FLASHBACK: Biden has history of coordinating ‘scripted’ interviews, press conferences with media ahead of time
Local journalists recently admitted that the Biden campaign provided them with questions ahead of their interviews with the president
By Gabriel Hays Fox News
Published July 7, 2024 4:00pm EDT
New disclosures from journalists that the Biden campaign gave them the questions to ask ahead of their interviews with the president is just the latest instance of President Biden and the media being accused of colluding to help boost his performance throughout his presidency.
On several occasions throughout his first term, Biden’s handlers have appeared to have pre-selected which journalists he can answer to at press conferences. Biden has also had other interviews guided by questions that were allegedly pre-selected by media executives, which left no room for prominent journalists to ask him off-the-cuff questions or even follow-ups to the "scripted" questions.
"To the word. Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives. Absolutely. I was on script and was told not to deviate," former ESPN host Sage Steele previously told Fox News Digital about an interview she had with President Biden in 2021.
The intense scrutiny on Biden’s mental acuity and cognitive abilities following his disastrous presidential debate in June became further amplified after two local radio hosts disclosed that the president’s team forwarded questions to ask him ahead of their interviews with Biden.
Philadelphia radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders told CNN anchor Victor Blackwell on Saturday that she "got several questions, eight of them, and the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved" before her interview with Biden on July 3.
And Milwaukee radio host Earl Ingram told ABC News that same day that he "was given some questions for Biden" ahead of his sit-down with the president that happened days after the presidential debate.
As the CNN host said to both hosts during the interview on Saturday, the fact that Biden’s team supposedly pre-arranged the interviews in this way plays into growing concern that he can’t handle reelection and the job of president.
"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 interview so that the president knows what‘s coming," Blackwell said.
However, Biden participating in interviews and press conferences that appear to have pre-approved conditions are not new to his presidency. There have been multiple instances.
Several of these instances included Biden being given instructions on which journalists to call on in press conferences. One that went viral in August 2021 involved the president declaring mid-presser that he had been given a list of which reporters to call on and "instructed" to use it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, they gave me a list here. The first person I was instructed to call on was Kelly O'Donnell from NBC," Biden said at the time, sparking a deluge of criticism on social media.
At the time, Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., asked, "Biden just said ‘I was instructed to call on’ this reporter! Who instructed him to call on the reporter? Who's really in charge? Are you kidding me?"
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https://www.foxnews.com/media/flashback-biden-has-history-coordinating-scripted-interviews-press-conferences-media-ahead-time
