‘Absolute fake news’: ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pounded for deceptive coverage of Texas flooding
ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos is coming under fire for his perceived anti-Trump coverage of the catastrophic flash floods that killed dozens in Texas on Saturday, reporting “significant staffing shortfalls” at federal weather stations.
During his “This Week” broadcast on Sunday, Stephanopoulos said to his correspondent Mireya Villarreal on the scene in Kerr County, Texas: “We’re also learning there were significant staffing shortfalls to the National Weather Services offices in the region.”
Easily debunked pic.twitter.com/YgqzkfckJA
— Immortal Patriot (@BasedImmortal) July 6, 2025
Villarreal replied: “You know, George, as of right now, the local county officials really didn’t want to address that just yet. What they are telling us is they expected between four and six inches of rain. That is what weather experts told them. The National Weather Service as well.
“They also knew that in remote locations, they might get anywhere from eight to ten inches. But this amount of rain, in such a short amount of time, it was very difficult to navigate. And when the Department of Homeland Security secretary was here just yesterday, she acknowledged this was an issue. She was going to take these concerns to the White House as well and try and see if there was anything they could do to revamp the system. She says the president is committed to it.”
Cullen Linebarger at the Gateway Pundit noted of Stephanopoulos’ staffing claim: “This would be disturbing news if true. But unsurprisingly, it turns out Stephanopoulos was spreading an easily debunked lie so that he could make Trump look like a villain again.”
According to the NBC-TV affiliate in Dallas, there were actually “extra staffers” on duty: “NWS Meteorologist Jason Runyen said the National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, which delivers forecasts for Austin, San Antonio and the surrounding areas, had extra staff on duty during the storms.
“Where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had up to five on staff.
“‘There were extra people in here that night, and that’s typical in every weather service office – you staff up for an event and bring people in on overtime and hold people over,’ Runyen said.”
Abigail Jackson, the White House deputy press secretary, blasted Stephanopoulos’ claim as “absolute fake news,” as she shared a news report from Wired, headlined: “Meteorologists say the National Weather Service did its job in Texas.”
This is absolute fake news and even Wired knows it. https://t.co/ZzGl0IWr36 pic.twitter.com/oUs7mNTP52
— Abigail Jackson (@ATJackson47) July 6, 2025
This is not the first time Stephanopoulos has been accused of major factual errors. In fact, ABC News was forced to pay President Trump $15 million last December after the anchor had claimed multiple times on air that Trump was “liable for rape” in former columnist E. Jean Carroll’s case against the president.
During a March segment of his morning show, ABC’s “This Week,” Stephanopoulos got into a heated exchange with the Republican lawmaker, with Mace calling him out for “shaming her.” At the time, Stephanopoulos questioned Mace about Trump being found liable for defamation and battery in Carroll’s case against him, refusing to listen to Mace as she repeated that she was a victim of rape herself.
Wow, this is what George Stephanopolous does. “Welcome to our show Nancy, now how do you justify your support of a rapist?” Good for Nancy Mace for refusing to allow him to get away with shaming her. pic.twitter.com/xiPlDItVOo
— JKash MAGA Queen (@JKash000) March 10, 2024
“You’re idiots! Stephanopoulos is an idiot, and so are his producers,” Megyn Kelly of SiriusXM Radio said at the time. “Because let me tell you, in all my years at Fox, never mind my short stint at NBC, the producers have a couple of main jobs. One is to arm the anchor with facts. Fail. OK, fail there. And two is to protect the anchor. You protect the anchor. So if the anchor is out there saying something colossally stupid, usually if you have a great producer, they’ll get in your ear to say, ‘No, it’s this. No, it’s that. Be careful.'”
Kelly added about Stephanopoulos: “He’s been there a long time. It doesn’t make him any more respectable. He’s a partisan hack. He started off as a partisan hack, and he remains one. He’s just too ballless to own his partisan nature, wants us to believe that he’s straight and narrow now, notwithstanding all those years helping Bill Clinton.”
The death toll from the flooding across Central Texas climbed Sunday to nearly 70.
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