ABC News anchor and former Bill Clinton henchman George Stephanopoulos has claimed that the American deep state is “packed with patriots.”
Appearing on Tuesday’s edition of The View to promote his latest book, Stephanopoulos made the case for the deep state, a form of shadow government that wields immense power regardless of who is in the White House.
Here is a transcript of the exchange:
ALYSSAH FARAH GRIFFIN: The book is so good. My favorite thing is you interviewed Situation Room staff. I have always said it’s White House staff whose names you’ll never know are the writers of history. They will tell us so many details.
STEPHANOPOULOS: “That was my favorite part about doing the book. I interviewed about a hundred duty officers from the White House and these are people who come, they are relatively young people who come from all over the government, the CIA, the DIA, the Defense Department, military.
Some people like to call those people the deep state. Well, the big thing I learned doing this book is that the deep state is packed with patriots, people who go to work every single day and are on the frontlines of the most intense crises the country faces and do it to serve their country and to serve the presidency, not the president. They don’t care about political parties. They’re there to serve the presidency and the institution.
SUNNY HOSTIN: And they’re doing it anonymously.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Absolutely. As one of them told me…we serve in silence.
The Deep State used to be a right wing conspiracy theory according to the media.
Now you have George Stephanopoulos happily proclaiming on the View that “The Deep State is packed with patriots.”
pic.twitter.com/NQ4hRtZmij— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 14, 2024
At another point in the interview, Stephanopoulos also weighed in on the upcoming presidential election where he made a less than subtle pitch for Biden’s re-election.
“It is close right now, though I think the polls show [Trump is] ahead in the states that matter the most, largely because President Biden isn’t doing as well as last time with younger voters and Black voters,” Stephanopoulos said.
“I think the most important thing that people should understand about this election is how far from normal it is,” he continued. “We have never had a former president, presidential candidate who was impeached, then indicted for trying to overturn an election. Never in all of our history.”
In March, Donald Trump sued Stephanopoulos for defamation after he falsely called him a rapist during an interview with South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace. Given the severity of the accusation and the lack of evidence for his claim, it may well prove to be a costly mistake.
