George Stephanopoulos, the chief anchor of ABC News apologized on ‘Good Morning America’ for donating $75K to the Clinton Global Foundation on Friday, May 15. Prior to joining ABC, Stephanopoulos was former United President Bill Clinton’s campaign and administration strategist.
Stephanopoulos stated on-air to viewers that he made numerous donations in the past to "dozens of charities including the Clinton Global Foundation." He said that although the donations were publicly recorded, he should have made additional effort to disclose the information on television.
"I now believe, the direct and personal donations to that donation was a mistake,” said Stephanopoulos. “Even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children, and protecting the environment in poor countries. I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.”
Later that morning, FOX news correspondents inquired of Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist on whether of not the apology was effective.
"Well, it’s effective. I think it’s still a huge problem for him. Look, George Stephanopoulos has done something no one else that I know of has been able to do; slip the bonds of being a partisan operative,” responded Trippi.
54-year-old Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor of ABC News since 2014 and is the co-anchor of ‘Good Morning America’ since 2009. He hosts ‘This Week’ and has been ABC News’ chief political correspondent since 2005. He is married to Alexandra Wentworth and has three children. He is Greek and practices Greek Orthodox religion. Stephanopoulos attended Columbia University for his bachelors degree and Balliol College for his masters degree. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts.
