US President Biden delivers a speech at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA on July 7, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
presidential campaign Joe Biden Requested and received two edits to the interview he gave milwaukee radio station Following his disastrous debate with the former president in late June Donald Trumpthe station said Thursday.
Citizen Media revealed the edits days after the host of the Biden interview and another Black radio host in Philadelphia revealed that the Biden campaign had asked them questions for the president in advance.
Meanwhile, there has been heightened scrutiny of Biden’s interviews and his ability to deliver his message in an impromptu setting without a teleprompter. During the June 27 debate with Trump, the president struggled to keep his train of thought, sometimes giving confusing answers to simple questions.
Since then, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers and other allies have called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, citing questions about his ability and ability to serve a four-year term.
Civic Media, which aired the host’s interview with BidenEarl Ingram On July 4, the presidential campaign asked Ingram’s production team to remove a comment in which Biden said, “I have more black people in my administration than any other president.”
The campaign also asked the show to remove a short interview related to Trump’s demand for the death penalty for a group of teenagers accused of raping a jogger in New York’s Central Park in 1989. After, but before each teen is incarcerated, the prison is released.
“I don’t know if they called for him to be hanged, but he — but they said (…) was found guilty of murder,” Biden said in an interview with Ingram that was later removed from the final version.
Civic Media said that after Ingram recorded the interview with Biden on July 3, the campaign called to request an edit.
Civic Media reported that the show’s production team edited the interview before it aired after deeming the requested changes “non-substantive.”
The network said it disagreed with the decision to make the edits and posted a clip of the redacted portion online along with the full, unedited interview with Biden.
“With high-profile interviews, listeners will expect news interview standards to be applied, even for non-news programming,” Civic Media said. “We did not meet those expectations.”
“Citizen Media disagrees with the team’s current judgment, both in its handling of the interview questions and its decision to edit the interview audio.”
Asked about the statement, a Biden campaign spokesperson told NBC News, “Moderators have always been free to ask questions and play the segments they believe will best inform their listeners.”
Five days ago, Ingram said Biden aides “asked me the exact questions to ask the president” during the interview.
“There’s no back and forth,” Ingram told The Associated Press on Saturday, two days after his interview aired on 20 Wisconsin radio stations.
Another Black radio host, Andrea Lawful-Sanders of WURD in Philadelphia, told CNN on Saturday that she had received eight offers from the Biden campaign for her own interview with the president. A list of questions, four of which she approved.
WURD said Sunday that Lawful-Sanders and the network “mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately.”
The network said her interview “raised questions that were predetermined by the White House and violated our responsibility to our listeners as an independent media outlet.”
Civic Media said in a statement that it “unequivocally supports Earl Ingram and his team.”
“Earl has been a valuable voice for Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin and remains a valued member of citizen media organizations,” the outlet said.
“The decision to edit the interview as requested was made in good faith. While we disagree with the decision, we support our team. This is a learning experience and we will do better.”
