President Joe Biden recently sat for an hour-long interview with SiriusXM radio host Howard Stern, and it has now been revealed that the interview was arranged in part by a seemingly unlikely third party.

According to Fox News, failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and "her people" are the ones who convinced "Biden's people" that sitting for an interview with Stern could be beneficial for his re-election campaign efforts.

Ironically enough, Stern has argued previously that Clinton's refusal to sit for an interview with him during the 2016 election contributed to her ultimate loss to former President Donald Trump.

Clinton played key role in arranging Biden interview with Stern

On Monday's program, Stern and his longtime executive producer, Gary Dell’Abate, discussed some of the preparatory work that went into landing the interview with President Biden that aired on Friday.

"There was so much involved with this thing coming together -- this has been going on for months," Stern revealed. "You could write a book about what goes on in putting something like this together."

"It’s more like four years," Dell’Abate said. "It became very serious probably about three months ago, and then once it was done, man it moved at like warp speed."

"Believe me, there were a lot of people who were involved in helping this booking from people inferred on all that stuff -- but you know who was super helpful on this? Really, really helpful. Hillary Clinton," the producer continued, according to Fox News.

He added, "Her people really let Biden’s people know this was a good place to be."

Stern tried, and failed, to land a Clinton interview during 2016 election

In 2019, The Hollywood Reporter published a lengthy profile piece about Howard Stern that, among a wide variety of topics, delved into his desire to help then-candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. She eventually appeared on his program in 2019.

Given his support for her candidacy, he recalled how he had "desperately" tried to arrange an interview with her ahead of the election but she had "rebuffed him at every turn."

Stern had come to realize that Donald Trump, previously a regular guest on his radio show with more than 40 appearances, was poised to win the election even as most political analysts and pundits predicted that Clinton would prevail, and hoped that he could tip the scales in her favor because "There’s a segment of my audience that really gets turned on to people they thought they hated because we tap into their humanity."

The Hollywood Reporter observed, "Stern isn’t arrogant enough to say for sure that an interview on his show could have tipped the election in her favor, but he doesn’t rule it out, either."

Biden jokes about criticism for not doing many real interviews with journalists

As for President Biden's "softball interview" with Howard Stern, Fox News reported that it only served to further fuel the criticism that Biden has received, even from otherwise supportive media outlets like The New York Times, for not conducting more serious interviews with legitimate media outlets and journalists.

"Mr. Biden has granted far fewer press conferences and sit-down interviews with independent journalists than virtually all of his predecessors," a spokesperson for The Times said a day before Biden's interview with Stern. Yet, a day after that interview, Biden brushed off the criticism and joked at Saturday's White House Correspondent's Dinner, "I do interviews with strong independent journalists who millions of people actually listen to, like Howard Stern."