A controversy has erupted over the handling of President Joe Biden’s recent remarks, in which he referred to former President Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage.” According to sources, White House press officials allegedly pressured stenographers to edit the transcript of the remarks to alter their meaning, sparking outrage among critics.
The alleged cover-up was exposed in an email obtained by the Associated Press, which revealed that stenographers had been instructed to add an apostrophe and an em-dash to the original transcript, effectively changing the meaning of Biden’s statement. The original quote read, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump] supporters.” The altered version, however, suggested that Biden was referring to Trump himself as “garbage.”
The move has been widely condemned as a breach of protocol and a threat to the integrity of the transcript. According to sources, stenographers had initially objected to the changes, citing their duty to provide accurate records for the National Archives. “This would be called lying in a public document,” tweeted Clay Travis, founder of Outkick, in response to the news.
Critics have also pointed out that the editing of the transcript violates the Presidential Records Act, which requires that presidential records be preserved in their original form. “The Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript, but they cannot edit it independently,” wrote a stenographer supervisor in an internal email.
The controversy has also drawn attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’s response to the incident. Harris claimed that Biden had clarified his statement and disagreed with demonizing people based on their voting preferences. However, her comments have not been enough to quell the criticism, with many accusing the administration of hypocrisy.
The incident has overshadowed Harris’s closing argument the same day, in which she emphasized her commitment to serving “all Americans.” However, critics have seized on the controversy, with Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national spokesperson, declaring, “There’s no way to spin it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t just hate President Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him.”
