U.S. radio station sacks OAP for interviewing Biden with questions from White House

Sara M. Lomax, the president and CEO of WURD Radio, revealed on Sunday that the station had fired host Andrea Lawful-Sanders after learning that she asked President Joe Biden questions that had been provided to her by the White House during his first post-debate interview on July 3.
Ms Lomax said that Ms Lawful-Sanders’s actions ran counter to the standards of the radio station and “jeopardises” the trust of its listeners.
“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,” Ms Lomax said in a statement, adding that the talk show host and WURD Radio “have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately.”
Mr Biden had lost public confidence since he debated his predecessor, Donald Trump, last month.
His disastrous performance had the White House and campaign team scrambling to revamp his frail candidacy and present him as a mentally and physically fit candidate for the November polls.
The pre-recorded interview with Ms Lawful-Sanders, which aired July 4, was the first opportunity Mr Biden seized to erase doubts about his mental fortitude to re-contest.
In a CNN interview on Saturday, the radio host admitted that she approved four of the eight questions that “were sent to me for approval.”
Although Ms Lomax said the White House provided the questions, the Biden campaign took responsibility, admitting that the team sent in the questions, not the White House.
Lauren Hitt who serves as the Biden campaign spokesperson said it was “not at all uncommon” for interviewees to share their preferred topics before interviews and noted that questions provided to Ms Lawful-Sanders touched on the relevant matters including his performance at the debate and plans for the black Americans.
“It’s not at all an uncommon practice for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. These questions were relevant to the news of the day — the president was asked about this debate performance, as well as what he’d delivered for black Americans,” Ms Hitt said in a statement.
She also said the campaign team did “not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners.”
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