The White House edited the transcript of President Biden’s remark calling supporters of former president Donald Trump “garbage,” despite pushback from stenographers who said the change was a breach of protocol.
In the original transcript prepared by the stenographers of the Voto Latino campaign call, Biden was quoted as saying: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
As the remarks started circulating online and receiving pushback, the White House Press Office released a transcript of Biden’s comments that added an apostrophe, changing the quote’s meaning to read “supporter’s” rather than “supporters.”
The White House claimed Biden was offering a criticism of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who joked at Trump’s MSG rally that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.” Biden has insisted the comment was not directed at Trump’s millions of supporters.
An internal email from the White House Stenography Office obtained by the Associated Press and Fox News called the press office’s change “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.”
The email said the press office changed the transcript after “conferring with the president.”
“If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” the stenography supervisor wrote in the email.
Hellbound and Down 