Radio Network Admits Portions of Biden Interview Were Cut

Network says Biden campaign requested the radio show make the edits
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 12, 2024 1:30 AM CDT
Radio Network Admits Portions of Biden Interview Were Cut
President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference Thursday July 11, 2024, on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

President Biden was interviewed on a Wisconsin radio show last week, and now the radio network that airs the show has acknowledged that parts of the interview were edited at the Biden campaign's request, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Biden's phone interview on the Earl Ingram Show was recorded July 3 and aired July 4 with "two short segments removed," Civic Media says in a statement cited by NBC News. The network says campaign staffers called to request that the edits be made before the interview was aired, Fox News reports.

  • One segment came as Biden discussed his administration's commitment to diversity, citing his selection of Kamala Harris as vice president and his appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. During the portion that was not aired, Biden said, "I have more Blacks in my administration than any other president, all of the presidents combined, and in major positions, Cabinet positions."

  • The other segment came as Biden mentioned Donald Trump's suggestion that the "Central Park Five," the five Black and Latino teenagers wrongly accused of raping a white woman who was jogging in New York, be sentenced to death. "I don't know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he, but they said ... convicted of murder," he said in the excised portion of the interview. Fox says the Biden campaign likely wanted to remove the apparent gaffe, since the woman in the case was not killed.
Civic Media says the production team "viewed the edits as non-substantive," but that the network determined they fell short of its journalistic standards. (Ingram previously said he'd received questions in advance from Biden's team.)

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