WASHINGTON — White House press officials altered the official transcript of a phone call in which President Joe Biden appeared to berate Donald Trump supporters, drawing objections from federal workers who recorded the comments for posterity, according to two US government officials and an internal email. taken on Friday by The Associated Press.
Biden caused a stir earlier this week with his remarks to Latino activists who responded to racist comments at a Trump rally made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the US island territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Biden, according to a transcript prepared by an official White House stenographer, told the Latino group in a video call Tuesday afternoon, “The only garbage I see floating around is that his supporters — he — the demonization of Latinos doesn’t work, and nobody knows. -American.”
A transcript released by the White House press office, however, gave the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporters” instead of “supporters,” which aides said pointed to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans who supported Trump for president.
The change was made after the press office “served with the president,” according to an internal email from the head of the stenographer’s 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.
The supervisor, in the email, called the press office’s handling of the matter “a violation of protocol and a spoliation of the integrity of the transcript between the Stenographer and the Press Office.”
“If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office can choose to retain the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” the supervisor wrote, adding, “The transcript of our Stenography Office – released to our distro, which includes the National Archives – is now different from the version edited and released to the public by the Press Office staff.”
The redaction of the transcript comes as the White House scrambles to respond to a wave of questions from reporters about Biden’s comments. The president’s speech contrasted with a nearby speech by Vice President Kamala Harris outside the White House in which she called for respect for Americans of differing ideologies.
The Trump campaign quickly moved to collect the quote, and the next day, Trump himself staged a photo op inside a garbage truck to try to capitalize on Biden’s criticism.
Harris on Wednesday distanced himself from Biden’s comments – making the most obvious break from the president since taking him to the top of the Democratic ticket just three months ago. “Let’s be clear,” he told reporters, “I don’t agree with criticism of people based on who they elected.”
According to the email, the press office asked stenographers to quickly produce phone transcripts amid the firestorm. Biden himself on social media said that he did not call all Trump supporters trash and he specifically referred to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico that was thrown by Trump supporters at the Madison Square Garden rally.”
The office of stenographers is tasked with preparing accurate transcripts of the president’s public and private remarks to be preserved by the National Archives and distributed to the public.
The two-man stenographic team on duty that evening – the “type” and the “proofer” – said that the edits to the transcripts had to be approved by the supervisor, the head of the stenographers’ office.
The watchdog was not immediately available to review the audio, but the press office went ahead and published an edited transcript on the White House website and circulated it on social media in an effort to play down the story.
White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates later that evening also posted on X an edited version of the quote and wrote that Biden referred to “the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage.’
The watchdog, a career White House employee, expressed concern about the press office’s conduct — but did not consider the accuracy of the edit — 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 important to the authenticity and legitimacy of our transcripts that we adhere to consistent protocols for requesting edits, approvals, and releases,” the watchdog wrote.
The watchdog declined to comment to the AP and referred questions on the matter to the White House press office.
Asked to comment, Bates did not comment on the changes to the transcript and said: “The president confirmed in a tweet on Tuesday evening that he spoke about the hateful rhetoric of the comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. That is reflected in the transcript.
House Republicans, meanwhile, are debating launching an investigation into the matter. House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., and House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, R-Ky., on Wednesday accused White House staff of “leaking a fake transcript” of Biden’s remarks.
In a letter to White House counsel Ed Siskel on Wednesday, he asked the administration to preserve documents and internal communications related to Biden’s remarks and release the transcripts.
“The White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to make the message more political,” the lawmaker told Siskel.
Stefanik and Comer said the actions could violate the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
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Madhani reported from Las Vegas.
