‘Packed With Patriots’: George Stephanopoulos Praises ‘the Deep State’

May 14th, 2024 3:30 PM

Appearing on Tuesday’s edition of The View to hawk his new book The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis, ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos not only admitted to the existence of the Deep State, but he also praised them as “packed with patriots.” He went on to push a conspiracy theory against President Ronald Reagan which was debunked long ago by a congressional commission.

The former lackey to President Bill Clinton was teed up to praise the Deep State by faux-conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin. She gushed about how the Deep State were the ones who make the history of America: “My favorite thing is that you interviewed Situation Room staff. I’ve always said that it's White House staff whose names you'll never know that are the writers of history. They’ll tell us so many details.”

Stephanopoulos went on to lionize the unelected, busybody bureaucrats who often injected themselves into matters of the nation to influence and control what happened in the country:

You know, that was my favorite part about doing the book. I interviewed about a hundred duty officers from the White House – and these are people that come – relatively young people who come from all over the government: the CIA, the DIA, Defense Department, military.

And, you know, some people like to call those people the Deep State.

He went on to declare “that the Deep State is packed with patriots” who supposedly “don't care about political parties” and were only “there to serve the presidency and institution” and not a particular president.

 

 

Quoting one member of the Deep State he spoke to, Stephanopoulos claimed they “serve in silence.” Meanwhile, he put a name to the quote: Mike Seelie.

So much for being silent.

In the second block of the interview, Stephanopoulos and moderator Whoopi Goldberg pushed a conspiracy theory against Reagan he tried to revive in his book.

Falsely claiming “there’s no question about it,” Stephanopoulos asserted – without evidence – that Reagan had worked with Iranian extremists to prolong the Iranian Hostage Crisis to help him win the election against President Jimmy Carter:

The Iranians decided to hold the hostages until after -- they waited until the moment that Ronald Reagan took the oath of office. You know, one of the things we also learned in the last year was there have always been questions about whether or not somehow the Reagan campaign had tried to influence the Iranians to hold; and the congressional commission said no, but last year it did turn out that John Connelly had gone to the Middle East and had meetings about it that at least suggested that something might have happened.

Even Stephanopoulos admitted that a congressional commission debunked what he was peddling; and yet, the ABC “journalist” was still pushing the lies anyway so that he could sell his book and make money.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
May 14, 2024
11:19:58 a.m. Eastern

(…)

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I also love – The book is so good! My favorite thing is that you interviewed Situation Room staff. I’ve always said that it's White House staff whose names you'll never know that are the writers of history. They’ll tell us so many details.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, that was my favorite part about doing the book. I interviewed about a hundred duty officers from the White House – and these are people that come – relatively young people who come from all over the government: the CIA, the DIA, Defense Department, military.

And, you know, some people like to call those people the Deep State.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: The Deep State.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, the big thing I learned doing this book is that the Deep State is packed with patriots.

FARAH GRIFFIN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: People who go to work every single day on the front lines of the most intense crises the country faces and go it to serve their country and serve the presidency, not the president. They don't care about political parties. They're there to serve the presidency and institution.

SUNNY HOSTIN: And they're doing it anonymously.

FARAH GRIFFIN: Exactly.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Absolutely. As one of them told me, Mike Seelie said, “we serve in silence.”

(…)

11:28:42 a.m. Eastern

GOLDBERG: George, one of the things that I learned in the book was that Jimmy Carter initially thought that, you know, he was going and he had nothing to do with bringing the folks home, but in your book --

STEPHANOPOULOS: The hostage crisis.

GOLDBERG: You talk about the fact that he did find out the hostage crisis maybe went on a little longer to -- for him to get out of office so Reagan could take the—the – the glory.

STEPHANOPOULOS: There’s no question about it. The Iranians decided to hold the hostages until after -- they waited until the moment that Ronald Reagan took the oath of office. You know, one of the things we also learned in the last year was there have always been questions about whether or not somehow the Reagan campaign had tried to influence the Iranians to hold; and the congressional commission said no, but last year it did turn out that John Connelly had gone to the Middle East and had meetings about it that at least suggested that something might have happened.

(…)