President Biden’s campaign provided a list of approved questions for two radio hosts who interviewed him for the first time since he took office. Shaky debate resultsThe two organizers said Saturday:
Mr. Biden to Appear on Black Radio Shows in Key States Thursday Wisconsin’s Pennsylvania was the 81-year-old’s first opportunity to show he can answer questions and discuss his record since a debate in which he struggled to repeatedly and thoroughly prove his case against former President Donald Trump.
Radio host Earl Ingram said Saturday that Biden’s aides contacted him directly for the interview, which aired Thursday, sending him a list of four questions in advance and that there was no negotiation.
“They gave me the exact questions I needed to ask,” Ingram, whose “The Earl Ingram Show” airs in 20 outlets across Wisconsin, told The Associated Press. “There was no back and forth.”
“It is not at all uncommon for interviewees to share their favorite topics,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said in a statement to CBS News Saturday afternoon, adding that such questions are “related to the news of the day.”
Heat said, “We don’t condition interviews on whether or not you accept these questions. Hosts are always free to ask questions that they feel will provide the most useful information to the listeners.”
A Biden administration official told CBS News that the White House had no involvement in setting up the two radio interviews, that it is not standard White House practice to field questions from interviewers, and that the campaign has no plans to do so again in the future.
A source inside the campaign reiterated to CBS News that “going forward, they will not be offering suggested questions.”
The interview was part of an effort to restore confidence in Mr. Biden’s ability to govern for the next four years as well as his ability to campaign successfully, but it also raised questions about whether Mr. Biden could pull off an impromptu, unscripted moment after the debate.
Andrea Ropul-Sanders, who hosts “The Source” at WURD in Philadelphia, appeared earlier on CNN with Ingram and said she was given a list of eight questions and approved four of them.
Mr. Biden argued on Ingram’s show that much more than his political future was at stake, saying, “The stakes are really high. You know that. Democracy, freedom, the economy are all on the line.”
Ingram asked Biden four questions during the 18-minute interview. He asked whether Biden could talk about “what we know or don’t know about your record, particularly in Wisconsin,” what’s at stake for Black voters in the election, what Biden would say to those who believe their votes don’t matter, and whether he could comment on his own performance in the debate and on comments Trump made about people taking what he called “Black jobs” across the border.
“We didn’t have a good debate. I was on stage for 90 minutes. Look at what I’ve done in 3.5 years,” Biden said in response to a final question before speaking for several minutes about Trump, the economy and veterans.
Ingram, who has been on radio for 15 years and says he doesn’t think of himself as a journalist, balked at the idea of being given a set list of questions for guests when asked about them, but said it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I would never have accepted it, but this was an opportunity to talk to the president of the United States,” he said.
