A star ABC News anchor, George Stephanopoulos, is being accused of hypocrisy and bias after he praised Democrats for prolonging the government shutdown, then denied having once called Republicans “basically terrorists” for doing the same thing during the 1995 government shutdown. 

Mr. Stephanopoulos, a former celebrity Democratic operative who worked in the Clinton White House during the contentious 1995 government shutdown, has lately been critical of Republicans for their refusal to negotiate the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies in order to reopen the government. 

But on Sunday, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, confronted Mr. Stephanopoulos on “This Week” about the comments he made about Republicans in 1995 amid the government shutdown, during which he was a top adviser to President Clinton.

“You were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s,” the treasury secretary said. “You know, you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed.”

Mr. Stephanopoulos shot back, “I can disagree with you about the history there, but we don’t have a history lesson right now.”

Mr. Bessent responded, “No, no, no. George … If you want, I’ve got all your quotes here. I got all your quotes here, George.”

The ABC News host tried to move on, saying dismissively, “I’m sure you do.”

Mr. Bessent got a jab in as he said he had bought Mr. Stephanopoulos’s book on Amazon, “I read your book, so you got one purchase on Amazon this week.”

“And that’s very much what you said,” he added.

Mr. Bessent’s comment appeared to refer to an interview Mr. Stephanopoulos gave to PBS in 2000, in which the former Clinton aide said, “Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that [Republicans] were blackmailing the country to get their way.”

“In order to get their tax cut, they were willing to shut down the government, throw the country into default for the first time in its history, and cut Medicare, Social Security, education, and the environment just so they could get their way. And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked,” Mr. Stephanopoulos told PBS at the time.

It was unclear what Mr. Stephanopoulos believed Mr. Bessent had misrepresented. 

ABC News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. 

Conservatives were quick to accuse Mr. Stephanopoulos of lying about his stance toward handling a government shutdown. 

A conservative radio host, Scott Hennen, posted on X, “There are many things to admire about   @realDonaldTrump’s team but one of my personal favorites is calling out the corrupt regime media!   @ThisWeekABC  is a tool of the left.”

A conservative media commentator, Joe Concha, wrote, “This is EXACTLY how you handle this. George is a Democratic operative to this day. Use his own words and actions against this pious anchor…”

“George @ThisWeekABC Stephanopoulos is a liar. Always lying to cover for the Clintons & Democrats,  & smear Republicans,” a conservative commentator, Jasmine Hauser, wrote on X. 

One user asked, “Hey @ThisWeekABC , why do you continue to let George spew this sort of nonsense on the air when it is easily debunked?”

“Scott Bessent came prepared to read George Stephanopoulos’ quotes from the past back to him to clear up what Stephanopoulos called a ‘mischaracterization of history’, but he didn’t want to hear them … let’s move on …. It’s amazing that Stephanopoulos still has a job,” another user said. 

The interview occurred hours before eight Democrats in the Senate broke with their party and voted with Republicans to clear a key procedural hurdle, a major step toward reopening the government. 

Mr. Stephanopoulos was heavily criticized at the beginning of the shutdown for his “embarrassing” question to House Speaker Mike Johnson about why Republicans were rejecting Democrats’ demands in order to fund the government. 

During an interview with the House speaker in October, Mr. Stephanopoulos stated as fact the Democrats’ talking points about their proposal, saying, “The Democratic proposal is designed to prevent millions of Americans from losing their health insurance, losing Medicaid coverage, or paying higher healthcare premiums.”

“Why are you against that?” he asked. 

While Mr. Stephanopoulos insisted he made a “factual” statement, Mr. Johnson called it “absurd” as he said that Republicans wanted to pass a “clean, nonpartisan continuing funding resolution” to keep the government open.

Throughout the shutdown, Republicans argued that Democrats should vote to fund the government and deal with the healthcare subsidies at a later time, casting the matters as unrelated issues.

Mr. Bessent’s interview with Mr. Stephanopoulos comes as the ABC News host has repeatedly been under fire for allegedly showing a left-wing bias. Last year, Disney paid President Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit he brought against the entertainment giant after Mr. Stephanopoulos falsely and repeatedly said on his Sunday morning program that Mr. Trump had been “found liable for rape.”

Mr. Stephanopoulos was also criticized in October for cutting short an interview with Vice President JD Vance after the vice president disputed a report from left-wing MSNBC that claimed that the Trump Administration’s border tsar, Tom Homan, took a bribe. 

Mr. Trump snubbed an ABC News reporter and said he would not answer their questions due to Mr. Stephanopoulos’s treatment of the vice president. 

Mr. Stephanopoulos is believed to earn $25 million a year at ABC to host “Good Morning America,” which two weeks ago was defeated in the ratings by archrival “Today,” which forced out co-host Hoda Kotb after she refused to take an enormous pay cut.