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Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos is uniquely qualified among the members THR‘s of the 35 Most Powerful People in Media: he has the platform of the No. 1 morning show to command major interviews and the political experience and connections to know just what to ask his interviewees.
Speaking with THR at the New York Issue party that honored him and fellow power list members, Stephanopoulos wore both his strategist and journalist hat to speculate on whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would run for the White House once again.
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“She’s not saying no, and it’s pretty clear that if she decides to run, based on what we know now, for at least a while, she’d be the front-runner and certainly be one of the most experienced, if not the most experienced, person ever to run for president,” said Stephanopoulos, once an adviser to President Clinton. “But you also have to remember she had a lot of those advantages in 2008, and it wasn’t enough. But my guess is she’s also learned a lot from that experience.”
As for his personal opinion about Clinton’s decision-making, Stephanopoulos hinted that the temptation of the Oval Office might be too much to turn down.
“Knowing what I know about her, I think she has the discipline not to decide unless she has to decide,” he offered. “So I think she’s definitely keeping an open mind. Knowing what I know about the White House, whenever you get that close, it’s hard to say no.”
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The GMA co-anchor also opined on last week’s big local political news story: the attempted comeback of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who left office in 2011 after getting caught sending lewd photos over Twitter. He’s indicated that he wants to run for mayor of New York City, and Stephanopoulos gave him an early thumbs up.
“I was impressed by how open and thoughtful and reflective both he and [wife] Huma Abedin were in that interview,” he said. “That’s not sufficient; it’s just the first step. … I personally thought he opened up and saw how sorry he was for everything that happened.”
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