Former ESPN host Sage Steele has revealed her 2021 interview with President Joe Biden was entirely scripted by network executives.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Steele said her interview which largely pertained to sports leagues attempting to restore normalcy during the COVID pandemic and vaccine hesitancy among athletes and fans was extremely “structured.”
“That was an interesting experience in its own right because it was so structured,” Steele said. “And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go.'”
“Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives. Absolutely. I was on script and was told not to deviate,” Steele added. “It was very much ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups. Next.' … This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision makers are, the president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked.”
The interview made headlines when Biden came out in support of the MLB All-Star Game boycott of Atlanta after Republicans in Georgia passed a voter ID law. The president claimed the Georgia law “is Jim Crow on steroids” and “is all about keeping working folks and ordinary folks that I grew up with from being able to vote.”
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Steele told Fox News that she wasn't sure if ESPN sent the questions to the White House before the interview, and said her exchange with the then-78-year-old president was “heartbreaking” considering his mental acuity. According to The Daily Wire, the former ESPN host told Bill Maher last fall that Biden didn't appear to know what was going on just before he sat down with Steele for the interview.
“I had to chitchat waiting for us to start rolling,” Steele said, adding, “Of course he has someone next to him, and they keep a black, like, curtain over the lens of the camera, so you can't see him until the last second, but you can hear, and we're chitchatting… So I can hear him, and he goes, ‘What is this for?'… And he's, like, ‘Who am I talking to? Wait — what's her name?'”
Steele sued ESPN and parent company Disney in 2022, alleging the network retaliated against her for making negative comments about COVID-19 vaccine mandates and former President Barack Obama. (RELATED: Report: Sage Steele Exits ESPN To Exercise Free Speech)
The former ESPN host recently launched a new podcast, called “The Sage Steele Show,” on Bill Maher's platform “The Morning Wire.”
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