ABC News host George Stephanopoulos slammed Donald Trump this weekend over the embattled ex-president’s spate of legal problems ahead of the 2024 general election, RadarOnline.com can report.
Stephanopoulos targeted Trump during Sunday morning’s episode of This Week.
While the ABC News host devoted a large portion of Sunday’s show to the onslaught of civil and criminal cases against ex-President Trump, Stephanopoulos also highlighted how it was not “normal” for a prospective presidential nominee to be dogged by such legal problems just months before an election.
“Until now, no American president had ever faced a criminal trial,” the This Week host charged on Sunday morning. “No American president had ever faced a criminal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents.”
“No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime,” Stephanopoulos continued. “No American president has faced hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for business fraud, defamation, and sexual abuse.”
“Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined by what’s happening in courtrooms than by what’s happening on the campaign trail.”
Stephanopoulos went on to emphasize the “staggering abnormality” of Trump’s legal situation. The ABC News host also contrasted the backdrop of Trump’s legal predicaments to the state of the country during the Civil War.
“The scale of the abnormality is so staggering, that it can actually become numbing,” Stephanopoulos continued over the weekend. “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,” he charged further. “Those bedrock tenants 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.”
Meanwhile, Stephanopoulos’ blistering remarks against Trump on Sunday morning’s episode of This Week came as a new CNN poll found the embattled ex-president leading President Joe Biden by a six-point margin in a hypothetical race for the White House.
According to CNN’s newest poll, Trump led Biden 49% to 43%. Trump also led Biden 42% to 33% when independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein were added into the equation.
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Stephanopoulos’ comments about Trump’s legal woes this weekend also came one month after the ex-president filed a defamation lawsuit against the ABC News host.
Trump’s lawsuit charged that Stephanopoulos made “intentionally false and defamatory” comments when Stephanopoulos said that Trump was found liable for raping accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Trump's legal team also argued that Stephanopoulos knowingly misrepresented the facts because the jury in the civil case technically did not find the ex-president liable for rape.
“The jury expressly found that Plaintiff did not commit rape and, as demonstrated below, Defendant George Stephanopoulos was aware of the jury’s finding in this regard yet still falsely stated otherwise,” Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Stephanopoulos read.
