Trump rips Stephanopoulos ahead of Biden ABC interview

Former President Trump slammed ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos as the “the meanest and most vicious Interviewer out there” ahead of President Biden’s sit-down interview with him later Friday.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the ABC anchor “George Slopadopoulos” while dubbing his network “FAKE NEWS ABC, one of the worst and most vile Broadcasters in the business.”

The former president also noted that one of the network's former reporters, Brian Ross, was let go over erroneous details he reported at the time that there was supposed communication during the 2016 election between Russian officials and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“Now ABC, and Liddle’ George, a tiny, angry man, can make up for their past indiscretions and journalistic failures by doing a real interview with Crooked Joe, not a cut up promotion with only his few coherent answers released to the public,” Trump wrote. 

The former president has a history with Stephanopoulos and the network: He filed a defamation lawsuit against the two in March following an interview the ABC News anchor did with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), taking issue with Stephanopoulos's questioning saying that Trump had been found liable for rape in the E. Jean Carroll case, when Trump actually had been found liable of sexual abuse.

Biden is set to do an interview with Stephanopoulos that will air Friday evening as the president looks to assuage fears about his age and mental fitness following a disastrous debate performance last week. The ABC interview will be Biden’s first one since the debate. 

Still, several House Democrats and other members of the party have started to call on Biden to drop out of the race, raising questions over the path forward for the party ahead of their virtual roll to nominate their presidential candidate and next month’s Democratic National Convention.