White House press officials have altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to criticize supporters of Donald Trump, leading to objections from federal workers responsible for recording such remarks, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained by The Associated Press.
Earlier this week, Biden stirred controversy with remarks made to Latino activists in response to racist comments at a Trump rally by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, as a “floating island of garbage.”
According to the transcript prepared by official White House stenographers, Biden told the Latino group during a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
However, the transcript released by the White House press office altered the quote with an apostrophe, changing “supporters” to “supporter’s.” This adjustment, press aides claimed, was meant to indicate that Biden was criticizing Hinchcliffe and not Trump supporters as a whole.
The alteration followed discussions with the president, according to an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office — an email confirmed to be authentic by two government officials speaking anonymously. The supervisor of the stenographers’ office described the press office’s actions as “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity” between the Stenography and Press Offices, emphasizing that the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript in case of differing interpretation but must not edit it independently.
The edit occurred as the White House was grappling with a surge of inquiries from reporters regarding Biden’s remarks. The president’s comments were at odds with a near-simultaneous speech by Vice President Kamala Harris, who advocated for respectful treatment of Americans with differing ideologies.
The Trump campaign quickly capitalized on the comments, with Trump staging a photo opportunity inside a garbage truck to respond to Biden’s remarks. Harris distanced herself from Biden’s statement, saying she disagreed with criticizing individuals based on their voting choices.
The email also detailed that the press office urgently requested the stenographers to produce the transcript amid the fallout. Biden later clarified on social media that he was specifically addressing the “hateful rhetoric” about Puerto Rico from Trump’s supporter at the rally, rather than condemning all Trump supporters as garbage.
The stenographer’s office is tasked with preparing accurate transcripts of the president’s public and private remarks for preservation by the National Archives and public distribution. The on-duty stenography team noted that any transcript edits required supervisor approval, which was not immediately available, leading to the press office publishing the edited version.
Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates posted the edited quote on social media, asserting that Biden was referencing the Madison Square Garden rally’s rhetoric as “garbage.” The transcript alteration raised concerns among stenographers, though no judgment was made on the edit’s accuracy.
House Republicans debated investigating the matter, with Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik and Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer accusing the White House of releasing a false transcript. They called for the administration to preserve documents and communications related to Biden’s remarks and the altered transcript, suggesting the action might violate the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
