Former Obama advisor Tommy Vietor discussed Tuesday on his podcast how he believes Disney “bowing down” to President-elect Donald Trump could “signal” to other outlets and corporations that they won’t fight back against him, following their settlement with the former president over the weekend.
Court filings released Saturday revealed that ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and the network had agreed to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them, confirming they will pay $15 million to the former president by Dec. 24, which will be considered a “charitable contribution” to Trump’s “[p]residential foundation and museum.” On “Pod Save America,” co-host Jon Lovett defended Stephanopoulos, citing a March segment of his show, “This Week,” in which he claimed Trump was found “liable for rape” while berating Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace over her support of the former president.
“Well, even that, I think, is being so generous towards Trump[‘s] interpretation of what Stephanopoulos said,” Lovett said. “Because, yes, it is true technically that it was for sexual abuse and not rape. Even the judge in the case made a point of saying this is a narrow legal definition. By the common use of the word rape, it could apply in this case.”
“So there’s an argument to be made that this isn’t what Stephanopoulos said, wasn’t even incorrect. His interpretation of the conclusion of the court is that it was liable for this, even if the technical legal wording might be different. So, like, it is all eminently defensible,” Lovett said.
Vietor then joined in, stating that he believed it wouldn’t have been a hard case for Disney to win, noting that CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook have appeared to appeal to Trump since his win in November.
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“Also, with a public figure, this should not be a hard case. It signals it’s very chilling. It signals that there’s some momentum behind all these cases. It signals that there is this, I don’t know, there’s this evidence, like we’re seeing all these pieces of evidence that CEOs and corporations are preemptively bowing down to Trump,” Vietor said.
“It’s Mark Zuckerberg cutting a million dollar check to the inauguration of Tim Cook having dinner with Donald Trump. Ted Sarandos is on his way there now to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him. Look, I think, you know, I think this is probably gonna have a lot of news outlets worried,” Vietor added. “This would be unthinkable outside of this context, that a news outlet would settle for $15 million, given the context we just talked about, how what Stephanopoulos said was completely defensible and how Trump is a public figure. It’s very worse.”
Following Trump’s win, reports revealed that Zuckerberg had visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Despite neither the Facebook CEO nor Meta donating to Trump’s inaugural fund in 2017 or to President Biden’s fund in 2021, the tech company gave $1 million to the former president’s inaugural fund this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The apology to Trump is not Stephanopoulos’ first public correction. In 2015, the longtime ABC host had to apologize to viewers after making undisclosed donations to the Clinton Foundation, which were later revealed to total an estimated $75,000 over the years, according to The Free Beacon. Prior to the reveal of the donations, Stephanopoulos had conducted on-air interviews with the Clinton Foundation over allegations of its questionable relationship with foreign donors, the outlet reported.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
