The shock of watching media advocate for policies that are completely beyond the American mainstream never really wears off. Today George Stephanopoulos, formerly of the Clinton Administration and currently of ABC-Disney, nonchalantly advocated for abortion up to 26 weeks in an interview with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Watch as Stephanopoulos leads with an abortion question framed so as to put Youngkin on the defensive, and then just flippantly ask why he doesn’t just leave 26-week abortion alone:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Youngkin, thank you for joining us this morning. That 15-week ban, is it front and center in the campaign right now? Are you worried that it's going to cost you the legislature?
GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN: Well, George, good morning, and there are huge elections in Virginia on Tuesday, three short days away, and I appreciate you covering them because I think they're the most important elections in America because these issues that are so important to Virginians are also the ones that are going to be so important to Americans next year. And on the topic of abortion, this is a tough topic. It’s one of the most divisive topics across Virginia and America today, and I'll just remind you that just four years ago in Virginia they were one vote away from the Democrats passing a bill that would extend abortion rights all the way up through including birth, paid for by taxpayer money. I really feel that this is a moment for us to come together around reasonable limits where we can protect life at 15 weeks where a baby feels pain, with full exceptions in the case of rape and incest, and when the mother's life is at risk, and I think this is a place that Virginians can come together. All the way up through birth is way too extreme. This is a place we can come together and settle on a very difficult topic and I think we can lead here as opposed to fight.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you- uh, but…current Virginia law says you can- has 26 weeks. Has abortion access up to 26 weeks. Why not just leave that law in place?
YOUNGKIN: What I'm hearing from Virginians- and nearly 70% have responded that they would support a bill to protect life at 15 weeks with full exceptions where a baby can feel pain, and I think this is a reasonable place for us to land.
It may have been a while since Youngkin last played competitive basketball, but he still understands the importance of controlling time of possession. Youngkin very calmly explained the rationale for putting in place a 15-week law in Virginia, and contrasted that effort with the monstrous “keep the patient comfortable” bill that almost went to the desk of his predecessor Gov. Ralph Northam.
It is at this point that Stephanopoulos reflexively stammers out, “why not just leave that (26-week) law in place?”
Youngkin responded, reiterated his earlier points, segued off of abortion, and then went into jobs, inflation, the economy, leaving Stephanopoulos time for little more beyond bait questions on the upcoming and past presidential elections, in that order. He dusted Stephanopoulos quite easily after blowing up his carefully crafted question on abortion.
And that’s what we’re ultimately left with: a senior national anchor openly advocating for a procedure that is only legal in four countries, and of which an overwhelming number of Americans disapprove. Unsurprising and yet still a shock to see.
Click “Expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on ABC’s This Week, on Sunday, November 5th, 2023:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Youngkin, thank you for joining us this morning. That 15-week ban, is it front and center in the campaign right now? Are you worried that it's going to cost you the legislature?
GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN: Well, George, good morning, and there are huge elections in Virginia on Tuesday, three short days away, and I appreciate you covering them because I think they're the most important elections in America because these issues that are so important to Virginians are also the ones that are going to be so important to Americans next year. And on the topic of abortion, this is a tough topic. It’s one of the most divisive topics across Virginia and America today, and I'll just remind you that just four years ago in Virginia they were one vote away from the Democrats passing a bill that would extend abortion rights all the way up through including birth, paid for by taxpayer money. I really feel that this is a moment for us to come together around reasonable limits where we can protect life at 15 weeks where a baby feels pain, with full exceptions in the case of rape and incest, and when the mother's life is at risk, and I think this is a place that Virginians can come together. All the way up through birth is way too extreme. This is a place we can come together and settle on a very difficult topic and I think we can lead here as opposed to fight.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you- uh, but…current Virginia law says you can- has 26 weeks. Has abortion access up to 26 weeks. Why not just leave that law in place?
YOUNGKIN: What I'm hearing from Virginians- and nearly 70% have responded that they would support a bill to protect life at 15 weeks with full exceptions where a baby can feel pain, and I think this is a reasonable place for us to land. And that what's on the ballot, I think is a choice between no limits and reasonable limits. And I think this is one where Virginians come together around reasonableness, and it then allows us to move onto really important topics, George. We, of course, see the impact of runaway inflation scaring Virginians and they’re worried about how to make ends meet. 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They're spending $700 a month more on buying the basics of groceries and clothing for their children than they did just two years ago for the same things. I hear this all across the Commonwealth. They're worried about jobs, they’re worried about inflation, they’re worried about education. They're worried about public safety and they're really worried about behavioral health, and we have led on all of these topics. We have 230,000 more people working today in in Virginia than just 22 months ago. We passed record education budgets with 12% raises for teachers just in the last 18 months. We have had a massive transformation of our behavioral health system which desperately needs it because it's overwhelmed and we've really gone to work to increase funding into law enforcement. These are the topics that I hear about every day as I travel around the Commonwealth from a vast array of Virginians- Democrats, Republicans, independents who were discussing these real-life concerns every day around their kitchen table. We’ve delivered results and that’s why I'm excited about what will be on the ballot. I think we can hold our House and flip our Senate and we can keep going because there are so many more important topics to focus on to drive Virginia to be the best place to live in America, and we're seeing a lot of people move here as a result of the great actions I think we've taken.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve got a lot of Republicans around the country that want you to run for president. As you know, you saw the poll we had that showed both Joe Biden and Donald Trump unpopular. Now I know you said you won't address this until after the Tuesday election, but I just want to know, have you ruled out running for president in 2024 or is that still a possibility?
YOUNGKIN: Well, George, I'm -- I'm a homegrown Virginian who 40 years ago was washing dishes and taking out trash and to even have my name tossed around in this is incredibly humbling. I'm excited about the fact that people are encouraged by what's happening in Virginia where common sense policies really are working, working to generate job growth, and we have a huge tax rebate that has gone out. We’ve had $5 billion of tax relief. People like this, and so I continue to be very focused on Virginia. I've said over and over again I have been at the Rockingham County Fair, not the Iowa State Fair. I’m campaigning across Virginia and I'm focused on Virginia, not in New Hampshire, not in South Carolina, not in Nevada. I'm focused on Virginia, and that's where my attention will continue to be.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's about the answer I was expecting. It wasn't exactly a no, but thank you for addressing the question. Let me just finally ask you the question I asked Steve Scalise. He couldn’t answer yes or no on whether the 2020 election was stolen. Can you?
YOUNGKIN: Well, I've consistently said that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president. He's sleeping in the White House. I wish he weren't. In all candor, the chaos that we see around the world and at home is his projected weakness. International foreign policy has resulted in multiple spots of chaos- from Israel, to Ukraine, to China. His foreign policy weakness, again, has resulted in bad adversaries being funded, like Iran, and then we see his weakness at our border which has turned every state into a border state. The free flow of illegal drugs and crime has really invaded everywhere. We have five Virginians a day on average that die from fentanyl overdoses. And of course, the chaos in our economy is not only hurting Virginians and Americans, but it projects weakness around the world yet again. And so, I wish he were not president, we can’t afford for him to be our president again. And Virginians are telling me every single day that these issues -- these issues of jobs and inflation and public safety and great education for their children are so important. That's where we need to be focused and common sense policies do work. We’ve demonstrated it in Virginia, and I'm looking forward to having Virginians come to the polls on Tuesday and hopefully hold our House, flip our Senate, so we can do even more to drive Virginia forward.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thank you for answering the question, Gov. Youngkin, thank you for joining us.
