The White House press office committed a major "protocol breach" after it decided to alter the transcript of President Biden's comment labeling Donald Trump's supporters as "garbage" on Tuesday, despite strong objections from the administration's stenographer's office, according to an internal email.
Stenographers heard that the 81-year-old president told a Latino group that "the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters," in response to a comedian's comments about Puerto Rico being "a floating island of garbage" during Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. However, the White House press office added an apostrophe to "supporter's," suggesting that Biden's comment was directed only at the comedian.
Major Protocol Breach to Shield Biden
According to aides, this adjustment corrects Biden's comment to suggest that he was criticizing Hinchcliffe alone rather than the millions of Americans who support Trump, as reported by the Associated Press.
"If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently," the supervisor of the White House stenographers said in an email to the press office, obtained by the Associated Press.
"Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff," the missive continued.
Two unnamed government officials confirmed the authenticity of the email, the Daily Mail reported.
The supervisor also said that the handling of the situation amounted to "a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity" between the Stenography and Press Offices.
Reporters who cover the executive branch generally view White House stenographers as highly professional and accurate in their transcriptions, making it very uncommon for the press office to challenge what stenographers recorded.
Turning Unethical
According to the AP, the press office requested a rapid transcript from the two-person stenography team that covered Biden on Tuesday night after his comments ignited major controversy.
According to the email, the press office "conferred with the president" following the campaign call and sought to add the apostrophe to the transcript—an edit that typically needs approval from the stenography supervisor.
When the supervisor was not immediately available to review the proposed change, Biden's press team proceeded, publicly releasing the altered transcript on social media and the White House website.
The supervisor, a long-serving White House employee, reminded communications officials, including Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, "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 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," White House spokesman Andrew Bates told The New York Post.
House Republicans are weighing the possibility of opening an investigation into the "false transcript" issued by the White House.
This week, Biden's remark was picked up by Trump and his supporters, with the former president appearing at a rally in Wisconsin alongside a garbage truck and wearing a garbageman's vest in response to Biden's criticism of his supporters.
"Kamala [Harris] and Joe [Biden] call us garbage. I call you the heart and soul of America," Trump said at the Green Bay, Wisconsin, rally.
