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White House press officials altered the official transcript of
Biden's statement, drawing objections from the federal workers
who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S.
government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by
The Associated Press.
The lawmakers said they question whether the decision to create
“a false transcript and manipulate or alter the accurate
transcript” produced for the National Archives and Records
Administration was a violation of federal law.
Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Committee on
Oversight and Accountability, and House Republican Conference
Chairwoman Elise Stefanik demanded the White House produce the
records. They're also calling for the White House to make
available for a briefing the top supervisor of the White House
Stenography's Office.
“The White House cannot simply rewrite President Biden’s
rhetoric,” Comer and Stefanik wrote. “...We are concerned with
the latest reporting of the White House’s apparent political
decision to protect the Biden-Harris Administration, instead of
following longstanding and proper protocols.”
Biden created an uproar earlier this week with his remarks to
Latino activists responding to racist comments at a Trump rally
made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the U.S.
island territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of
garbage.”
Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White
House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening
video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his
supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is
unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
The transcript released by the White House press office,
however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading
“supporter’s” rather than “supporters,” which aides said pointed
to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans
who are supporting Trump for president.
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