Two radio hosts have admitted using questions in interviews with President Joe Biden after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump that were provided by Biden's campaign.
The information emerged amid concerns about Biden's ability to respond articulately to unexpected issues in the wake of his fumbling performance in the presidential debate. He's currently facing pressure to drop out of the presidential race over worries the debate sparked about his fitness for office.
Following the reports that questions were provided to the radio interviewers, a source told CNN and ABC News that the campaign will "refrain" from the practice in the future.
The questions were provided to radio hosts in Philadelphia and Wisconsin.
"The questions were sent to me for approval. I approved them," Andrea Lawful-Sanders, host of "The Source" on WURD, Pennsylvania's only independently Black-owned radio station, told CNN's Victor Blackwell on Saturday.
"I got several questions, eight of them, and the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved," added Lawful-Sanders, who said the questions were provided by Biden's campaign.
Blackwell pointed out that Lawful-Sanders' questions were "essentially the same" as those posed to Biden by prominent Wisconsin radio host Earl Ingram.
Ingram of CivicMedia later told ABC News Saturday that he was given five questions and ended up asking four of them.
"I didn't get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask," he said.
It wasn't clear if the questions were provided by Biden's campaign or by presidential aides.
Ingram told ABC he didn't see anything necessarily wrong with the practice.
"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 said.
"Certainly the fact that they gave me this opportunity ... meant a lot to me," Ingram said.
Responding to the situation with Lawful-Sanders, Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement reported by CNN and ABC that offering suggested questions is not "uncommon."
Hitt emphasized: "We do not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners."
She noted that in addition to the radio interviews, the president also responded to questions from pool reporters, and sat for an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos. "Americans have had several opportunities to see him unscripted since the debate," Hitt said.
Radio host Sherwin Hughes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, told ABC that when he interviewed Biden last month, the White House did not send him questions to ask, and he said there were no preconditions on the interview.
He said he and White House aides did discuss general topics he wanted to cover.
Darian Morgan on Atlanta's V-103, told ABC News that when he interviewed Biden in May he was sent "sample questions" but it was "never a directive" to stick to them.
it's "not an uncommon practice," he added.
"In my history of interviewing elected officials, a lot of people like to do that," Morgan said.
Despite the prepared questions provided to Lawful-Sanders, Biden stumbled in some of his answers in his interview with her. He accidentally referred to himself as the "first Black woman" vice president.
He told Lawful-Sanders: "By the way, I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice-president, first Black woman ... to serve with a Black president."
Biden apparently intended to say he serves with the first Black vice president in U.S. history and that he was the first vice president to serve with a Black president.
