White House staffers edited the transcript of a video call in which President Joe Biden appeared to denounce supporters of Donald Trump as “garbage” despite concerns from official stenographers, according to a report.
The change was allegedly made so the president’s quote seemed to attack Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian who made a racist joke at a Trump rally, rather than all MAGA voters.
According to White House stenographers, Biden told Latino activists in a call on Tuesday: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
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However, the White House press office allegedly altered the emphasis of the quote by adding an apostrophe—so it read “supporter’s” rather than “supporters”—with Biden’s aides arguing that the president was lambasting Hinchcliffe and not approximately half of the country who are backing Trump.
The Associated Press revealed the alleged tampering, quoting sources as two government officials and an internal email from the head of the White House stenographers’ office.
According to the email, says AP, the change to the transcript was made after the press office “conferred with the president.”
In the leaked email, the White House stenographers’ supervisor reportedly said the press office’s handling of the affair was “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.”
“If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” the supervisor wrote, adding: “Our Stenography Office transcript—released to our distro, which includes the National Archives—is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.”
The AP said the authenticity of the email from the stenographer’s office was confirmed by two unnamed government staffers.
According to the news agency report, the two-person stenography team on duty at the time of the video call, one to type the report and the other to proofread, said any edit would require the approval of their supervisor, who was not available to check the audio.
The White House press office went ahead and released the amended transcript on its website and distributed it to the media anyway, according to the report.
“Regardless of urgency, it is essential to our transcripts’ authenticity and legitimacy that we adhere to consistent protocol for requesting edits, approval, and release,” the supervisor wrote in the email to White House communications director Ben LaBolt, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and other press and communications officials, reported AP.
White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates has been contacted by the Daily Beast for comment.
Bates did not address the alleged alteration in a response to AP but said: “The President confirmed in his tweet on Tuesday evening that he was addressing the hateful rhetoric from the comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. That was reflected in the transcript.”
Senior Republicans had already warned the White House to retain documents and internal communications related to the incident in readiness for an inquiry into whether Biden violated the Presidential Records Act.
In a letter to White House Counsel Edward Siskel, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said they are investigating the “revision” and called for a corrected transcript to be released to the media “containing the accurate wording.”
“Instead of apologizing or clarifying President Biden’s words, the White House instead sought to change them (despite them being recorded on video) by releasing a false transcript of his remarks,” the letter reads.
“The move is not only craven, but it also appears to be in violation of federal law, including the Presidential Records Act of 1978. White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to be more politically on message,” it continues.
Kamala Harris had quickly distanced herself from Biden’s remarks referencing Hinchcliffe’s much-criticized put-down of Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally as a “floating island of garbage.”
“Let me be clear,” said Harris on Wednesday, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
Biden also went on social media to insist he was talking specifically about the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally.”
But their opponents moved quickly to capitalize on the misstep.
Trump wore a high visibility “garbage vest” at his subsequent rally in Wisconsin as Republicans doubled down on the GOP uproar over the president’s quote.
