding a press conference with several of Clinton’s accusers shortly before the debate. Despite predictions that the tape would end his candidacy, Trump survived the controversy and won the election one month later. Billy Bush, however, was fired from his position at the Today show.