ABC News host George Stephanopoulos says President Donald Trump’s administration resembles the authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Turkey after the president fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On Friday, the president fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after the agency released its July jobs report showing that the economy added a mere 73,000 jobs last month—far fewer than the 109,000 jobs the White House forecasted. Trump claimed BLS had “RIGGED” the numbers “to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
“Suppressing statisticians is a time-honored tool for leaders trying to solidify their power and stifle dissent,” Stephanopoulos said on Sunday’s edition of This Week. “It’s happened throughout history. Most recently in Venezuela and Turkey, where presidents punished officials and economists who do not tow the party line.”
Calling the firing “baseless,” Stephanopoulos said firing economists for political reasons “has not been part of the American tradition.”
Stephanopoulos also noted that the administration refused to offer a guest to discuss McEntarfer’s dismissal.
“After the president fired the head of the BLS on Friday, we invited the White House to provide a guest to respond,” Stephanopoulos revealed. “They declined.”
The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment on why it rebuffed ABC’s request, including whether it would have provided a guest had Sunday’s This Week featured one of its other hosts, correspondents Jonathan Karl and Martha Raddatz.
Trump’s contemptuous relationship with Stephanopoulos runs deep.
Trump has frequently derided the ABC anchor as “Liddle’ George” and “George Slopadopolus” over Stephanopoulos’ scathing commentary and tough questioning of GOP officials.
The anger reached new heights last year after Stephanopoulos pressed GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, on her support for Trump, who was found liable by a jury last year for sexual abuse. Stephanopoulos mistakenly said Trump had been found liable for “rape,” prompting Trump to sue Stephanopoulos and ABC News for defamation.
After a monthslong court exchange that threatened to reveal Stephanopoulos’ personal records through discovery, Disney, ABC’s parent company, settled the lawsuit for $16 million in donations to the Trump presidential library and toward Trump’s legal fees.
Since then, Stephanopoulos has continued to use his monthly perch on This Week to highlight Trump’s expansive and norm-shattering usage of executive power during his second term.
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