Joe Biden did two pre-recorded radio interviews following his disastrous debate – one with Wisconsin-based WAUK and the other with Philly-based WURD.
Both interviews aired last Thursday morning.
Both radio hosts – Earl Ingram (WAUK) and Andrea Lawful-Sanders (WURD) – admitted the Biden White House sent them scripted questions.
Andrea Lawful-Sanders was fired earlier this week.
On Thursday Civic Media management admitted Biden’s team demanded they make two edits to his dumpster fire interview – and they consented.
In an interview with Wisconsin-based Earl Ingram on WAUK, Biden conceded that he screwed up during his debate against Trump.
“I’m proud to be running for reelection as a president who’s made his promises and I’ve kept them,” Biden said to Earl Ingram.
“I had a bad night. A bad night. I screwed up,” Biden said. “But 90 minutes on stage does not erase what I’ve done for 3.5 years.”
Civic Media management said they removed unfavorable parts of Biden’s interview.
“On Monday, July 8th, it was reported to Civic Media management that immediately after the phone interview was recorded, the Biden campaign called and asked for two edits to the recording before it aired. Civic Media management immediately undertook an investigation and determined that the production team at the time viewed the edits as non-substantive and broadcast and published the interview with two short segments removed,” the station said in a statement on Thursday.
“With a high-profile interview comes a listener expectation that journalistic interview standards will be applied, even for non-news programming. We did not meet those expectations. Civic Media disagrees with the team’s judgments in the moment, both with respect to the handling of the interview questions and the decision to edit the interview audio,” the statement read.
The station said they stand by Earl Ingram even though he was given scripted questions and edited Biden’s interview.
“Civic Media unequivocally stands by Earl Ingram and his team,” the statement read. “Earl is an invaluable voice for Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and remains a crucial member of the Civic Media organization. The decision to make the requested edits to the interview was made in good faith. While we disagree with the decision, we stand by our team. This has been a learning experience and we will do better moving forward.”
The two edits, according to Civic Media management:
At time 5:20, the removal of “…and in addition to that, I have more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions.”
At time 14:15, in reference to Donald Trump’s call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, the removal of “I don’t know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he–but they said […] convicted of murder.”
Here is the original, edited and scripted interview with Biden:
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