ABC News host George Stephanopoulos said the so-called “deep state” was “full of patriots” during an interview on Tuesday about his new book.
“I interviewed about 100 duty officers from the White House and these are people, they’re relatively young, people who come from all over the government. The CIA, DIA, the Defense Department, military, and 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,” Stephanopoulos told “The View,” describing interviews he did for “The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis.”
Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to end the deep state, a phrase he uses to negatively describe un-elected bureaucrats who, he and his supporters believe, are working to thwart his agenda.
“People who go to work every single day 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,” Stephanopoulos continued.
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Stephanpoulos was also asked to weigh in on the current state of the 2024 presidential race and a recent poll showing former President Trump leading President Biden in several crucial battleground states.
“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.
The ABC host echoed his warning last month about the stakes of the 2024 election and the abnormality of Trump’s circumstances.
“I think the most important thing that people should understand about this election is how far from normal it is. 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,” the ABC host said.
Stephanopoulos also said Trump had refused to commit to accepting the results of the upcoming election.
“The peaceful transfer of power is the most fundamental tenet of our democracy. Refusing to accept it is un-American. I believe it’s unconstitutional, and I think it’s the job of the media to put that in context,” he continued.
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Stephanopoulos opened an episode of his Sunday show “This Week” last month with commentary on the high stakes of the election, which he warned would be a “test” for American citizens, the media and the candidates.
“It’s all too easy to fall into reflexive habits, to treat this as a normal campaign, where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenets of democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens,” Stephanopoulos said at the time.
His remarks came after Biden had urged the media to frame the race in such terms.
