WASHINGTON– White House press officials have altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to attack Donald Trump supporters, drawing objections from federal officials who document such remarks for posterity , according to two US government officials and an internal email. obtained Thursday by the Associated Press.
Biden created an uproar earlier this week with his remarks directed at Latino activists in response to racist comments at a Trump rally made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico a “floating island garbage.”
Biden, according to a transcript prepared by official White House stenographers, told the Latino group in a video call Tuesday evening: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters – his – his The demonization of Latinos is unacceptable, and it is unacceptable. -American.”
The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “partisan” rather than “partisan,” which aides said indicated Biden was criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans who support Trump for president.
The change was made after the press office “spoke 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 despoilment of the integrity of the transcripts between the reporting and press offices.”
“If there is a difference in interpretation, the press office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot independently edit it,” the supervisor wrote, adding: “Our shorthand office transcript – published on our distribution, which includes the National Archives – is now available different from the version edited and made public by the Press Office staff.
The change to the transcript comes as the White House struggles to answer a wave of questions from reporters regarding Biden’s comments. The president’s remarks are at odds with Vice President Kamala Harris’ near-simultaneous speech outside the White House, in which she called for treating Americans of different ideologies with respect.
The Trump campaign quickly moved to raise money from 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 distanced herself from Biden’s comments on Wednesday – making the clearest break with the president since she replaced him as Democratic leader just over three months ago. “Let me be clear,” she told reporters: “I completely disagree with any criticism of people based on the choice they vote for. »
According to the email, the news office had asked stenographers to quickly produce a transcript of the call amid the firestorm. Biden himself took to social media to say he wasn’t calling all Trump supporters trash and was specifically referring to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by the Trump supporter during his rally at Madison Square Garden.
The Stenographer’s Office is responsible for preparing accurate transcripts of the President’s public and private remarks for preservation by the National Archives and distribution to the public.
The two-person stenography team on duty that evening – a “typist” and a “proofreader” – said any changes to the transcription would have to be approved by their supervisor, the head of the stenographers office.
The supervisor was not immediately available to review the audio, but the press office posted the edited transcript on the White House website and distributed it to the press and on social media in an effort to tone down the story.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates also posted the edited version of the quote on X that evening and wrote that Biden was referring to “the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ” garbage “.
The supervisor, a career White House employee, raised concerns about the press office’s action — but did not weigh in on the accuracy of the edit — in an email to the director of White House Communications Ben LaBolt to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and other press and communications officials.
“Regardless of the urgency, it is essential to the authenticity and legitimacy of our transcripts that we adhere to a consistent protocol for requesting edits, approval, and publication,” the supervisor wrote.
The supervisor declined to comment to The AP and referred questions about the matter to the White House press office.
Asked for comment, Bates did not address the transcript edit and said, “The president confirmed in his tweet Tuesday night that he was addressing the comedian’s hateful rhetoric at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.” This was reflected in the transcript.
House Republicans, meanwhile, were considering 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 staff of ‘published a false transcript’ of Biden’s remarks.
In a letter Wednesday to White House counsel Ed Siskel, they called on the administration to preserve documents and internal communications related to Biden’s remarks and the release of the transcript.
“The White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to make them a more political message,” the lawmakers wrote to Siskel.
Stefanik and Comer said the action could violate the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
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Madhani reported from Las Vegas.
