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Philadelphia radio host who interviewed Biden leaves station
CNN New York —
Radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders has resigned from WURD Radio after admitting that post-debate interview with President Joe Biden included questions pre-selected by Biden’s campaign team, the network told CNN on Sunday.
“The interview featured pre-determined questions provided by the White House, which violates our practice of remaining an independent media outlet accountable to our listeners,” said Sara Lomax, president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based station. in a statement released on Sunday on its website. “As a result, Ms. Lawful-Sanders and WURD Radio have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately.”
WURD is Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned radio station. Lomax said the station prides itself on being an independent and trusted voice for its core audience of Black Philadelphians and that using questions provided in advance “jeopardizes that trust and is not a practice that WURD Radio adopts or endorses as a matter of official practice or policy.”
“WURD Radio is not a mouthpiece for Biden or any other administration,” she added.
Lawful-Sanders, who hosts “The Source,” spoke with Biden last week and asked him four questions about what’s at stake in this election, his accomplishments, his debate performance and what he would say to hesitant voters. In an interview On Saturday, with CNN’s Victor Blackwell, she said those questions were among eight recommended to her by Biden aides ahead of the interview.
“The questions were sent to me for approval. I approved them,” she said.
The move further inflamed the turmoil that has swirled around Biden’s acuity since his mediocre performance in the first presidential debate, which was hosted by CNN. Biden’s performance in the debate left many top democrats wringing their hands frustrated and worried amid rumors that he should not accept the party’s nomination.
“If the White House is trying to prove the energy, the vigor … of the president, I don’t know how they do it by sending out questions before the interview so the president knows what’s coming,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell noted that both Lawful-Sanders and Earl Ingram, host of “The Earl Ingram Show” in Milwaukee, who also interviewed the president this week, asked Biden “essentially the same questions.”
A Biden campaign spokesman did not deny Saturday that the campaign had provided questions but said, “We do not make interviews contingent on accepting those questions.”
“It is not uncommon for interviewees to share topics they prefer. These questions were relevant to the news of the day — the president was asked about his performance in this debate, as well as what he had done for Black Americans,” spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said in a statement.
The Biden campaign said later Saturday that it would no longer suggest questions to interviewers.
“While talk hosts have always been free to ask whatever questions they want, going forward we will refrain from offering suggested questions,” a source familiar with Biden’s booking operation told CNN.