President Biden’s campaign suggested questions to two Black radio hosts who were given their first interviews after his disastrous performance at the presidential debate, it was revealed in an interview Saturday.Going forward, the Biden campaign will not suggest questions ahead of interviews, a source familiar with the booking operations said.
The two radio interviews on Thursday in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two key battleground states that Biden must win to retain the presidency, were part of an effort by the Biden campaign to show the president can improvise after he struggled to finish sentences, repeatedly lost his train of thought and spoke in a raspy voice during the debate.
The revelation, made by the campaign, raises further questions about whether the president is capable of performing in unscripted moments.
“While interview hosts have previously had free reign to ask any question, they will now refrain from suggesting questions,” a source familiar with Biden’s booking practices told The Hill.
Biden scheduled these radio interviews, and his interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, days after his lackluster debate performance. In the ABC interview, Biden specifically pointed to the two radio interviews as evidence that he could handle the rigors of a campaign.
Andrea Lawful Sanders, host of “The Source” at WURD in Philadelphia, said she was given eight questions by members of the Biden campaign and chose four of them for her interview with the president.
she He told CNN’s Victor Blackwell.Asked why the questions she asked Biden looked similar to those asked by Wisconsin radio host Earl Ingram, host of CNN’s “First of All,” Biden said the questions were sent to her in advance.
“The questions were sent to me for approval,” Lawful-Sanders said. “I received several questions, eight of them, and the four that were selected are the ones I approved.”
“It is not unusual for interviewees to share their preferred topics,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt wrote in The Hill.
Ingraham, who appeared on the show with Lawful Sanders and interjected during the CNN interview, later told The Associated Press that the campaign followed a similar process with him: They gave him four questions, and he said the questions he could ask were non-negotiable.
“They gave me the exact questions to ask,” Ingram told The Associated Press. “There was no back and forth.”
He added that the process “made him hesitant” but that he didn’t want to miss out on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because “he’s not a journalist.”
“I probably never would have accepted it, but this was an opportunity to talk to the president of the United States,” he told The Associated Press.
Blackwell weighed in on the moderator’s revelation, saying she “isn’t sure” how the Biden campaign’s advance questions would help convince voters that the president could see himself through another term in office.
“I’m not asking this question to criticize either of you,” Blackwell said, “but if the White House is trying to demonstrate the president’s vitality, energy and acumen right now, I just don’t see why they would send the questions ahead of the interview and let the president know what’s going to happen.”
The president appeared to gaffe at different points during both interviews. During her interview with Lawrence Sanders, Biden appeared to stumble when she said she was proud to be “the first Black woman to work with a Black president.”
Hitt also noted that former President Trump canceled an interview this week because the interviewer didn’t agree with the questions, and said the Biden campaign never made it a “condition” of an interview that he accept questions suggested by the campaign.
Hitt said after the CNN interview that Lawful Sanders Additional commentsShe said she “never felt pressured” to take the questions.
