White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at Donald Trump’s supporters, prompting objections from federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Biden caused a stir this week with his comments to Hispanic activists in response to racist remarks at a Trump rally made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating garbage island.”
According to a transcript prepared by official White House stenographers, Biden told the Latino group in a video call Tuesday night: “The only trash I see floating out there is your followers — your — your demonization of Hispanics is unconscionable.” , and it is un-American.”
However, the transcript released by the White House press office presented the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” instead of “supporters.” Aides said that was a sign of Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the 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 court reporter’s office that was obtained by the AP. The authenticity of the email was confirmed by two government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to testify on internal matters.
In the email, the supervisor said the way the press office handled the matter was “a violation of protocol and an alteration of the integrity of the transcript between the Stenography and Press offices.”
“If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to retain the transcript but cannot independently edit it,” the supervisor wrote, adding: “Our transcript from the Press Office — delivered to our distributor, which includes the National Archives—is now different than the version edited and disseminated to the public by Press Office staff.”
The editing of the transcript took place as the White House scrambled to respond to a wave of questions from journalists about Biden’s comments. The president’s statements clashed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ almost simultaneous speech outside the White House, in which she called for treating Americans who hold ideologies different from her own with respect.
Trump’s campaign quickly mobilized to raise funds from the event, and the next day, the Republican candidate himself held a photo session inside a garbage truck to try to take advantage of the effect of Biden’s criticism.
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