Thread by @MattNegrin

Today is a sobering day: the four-year anniversary of the Access Hollywood “pussy" tape. As I do every year, I will be live-tweeting the events of that day as they occurred.

It was a pristine, crisp autumn day. Not a cloud in the sky, the trees slowly shedding their summer green coats. It was a month before the 2016 presidential election, and we all wanted it to be over.

As usual, I was with POTUS. He was visiting a DC-area elementary school.

As we entered the school, POTUS was greeted by admiring teachers and students. He shook their hands and talked about the baseball playoffs.

At that very same moment, unbeknownst to us, David Fahrenthold entered the Washington Post building a few miles away and opened his email.

POTUS began reading to a small first-grade class from a children's book called "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen. As he finished the second chapter, my cell phone buzzed with a text from the DNI.

"Memo from natsec" it said.

And a follow-up: "Lewd Billy Bush tape to hit in US today"

I let POTUS get through chapter four before deciding he should know. If I let him finish the book we'd be here until 7pm. We didn't have the luxury of time. This was a different era: TikTok didn't exist. Vine did.

We had to be ready. I told a Secret Service agent to alert POTUS.

Inside the motorcade (also known as "The Beast" to people in DC who are savvy insiders) we discussed potential fallout. Our intel sources weren't certain but had a gut feeling. Already that morning they had confirmed that Russia was helping the Trump campaign. This was worse.

POTUS was known for being calm, cool, and collected. The kind of leadership you need to steer a nation through a crisis.

At 11:51 AM I got a call from the deputy managing editor of the Washington Post. They had the tape.

POTUS looked at me. "Holy fucking shit balls," he said.

Back at the White House, I pulled a few reporters into my office. People I could trust: Arianna Huffington, Jules Witcover, Ezra Klein

"This is off the record," I said

"On background," Ezra said

"Deep background," I countered

"Off background," said Arianna

This is Washington

12:23 PM, SitRoom. Essential staff only.

The Joint Chiefs monitoring Twitter and Facebook. POTUS sat at the head of the table, visibly rattled. He asked for an update.

"Fahrenthold is tightening the nut graf," General Dunford said, stone-faced.

They could launch at any moment.

Suddenly the room shook. Our phones had all buzzed at the same time. We looked down at them: a WaPo alert.

“Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005”

General Dunford pulled it up on the main screen.

“Jesus shit fucking christ balls,” POTUS said.

We listened as the voices of Donald Trump and Billy Bush played on the TV.

“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married.”

POTUS addressed the room. “What does ‘moved on her like a bitch’ mean?” he asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” Gen. Dunford replied.

Trump went on: "I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’”

POTUS asked: "What does 'I'll show you where they have some nice furniture' mea--"

“I don’t know, sir,” Gen. Dunford replied.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James looked POTUS with her classic emotionless face. "Awaiting your order," she said.

POTUS was frozen. Then he looked at me. We had talked about a situation like this before. He nodded.

I dialed my Code Red contact.

"Get me Cillizza," I said.

Just then the video arrived at the moment we knew would be immortalized in history.

Trump: “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

Bush: “Whatever you want."

Trump: “Grab them by the pussy.”

The room fell silent.

“Rewind that,” POTUS instructed.

There was no hot take that could save the country from this. Not Cillizza, not Todd, not the boy who hosted the CBS Evening News. The damage was catastrophic.

It was at 1:06 PM that POTUS took decisive action.

“Get The Beast ready,” he said. “We’re going to ground zero.”

I ran to the James Brady Briefing Room, named after Six Flags CEO James Brady in honor of President Bush's favorite amusement park, and announced that the press pool would be moving

"Where are we going?" asked Steve Holland

"To make history," I said

The press corps applauded.

I rode with the press to ground zero. They had a lot of questions.

“What did the president have for breakfast?” asked Mark Knoller.

“Does the president have any thoughts on the news?” asked Jeff Mason.

These were important questions but they would all be answered soon.

The news was playing the tape.

“I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”

In the car Brit Hume said “awooooogah.”

We were so fixated on the tape we didn’t look outside the window. But when I did I saw the streets were empty. Everyone in America was indoors, watching the video, over and over.

“We’re the only car on the street,” I said.

The reporters in the car applauded again.

When we arrived at ground zero POTUS had no fear. A man on a mission. He approached the rubble

“You’ll need this,” I said, handing him a megaphone.

“Brilliant,” POTUS said. “One day you‘ll need to reconstruct the events of this day in precise detail. This is the biggest detail”

POTUS held upthe megaphone up and said the words that would be etched into history. This was a with-us-or-against-us moment.

“My fellow Americans,” he said. “Holy mother fucking shit. Holy holy god shit fuck shit. God fucking damn. God damn. Fucking ass shit.”

The crowd cheered

News reports blared the Access Hollywood tape from every building in sight as POTUS spoke.

Bush: “Yes! The Donald has scored. Whoa, my man!”

Trump: “It’s always good if you don’t fall out of the bus. Like Ford, Gerald Ford, remember?”

POTUS: “Good fucking Christ shit fuck ass”

I interrupted POTUS briefly with an update. “Trump put out a statement. He said it was locker room talk.”

POTUS stared at me again. His eyes darted to the press, to the people waiting to hear the news, to the TVs all around playing the tape.

“What the fucking fuck,” POTUS said.

I rode with POTUS in The Beast on the way back to the White House. It was me, Axe, Valerie, and Kal Penn.

“We’re gonna find the bastards who did this,” POTUS said.

I pointed out that it was Trump who did it.

“That’s true,” POTUS said.

We rode the rest of the way in silence.

When we got back to 1600 (DC insider jargon for “the White House”), I pulled up Twitter. Cillizza had finally blasted out his take, but it was too late. Nothing could reverse what had been done. I knew we would never forget this day, 10/7, even after Trump lost the election.

POTUS summoned his advisers to the Oval. “This fucking shit,” POTUS said.

“Fuck,” said Axe.

“Jesus fuck,” said Favs.

“Fucking fuck,” said Kal Penn.

The TV played the tape.

Trump: “Ooh, nice legs, huh?”

Bush: “Oh, that’s good legs.“

“Fuuuuuuck, what the fuck,” we all said.

By late afternoon it already felt like a day had passed. We were exhausted. Running on adrenaline and the fury of a nation. POTUS knew the work was just beginning.

He turned to his assistant Reggie Love and said “get me some covfefe.”

I had a planned meeting with FBI Director James Comey to discuss our plans to rig the election and spy on the Trump campaign. At 3:39 PM Comey called my cell while I was in the Oval. I looked at POTUS.

“Not now,” POTUS said. “We’ll do deep state stuff after dinner.”

That was the feeling on 10/7 living through those harrowing hours in the corridors of power. I am honored and blessed to have served on that day alongside a POTUS who carried the grief of a nation and Kal Penn. RIP Billy Bush and may his memory be a blessing.