Former television host Billy Bush recently made an appearance on an episode of “Hang Out with Sean Hannity,” where he dropped a bombshell about ABC News and its vendetta against President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. According to Bush, the news network had a whole “division” dedicated to “get” Trump.
“ABC News had a division. They had a division dedicated with 75 people in it — because I knew the guy who ran the division, which was dedicated to basically getting him,” Bush went on to tell podcast host Sean Hannity during their interview. Bush got swept up into the “Access Hollywood” tape that almost destroyed Trump’s first presidential campaign at the time.
Bush then recounted the very last meeting he had with then-NBC News chairman Andy Lack before Bush was booted from the Peacock network. “I said, ‘Andy, I understand what you want to do with this [the “Access Hollywood” footage] and why you want to weaponize this because there’s a debate on Sunday night, the second debate with Hillary and Donald,'” Bush stated.
“And sure enough, it was the first question to come out of Anderson Cooper’s mouth. He was the moderator,” he added. According to AOL, Bush then said, “This was it! This was – there has always been an ‘it’ to get Trump, but this was definitely it at the time,” he continued. “But I said, ‘Look, it’s wrong. I understand that you’ve got something here that you think is relevant, but it’s wrong. I mean, I chit-chat with Sean Hannity, you know, 15 minutes before we sit down for an interview.”
“The camera happens to be rolling. Whatever we talk about is not usable… that can’t be [weaponized] but this was a special circumstance because of who was running and how they felt about him,” he further explained. Bush was asked who was in charge of the division dedicated to taking down Trump, but he declined to identify the individual.
However, he did seemingly suggest the person no longer works for ABC News. ABC, which is owned by Disney, has had a very stormy relationship with the president. In 2017, the media company was forced to retract a report that alleged fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would testify that Trump ordered him to make contact with Russians about foreign policy while the president was still a candidate.
When the report hit, it caused massive shockwaves that led to the plummeting of the stock market and began talks about potentially impeaching Trump. Brian Ross, who worked as the network’s chief investigative correspondent and was responsible for the report, was later forced out of his position. Then, in December 2024, just a few short weeks before Trump was to be sworn into office, ABC News paid Trump a massive $16 million settlement.
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The settlement was the result of a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump earlier in the year for several comments made by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos had said, falsely, that Trump was “found liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll case. However, a civil jury ruled that he was liable for “sexual abuse.” ABC then put out an apology as part of the settlement, which was approved by former Disney CEO Bob Iger.
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