Trump Says He Will Not Take Questions From ‘ABC Fake News’ After Stephanopoulos Badgers JD Vance, Cuts Interview Short

President Trump says he will not take questions from “ABC Fake News” after one of its star anchors, George Stephanopoulos, abruptly cut off Vice President JD Vance during an interview. On Sunday, Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed Mr. Vance — who was beamed in remotely from a separate location — on reports that the Trump administration’s border tsar, Tom Homan, accepted a $50,000 bribe before the 2024 election when he did not yet work in the White House. A left-wing outlet, MSNBC, reported that the money was offered as part of an undercover investigation and that FBI agents posed as business executives seeking to win contracts from the federal government. The outlet reported that Mr. Homan was caught on tape accepting the money and promising to help the agents. The Department of Justice reportedly ended the investigation “in recent weeks.” While Mr. Stephanopoulos asked if Mr. Homan took the money, as media reports have indicated, the vice president responded by denying that Mr. Homan took a bribe. Mr. Vance criticized Mr. Stephanopoulos for “going down some weird left-wing rabbit hole, where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn’t engage in any criminal wrongdoing.” However, the host responded, “It’s not a weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn’t insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as was heard on an audiotape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question.”Mr. Stephanopoulos then cut off the interview as Mr. Vance was trying to respond. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump took questions from reporters at the White House, but refused to answer questions from an ABC News reporter.“You’re ABC Fake News,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t take questions from ABC Fake News after what you did with Stephanopoulos to the Vice President of the United States. I don’t take questions from ABC Fake News.”Separately, Mr. Trump mocked Mr. Stephanapoulos as “Slop-a-dopooulos” and “a very nasty person” who “cut off the highly respected vice president of the United States.” He also criticized ABC’s “The View” for hiring a former staffer from his first term, Alyssa Farah Griffin, to be the lone conservative voice on the show. Ms. Griffin has become a staunch Trump critic.A conservative reporter, Brian Glenn, noted that Ms. Griffin previously promised to wear a MAGA hat on “The View” if Mr. Trump secured the release of hostages held by Hamas.“She gave me the most beautiful letter …This is Alyssa, who I never thought was very outstanding,” Mr. Trump said. “Then, she got hired by ‘The View,’ they gave her a couple of bucks, and she changed her view very quickly. I never thought she’d make it. I never thought she had what it took in any way.”He added, “I think she’s a joke.”Despite saying he would not take questions from ABC, he did respond to the network’s Karen Travers when she asked whether he would “guarantee” that Hamas will disarm.“They’re going to disarm because they said they were going to disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Trump’s stated refusal to take questions from ABC comes as he has had an increasingly adversarial relationship with the network.In December, ABC agreed to pay $16 million to settle Mr. Trump’s defamation lawsuit against it after Mr. Stephanopoulos falsely and repeatedly said that the president had been “found liable for rape.”The payment was seen as an attempted olive branch in the hopes of having a better relationship with the Trump administration. However, in March, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, launched an investigation of Disney and ABC over their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Mr. Carr has said diversity policies could sink mergers. Mr. Trump appeared to threaten ABC News and Disney in May over the news broadcaster’s coverage of his decision to accept a luxury jet from Qatar to use as a temporary Air Force One. “Why doesn’t Chairman Bob Iger do something about ABC Fake News,” Mr. Trump said. “The wonderful country of Qatar, after agreeing to invest more than 1.4 Trillion Dollars in the United States of America, deserves much better than Misleading (Fake!) News. Everyone, including their lawyers, has been told that ABC must not say that Qatar is giving ME a FREE Boeing 747 Airplane, because they are not.”The president said his lawyers warned ABC News against reporting that Qatar was giving him a jet for “free.”ABC News also fired a correspondent, Terry Moran, in June after the long-time employee called Mr. Trump and one of his top advisers, Stephen Miller, “world-class haters.”Mr. Trump also appeared to suggest that the Department of Justice might need to investigate ABC News after Attorney General Pam Bondi promised that the administration would prosecute “hate speech.”An ABC News journalist, Jonathan Karl, asked Mr. Trump last month, “What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she’s gonna go after hate speech? A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech.”Mr. Trump responded, “We’ll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they’ll go after ABC.”He then said ABC paid him $16 million for a “form of hate speech.” Mr. Trump has also called for the FCC to revoke ABC’s broadcast license over its hostile coverage.The contentious relationship comes as ABC’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, is hoping to finalize a deal to have ESPN acquire assets from NFL Media, including the NFL Network. The transaction will require a regulatory review.ABC News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment.

Trump Says He Will Not Take Questions From ‘ABC Fake News’ After Stephanopoulos Badgers JD Vance, Cuts Interview Short

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