Embattled ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos has a friend in Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fl.
Rubio said in a recent interview that he’s “never had any reason” to doubt Stephanopoulos as a fair interviewer.
“I feel that George Stephanopoulos has been fair to us in the past,” Rubio told the Marietta Daily Journal, a Georgia newspaper. “I personally have never had a negative interaction with him or the feeling that he’s asked me anything unfair or improper. That said, obviously, we know what we know and it does cause questions, but I personally have never had any reason to question his ability to be an effective journalist in the times I’ve interacted with him.”
Stephanopoulos fell under scrutiny Thursday when it was reported that he did not disclose to his viewers that he has donated $75,000 to Hillary and Bill Clinton’s nonprofit Clinton Foundation.
Previous to his stint at ABC, Stephanopoulos served as a top adviser under Bill Clinton when he was president.
The Clinton Foundation recently came under separate fire after the controversial book Clinton Cash suggested that the nonprofit acts as a type of slush fund for the Clintons to increase their wealth and that Hillary, while serving as secretary of state, may have traded favors to foreign entities in return for donations.
Stephanopoulos delivered an on-air apology to viewers on Friday for his donations, saying, “Even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children and protect the environment in poor countries, I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.” He said he now believes the donations were “a mistake.”
He said he would not moderate his network’s Republican presidential primary debate in February but that he would continue covering the race otherwise.
Some Republicans have been intensely critical of Stephanopoulos. Conn Carroll, communications director for Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, tweeted Thursday that he wouldn’t be placing Lee on ABC News programming until Stephanopoulos recused himself. And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, said on Thursday that he hasn’t done any recent interviews with Stephanopoulos because he’s “too close to the Clintons to really give an objective interview.”
