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Ex-ESPN Host Says Network Execs Scripted Her Biden Interview Questions

Steele claims the sports channel emphasized there would be “no follow-ups” to the president’s answers.

Former ESPN host Sage Steele claimed to Fox News on Wednesday that each of her questions in a 2021 primetime interview with President Joe Biden was written by network executives. “I was on script and was told not to deviate,” she told Fox News, adding that higher-ups ordered her to “say every word that we write out.” That interview, which spanned nearly 12 minutes, came amid the initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout—when spectators were first returning to sporting events. Steele added that she was under tight orders to not ask any follow-up questions based off Biden’s answers—demands she claimed came from the top of ESPN’s leadership, including its chief executive. ESPN, which is owned by Disney, publicly clashed with Steele last summer over her criticism of vaccine mandates and of former President Barack Obama’s racial identity. That conflict led to a lawsuit from Steele, which was settled outside of court just before she announced she was leaving the network to exercise her “First Amendment rights more freely.”