Stephanopoulos Regrets Clinton Donations

George Stephanopoulos

ABC's George Stephanopoulos, host of the Sunday morning political affairs show This Week and co-anchor of Good Morning America, said yesterday that he shouldn't have donated money to the Clinton Foundation, and that he will not moderate a Republican primary debate on February 6th being sponsored by ABC News.

Stephanapoulos said he gave three donations of $25,000 each in 2012, 2013 and 2014 because of the organization's work on global AIDS prevention and deforestation.

He said he'd thought the donations were a matter of public record, but now realizes he should have gone the extra step and disclosed them.

Addressing the February debate, he told Politico, "I think I've shown I can moderate a debate fairly. That said, I know there have been questions made about moderating debates this year. I want to be sure I don't deprive viewers of a good debate."

The network issued a statement supporting Stephanopoulos, who joined ABC News in 1997 after having served as communications director on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and then communications director and senior adviser to Clinton in the White House.

The issue of that background has come to the fore again with Hillary Clinton running for president. Republican candidate Senator Rand Paul said yesterday that Stephanopoulos should be barred from moderating any debates during the 2016 presidential campaign, and GOP Senator Mike Lee of Utah also contended that he should recuse himself from all 2016 campaign coverage.