The last few weeks have witnessed a media firestorm of questions about President Joe Biden's cognitive state, with many now wondering about the extent to which his appearances in recent years have been carefully stage-managed and scripted.
Amid those concerns, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, a Philadelphia radio host who recently interviewed Biden, came forward and admitted that the queries she posed to the president were taken directly from a list provided to her by the White House, as Breitbart reports.
The radio personality's disclosure came during an appearance on CNN's First of All during which she discussed her conversation with the president on her show, The Source, on WURD.
CNN host Victor Blackwell inquired about Lawful-Sanders' experience with the president and his handlers, wondering about how she put together the segment that ultimately aired.
Referencing her chat with Biden and that of another radio host, Blackwell said, “Andrea, let me ask you here about your interviews and something -- I listened to both of them, and there's something that's similar here, you each were -- you asked four questions, and maybe that's what you were 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 think their vote doesn't matter, or might sit this election out,” he went on.
Then Blackwell posed the question to which everyone wanted an answer, saying, “Were those questions given to you by the White Houses or did you have – or the campaign or did you have to submit questions ahead of this interview?”
Answering that question directly, Lawful-Sanders replied, “The questions were sent to me for approval. I approved them.”
She was then asked to verify that the White House provided questions to the host in advance of her discussion with the president.
“Yes. And I got several questions, eight of them, and the four that were chosen were the ones I approved,” she added.
Reacting to that admission, Blackwell said, “Okay. And the reason I ask is not a criticism...it's just that if the White House is trying not 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.”
As ABC News subsequently noted that it was not just Lawful-Sanders who received pre-written questions from the White House before interviewing Biden, as Wisconsin radio personality Earl Ingram reported a similar experience.
“Yes, I was given some questions for Biden,” he stated. “I didn't get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask.”
A Biden campaign spokesperson insisted that it is not “uncommon” for interviewees to suggest preferred topics in advance of a discussion and said the hosts remained free to ask whatever they liked, but whether Lawful-Sanders and Ingram felt that way at the time is another matter altogether.
