In rare interview, Steve Bannon recalls fallout from Donald Trump’s ‘Billy Bush weekend’ groping scandal

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was denied a cabinet position in Donald Trump’s White House because of his reaction to the infamous Access Hollywood video released just before last year’s election, the president’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, told CBS.

The leaked video featured a conversation between Trump, then a reality television star, and the show’s host, Billy Bush, talking in vulgar terms about women. Trump, whose wife was pregnant at the time, bragged about his celebrity status and how it allows him to “do anything” to women, even “grab them by the [expletive]”

Bannon, who was forced out of the White House last month, said in an excerpt from a soon-to-air 60 Minutes interview that the video’s release was a litmus test for Trump’s supporters. Christie apparently failed it when he came out four days after the video’s release and said, in a rare public rebuke of his friend of more than a decade, that he was “disturbed”, “disappointed” and “embarrassed” by the language Trump used.

“Christie, because of Billy Bush weekend, was not looked at for a cabinet position,” Bannon said. “I told him, ‘The plane leaves at 11 o’clock in the morning. If you’re on the plane, you’re on the team.’ Didn’t make the plane.”

Bannon’s assertion is the opposite of what Christie has said about his job prospects. Christie was the first Republican governor to endorse Trump and has been one of his most loyal supporters. He had been in contention to be Trump’s running mate but was passed over for Mike Pence. He then became a choice for attorney general, but that job went to former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

Christie has said that he was offered several positions but turned them all down because “he didn’t offer me a job that I thought was exciting enough for me to leave the governorship – and my family.”