Back in 2005, Donald Trump was riding aboard a bus with then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush en route to the set of the soap opera Days of Our Lives, on which Trump was scheduled to make a cameo. And in audio obtained by The Washington Post and released Friday, Trump apparently carried on quite a vulgar conversation with Bush, discussing a failed attempt to seduce an unnamed woman before launching into an extremely lewd description of romance while famous.

"I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it," Trump says of the unnamed woman, apparently caught on a hot microphone while aboard the bus. "I did try and f--k her. She was married. ... I moved on her like a b---h, but I couldn't get there." Trump then goes on to insult the woman's physical appearance before Bush cuts in, saying, "Sheesh, your girl's hot at s--t!" apparently referring to actress Arianne Zucker, who was waiting to greet the men when they arrived to the soap's set.

"I better use some Tic Tacs in case I start kissing her," Trump says, with the sound of mints rattling in a box audible in the background. "I'm automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. ... And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab them by the p---y." The audio was apparently recorded in September 2005; in January of that year, Trump married his third wife, Melania.

In a statement Friday, Trump dismissed the conversation with Bush as "locker room banter," adding: "Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course. I apologize if anyone was offended." The Post released the video footage where the audio was captured, which shows the Access Hollywood bus rolling into the lot and Trump and Bush exiting it and being greeted by Zucker — watch the whole thing here. Kimberly Alters

In a private call with his fellow Republican lawmakers, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday that he won't sign off on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) attempt to pass larger COVID-19 pandemic stimulus payments by unanimous consent, an anonymous source who participated in the call told Bloomberg. Politico confirmed the news, as well.

President Trump said Tuesday that he wans individuals to receive $2,000 direct payments rather than the $600 allocated in Congress' recently-passed $900 billion coronavirus relief bill or else he may veto the package when it gets to his desk later in the week.

In response, Pelosi suggested House and Senate Democrats were ready to pass the increase quickly, but it appears the GOP isn't on board. Read more at Bloomberg. Tim O'Donnell

President Trump on Wednesday vetoed the annual defense spending bill, a $741 billion package that includes a 3 percent pay raise for U.S. troops. Both houses of Congress are expected to retain the two-thirds majority that originally passed the bill, likely ensuring the first successful veto override of Trump's tenure in the White House, although some Republicans have indicated they'll vote against an override.

The president had previously made no secret of his distaste for the bill and promised to veto it. He raised objections over language that allows the renaming of military bases like Fort Benning and Fort Hood that honor Confederate leaders and places limits on troop reductions in Germany, South Korea, and Afghanistan. He also complained that the bill does not include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives technology platforms like Facebook and Twitter liability protection for content posted by third parties on their websites.

Trump also claimed that China will "love" the bill — even though there are several provisions focused on deterring Beijing included — because it does not greenlight a 5G development project by Ligado, The Washington Post notes. Read more at The Washington Post and The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell

Attorney General William Barr announced his resignation earlier this month, but Wednesday officially marks his final day on the job. In a farewell message, Barr thanked the Justice Department staff and said "it has been a great honor" to serve in the role for a second time (he was previously President George H.W. Bush's attorney general).

Barr was long considered one of President Trump's closest allies, but a rift seemingly grew between the two in recent weeks after Barr didn't buy into Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election and said his department found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Since then, per The New York Times, Barr has reportedly told associates he's been alarmed by Trump's behavior in recent weeks, and the Times also reports the president's most recent slate of controversial pardons appear to have bypassed the traditional Justice Department review process, which would likely have found that more than half of the cases did not meet its standards. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

The NBA's plan to restart the 2019-20 season, which went on hiatus for several months because of the coronavirus pandemic, in a bubble environment in Orlando went as well as anyone could have hoped. For nearly two months, there wasn't a single COVID-19 case, and only one player was sent home for breaking protocol. But the league decided not to run the strategy back for the 2020-21 season, which tipped off Tuesday night. The decision is certainly understandable — having playoff teams spend several weeks living at a resort is different than playing an entire season in a bubble — but that doesn't mean it will be easy, and the Houston Rockets are proof.

On Tuesday, ESPN reported that several Rockets players, including John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, were sent home ahead of their opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of COVID-19 contact tracing, and the Rockets and the NBA are also reportedly reviewing video which purportedly shows Houston's disgruntled star James Harden partying at a club without a mask this week.

Wall, Cousins, and Kenyon Martin Jr. were reportedly among a group of teammates who got haircuts at an apartment together. It appears Martin was the player to receive a positive test result. Cousins and Wall have tested negative for the virus, and the team is reportedly waiting on further results on Martin, so it's not entirely out of the question they'll be able to play. But as things stand, the group is expected to miss the game, and a cancellation isn't out of the question.

MLB did not utilize a bubble this year, and despite some hiccups it completed its shortened season relatively smoothly. The NFL has likewise gone bubble-less and mostly made things work, so there's no reason to believe the NBA can't pull it off. But the simplicity of the bubble is a thing of the past. Tim O'Donnell

Attorneys Tom Clare and Megan Meier from Clare Lock LLP, a law firm that specializes in defamation cases, sent letters on Wednesday to President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and White House counsel Pat Cipollone warning them of "imminent" legal action on behalf of Dominion Voting Systems, CNN reports.

Giuliani and Cipollone were also reportedly told to preserve all documents related to Dominion, which has been at the heart of presidential election vote rigging conspiracy theories. The request was vast and reportedly includes records of communications between Trump and any White House employee with Rudy Giuliani, or attorneys Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Lin Wood. Ellis and Giuliani have worked on the Trump campaign's longshot effort to overturn the presidential election results in an official capacity, while Powell and Wood have technically done so independently.

Separately on Wednesday, a Dominion executive filed a defamation lawsuit against the Trump campaign and several conservative media personalities and outlets. And CNN reported last week that the campaign's legal team was already instructing staffers to hold on to documents related to Dominion and Powell in anticipation of legal action.

There is no evidence to support the claims by Trump allies about Dominion, or any widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Read more at CNN. Tim O'Donnell

Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo likely thought she got an unusually transparent guest in Smithfield Foods' new CEO Dennis Organ on Wednesday morning. But what neither she nor anyone at Fox Business seemed to know was that Organ was actually animal activist Matt Johnson, disguising criticism of Smithfield under a layer of self-described "transparency" and a relentlessly positive tone that's the hallmark of C-suiters everywhere.

Johnson started out the interview with pretty convincing impersonation of a big-name CEO, thanking the U.S. government for prioritizing food workers for COVID-19 vaccinations. But then Johnson started sliding in some harsh criticisms of Smithfield that no self-preserving executive would dare mention. For example, while Johnson said the company had been providing employees with "extensive" PPE and paid leave, he then took a shot at Smithfield, saying "those steps have unfortunately been insufficient."

Johnson went on to say that "under my leadership," Smithfield would provide "transparency" and "brutal honesty," hence his following wave of criticisms."Our industry poses a serious threat in effectively bringing on the next pandemic," while "hog farming causes immense harm to our air and waterways," Johnson said, as Bartiromo seemingly agreed with him and then asked about Chinese influence over the company.

The activist group Direct Action Now soon took credit for the appearance, which was all meant to highlight how Smithfield and other companies' meatpacking plants had turned into coronavirus hotspots amid the pandemic. At the end of the show, Bartiromo acknowledged that the show discovered it had been "punked," and that Johnson had no affiliation with Smithfield. Kathryn Krawczyk

Editor's note: This post has been updated to reflect that Fox Business recognized the mistake later in the show. Kathryn Krawczyk