Questions arise over transcript of Biden’s call with Latino activists at White House

White House press officials changed the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take shots at Donald Trump supporters, prompting objections from federal officials who are documenting such remarks for posterity, according to two US government officials and an internal email. letter. obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Earlier this week, Biden caused an uproar for his remarks against Latino activists in response to racist comments at a Trump rally made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called the US island territory of Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

Biden, according to a transcript prepared by official White House stenographers, told the Latino group during a video call late Tuesday: “The only trash I see out there are his supporters – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s dishonest.” -American”.

However, in the transcript released by the White House press office, the quote was put with an apostrophe saying “supporters” rather than “supporters,” which aides said refers to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe rather than millions of Americans. who support Trump for president.

The change 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 authenticity of the email was confirmed by two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

In an email, the manager called the press office’s actions on the matter “a violation of protocol and a violation of the integrity of the transcript between the stenographic office and the press office.”

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

The editing of the transcript came as the White House tried to answer a wave of questions from reporters about Biden’s comments. The president’s remarks contradicted Vice President Kamala Harris’s near-simultaneous speech to the White House, in which she called for respect for Americans of different ideologies.

The Trump campaign quickly moved to fundraise through the quote, and the next day Trump himself held a photo op inside a garbage truck to try to capitalize on Biden’s criticism.

Harris on Wednesday distanced herself from Biden’s comments, making her most clear break with the president since she replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket just over three months ago. “Let me be clear,” she told reporters. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

According to the email, the press office asked stenographers to quickly prepare a transcript of the conversation amid the firestorm. Biden himself took to social media to say that he was not calling all Trump supporters trash and that he was referring specifically to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter at his rally at Madison Square Garden.”

The duties of a stenographer include preparing accurate transcripts of the President’s public and private statements for preservation in the National Archives and distribution to the public.

The two-person team of stenographers on duty that evening—a “typist” and a “proofreader”—said that any editing of the transcript must be approved by their supervisor, the head of the stenographers’ bureau.

The executive was unable to immediately review the audio, but the press office went ahead and published the 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.

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

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 .

“Regardless of the urgency, it is critical to the authenticity and legitimacy of our transcripts that we adhere to a consistent protocol for requesting edits, approving, and publishing,” the executive wrote.

The executive declined to comment to the AP and referred questions on the matter to the White House press office.

Asked for comment, Bates did not address the change in transcript and said: “The President confirmed in a tweet Tuesday night that he addressed the comedian’s hateful rhetoric at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden. This was reflected in the transcript. “

Meanwhile, House Republicans were discussing the possibility of launching an investigation into the matter. House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Wednesday accused White House staffers of “distributing a false transcript” of Biden’s remarks.

In a letter to White House adviser Ed Siskel on Wednesday, they called on the administration to preserve documents and internal communications related to Biden’s remarks and the release of the transcript.

“White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to be more political,” the lawmakers wrote to Siskel.

Stefanik and Comer said the action may be a violation of the 1978 Presidential Records Act.