George Stephanopoulos was only 35 when he left his post as a senior advisor to President Clinton, his rolodex full of contacts and his head full of political insights. He didn't know what he wanted to do next, but he knew he was wrung out from his time inside the D.C. bubble.
"White House years are dog years, multiplied," he says. "I knew that in order to feel my age again, I had to start a different career."
Today, Stephanopoulos is the chief anchor for ABC News, a co-anchor of ABC's Good Morning America, as well as the host of ABC's political interview show This Week. In this episode of Here's The Thing, he talks to Alec Baldwin about another prominent TV host, Brian Williams; the prospect of a Bush-Clinton presidential race in 2016; and how he's learned to be himself on national television.
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This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. George Stephanopolis was communications director for Clinton's presidential campaign. Governor Clinton has a character problem, but I take it that you Clinton has no smart and maybe a little too handsome for the job. Stephanopolis handled political fire storms calmly and with confidence, said that he had problems right and he he has talked about the draft and to some people as a character problem. Bill Clinton's passed his character tests throughout his life and throughout this campaign, and he's shown it through his commitments to real fights and what he's gonna do in his campaign. After the election, he became Clinton's White House Communications director and then the President's Senior Advisor for Policy and strategy. Today, at fifty four, he is chief anchor for ABC News, anchor of ABC's Good Morning America, and host of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. If you've read his autobiography All to Human, you know there was little in Stephanopolis's early life that would foretell his later successes. There was no idea when I was a kid. I mean, to the center was an idea. It was I was going to go into my family's business, which I would have been a priest, my father, my grandfather, my uncle, my godfather. But I sort of knew when I was in high school that wasn't gonna happen. And after that, I was always interested in public affairs and politics, and you know, we talked about current affairs at home, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I would say until my I was sort of out of college, and college I was doing both journalist him and politics. I was a radio broadcaster, sportscaster actually, but also had an internship which did really make a difference for me. I went in my junior college, I went and interned from my local congresswoman, and I kind of got the bug on. You know, I came from a suburban Cleveland high school, had a good group of friends, but it wasn't people weren't That's why I was born. But I was living in Cleveland, Ohio at the time, and uh that you know, that wasn't what people were interested in. And then you go to d C and there's all these young people who kind of care and talk and fight and debate about the same things. And that was really exciting as well. So I started out in politics, and uh, actually, when I finished graduate school, I I was trying to think, should I now go journalism or politics more full time? I was about twenty five then, and uh, I actually applied to ABC News, applied to Nightline and got a very kind but very terse, one line rejection letter from Rick Kaplan. At nine Line, I got hired by my member of Congress, had Finn to be he was, Yeah, he had been at ABC for a long time and it was his copple then and I got my jobs in politics, and one thing led to another there and I loved it and was happy to do it. Uh And it really was passionate about it. When I left the White House in nine first, early I was I guess I was what thirty five, thirty six? Then I felt much older and I know why, oh yeah, I mean, you know, White House hears are dog years multiplied. But I also knew I had a better sense of what I didn't want to be than what I wanted to be after I left the White House, I knew I didn't want to be someone who just hung around Washington trading off of what you'd done forever. And I knew that in order to feel my age again, I had to start a different career. And whose idea was it to ABC? I think part of the reason, probably the biggest reason I went to ABC, is when I met with Ruinardge. I got what they called the full Ruin, which is, you know, you brought you in and it was will be the last time I saw him pretty much, but you know, sold me on ABC. And one of the pitches he made is that we have, uh, you know, a pretty good history of taking people who had who had been in politics and actually training them to do journalism. Diane Sawyer although she had come later, but also coach Nixon. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it was it was a good pitch. I didn't know when I started that I would, you know, end up going full time, but I knew I had the opportunity. And so when you started you started ABC win January commentator and Charlie Gibson on that first day was the inauguration coverage gave me kind of a hard time do you know why? Yeah, I yeah, absolutely got it from all of them. I got it from I got it from Charlie a little bit. I got it from Ted Copple, who once came of office and just looked me in now and asked me why I'm here and whether I really felt I could, you know, sort of do the job. Be fair and and be objective. They were fair. Oh definitely got hazed a little bit from by Peter, but he was but you know, I they gave also gave me the chance to prove myself. And and did you worry that you could be fair? I didn't worry about it. But I realized that it was the only way if I was committed to doing this full time, it was the only way to do it. And I'll tell you what actually worked for me, And this is probably different from people who grow up and begin their career as journalists, is I couldn't pretend that I didn't have personal opinions. I couldn't pretend I wasn't a democratic paid it right and and one I accepted that as opposed to trying to be the journalists. And some journalists don't vote, and you know, are so rigorous about We're not going to allow any part of our life to show that kind of uh choosing of one side or another. I sort of accepted that and then said, but my job is to analyze things and report on them and tell people, with the benefit of my experience, help them put this all into perspective and then they can go make up their own minds. And by by not pretending that I was someone else, it freed me up inside. But I want to get to later on the nature of what it is to analyze things from a journalistic standpoint. But I want to stay with this track of this. So you write the book, and I'm willing to bet you keep the gloves on. You write the book, and you're very kind of cautious what you write. But nonetheless, people viewed when you wrote the book that you kind of you you had some um rigorously honest opinions of the Clintons in your time there. And did you feel when the book came out, because I know that I would feel this way that in one sense, you've done enough of that in the book already, so now that when you're on TV, did it make you kind of cautious and you kind of pulled your punches on the air. But no, I mean, it's now what was happening then is and this was actually, you know, part of the journey. UM. I decided to write the book when I first left the White House, and it was supposed to be a relatively lighthearted but honest kind of adventure story of this, you know, your life, my life, and you know, and that had a you know, quite a happy ending. And actually and I worked on the book throughout and it was in um whenever it was whatever January that all the Monica lewhisky stuff broke, and I was called on the day of broke. I remember again, I think I know I was in Alabama. I was going to try to I was gonna say the city, and I'm not positive it was Birmingham or Montgomery, but I in Alabama that morning. I had spoken at a college, and when all this stuff broken, I had to go on Good Morning America that morning and talk about it. And one of the promises I had made myself when I started to be a commentator was not that I would disavow by any means I don't think it was honest my my previous views, but that what I owed the audience was to sort of tell them the same kinds of things I would say if this were a meeting inside the White House, like you know, what does this mean? Which I felt was a way to be true to my beliefs, but also to give an added perspective. And uh, you know, I I saw that stuff come out that that morning and I had actually I said what I thought, which was true. I said, if these revelations, if these charges, if these accusations are true, if I think I said, if a couple of times, uh, they're serious and they could lead to impeachment. Did you know they were true? I didn't know. It was you know, it was compartmentalized, you know. I mean, whatever he did, he was good at it. But the thing was that was a sort of a my first taste of while even when I felt I was just sort of laying it out as I saw it, that was seen as you know, hugely controversial. You know, people said I was portraying and all that kind of stuff. I didn't believe, so, but it was I got that sense of whoa this is. It's not always going to be no matter what you're saying. It's damned if you do damned if you don't in that content, because when I read the book, and I remember it came out, people said there was that tone of betrayal, and that's a you know, I understand people who have that position on principle that you know, if you work for a White House, you shouldn't write about it, or you know, you should wait twenty years or something. I understand. I don't agree with that position, but I I understand it. Once that happened, I had written about a hundred fifty pages by that point, and I had to throw him out. Not because the incidents had changed, but you know, the filter definitely changes. I mean they once when something like that happens, you have to go back and look look back at everything through the filter of what you now know, even though you still try to be honest at the moment. That's exactly it. And I mean, I don't want to ask you to revisit that and talk about your experience then, but what effect did that have on you long term in your your view of politics, Because for me, that was the beginning, not Watergate. You know, it's it's so interesting Clinton impeachment that began to me to slowly turn my view of American scene For me, it felt more like a progression. You know what. One of the one of my my takeaways from that whole time is, you know, I remember in those men I worked for Clinton for about six years. Liberals, real liberals, always distrusted him, um, you know, especially after the ninety four election and the child family and there, and welfare reform and all those things. But it was somehow was the act of impeachment that actually galvanized and united all Democrats around him because it was seen as overstepping and and I think that the assassination, yeah, political assassination, and it I think that was one time when the majority of the country, or enough of majority of the country, even those who deplored what what President Clinton did, felt that, you know, this is going too far. It's hard to imagine this now, but I mean that in the course of impeachment, as the president is being impeached, his party picks up seats in the House. That's how that's how much the country jacks. But I don't see that as the moment. I see that as a building. You know, this is this kind of thing had been building up for for some time, and I saw, well, the public of our opportunity, the intense partisanship, and you know, the the the idea of hesitate to use your your word, assassination, but where everyone was looking for a scalp all the time, the Nixon that's possible, but you know when you look back and then Republicans will say, we'll wait a second, no, look what happened to Bork And that was really the original sin going through his records, going through his movie records was where it all Thomas began. Thomas then comes up, and it's just one thing builds after. Were you glad you weren't there when all that was coming down? I mean, that's kind of a question that answers like you wonder what it must have been like to I mean, my admiration for him is that he survived. I really don't give a damn what people do in their personal lives. What's the preferred way for the president to take the edge off? You wanted to drink, you wanted to take prescriptive medication. If the way he takes the edge off as he likes women, then I'm like, okay, I'll take that of the three, choose one of the three. And I think I'm not asking I'm not asking you to chime. All this stuff was always people's behavior and their and their personal lives that never really really bothered me. But I also think that when I see him, I I just have this tremendous He's like Chuck Yeager to me, how you crash that jet fighter and you get out and you're alive? He survived and and just never so so goddamn that is the thing. And you know, he used to tell this story about getting pushed down as a little kid, just always bouncing bouncing right back up and in so many ways that that resilience is is a big story of his life and his presidency. I mean, you know, and that's a great you know, it's it's it's an invaluable political strength you wanted in your presidence because every presdent is going to make a mistake. So obviously, when you were on one side of the aisle, so to speak, and though you came over there, do you find yourself doing things that you hated when other reporters did? You know, I think I am both helped and hurt by having spent the you know, the first twenty years of my career in politics. Um, I think it helps me in that. You know, I have been inside those rooms where the decisions are made, and I do tend to believe that most politicians public servants most of the time are well motivated trying to, you know, do the best they can according to their vision and what right and wrong is. Um. And you know, there are times when so I don't have that that deep ingrained skepticism gene that, you know, if you're gonna be a great investigative reporter, you kind of need. I think that kind of you know, sometimes it handicaps me in that way. On the other hand, having that empathy and understanding, I think sometimes gives me a better sense of how things are are gonna play out. UM And no, I'm I have tried to be you know even you know, I do the Sunday Show and I'll ask tough, direct questions and follow up. How many times have you interviewed Obama? Oh? Gosh, several, you know a lot. I mean, I I don't know the exact number. Your experience working with in the White House, What what kind of color does that cast? What kind of a shade does that cast on your view with him and what he's done. I'm gonna ask you to. I'm gonna kind of ask you to evaluate him, but I'm asking you more to. But what's been like covering him? You know, it's I think he's been, you know, a president of pretty momentous times. Um. I've had some very contentious interviews with him. But I come at it from the perspective of, you know, again, he's he's gonna beat you if you try to take a cheap shot, uh, in interview, and I think that basically you haven't done that. You've seen other people do that. Yeah, and you know easily. But we ended up getting into pretty long contentious argument. Um. It was during the health care fight we got into this argument. I was questioning about the idea that the mandate was attacks he said, well, you know, it's it's forcing people, you know, the money to spend their money. Um. And he just was not having it. And we went at it for like you know, in TV as an eternity, it's like twelve minutes and uh, I probably just exaggerated, may have been six, but went back and forth and and he was so insistent on it, and I was insistent on my side. And I even had a dictionary definition of tacks and the minute the camera went off, he said, you lost when you pulled out the definition. And you know, I get the last word on this story. This is you know, the story that makes me look good. Of course, when they went to the Supreme Court, the way they won the argument was by arguing that the mandate was attacks and that's how they got John Roberts wrote and said, when you said, you're welcome, but no, I you know, I think he you know, he came in and time of incredible crisis, the worst economic crisis of our adult lifetime. I don't think I would have made every choice that he made through that. And in fact, if I'm honest with myself, I probably would have been on the side in the White House arguing, you know, maybe you shouldn't do healthcare now. But you know he puts and and and and and and he got it through. Um uh. But I you know, I I'm a little wistful about him leaving when he's done, because I don't think he's been given enough credit. He just hasn't. I think he said, when you presidents are in their time, that's dude. You're very right. You're you're far wiser than I am about that. I just feel like that. And it's not about race. I just feel like I feel that people's fatigued. They're fatigued. Americans are fatigued by war. They're fatigued by UH and and and you know, and this is also a progression. And the the he came in making a promise that could not be kept. This idea that you can bring together the country in this environment was is fanciful. Um. But it's that's that progression of seeing the hardening of partisan lines over the last generation, I think makes it. You know, you sort of look at when's the last second term president who you know? Clinton got it, I guess towards the very end. But he was also impeached that you know, it doesn't have the whole country by the time he's finished disappearing victory from you know, you know, sick and tired. So with you, with you, with your from your standpoint? Now, are you excited about or not excited about her? Indifferent to another Bush Clinton? I'm fascinated by the whole idea and number one and number two, I'm I what I'm most interested in is seeing how the country reacts. Part of me just can't believe it. I mean, my whole adult life. There's you know, kind of Bush and Clintons running front. What is it? What is the statistics? You know, you go back to nineteen fifty two and there I don't think there's been a ticket on the Republican side that didn't have a busher in Nixon. Huh, Nixon fifty two, fifty six, he loses, it's seventy two, and then you don't have seven seventy six Still, then he's on him, and then he's on as the veep. Then he's the present eight. Then this then loses to Clinton, Clinton, and then he's back in two thousand, then he's back in there's a couple of skips. It was that there's where there's not an incumbent, the open ones incredible. But but but and you know, there's a lot of evidence out there that people complain about it. On the one hand, there was a fascinating focus group that Peter Hart broadcast out of Denver and and Dan Boss wrote about in the Washington Post. And these people talk about Bushes and Clinton's and you know, to be fair in this one, they were slightly more negative towards Bush. But there was this fatigue on on both sides, and you hear that anecdotally, but it doesn't seem to move people's opinions. Romney decided to bow out. I was just I was more surprised that he took the jump to get to come back in because he had been burned, because he had had his chance. Because he had he and his family had said in such emphatic ways. I mean, what was an Romney's eleven knows in such an emphatic ways that they would never do it again because he was so crushed by the lass. Although that can cut both ways, um, but they were making that quote about that without reciting that thing about Reaga came back won the third time Reagan and Nixon won on his third time. I was disappointed that Romney didn't run because as a as a moderate Democrat myself, I'd say to myself, he's the one I could have lived with, like when McCain ran, until he picked Palin as a running MANE I thought, if you want, I could live with that. I'm not going to kill myself. You know what I'm saying. There's other Republicans that they won. I would have had to. You know, you saw what happened once he started to run. He had a fair amount of support, but what that that second day he had the Wall Street Journal editorial board whack him out. Though Stephanopolis is a born commentator, you get the sense that he could have done anything in life. President Clinton once called him a master of the universe. Take a listen to our archive more in depth conversations with artists, performers, and newsmakers like Brian Williams. Yes, the Brian Williams who I talked with back in two thousand. Dinner could not start in our household until Walter Cronkite said, house that's the way it is. Take a listen that. Here's the thing, Dot Org. I'm at like Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing. My guest today is George Stephanopoulos. He spends his weekday mornings as the anchor of ABC's Good Morning America, talking with everyone from policymakers to YouTube sensations. At first, he wasn't sure it was such a good fit. They came to me and said, would you think about it? And it was after, you know, Charlie had announced he was going to leave and Diane was going to take his job, and um, I just said no, and why I liked what I was doing. I didn't think I could do the other job that I just didn't think it matched my Absolutely no, and I was just going to get to the second, tell the whole thing. You're far more charming than you think. She was actually saying no, you're not going to do it, because also we had to. Our girls were marks are still pretty young, but they were much younger than we had a really nice, sort of great life and d C rhythm and didn't want to upend it. What changed? You know, you've probably seen this at various times in your career. I don't know if it works exactly the same way. It probably does. There's great power and saying no. Sometimes you have to mean it when you say it, and I did mean it, but they just kept saying, well, you just think about it, and you know, I'll be honest. You know, Uh, there there would have been a cost to saying no meant I could do what I was doing for a long, long, long long time young but it probably meant that that's all I would do. Because you're saying they're telling you we need you to do this for the company and steppingson and you're saying, no, it takes on a life of its own. Yeah, that's your that's your choice, you know, So that was part of it. H What did you think that that job required that you didn't have? Because I'll tell you something interesting. This is a true story, but I'll never forget. I was in Tokyo and I was promoting this film and I get a phone call. And I don't want to go into the particulars of who's on the other end of the phone that have it all played out, but they basically said to me, you know, the Good Morning America was never more successful than when an actor hosted the show, which was David Hartman, and they said, would you consider becoming the host of Good Morning America? One of them I was thirty six years old. I wondered also, as we both know, if they were doing to pressure someone to sign their contract, who was holding out on a contract or something, because you never know whether people are using it for some other purpose. And I thought about that. I mean, I do this podcast, I've i've i've I've done well, I've done things outside of this because I always say it's it's it's a nice way to kill an hour and talk I'm interested in their career, but like, what did you think? Well, it was that I had never as a as a journalist, never covered or done things that I wasn't personally interested in. I'd always you know, basically done politics and public policy and public fairs, which is you know that Barger game. Yeah, and I and I that's the way I like to start my day. I like to start my day by reading two hours of everything going on in the world and then you know, using it. And I knew that you know, by definition, the morning shows have some of that, but it's also a lot of things that you know, you wouldn't expect me to talk about, you know, home decorating or I like to cook, but it's not something I want to do on TV every morning. And you have to find a way to talk about home decorating in the Good Morning America style. What I found and to develop a skill. I was lucky in that, um, I learn how to do what I do differently, and I was very lucky and that they changed the show around as I was doing this as well and sort of broadened out the team, which made it possible for me to basically be nothing but myself on the air um, and that is actually could be the straight man. The skill, the skill is to see who you are, be who you are. The world is going to come to you every morning. There's gonna be all kinds of different things happening. Handsome, ernest, reacts as you normally would do whatever happens, and that's you know, that's actually kind of fun. I guess the perfect borning show host should be a combination of you and your wife, somebody with your knowledge about public affairs as someone with her time. Yes, she's so funny. What does she think about you doing the job. She didn't want me to do it first. She glad you did. Oh yeah, we loved Washington, and I've been going back and forth Washington in New York my whole career. But we really love New York. We love living here. Kids love it, and the kids love it and we have a great you know, not going with a great life here. What's the tough part about doing that job? Because famous talk show host? So I've been doing their shows and they've been They've confided in me, like I'll come on, and I wanna you know, I want to I'm eager to please, So I want to queen a play bowl with them and come up with some stuff with some bits and whatever. We work the segments and they'll lean over and say, thank God, here here, you know, you're so funny. And then they'll say to me, what torture it is pretending people are special? Who aren't that specially when they come on. You know, that part doesn't bother me. What bothers me is when people come on and they expect you to do their job. They're in entertainment here, they're in entertainment, and you know they got a job to do and can come do it. I really respect professionals who, you know, know that talent is one thing, but work is important. Had a weird thing for me. I mean, it's not that big of a deal, but it's slightly weird. How in the arc of my lifetime the Evening News a guy or a woman for that matter, sitting behind the desk. I mean, Maureen Dowd made it, had a nice column about this, sitting behind the desk and telling you what happened today, which is a dated concept. We're all walking out with a device in our hand that tells us everything every ten seconds and a refresh button, and that is changing and morphing and diminishing. But the morning shows have not lost their important They become more well, you know. The good thing is that well, you know, it's one of the last places you were talking about. You watch television. We all tune in now for big events. You know, most of us watch the super Bowl, most of us watch, you know, the presidential debates, not so much the States of the Union, any kind of big live event the country, even the award shows like the Academy Awards, people would tune in on. The morning is the last place where people, actually, I think, on television get up to find out what happened while they were sleeping. My device has been off, and you know during the day, they're catching up all day long. And I gotta say that's one of the and it was one of There are two things have surprised me about how much I've ended up, you know, fitting into this job and also liking it. I really really love the idea that people are getting up and getting their first news from you. I love that. Yeah. And and secondly, and this is the thing I had to come to appreciate something I've heard in the last five years which I had never before heard, uh, you know, just from people on the street when they come up and talk to you. And most people are nice. Um is you know, thank you for starting my day and putting us in a good mood no matter what happens. You know, and the news isn't always good, but you guys just seem to you know, be able to have fun and do it in a in a that makes us feel. And I was a kid, James. I remember Barbara Walters. She got mad at me when I reminded her that when I was a kid watching her, But it was a big deal. Who you who you set the day up with? Now? Of course, um, I might have sat down with you before we started here, and I might have told you a story about how my car nearly going there. I had my car nearly hit other cars and we had to avoid all kinds of potholes and it was a very dangerous thing. And I mean I risked my life getting up here to sit down with you and talk to you today. And I'm wondering, um, or joking aside, what do you think happen there with Brian boy? I don't know what people in your I mean, you always newsman and and all of us in this business. Host, Good Morning America now, but you were a newsman, and everybody's been watching this and trying to figure out you know, you know, it's when something happens in your business. You know, we're all following every twist of this and trying to put it all together. You know, I'm not friends with Brian, but I see him around a lot. I like it got funny. He's a good guy, always respected his work. Um. And then you see this start to happen, and a couple of things have stunned me. Um. One, when you see the you know, the various clips, you're kind of you're surprised at the volume a little bit um and the the vividness, uh performance. Yeah. And then but also I gotta say I'm surprised. I didn't quite understand how it got into the broadcast because you know, we all are surrounded by big teams, and that was a little bit surprising. Online, I mean again, I don't believe I don't really rely too much on what I read on some of these venues. But what you're seeing online is this idea, which I find just very compelling, is he just was in this perch where there was no one to say no to him. He was his own boss. He had no censor and danger in all life though, when you when you when you don't have someone who can, whether your wife or your best friend, or your brother or sister. God knows, I've got a wife that lets the air out of me from town to town. Trust definitely that I definitely do. And you do. I mean, listen, I in my job, I sometimes chafe it some of the restrictions or you know, you know, the various checks and and and balances, but you know it's there for a reason. But I have a theory about him. What is it? And I don't I mean, I'm I'm gonna expect you to know to see it this way, But I have a theory about him, which is And I would sit back and in a somewhat casual mode, and I would watch the whole American sniper thing play out, and you'd say to yourself, Well, what people want is they want us to have a sustained, honest, real palpable celebration of our fighting men and women who were over there. Now for many many you just war over there, whatever you want to call it, whatever the action was, they've been over there for a long long time, now, longer than any other battle we've ever had, absolutely, and it's a small, tiny person of the population that's been there for longer than ever before. When I was a kid, Emma Floria was my babysitter, and Emma Florio's family lived down the block from me, and the seminal moment was that her brother, Roland Florio, who worked in a medevac helicopter, who was due to come home in two weeks, get shot down and he was killed. So the reverberations of death in Vietnam lived in my neighborhoodraft and in my height exactly, and Vietnam and war and the draft lived in our lives. And now that's all gone. None of us have a dog in that fight, so to speak. That we're blood kin or our friends. That two year difference in our age is actually kind of significant. My first memory of all that, I mean, I was just a little too young for all that Vietnam stuff is actually I was the first class. I believe they go back and register for the draft again, but I came of age in that. I guess it was kind of a blessed era where we just didn't we didn't fight. Yeah. Yeah, See my theory about Brian was it because Brian's audience is an audience that's a middle class conservative moms and pops that aren't working around with their devices in their hands all the time. Maybe the device is something would make a phone call with. We're not checking what CNN says or Ariana Huffington says, and we all are creatures have have it. And they said then they go, they're like, no, my news. Brian tells me what the news is at six o'clock and millions of people watch Brian. Brian's got a good audience. And Brian, I think fell even unconsciously victim to something which was wrapping himself in the flag and in the glory of the military to please his audience. He kind of got a little drunk on and this is I'm there's a big swing I'm taking here. But I see his language and I see the way he plays it out, and I try to understand people as an actor, like what they're going through. And I thought he's trying to communicate to people here, He's trying to tell them something, and I think his audiences he's trying to connect. But because but it wasn't just the military stuff, but trying to connect to people through stories. And I think his crown up is to be a very pro military, conservative crowd. I think that's six o'clock News on NBC. It's it's an older, more conservative crowd. You having fun on that job? Is it fun most of the time? Most of the time? Yeah? And then you know, for me, I get I I get to you know, I'm lucky now and I've reached a point in my career, you know, hoping. You know, there's one of the cautionary tales of the whole Brian Williams episode is I don't think we all make mistakes. I don't think I don't think what I would do what he did, but in that case, but we all make mistakes, and you realize it can go like that. I'm familiar with that. Yeah. But what I what I love about is I get to do a lot of different things every day. All of life is kind of opened up to it. And on top of it, the job I've structured now as I still every other Sunday, I'm I'm doing this week and whenever big news happens, and I take this responsibility seriously. But you know, I really um and fulfilled by when when big things happen, having the chance to help explain it to people. Even though most people get, you know, more and more getting the news in other ways, they still are going to turn to you when when big things happen, and you know, to have the chance to be a part of that is you know, it's a it's a great privilege. You can hear George Stephanopoulos's commentary every other Sunday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. George's daughters here his analysis every night when he joins them around the dinner table. He says, that's the big benefit of his very very early day. This is Alec Baldwin. You're listening to here's the thing and be thing to get any cho