Milwaukee radio station edited Biden interview

At the request of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, a Milwaukee radio station edited out two portions of its post-debate interview with Biden, one of the first interviews the president conducted following his nightmarish debate performance on June 27.

Civic Media, a progressive radio network in Wisconsin, released a statement on Thursday admitting that two portions of Biden’s interview with radio host Earl Ingram were edited out by producers after a call from the Biden campaign.

“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,” the statement reads.

“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.”

In one of the portions edited out of Ingram’s interview, Biden bragged about hiring a large number of black cabinet officials and claimed his administration hired more black people than all other presidents combined.

“I have more blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined, and in major positions, cabinet positions,” Biden said a little over five minutes into the interview.

The second part of the interview Ingram’s show edited out was a brief comment Biden made calling out former president Donald Trump for his belief that Central Park five deserved to be convicted.

“I don’t know if they even call for their hanging or not, but he–but they said…convicted of murder,” Biden commented.

Over the weekend, Ingram told ABC News that he asked Biden questions that were given by his campaign ahead of the interview. His disclosure came after another black radio host told CNN the same thing during an interview on Saturday.

“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,” Ingram’s network added.

Andrea Lawful-Sanders, a Philadelphia-based radio host, said she received eight questions from the White House and asked four of them, leading to her parting ways with radio station WURD the following day. The White House assisted with drafting the questions for Lawful-Sanders’s interview and the Biden campaign sent them to WURD, Axios reported, citing a person familiar.

Lawful-Sanders and Ingram both have large black audiences in swing cities crucial to Biden’s reelection bid. Unlike Lawful-Sanders, Civic media is standing by Ingram and his production team.