The White House has changed the official transcript of Biden’s “garbage” statements

WASHINGTON — White House press officials have reportedly changed the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to disparage supporters of former President Donald Trump, according to published reports.

The change to the official transcript prompted objections from stenographers tasked with documenting the president’s remarks for posterity, the Associated Press reported, citing two government officials and an internal email obtained by the news agency. Fox News reported that it also confirmed the existence of the email.

The revelation comes as the White House deals with the uproar over Biden’s remarks, which have sparked a backlash among outraged Republicans and created a political dilemma for Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the Nov. 5 election.

Biden made the remarks during a Zoom call Tuesday with Voto Latino, an organization encouraging Hispanic and Latino youth to become politically active. During the call, Biden condemned podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe’s offensive jokes about Puerto Rico during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend.

“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” Biden said. He added that the only “garbage” he saw “floating there” were supporters, although it was unclear whether he was referring to just Hinchcliffe or all Trump fans.

On Tuesday night, the White House released a transcript of Biden’s speech that added an apostrophe to Biden’s quote, causing it to read “supporters” rather than “supporters.” White House aides insisted the president was referring to Hinchcliffe, not all Americans who support the former president.

The change to the transcript was made after the press office “conferred with the President,” according to an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office obtained by the AP. The news organization said it had confirmed the authenticity of the email from two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

In an email, the executive said the press office’s actions on the matter constituted a “breach of protocol and a violation of the integrity of the transcript between the stenographic office and the press office,” the AP reported.

“If there is a difference in interpretation, the press office may decide not to retain the transcript, but may not edit it themselves,” the executive wrote, adding: “Our Transcript Office transcript, published in our distribution, which includes the National Archives, is now differs from the version edited and published by the press service staff.”

The stenographer’s duties include providing accurate transcripts of the President’s public and private speeches. These transcripts are distributed to the public and to the National Archives for preservation.

The AP reported that the two-person team of stenographers on duty the night of Biden’s call — a “typist” and a “proofreader” — said any edits to the transcript must be approved by their supervisor, the head of the stenographers’ office.

The executive was not immediately able to review the audio, but the press office went ahead and published an altered transcript on the White House website and circulated it in the press and on social media in an attempt to tone down the story, the AP reported.

The executive, a White House staffer, expressed concern about the press office’s actions but did not comment on the accuracy of the editing, in an email to White House communications director Ben LaBolt, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and other press and communications officials , AP reports.

Biden posted on X on Tuesday night in an attempt to clarify his remarks.

“Earlier today, I called the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter at his rally at Madison Square Garden trash—the only word I can think of to describe it,” he wrote. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I wanted to say. The comments at this rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”

White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates posted an edited version of the quote on X and wrote that Biden called the “hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally ‘trash.’

Asked for comment Thursday evening, Bates provided USA TODAY with a statement that did not indicate whether the transcript had been altered.

“The President confirmed in a tweet Tuesday night that he addressed the comedian’s hateful rhetoric at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden,” the statement said. “This was reflected in the transcript.”

Biden’s comment was met with outrage from Republican lawmakers and Trump himself. Trump, speaking at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, called Biden’s remarks “horrible” and compared them to comments Hillary Clinton called some Trump supporters “disgusting” in 2016.

On Wednesday in Wisconsin, Trump rode in the cab of a garbage truck to draw attention to Biden’s remarks.

Harris also took issue with Biden’s comments, telling reporters that while the president has clarified his remarks, she doesn’t agree with criticizing voters based on who they support.

Meanwhile, House Republicans expressed concern that the White House may have violated the Presidential Records Act by altering the transcript of Biden’s speech.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who chairs the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to White House counsel Edward Siskel demanding all documents and internal communications related to Biden’s statement and the inaccurate transcript should be preserved and preserved. Lawmakers also called on the White House to release a corrected transcript containing the exact wording.

“White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to make them more political,” the letter said. “While President Biden’s relevance continues to decline, his words continue to matter, even as they become increasingly divisive and chaotic.”

Contributing: Carissa Waddick

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.