FLASHBACK: Biden has history of coordinating ‘scripted’ interviews, press conferences with media ahead of time
President Biden and his team have a history of coordinating interviews and press conferences with media ahead of the events to help bolster his competence.
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?"
Biden turned heads by making the same admission during a press conference at a summit in Geneva just two months prior.
"I’ll take your questions, and as usual, folks, they gave me a list of the people I’m going to call on," Biden told reporters following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Again, the moment went viral. After viewing the clip online, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., asked, "How is this acceptable?"
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In March 2021, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy confronted then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki about Biden’s "list" that he allegedly used during his first press conference as president.
During a March 2021 press briefing that The Hill reported on at the time, Doocy asked Psaki, "I’m just curious with this list that he is given," Doocy said, noting that Fox News is "The only member of the five network pool never on it dating back to when he resumed in-person events in Wilmington during the campaign."
"I’m curious if that is official administration policy," Doocy also wondered.
Psaki replied, "We’re here having a conversation, aren’t we? And do I take questions from you every time I come to the briefing room? Has the president taken questions from you since he came into office – yes or no?"
Biden was also caught holding a note card that featured the names and images of reporters during his joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October 2023. All the names on the list were called on during the event.
Biden’s interview protocol acquired even more scrutiny when ex-ESPN journalist Sage Steele claimed she was forced by network executives to do a scripted interview with the president in 2021.
In an interview with Fox News Digital earlier this year, Steele said, "And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go."
"It was very much ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups," she said, adding that she believed that ESPN sent the questions to the White House ahead of time.
ESPN did not respond to Fox News Digital about Steele’s allegations at the time.
In response to a question about Biden’s team sending out pre-made questions to the radio hosts before their interviews this week, the Biden campaign responded by noting how the practice is not unusual.
"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," Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt told Fox News Digital in a statement.
She added, "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."
Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.