A Rasmussen poll released Tuesday that surveyed 1000 likely voters found that ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos is suffering a credibility crisis every but as crippling as the one NBC’s Brian Williams went through earlier this year. A plurality of 46% of those polled want ABC News to ban its chief anchor and political correspondent from 2016 campaign coverage. Only 36% disagreed.
Even among Democrats, 30% want the former-Clinton White House official banned; 50% of Democrats disagree. A full 66% of Republicans and 45% of unaffiliated voters don’t want to see Stephanopoulos cover the 2016 campaign for ABC News.
The overall credibility of the face and name of ABC News has also taken a substantial hit in the wake of the news that Stephanopoulos lied to ABC News and his viewers about $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation. In February, 45% of those polled had a favorable opinion of Stephanopoulos. That has since dropped to just 34%.
In general, 34% of voters have lost faith in Stephanopoulos as someone believable; 42% say the scandal has had no impact.
What should be especially worrying for ABC News is how closely these numbers mirror the credibility collapse Brian Williams faced after his serial-fabrications were exposed back in February. Forty percent of Americans said Williams “had to go.” As mentioned above, a full 46% want Stephanopoulos off the 2016 campaign beat.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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