JOE CONCHA: Trump extends winning streak with victory over ABC, Stephanopoulos

The $15 million settlement between ABC News, George Stephanopoulos and President-elect Trump was cheered by those with basic objectivity and common sense, while the left again lost its collective mind in what has been a daily occurrence since the election on Nov. 5

The settlement was one ABC News had to strike, for the evidence against them was clear as day on video. To review, Stephanopoulos, who is billed as a news anchor but acts and sounds more like the Democratic operative and pitbull he once was in the Clinton administration, repeated on 10 occasions during a March interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., the false allegation that Trump was found liable for rape in a civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll that took place in a New York courtroom earlier this year.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS AND ABC APOLOGIZE TO TRUMP, AGREE TO PAY $15M TO SETTLE DEFAMATION CASE

Stephanopoulos also claimed Trump was found guilty of defaming Carroll. 

Two problems: That’s not what the jury had found. 

“How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?” Stephanopoulos piously asked Mace on ABC’s “This Week.” on March 10.

“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape,” he also declared. Mace was being interrogated on her endorsement because she was sexually assaulted at age 16, prompting Stephanopoulos to attempt to shame her and portray her as a hypocrite.  

Trump promptly sued ABC and the anchor for defamation. The case was proceeding when the network made a stunning announcement on Saturday that it would apologize and pay $15 million to Trump’s “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past.” 

The network will also pay Trump’s legal fees, which were approximately $1 million. 

The victory for the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president adds to his stunning post-election run on the legal front. In the past 40 days, Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped his two federal cases against Trump. In Georgia, the RICO case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis continues to collapse, with Willis now ordered by a Georgia judge to turn over all communications she may have had with Smith, with many legal analysts saying the case was already in serious jeopardy. And in New York, Judge Juan Merchan granted Trump’s legal team’s request to dismiss all charges from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case while pushing his sentencing date off until after he leaves office. The case will likely be thrown out on appeal well before then.

Conservative and moderate commentators trashed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for bringing a case against Marine vet Daniel Penny, who was charged for the death of homeless man Jordan Neely in 2023. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

On the left, the meltdown continued over the settlement. 

“Wow. Feels like one more mainstream news organization bending the knee,” wrote media analyst Eric Daggans of taxpayer-funded NPR on X. 

“Knee bent. Ring kissed. Another legacy news outlet chooses obedience,” said Marc Elias, the Democrat lawyer who helped push the discredited Steele dossier. 

“ABC’s settlement with Trump feels like it could be an inflection point in the Orbanization of our politics. I hope it isn’t,” opined Bill Kristol on X, in attempting to connect Trump to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, says she felt personally attacked by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. (Fox News)

In addition to clearly mischaracterizing the court’s decision, ABC News likely settled here also because it feared what may be revealed in the discovery process. Remember, the news division at the network is run by Dana Walden, an old and dear friend of Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff. Walden introduced the pair about a decade ago.

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ABC also was rightly accused of overwhelming bias in the first and only presidential debate between Harris and Trump, with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checking Trump five times while never doing the same to Harris despite ample opportunities. And according to the Media Research Center, of the first 100 stories ABC News did on Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, ALL 100 were positive. 

For Trump, he’s having the best six weeks of his life. He won the popular vote when few believed he could. He swept every swing state, proving many pollsters and forecasters wrong. Again. Republicans took back the Senate and held the House. 

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Polls show a majority of voters approve of his transition. And for the first time, the RealClearPolitics average of polls shows more voters view Trump favorably than unfavorably. In 2016, he was more than 35 points underwater between his favorable/unfavorable numbers. 

Media outlets will undoubtedly be more careful with their language and rhetoric moving forward. 

And maybe, just maybe, they’ll engage in less activism and more journalism during Trump: The Sequel.

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