ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos believes that former President Trump should be confronted about the results of the 2020 presidential election during his upcoming debate appearance. Stephanopoulos has previously criticized Trump's continued claims that the election was stolen from him, and he believes that CNN has a responsibility to challenge Trump on this issue.
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos has urged CNN to grill former President Trump about the results of the 2020 presidential election during the upcoming debate. Stephanopoulos, who is widely seen as a non-adversarial journalist for Biden, believes that confronting Trump on this issue is crucial for the sake of democracy.
"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," Stephanopoulos said following Trump's guilty verdict last month.
Stephanopoulos Urges CNN to Grill Trump on 2020 Election in Upcoming Debate
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. Those bedrock tenets of democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens."
Stephanopoulos's comments come as Trump has continued to make baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump's supporters have stormed the Capitol Building in an attempt to overturn the election results, and Trump himself has been impeached for inciting the insurrection.
Stephanopoulos Urges CNN to Grill Trump on 2020 Election in Upcoming Debate
Stephanopoulos believes that CNN has a responsibility to challenge Trump on these claims during the upcoming debate. "This is not a normal election year. This is not a normal candidate. And it's not a normal time for our democracy," Stephanopoulos said. "CNN has a responsibility to confront Trump on his lies about the election and to hold him accountable for his actions."
It remains to be seen whether CNN will take Stephanopoulos's advice. However, Stephanopoulos's comments are a reminder of the importance of challenging candidates on their claims, especially when those claims are based on falsehoods.
Stephanopoulos Urges CNN to Grill Trump on 2020 Election in Upcoming Debate
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 last month.
Stephanopoulos Urges CNN to Grill Trump on 2020 Election in Upcoming Debate
Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to President Bill Clinton, has had heated clashes with Republicans over their support for Trump.
Trump filed his own defamation lawsuit against Stephanopoulos and ABC for repeatedly claiming in his exchange with Mace that Trump was "found liable for rape" when Trump was actually found civilly liable for sexual abuse in the Carroll case.
Stephanopoulos also ignored the subject of Hunter Biden's laptop while moderating a Biden town hall in Oct. 2020.
