The ABC News anchor and former Clinton White House aide apologized on air Friday, saying he should have publicly disclosed contributions to the Clinton Global Foundation.
The donations -- totaling $75,000 -- were a matter of public record, but Stephanopoulos said on Good Morning America that he should have made “additional disclosures on-air” when the network covered the foundation.
And he said he now believes “directing personal donations to that foundation was a mistake. Even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children and protect the environment in poor countries, I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.”
ABC said earlier that Stephanopoulos voluntarily removed himself as a moderator for ABC’s planned coverage of a GOP presidential debate next February.
Stephanopoulos recently interviewed the author of a book that is sharply critical of some of the groups that contribute to the foundation, but he did not reveal his own contributions.
The book’s author, Peter Schweizer, has called for another interview on the Sunday show, saying contributions raise “all kinds of questions.”