ABC’s George Stephanopoulos lands crucial Biden interview, putting spotlight on his partisan past
ABC News' highly-anticipated sitdown with President Biden is putting a spotlight on George Stephanopoulos, the hyperpartisan anchor who was handpicked to conduct the interview.
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos landed President Biden's first interview since his disastrous debate performance, putting a spotlight on the longtime host's partisan past and recent on-air editorials.
Stephanopoulos’ ties to Democrats run deep; he rose to political prominence decades ago as a top aide in Bill Clinton’s White House.
In 1994, a New Republic feature headlined, "The Kids Are Alright: Well, sort of. In Praise of the Stephanopoulites," detailed Stephanopoulos’ close friendship with Ron Klain, who went on to be a longtime ally of Biden's.
His relationship with the Clintons became a sore spot during the 2016 presidential cycle, when Stephanopoulos was caught giving money to the Clinton Foundation and had to recuse himself from hosting primary debates.
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Stephanopoulos joined ABC after resigning from the Clinton White House shortly after the president's 1996 re-election. He swiftly rose through the ranks as an analyst and correspondent and now hosts "This Week" and "Good Morning America."
In 2018, Stephanpoulous' high-profile interview with former FBI Director James Comey, the first interview Comey gave since his abrupt firing by then-President Trump a year earlier, was heavily criticized for a massive editing job. The full transcript released by ABC News revealed it chose not to air several key moments during its Sunday night special, such as when Comey ripped former President Barack Obama.
In 2020, Stephanopoulos failed to ask then-candidate Biden about his son Hunter’s scandalous laptop during an ABC town hall in the days leading up to the presidential election.
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Earlier that year, Stephanopoulos was caught on camera making a throat-slash gesture as ABC cut away from then-President Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow taking questions from the press during coverage of Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial.
During the 2024 election cycle, Stephanopoulos ratcheted up his hostility towards Trump, sparring with several Republicans for vowing to support their party's presumptive nominee.
Last August on "Good Morning America," then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley irked Stephanopoulos for asserting that Biden would not finish his term in office.
"Excuse me, excuse me," Stephanopoulos interrupted. "How do you know Joe Biden's not going to finish his term? What is that based on?"
Stephanopoulos pushed back when Haley suggested everyone feels Biden is simply too old.
"What evidence you have that he's not going to finish the term? What Americans feel has no basis on whether he's going to finish his term or not," Stephanopoulos snapped at Haley.
Trump is currently suing Stephanopoulos for defamation after he said several times on air that the former president was "found liable for rape" when Trump was actually found civilly liable for sexual abuse in the Carroll case. ABC has stood by Stephanopoulos.
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In recent weeks, Stephanopoulos has gone viral for his dramatic anti-Trump monologues on ABC's "This Week."
"In 1774, John Adams said, ‘representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty.' Two hundred-fifty years later, the heart and lungs of liberty are facing what may be the ultimate stress test," Stephanopoulos said following Trump's guilty verdict in his New York criminal trial. "But for now, the New York jurors have already presented their fellow citizens with a choice: do we want to be represented, to be led for the first time in history by a convicted felon? That answer will come in November."
At the beginning of the trial in April, after listing all of Trump's other legal woes, Stephanopoulos told viewers, "It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But that is not what’s happening this election year."
Stephanopoulos continued spouting anti-Trump rhetoric on his recent book tour, declaring it's "journalistic malpractice" to interview Trump on live TV. He also insisted he would halt interviews with Republicans and refuse to discuss the issues concerning Americans if they don't accept the results of the 2020 election.
"I'm not going to participate in some kind of a sham where you somehow equate the legitimacy of an election or the peaceful transfer of power with a debate over tax cuts or environmental regulation," Stephanopoulos told CNN last month.
ABC News is set to air the full interview in a primetime special Friday night at 8 p.m. ET and will also release a transcript of the unedited interview.
Biden's shocking debate performance has become a political earthquake. Wide swaths of the liberal media are calling for him to withdraw from the presidential race, as well as an increasing number of Democratic lawmakers.
Both Biden and the White House have repeatedly insisted he is staying in the contest. The White House also denied multiple reports Wednesday that Biden told a key ally he was considering stepping aside.
ABC News didn't respond to a request for comment.