Billy Bush went onto The Today Show Friday and tried to “gotta hear both sides” the Ryan Lochte robbery saga. Unfortunately for Bush, Al Roker was also on The Today Show, and was having none of this bizarrely-crafted argument.
Basically, Bush doesn’t want to say that Lochte lied. Instead, his argument is that Lochte “embellished” his story, which is essentially a softer way of saying that Lochte lied about the details of the events leading up to the most bizarre story of the 2016 Olympics. But Roker wasn’t happy with the rope that Bush (and others) gave Lochte, so he decided to go on the attack, calling out Bush for not criticizing the American swimmer more harshly.
“He lied to you, he lied to Matt Lauer, lied to his mom,” Roker said. “He left his teammates hanging while he skedaddled.”
This was the point where Bush claims that Lochte lied about “some details,” which is an interesting way of looking at things when you remember that it was reportedly Lochte’s idea to fake the entire incident and one of his teammates released a statement which basically contradicted Lochte’s entire story.
Eventually, it gets to the point where Bush says Lochte’s biggest sin was lying to his mom, which is better than saying that Lochte “embellished” a story and included a “Dirty Harry moment.” For a more detailed look at the exchange, we turn to this Twitter video, which accurately sums the whole thing up:
And now, back to “Al Roker vs White Nonsense” #LyinRyan #LochteInAVaultOfWhiteFragility pic.twitter.com/YqZy4guIWN
— Alexander Hardy (@chrisalexander_) August 20, 2016
As for Bush, he took to Twitter after this exchange to apparently claim that he didn’t mean what he was saying because playing ‘devil’s advocate’ makes for better television or something.
https://twitter.com/billybush/status/766680527910891520
Apparently, in Billy Bush’s mind, having an honest conversation about the truth isn’t as interesting as sticking up for something you don’t really believe in.
(Via NBC)
