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By Kaitlin Lewis
Night Reporter
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A radio station in Madison, Wisconsin, said that its interview with President Joe Biden last week was edited by 16 seconds before it went on the air.
According to a statement from Civic Media CEO Sage Weil, the interview between Biden and radio host Earl Ingram was recorded on July 3 and aired on July 4 on stations across Wisconsin. On Monday, however, Civic Media management said it learned that "immediately after the phone interview was recorded, the Biden campaign called and asked for two edits to the recording before it aired."
The edits were made by the station's production team, which viewed the edits to be "non-substantive," Weil said.
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According to the statement, Civic Media's management team "disagrees" with the production team's judgment to edit the interview.
"In the interest of transparency, and consistent with Civic Media's mission and core values, we are sharing the edited segments now, and making the full, unedited interview available," Weil added. "Given the gravity of the current political moment, the stakes in this election, and the importance of public scrutiny of public officials in the highest office, we believe it is important to share this information."
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The edits included the removal of an 11-second clip of Biden's answer to Ingram's question regarding what is "at stake for Black voters" this November. The president said in response that he "promised" when he was elected to have "an administration that looks like America," noting that Vice President Kamala Harris is the first Black woman to hold the position.
In the segment that was cut out, Biden said: "...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."
The other edit came later in the interview and included a five-second clip of Biden discussing former President Donald Trump's remarks about "Black jobs" during the June 27 presidential debate.
"Name me something he's done to help the Black community [and] give people a shot like I've done," Biden told Ingram.
The president also recalled when Trump, in 1989, spent $85,000 on full-page ads in several notable newspapers in New York City calling for the death penalty against the Central Park Five, the five Black and Latino men who were wrongly convicted as teenagers for the rape of a white woman jogger.
In the clip that was removed, Biden said: "Those guys who were arrested, he [Trump] said they should all be convicted and, I don't know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he—they said—convicted of murder. He won't even acknowledge that."
Civic Media's full statement on the matter, as well as Biden and Ingram's full, unedited interview, can be viewed here.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Biden's campaign told Newsweek via email: "Hosts have always been free to ask the questions and air the segments they think will best inform their listeners."
Biden's public appearances and interviews have come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks following the first 2024 presidential debate on June 27. Democrats have split on whether the president should remain in the race for reelection after Biden's performance at the debate sparked concerns about his ability to serve another four years.
Questions were previously raised about Biden's conversation with Ingram after the host told ABC News that he was provided with a list of five questions by the president's campaign before the phone interview. Ingram said that he ended up asking the president four of the questions on the list, adding, "I didn't get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask."
CNN also reported last weekend that WURD Radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders was also provided with a list of eight questions before she interviewed Biden on July 3. Lawful-Sanders, a longtime host at the station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told CNN that the questions "were sent to me for approval. I approved of them."
WURD president Sara Lomax said in a statement published a day after CNN's report that Lawful-Sanders had resigned from WURD following the interview with Biden. Lomax wrote that it was against the station's "practice of remaining an independent media outlet" by accepting pre-determined questions.
Ingram told ABC News that he did not see anything particularly wrong with Biden's campaign providing the questions.
"To think that I was gonna get an opportunity to ask any question to the President of the United States, I think, is a bit more than anybody should expect," he told the network.
Weil said in Thursday's statement that 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."
"We have taken this opportunity as a new media organization to clarify our internal policies to ensure that everyone in the organization understands the standards we expect for live and pre-recorded interviews, particularly for commentators and other non-news personnel," the station added.
Update 07/11/2024, 5:20 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from President Joe Biden's campaign.
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