ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos told Politico that he would not moderate the GOP debate in New Hampshire scheduled for February due to his $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation over the years.

However, the former Clinton aide said that he would not recuse himself from covering the 2016 presidential campaign, as some Republicans have suggested.

"In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have, even though I did it for the best reasons," he said.

Stephanopoulos also said that he has given a total of $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation. That figure represents charitable contributions of $25,000 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. ABC News initially said that Stephanopoulos had given a total of $50,000 to the foundation.

The "Good Morning America" co-anchor and host of "This Week" said that he would not moderate ABC's GOP debate, which is scheduled to take place in February in New Hampshire. Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that Stephanopoulos should be prohibited from moderating any debates during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"I won't moderate that debate," Stephanopoulos said. "I think I've shown that I can moderate debates fairly. That said, I know there have been questions made about moderating debates this year. I want to be sure I don't deprive viewers of a good debate."

But Stephanopoulos said that he would not recuse himself from coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, despite urging from the office of Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, which said Thursday that Sen. Lee would be advised not to go on "This Week" unless the host "recuses himself from all 2016 coverage."

Throughout the interview, Stephanopoulos apologized profusely for failing to disclose his contributions to viewers, including during an interview with author Peter Schweizer, whose book "Clinton Cash," alleges that donations to the foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state. On Thursday, Schweizer accused Stephanopoulos of a "massive breach of ethical standards."

"At the time I did not perceive the problem, but in retrospect, as much as I support the very good work that's been done by the foundation, I should have gone above and beyond any guidelines to make sure that there wouldn't be any appearance of any conflict," he said.

Stephanopoulos would not say whether it had crossed his mind to disclose the issue earlier. Instead, he said he "believed that the donations already were a matter of public record" because his name is listed among donors on the Clinton Foundation's website.

Typical liberal defense of the indefensible: I acted unethically, but hey! My intentions were pure! Why do liberals believe if they mean well, all should be forgiven? "We've spent trillions to eradicate poverty and it hasn't worked. But, hey! Our intentions were good!" It's a bogus defense in that it ignores outcomes in favor of intent. Hasn't anyone ever heard the old adage, "The path to hell is paved with good intentions"? 

So endeth the lesson.

Every statement on the race made by Stephanopoulos from here on out should be minutely examined by the RNC and thrown back in his face. And Republican candidates should refuse to go on his shows until ABC does the right thing and shelves this shill for the Democrats. It was outrageous for ABC to hire him in the first place, and now they have the opportunity to fix that mistake.