Billy Bush Exits NBC; Trump's Comments About Ivanka
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Sources telling CNN at Billy Bush could be out at NBC by the end of the week. But while the morning news team may be getting ready to show him the door, the joke writers on the "Tonight Show" seem to be welcoming him with open arms.</s>JIMMY FALLON, "THE LATE SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": What is this thing here? A new national poll found that Democrats now have a significant lead over Republicans in the congressional races. Republicans said, and there's only one man to blame for this. And Donald Trump said, exactly, Billy Bush.</s>COSTELLO: Brian Stelter is following this story. And I'm not going to laugh because this man's going to lose his job and I guess a part of me is surprised by it and another part -- and a bigger part of me is not because what he -- what he did with Donald Trump was inexcusable, right? But, you tell me.</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a business calculation, isn't it?</s>COSTELLO: Yes.</s>STELTER: And it's the only logical business calculation for NBC given that Bush's reputation has been tarnished by this. It's been stained. And if you see him on the air, if he was to be on the show tomorrow, you would see him and all you would think about is Donald Trump. A person who is close to him, who spoke with him last night said, Billy Bush knows this is an unsurvivable perfect storm. There's no way for him to stay at NBC right now. But this is all about the election context, isn't it? This audio tape, this videotape that aired in 2005, the year it was taped, it would have been a very different reaction. It still would have been disturbing, it still would have been uncomfortable, but right now the election context is what's causing NBC to have him head toward the exit.</s>COSTELLO: Well, but let me ask you this because I never got the impression that the folks at NBC, especially on the "Today" show, were especially happy that he was coming to the show, especially during the Olympics, right? Billy Bush said that stuff about Ryan Lochte and he got into a fight with Al Roker and things were not all like fabulous between -- right?</s>STELTER: And that's always the factor. That's right. You know, morning TV, it's all about chemistry. There wasn't a lot of chemistry early on between Billy Bush and his colleagues. So that was sort of the subtext of this decision. He didn't have a lot of fans internally and he wasn't -- he wasn't established enough internally in order for anybody to be rooting for him to keep him there. So there's that -- there's that element as well. I think really it's a business calculation by NBC. The viewers might be turned off seeing him on the air. Meanwhile, of course, Donald Trump, you know, is -- is continuing to fight on. There's an interesting contrast between Bush and Trump in this situation. But, obviously, there's no business that Donald Trump reports to right now except sort of the voters.</s>COSTELLO: Brian Stelter, many thanks.</s>STELTER: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: OK, so she is Donald Trump's top surrogate. She's often in the spotlight. And she's even been praised by Hillary Clinton. But Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka, has been at the center of some uncomfortable moments with the candidate. Deborah Feyerick has more for you.</s>IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: Thank you, everyone.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump has every right to be proud of his daughter. Ivanka is a successful Ivy League educated businesswoman, author and mother. She's now helping run his campaign and introduced her father at the Republican Convention. Yet at times his fatherly praise is downright cringe-worthy, like on "The View" in 2006.</s>D. TRUMP: I said that if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her, you know.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it's so weird. Stop it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what you are --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Moving on.</s>FEYERICK: Far from protecting his daughter from being talked about as a sex object, he has encouraged it multiple times. On Howard Stern's radio show in 2004, and then again in 2006.</s>HOWARD STERN: And, by the way, your daughter --</s>D. TRUMP: She's beautiful.</s>STERN: Can I say this? A piece of ass.</s>D. TRUMP: Yes.</s>STERN: She looks more voluptuous than ever.</s>D. TRUMP: She's actually always been very voluptuous.</s>STERN: It's unbelievable.</s>D. TRUMP: She's tall. She's almost six feet tall.</s>FEYERICK: In May, Ivanka described herself as a feminist, while defending her father on CBS after a scathing "New York Times" article about his alleged negative treatment of women.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there unending commentary on the female form?</s>I. TRUMP: No. No. I've known my father obviously my whole life, and he has total respect for women.</s>WENDY WILLIAMS, TALK SHOW HOST: Please welcome the lovely Ivanka Trump.</s>FEYERICK: Still, even Ivanka seems confused when talk show host Wendy Williams asked about things the two have in common.</s>WILLIAMS: What's the favorite thing you have in common with your father?</s>I. TRUMP: Either real estate or golf.</s>WILLIAMS: Donald, with your daughter?</s>D. TRUMP: Well, I was going to say sex, but I can't relate that -- I can't relate that --</s>FEYERICK: Donald Trump has always been proud of his daughter.</s>I. TRUMP: I'd call collect to his office. I was probably, you know, ten years old. He would pick up the phone every single time. And he'd put me on speaker phone. Wouldn't be a long conversation. He'd introduce me to whoever was in his office.</s>FEYERICK: And he was front row which Ivanka took to the cat walk during her short-lived career as a fashion model. Still, Donald Trump repeatedly points out how hot his daughter is, saying last year in a "Rolling Stone" article, "yeah, she's really something and what a beauty that one. If I weren't happily married, and, you know, her father."</s>D. TRUMP: My daughter Ivanka.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is, yes.</s>D. TRUMP: She's six feet tall. She's got the best body.</s>STERN: Yes, she's hot.</s>FEYERICK: Ivanka continues to defend her father and has said he's not sexist. Earlier her Twitter account showed a little heart liking an article about her father's decade old comments to Howard Stern. The Trump campaign referred us to Ivanka's brand managers and a source there tells us it wasn't Ivanka herself who liked the article, it was a simple mistake by a staff member. CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for a response to the comments themselves. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.</s>COSTELLO: We'll be right back.