White House aides delivered eight questions to two radio hosts who interviewed President Joe Biden last week, Philadelphia’s Andrea Lawful-Sanders told CNN on Saturday.
CNN “First of All” host Victor Blackwell shared with Lawful-Sanders and radio host Earl Ingram that he listened to both interviews and noticed, “there’s something that’s similar here — you each asked four questions, and maybe that’s what you are allowed to ask by the campaign or the White House.”
“But they were essentially the same questions, both interviews — about accomplishments, progress in your respective state, what’s at stake in the election, what he has to say about his debate performance, and what he would say to voters who don’t think their vote doesn’t matter or might sit this election out.”
“Were those questions given to you by the White House, or the campaign, or did you have to submit questions ahead of this interview?” he asked. Lawful-Sanders, the host of “The Source” on WURD, explained “The questions were sent to me for approval; I approved of them.”
He followed up, clarifying that it was the White House that sent the questions ahead of the interview.
“I got several questions — eight of them,” she added. “And the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved.”
Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt addressed the practice and told the Washington Post, “It’s not at all uncommon practice for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. These questions were relevant to the news of the day — the president was asked about this debate performance as well as what he’d delivered for Black Americans.”
“We do not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners,” she added.
Both interviews were part of an effort by the Biden campaign to reach large the audiences of shows with large Black followings, the New York Times reported. It was not made clear ahead of the interviews that the questions were provided by the Biden campaign.
Despite having a leg up in terms of questions, Biden still wobbled while speaking to Lawful-Sanders. After one question, Biden said he was proud to have been “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president.”
In a second interview with “The Earl Ingram Show” on WMCS, Biden appeared to stumble through an explanation about why voting matters.
Blackwell told the hosts, “The reason I ask is not a criticism of either of you. It’s just that if the White House is trying now to prove the vim, vigor, acuity of the president, I don’t know how they do that by sending questions first, before the interviews, so that the president knows what’s coming.”
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