If CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper listen to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, they will try to embarrass former President Trump on June 27 when they moderate his debate with a weak and confused President Biden.
A former soldier for the Clinton Mafia embedded at ABC News since President Bill I-Did-Not-Have-Sex-With-That-Woman-Miss Lewinsky Clinton left office in 2000, Stephanopoulos recently told CNN’s Abby Phillip that he would ask Trump one question, and if the former president didn’t answer it correctly, the debate would not continue.
That question: Who won the 2020 presidential election?
The Democrat torpedo also claimed that American “institutions” almost crumbled on January 6, 2021, the day of the mostly peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol that Democrats falsely call an “insurrection.”
Running Against Government
“It’s not just how close we came to watching our institutions crumble that day,” Stephanopoulos told Phillips. “The threat [from Trump] is real.”
The former Clinton torpedo was quite exercised that Trump, during a recent campaign stop in Las Vegas, called the mostly peaceful January 6 protestors “warriors who were somehow set up by the police.”
“He’s called them hostages,” Stephanopoulous whined. “He’s called them patriots. He’s promising to pardon them. He’s not promising to abide by the results of the next election. So, this … threat is very real right now.”
Stephanopoulos said Trump’s challenge to the election is “absolutely unprecedented.”
“We have never had a former president or a presidential candidate who refuses to accept the peaceful transfer of power, who refuses to say that he will abide by the Constitution, who’s been indicted and impeached for trying to block the peaceful transfer of power,” he continued.
Nor, before Hillary Clinton, had we had a presidential candidate who is married to a former president who was impeached for lying about sex with a White House intern. That, too, was “absolutely unprecedented” but anyway, Stephanopoulos elaborated:
That is something that is absolutely fundamental to our democracy. It’s one of the things that’s made our democracy work for over 250 years, the idea, the simple fact that the former president continues to lie about the last election, that he did whatever he could on that day to block the peaceful transfer of power is absolutely unprecedented in all of our history.
That is false. Hillary Clinton — who calls Trump “Hitler” — continues to lie about the 2016 election, as do many Democrats. She claims the election was “stolen.” As well, Clinton and her campaign staffers masterminded the Russian Collusion Hoax to defeat Trump. She too tried to block the “peaceful transfer of power” by orchestrating a massive hoax with the help of the FBI and the Obama administration. Joe Biden was vice president at the time.
Again, that was “absolutely unprecedented.”
One Question
Phillips observed that not accepting the 2020 election result is a “litmus test for how to be in MAGA world.” That invited Stephanopoulos to advise the debate moderators on how to approach Trump.
That “poses a test for all of us in journalism as well,” Stepanopoulos continued:
I’ve made it a point, if they will not accept those facts, I don’t go on to other issues. 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. If you can’t pass that fundamental threshold of saying, yes, the last election was not stolen to I will abide by the results of the next election, then I think that’s all voters and viewers need to know.
I don’t think if you’re willing to lie about something as big as that, why should anything else they want to talk about be given any credence?
And so Phillips tossed Stephanopoulos this slow ball:
“As a journalist, as an American, what do you think is the most important question that needs to be answered from both candidates?” she asked.
“Who won the last election?” he replied.
Phillip: Yes.
Stephanopoulos: Very simple.
Phillip: Yes, and —
Stephanopoulos: Who won the last election? Let’s discuss and debate.
Phillip: And we’ll see. I mean, look, it’s been asked by Donald Trump. He refuses to answer it correctly, but we’ll see what he does when he’s given that opportunity.
Stephanopoulos: In front of 140 million people. You know, it’s a little bit different on a stage like that.
Phillip: Yes.
Stephanopoulos: And when it’s an actual debate.
Phillip: Yes.
Stephanopoulos: But that’s a real test.
Legal Insurrection’s Mike LaChance offered a rejoinder for Trump: I’ll tell you what George, I’ll say Biden won the 2020 election fair and square if you admit that Democrats and almost everyone in your industry lied to the country for four years about me winning the 2016 election because of Russia. Do you admit it?
“Journalistic Malpractice”
During an interview last week, Stephanopoulos said much the same thing.
“I have long felt that Trump’s superpower is a lack of shame, and you see it when you know when he’ll be up on a town hall stage or a debate stage, or in an interview with a reporter, and he’ll say two plus two equals five, and he’ll get fact-checked and we’ll just keep barreling through,” Mediaite’s Aiden McLaughlin said.
Stephanpoulos said Trump’s putative falsehoods will “challenge” debate moderators, and that “it’s journalistic malpractice to do a live interview with President Trump on television.”
He also returned to that one question. “I, for one, don’t believe you can pretend that refusing to accept the 2020 election is on a par with other issues,” he said:
It’s as fundamental as it gets. Is that going to be put in the proper context in the debate? I think that’s one of the big questions.
Only certain falsehoods upset Stephanopoulos, a political hack who is not an honest journalist.
He did not quit the Clinton White House when Bill Clinton lied about having sex in the Oval Office with intern Monica Lewinsky.
Nor apparently, does Hillary Clinton’s Russia Collusion Hoax bother him.
H/T: Legal Insurrection, Fox News
