Pulls out of debate

In a phone interview Stephanopoulos calls the donations a mistake and reiterates his earlier apology.

I gave the donations for the right reasons, for the best of intentions, to support causes I believe in. In retrospect, I realize that even though that falls within our guidelines, I should have gone above and beyond that, just to avoid anything that would even raise any possible appearance of a conflict. That’s why it was a mistake, and that’s why I’m sorry — to our viewers and to my colleagues.

He also says he will not host the February 2016 Republican primary debate

I don’t want to be a distraction, so I’m not going to moderate that debate…I am going to continue to cover the 2016 campaign. I think I’ll be able to prove every single day that I do it with intelligence and fairness, just as I’ve done for the last 17-plus years.