Stephanopoulos Opens Show with Blistering Commentary: ‘Bedrock Tenets of Our Democracy Are Being Tested’

ANNOUNCER: “From ABC News, it’s ‘This Week.’ Here now, George Stephanopoulos.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “Good morning and welcome to ‘This Week.’ Until now, no American president had ever faced a criminal trial. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment for retaining and concealing classified documents. No American president had ever faced a federal indictment or a state indictment for trying to overturn an election or been named an unindicted co-conspirator in two other states for the same crime. No American president ever faced hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments for business fraud, defamation and sexual abuse. Until now, no American presidential race had been more defined by what’s happening in courtrooms than what’s happening on the campaign trail, until now. The scale of the abnormality is so staggering that it can actually become numbing. 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 our 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.”