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CV NEWS FEED // The White House press office is under fire after altering an official transcript of President Joe Biden’s comments during a video call this week, where he called supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “garbage,” Associated Press (AP) reported.
Biden had addressed a group of Latino activists on a call, responding to a comment from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Biden went further, saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The AP reported that, in response to significant backlash, the White House press office requested that the stenographer’s office — tasked with accurately documenting the president’s words — “quickly produce a transcript of the call amid the firestorm.”
The White House press office, after they “conferred with the president,” released an edited copy of the transcript where they changed “supporters” to “supporter’s,” suggesting that Biden’s words were directed solely at Hinchcliffe, not all Trump voters.
Two members of the stenography office told AP that such changes typically require approval by a stenographer office supervisor, which was notably bypassed by the press office.
The stenography office supervisor flagged the edit in an email to White House communications officials. The email, which two anonymous government officials authenticated, stressed that the press office cannot unilaterally edit official transcripts, AP reported.
“If there is a difference in interpretation, the press office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” the supervisor clarified, adding that the official transcript, shared with distribution lists, including the National Archives, now differs from the edited version released to the public by the press office.
The supervisor called the press office’s edit “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices,” AP reported.
“Regardless of urgency, it is essential to our transcripts’ authenticity and legitimacy that we adhere to consistent protocol for requesting edits, approval, and release,” the supervisor wrote.
The White House press office’s edit could be a violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, according to House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).
