In the past week, two black talk radio hosts in battleground states have admitted that they were provided with a list of pre-approved questions in advance of their interviews with Joe Biden.
Radio hosts Earl Ingram and Andrea Lawful-Sanders are now being slammed in the media for their lack of independence and journalistic integrity at a time when Biden’s mental acuity is a major focus of the public’s attention.
“This is malpractice,” wrote ABC News’ Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl on X. “When you give the interviewer questions, it is no longer an interview. Why did the White House do this?”
While the practice of allowing the White House to dictate interview questions may be new low for journalists, the White House has for years supplied Biden with a list of pre-approved reporters to call upon during his rare press conferences.
Lawful-Sanders has since been fired for going along with the Biden Campaign’s scam.
Ingram told ABC News on Saturday that he was given a list of five questions to ask before his interview with Biden.
“Yes, I was given some questions for Biden,” said Ingram, who hosts CivicMedia’s “the Earl Ingram Show” weekdays across Wisconsin. “I didn’t get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask,” he added.
Ingram had begun the fake interview by saying, ” I have a few questions I’d like to ask you, sir.” Biden replied, “fire away, man!”
The radio host then asked Biden to expound on his record of “accomplishments which we may or may not be familiar with” … “especially here in Wisconsin.” Biden proceeded to answer the question with a lengthy litany of his “accomplishments” and with a level of detail that only seemed possible with the assistance of written notes.
Ingram told ABC he didn’t see anything necessarily wrong with allowing his fellow Democrat this helpful crutch. “To think that I was gonna get an opportunity to ask any question to the President of the United States, I think, is a bit more than anybody should expect,” he said.
He continued that he was grateful for the opportunity to interview Biden at all.
“Certainly the fact that they gave me this opportunity … meant a lot to me,” Ingram said.
Earlier Saturday, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, the host of WURD’s “The Source,” told CNN that Biden campaign officials had provided her with a list of eight questions ahead of her interview with Biden.
“The questions were sent to me for approval; I approved of them,” the Philadelphia-based radio host said.
“I got several questions — eight of them,” she added. “And the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved.”
Despite being prepared to answer pre-arranged questions, Biden still struggled during the interview, saying at one point that he was “proud to be, as I said, the first vice president—first black woman to serve with a black president.”
When asked about his outreach to black voters, Biden highlighted his visit to Girard College in Philadelphia on May 29 to announce the Biden Campaign’s “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” summertime effort.
“Black voters in cities like Philadelphia are the ones who are going to decide the outcome of this election,” Biden told Lawful-Sanders.
During the 14-minute interview, Biden also took credit for lowering drug costs including insulin, increasing black wealth and home ownership, nominating the first black woman Supreme Court justice and touted “the unprecedented diversity of his cabinet.”
Lawful-Sanders concluded the interview by asking Biden what he would say to Americans who plan to sit out the 2024 election. “Same thing that was said to me when I was a young kid getting out of school during the Civil Rights Movement,” Biden said. “If you don’t do something about it, you’re to blame.”
Following Lawful-Sanders’ admission that she was fed the questions ahead of time, Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement that it’s not “uncommon” for interviewees to share topics they would prefer and that Lawful-Sanders was “free” to ask any questions she saw fit.
“It’s not at all an uncommon practice for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. These questions were relevant to news of the day – the president was asked about this debate performance as well as what he’d delivered for black Americans,” the statement said.
“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. In addition to these interviews, the President also participated in a press gaggle yesterday as well as an interview with ABC. Americans have had several opportunities to see him unscripted since the debate.”
In the wake of the controversy, WURD’s president and CEO announced on Sunday that the station and Lawful-Sanders had “parted ways.”
“WURD Radio remains an independent voice that our audience can trust will hold elected officials accountable,” Sara M. Lomax, the president and CEO of WURD, said in a statement on Sunday. “As Pennsylvania’s only independent Black-owned talk radio station, WURD Radio has cultivated that trust with our audience over our 20-year history. This is something we take very seriously. Agreeing to a pre-determined set of questions jeopardizes that trust and is not a practice that WURD Radio engages in or endorses as a matter of practice or official policy.”
Lomax noted that the Biden interview was “arranged and negotiated independently” by Lawful-Sanders “without knowledge, consultation or collaboration with WURD management.”
“WURD Radio is not a mouthpiece for the Biden or any other Administration,” Lomax said. “Internally, we will commit to reviewing our policies, procedures, and practices to reinforce WURD’s independence and trust with our listeners. But mainstream media should do its own introspection to explore how they have lost the trust of so many Americans, Black Americans chief among them.”
A source within the Biden campaign told CBS News that “the campaign will refrain from offering suggested questions moving forward.”