Republican Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), known for his support of President Donald Trump, was cut off mid-interview by ABC News while trying to explain his calls for gutting the administrative state.
During the interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Vance found himself in a heated exchange with the show’s host, leftist hack George Stephanopoulos.
According to a report by The Western Journal, the interview took a confrontational turn when Stephanopoulos played a clip from a 2021 podcast interview in which Vance discussed the possibility of Trump becoming president again.
The Ohio lawmaker suggested that if faced with opposition from the administrative state and the Supreme Court, Trump should consider replacing mid-level bureaucrats with his own appointees and, if necessary, defy the court’s rulings.
Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton White House adviser and a prominent propagandist in the corporate media, challenged Vance on his remarks.
The host repeatedly tried to twist Vance’s statements by pushing false claims that the senator didn’t say.
He asked Vance if he believed it was acceptable for the president to defy the Supreme Court.
It was at that point that the exchange became heated, with Stephanopoulos interrupting Vance multiple times as the senator attempted to explain his perspective on the matter.
Vance argued that his concern was with the growth of an administrative state that had become unaccountable to the American public and elected officials.
However, Stephanopoulos twisted Vance’s argument into a fabricated summary, cut off his microphone, and ended the interview, thanking the senator for his time.
The abrupt ending to the interview left Vance visibly frustrated, and his protests could be heard despite ABC’s editing.
GOP Sen. JD Vance tells @GStephanopoulos that the U.S. has “a major problem here with administrators and bureaucrats in the government who don’t respond to the elected branches.” https://t.co/n4YqCd6W4C pic.twitter.com/VmUBBPxkPC
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 4, 2024
The exchange caused questions among some viewers about how the interview was handled by Stephanopoulos, who is a well-known figure in the media industry.
Some of the host’s critics argue that the host’s approach may have stifled open dialogue on an important issue.
Comparisons have been drawn between this incident and Stephanopoulos’ role as a GOP primary debate moderator in 2012.
During that debate, Stephanopoulos posed a question to then-GOP contender Mitt Romney about whether states should be allowed to ban contraception, a topic seemingly unrelated to the issues facing presidential contenders at the time.
In Vance’s case, he was not in office when he made the comments in question, and there is no widespread discussion of any president disregarding Supreme Court decisions.
Some have posed the concern that Stephanopoulos may have intentionally brought up the Supreme Court issue to provoke a reaction from Vance and later cut off the interview.
Despite Stephanopoulos’ moderation of the interview having sparked some debate, it also serves as a reminder of the ongoing polarization in the corporate media’s coverage.
Many Americans have voiced concern about whether unbiased mainstream media even exists anymore.
READ MORE – Biden Admin Funding Censorship Network to Flag ‘Misinformation’ in Private Messages
