George Stephanopoulos is reportedly “defiant” and “humiliated” over ABC News’ decision to give a $15 million donation to Donald Trump’s presidential library and cover $1 million in legal expenses as part of a settlement in the defamation case he brought against the network.
The lawsuit stemmed from a March 2024 interview Stephanopoulos conducted with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in which he repeatedly said Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a civil suit brought by E. Jean Carroll. The problem? Trump was not liable of sexual assault – not rape – and new reporting suggests Stephanopoulos was well aware of that.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Victor Davis Hanson, author of The End of Everything, to discuss the allegation that Stephanopoulos was explicitly told not to use the word “rape” in regards to Trump and did it anyway.
The Report
On Saturday, ABC News’ parent company, Disney, reached a settlement agreement with Trump. It came in the wake of a judge refusing to delay the case and ruling Stephanopoulos would be subjected to a deposition. Additionally, ABC News and Stephanopoulos would have to turn over scores of internal communications as part of the discovery process.
Megyn speculated on Monday that the network was concerned about embarrassing information that could be revealed in that process and decided to cut its losses instead – and new reporting suggests she was onto something.
According to The New York Post, two network sourced confirmed Stephanopoulos was repeatedly told by his executive producer to not use the word “rape” while discussing Trump. “This Week producer said ‘don’t use the word rape’ before the segment started,” a source told The Post. “The EP [executive producer] said it so many times.”
What It Means
ABC News has denied the report in a statement to CNN, but Megyn said media organizations “lie through their teeth all the time.” If The Post’s sources are correct, she said the media complaints about the settlement must end.
“If that is true, I don’t want to hear one more word from anybody about ‘why did ABC News settle,'” Megyn noted. “People think they had a shot at winning. First of all, they didn’t because it is very clear he wasn’t found liable for rape. But second of all, you’ve got the EP saying ‘I told him not to do it’ and he insisted on doing it 10 times in one segment.”
Hanson said the settlement is the cost of doing business for “these big corporations” like Disney who don’t want their inner workings made public, but he said the situation with Stephanopoulos poses an interesting question. “If you really believe that you had warned him… why didn’t you just fire him and say, ‘We are not responsible,” he asked. “And the answer is, they just gave him a $20 million, multi-year contract.”
In his view, ABC News has made clear where it stands on the issue. “What they are basically saying is we would rather have this pathological liar be our representative because we don’t have anybody else in the morning and he gets us ratings,” Hanson explained. “Even though we pay him $20 million, we’ll pay the $15 million… And we don’t really care.”
If nothing else, Megyn said the ABC News audience now knows what they are getting from the Good Morning America and This Week anchor. “To me, it just shows the depths of hatred, like Fani Willis, that George Stephanopoulos has for Trump,” she concluded.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Hanson by tuning in to episode 970 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.