U.S. President Donald Trump’s arch-rival, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, abruptly ended a live interview with Vice President JD Vance on Sunday morning.
The exchange occurred during This Week as Stephanopoulos pressed Vance on allegations involving Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan.
Homan was allegedly recorded by undercover FBI agents accepting a bribe of $50,000 in September 2024.
Highlights
- ABC host George Stephanopoulos abruptly cut off VP JD Vance during a live interview over bribery allegations against Trump's border czar, Tom Homan.
- Stephanopoulos pressed Vance hard on the recording and bribe allegations before ending the interview and switching to commercials.
- The interview also covered Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, with Vance accusing him of violating his oath and Pritzker calling the claims unconstitutional.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos abruptly ended a live interview with JD Vance on Sunday morning
Image credits: Cindy Ord/Getty Images
The investigation was ultimately halted by officials in the Trump administration.
Stephanopoulos read this allegation to Vance and asked him, “Did he [Homan] keep that money or give it back?”
“Tom Homan did not take a bribe. It’s a ridiculous smear. And the reason you guys are going after Tom Homan so aggressively is because he’s doing the job of enforcing the law,” Vance replied.
Vance said at another point, “George, this story has been covered ad nauseam. He did not take a bribe. Did he accept $50,000? I’m sure that in the course of Tom Homan's life, he has been paid more than $50,000 for services. The question is, did he do something illegal? And there's absolutely no evidence that Tom Homan has ever taken a bribe.”
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
After some back-and-forth about the allegations, Vance said: “I think the American people would benefit much more from [talking about the shutdown] than from you going down some weird left-wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn’t engage in any criminal wrongdoing.”
Stephanopoulos fired back, saying, “It’s not a weird left-wing rabbit hole! I didn’t insinuate anything, I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000 as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question,” he said.
“Thank you for your time this morning.”
Vance attempted to continue, “No, George, I said…” but Stephanopoulos cut him off as he turned to viewers and said, “We’ll be right back.”
The host cut off the VP and called for commercials during the live interview
Vance proclaimed his frustration after the show on X.
“Peace in the Middle East? China threatening critical supply chains? Government shutdown? George S doesn’t care about that,” he wrote. “He’s here to focus on the real story: a fake scandal involving Tom Homan.”
The White House’s rapid response account also posted the clip, captioned, “VP nukes George Slopidopolous for obsessing over made-up Fake News BS while not asking a single question about the Democrat Shutdown.”
The allegations against Homan date back to when agents posing as businesspeople allegedly handed him a bag containing cash after he agreed to help them secure government contracts if Trump won the election.
Image credits: Alex Wong/Getty Images
This is not the first contentious encounter between Stephanopoulos and the Trump administration.
Last March, Trump sued Stephanopoulos and ABC News for defamation after the host said on air that “judges and two separate juries have found [Trump] liable for rape.”
Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 26 women. One such lawsuit was brought against Trump by journalist E. Jean Carroll, and a jury found Trump civilly liable for sexual abuse, but not rape.
The network ultimately settled, paying $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library and $1 million in legal fees.
ABC previously settled with Trump over incorrect claims Stephanopoulos made
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
Separately, Vance and Stephanopoulos also discussed Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker’s opposition to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Chicago to crack down on crime.
Trump called for Pritzker to be jailed in a Truth Social Post last week.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!”
When asked by Stephanopoulos whether Pritzker had committed a crime, Vance said the governor had “violated his fundamental oath of office” and “should suffer some consequences.”
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
“Governor Pritzker has allowed a lot of people to be killed in the city of Chicago and elsewhere, George. I think that it’s disgraceful, and I think that he absolutely should suffer some consequences for the fact that there are thousands of innocent Chicagoans who are dead because he failed to do his job,” Vance said.
Pritzker appeared on the show after Vance and said, “Come and get me.”
“They’re making things up to go after people,” Pritzker said. “I'm going to stand up for the people of my state. And we’ve got to all stand together because that there is [sic] truly unconstitutional actions that are coming out of this administration.”