White House altered Joe Biden garbage remark in transcript despite stenographers objections: Report

White House officials modified the official transcript of US President Joe Biden, who appeared to take a swipe at former President Donald Trump’s supporters by calling them “garbage”, drawing a rebuke from the office tasked with documenting Biden’s remarks, The Associated Press reported.

Biden sparked backlash on Tuesday during a call with Latino activists when he reacted to a crude joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s rally in Madison Square Gardens in New York. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” Biden said according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers.

As video clips of Biden’s remarks circulated widely on social media, the White House issued a statement, contending that the President was being misinterpreted and had been referring to Hinchcliffe’s racist remark at Trump’s rally and did not call the former President’s rally “garbage”.

The White House also provided a full transcript of the remark, making a minor but significant edit, adding an apostrophe to change “supporters” to “supporter’s”. The alteration suggested that Biden was referring to a single supporter, specifically the comedian who made the derogatory comment, rather than Trump supporters in general.

The change was made after the press office “conferred with the president”, an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office read. This modification was made despite the objections and concerns raised by the White House Stenography Office.

According to the email, the press office had asked the stenographers to quickly produce a transcript of Biden’s call with the Latino activists, according to The Associated Press. The two-person stenography team on duty that day, a typer and a proofer, said any edit to the transcript should be approved by their supervisor, the head of the stenographers’ office.

The stenographers’ office is responsible for preparing transcripts of public and private remarks of the president for preservation by the National Archives and distribution to the public.

The supervisor was not available to review the call, but the press office went ahead and published the modified transcript on the White House website and distributed it to the press and on social media platforms.

In an email, Amy Sands, the director of the Stenography Office, said the White House press office bypassed standard protocols by editing and releasing the transcript without her approval.

Sands wrote that the press office, requesting changes to the transcript at 9.10 pm, but the press office proceeded to release the edited version at 10.09 pm without her confirmation, describing this as “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity”.

Sands clarified that while the press office may request changes, all such requests must undergo final approval from the Stenography Office to ensure the integrity of the transcript. The original transcript, which included the phrase “his supporters”, was released to the National Archives and other distribution channels, but the edited version was what was made public.

The controversy has drawn fierce criticism from Republican lawmakers, including Elise Stefanik and James Comer, who accused the White House of potentially violating the Presidential Records Act of 1978. They argued that White House staff cannot “rewrite the words of the President of the US to be more politically on message”.

In an attempt to douse fire of the fallout, Biden took to social media to clarify his remarks and referred to comedian Hinchcliffe as “Trump’s supporter”.

“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage – which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates also issued a statement supporting Biden’s interpretation, suggesting that the addition of the apostrophe was necessary to ensure the accuracy of the transcript.

Asked to comment on the modification of the transcript, Bates 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.”

The row over Biden’s ‘garbage’ remark intensified when Trump on Wednesday rode in a garbage truck and wore an orange safety vest in Wisconsin in a bid to draw attention to the controversy. He also addressed a rally with that safety vest and some of his supporters also wore similar vests.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is busy with her campaign in the run-up to the November 5 election, had distanced herself from Biden’s ‘garbage’ remark. She said she strongly disagreed with any criticism of people based on who they vote for or support.