Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., feels women’s groups and ABC executives should "demand an apology" from anchor George Stephanopoulos for trying to "shame" her for endorsing former President Trump.
Mace, a rape survivor, says she felt personally attacked when Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to Bill Clinton, asked during a heated interview Sunday how she could support Trump when he has been accused of rape.
"Every single group that claims to stand for women and victims of rape should demand an apology from George Stephanopoulos. There is absolutely nothing ‘valiant’ or ‘ethical’ about shaming and bullying victims rape. We hope that the female leadership at ABC demand he apologize for his blatant imprudence and disrespect," Mace’s spokesperson, Gabrielle Lipsky, told Fox News Digital.
ABC News declined comment when asked if network leadership would ask Stephanopoulos to apologize. Disney Entertainment president of News Group and Networks Debra OConnell and ABC News president Kim Godwin oversee the division.
Some commentators and progressives praised Stephanopoulos for pressing Mace over her support of Trump, whom she once strongly criticized over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Trump wound up backing Mace's unsuccessful GOP primary challenger in 2022 and called Mace an "absolutely terrible candidate," but the two have politically reconciled.
The Disney-owned network stood by Stephanopoulos after the interview.
"George did his job by asking meaningful questions that are relevant to our viewers," an ABC News spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached out to more than a dozen of the nation’s leading women’s groups. None of them called on Stephanopoulos to apologize. RAINN, which bills itself as the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, is grateful Mace and others continue to speak out.
"We are grateful that survivors who are public figures like Congresswoman Mace and E. Jean Carroll continue to speak out about their own experiences with sexual violence. Their experience will be held up against many aspects of their life for comparison, and that’s not an easy journey," RAINN Vice President of Communications Jennifer Simmons Kaleba told Fox News Digital.
ABC NEWS PRESIDENT CALLS TRUMP'S MUGSHOT COMMENTS ABOUT BLACK VOTERS 'AS RACIST AS THEY COME'
"You've endorsed Donald Trump for president," Stephanopoulos said to Mace on "This Week" after playing a past clip of her discussing being a rape victim.
"Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape," the anchor told Mace. "How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?"
"Well, I will tell you, I was raped at the age of 16," Mace said. "Any rape victim will tell you, I've lived for 30 years with an incredible amount of shame for being raped. I didn't come forward because of that judgment and shame that I felt."
"It's a shame that you will never feel, George," she said. "I’m not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim. I’m not going to do that."
"It's actually not about shaming you," Stephanopoulos said, arguing that his question was about the allegations of rape against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case. Carroll is a former columnist who alleges that Trump raped her in a New York City department store dressing room in the 1990s.
"It's not a criminal court case, No. 1," Mace said in return. "No. 2, I live with shame. And you're asking me a question about my political choices trying to shame me as a rape victim and I find it disgusting."
A federal jury in New York City decided last year that Trump was not liable for rape but was liable for sexual abuse and defamation. ABC News did not immediately respond when asked if Stephanopoulos would correct the difference.
Mace appeared on "The Faulkner Focus" to discuss the incident on Monday.
"I was so shocked and dismayed by the line of questioning. George Stephanopoulos tried to bully me and shame me as a rape survivor over my support for Donald Trump, which is insane to me," Mace told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner.
"He wasn’t found guilty of rape anywhere. But the other thing is that George Stephanopoulos… he has never felt the shame of rape. He doesn’t know what this journey is like. It’s a journey of healing over a lifetime," Mace added.
Mace said that many women don’t come forward because of the "judgment and the shame" that follows.
"Here he was, judging me, bullying me, and shaming me as a rape victim, for my political choices. And it’s wrong but it’s almost like, ‘Rape is wrong unless you’re a Republican,’" Mace told Faulkner.
ABC NEWS' SPIKING OF EPSTEIN STORY DRAWS SCRUTINY TOWARD CLINTON ALLY GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS
Independent Women's Forum senior fellow Beverly Hallberg was appalled by the line of questioning from Stephanopoulos, who rose to fame as a senior communications adviser to President Clinton.
"To surprise your guest with a clip of them sharing something as hard and personal as rape – especially when it took 25 years for them to summon the courage – is flat out wrong. Plenty of people are pointing out the hypocrisy of George Stephanopoulos asking this question when he worked for and defended accused rapist Bill Clinton, but beyond that it is appalling that a woman would be forced to talk about her rape on national TV without warning, compassion, and at length," Hallberg told Fox News Digital.
Ahead of the 2016 election, Stephanopoulos pulled out of moderating debates after his $75,000 donation to the Clinton Foundation drew criticism.
Fox News Digital’s Jeffrey Clark and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
