White House altered record of Biden's 'garbage' remarks, AP sources say
White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call President Joe Biden participated in when he made comments that some interpreted as him taking a jab at supporters of Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported citing two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained by the news outlet.
Biden made headlines this week when he made a remark to a Latino activist group responding to offensive comments at a Trump rally made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."
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The president, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told Voto Latino, an advocacy group, on a Tuesday evening Zoom call, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American."
FILE-President Joe Biden speaks to the media following the Supreme Court's ruling on charges against former President Donald Trump that he sought to subvert the 2020 election, at the White House on July 1, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Ha
According to the AP, the transcript was released by the White House press office, but officials altered the quote with an apostrophe, reading "supporter's" rather than "supporters," which White House aides told the AP pointed to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not supporters of Trump.
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In an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office obtained by the AP, the change was made after the White House press office "conferred with the president."
Citing the email, the AP reported that the press office asked the stenographers to quickly produce a transcript of the Zoom call amid the controversy.
On Oct. 29, Biden hopped on social media to clarify his comments saying he was not calling all Trump supporters garbage and that he was referring specifically to the "hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally."
Kamala Harris on Oct. 30 weighed in on Biden’s comments telling reporters she did not agree with criticism of people based on "who they vote for."
And the Trump campaign chimed in on the president’s remarks, with Trump himself holding a photo op inside a garbage truck to try to capitalize on Biden's criticism, the AP reported.
The stenographers' office is tasked with preparing accurate transcripts of public and private remarks of the president for preservation by the National Archives and distribution to the public.
According to the AP, the legitimacy of the email was confirmed by two government officials who spoke to the news outlet on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, per the AP.
The two-person stenography team on duty that evening — a "typer" and "proofer" — tells the AP that any edit to the transcript would have to be approved by their supervisor, the head of stenographers’ office.
Meanwhile, the supervisor was not immediately available to review the audio, but the press office went ahead and published the altered transcript on the White House website and distributed it to press and on social media to tamp down the story, the AP reported.
The AP reported that the supervisor, a career employee of the White House, raised the concerns about the press office action — but did not comment on the accuracy of the edit — in an email to White House communications director Ben LaBolt, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and other press and communications officials.