Billy Bush breaks his silence on that ‘Access Hollywood’ tape

Disgraced TV host Donald Trump became president.

“I will admit the irony is glaring. [Trump] has his process for his participation [in the tape], and I have mine. I had to turn this into a positive,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Sunday.

He also said he wished he had tried to change the subject when he was talking to Trump and the then-candidate started saying that he could do anything to women, even “grab ’em by the p—y,” because of his fame.

“Looking back on what was said on that bus, I wish I had changed the topic. I wish I had said: ‘Does anyone want water?’ or ‘It looks like it’s gonna rain.’ He liked TV and competition. I could’ve said, ‘Can you believe the ratings on whatever?’ I didn’t have the strength of character to do it.”

Also he does not agree with Trump’s excuse that the comments — which were recorded by “Access Hollywood” on a live mic on a bus in 2005 and revealed during the 2016 election — were just “locker room talk.”

“I‘m in a lot of locker rooms, I am an athlete, and no, that is not the type of conversation that goes on or that I’ve participated in,” Bush told the magazine.

Bush also said he’s not heard from Trump since the scandal, but that if the president asked him to do an interview, he would say no.

“I don’t think I’d interview Trump. It would be a spectacle,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “In television, we love a spectacle, but I’ve come too far and learned too much. There are others that I’d rather interview, like Emmanuel Macron of France.”