White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call where President Joe Biden jabbed MAGA supporters of Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported Thursday night.
The placement of an apostrophe is at the center of the latest uproar over Biden’s describing MAGA fans as “garbage” in a reaction to Donald Trump’s widely criticized Madison Square Garden rally.
AP reported that the official transcript from Tuesday night’s swipe at Trump supporters was altered to align with the president’s clean-up of his comments.
“Well, let me tell you something…the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden told a group of Latino activists in a video call Tuesday night. His remarks were reacting to a racist joke comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, also known as “Kill Tony,” made about Puerto Rico at Trump’s New York City rally.
The response, largely seen as a gaffe by the 81-year-old president who quickly tried to clarify his statement on social media, led to outrage on the right.
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Despite pushback from federal stenographers – who document presidential remarks for posterity – according to the AP, the transcript released by the White House “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.”
Biden was “conferred with” before the change was made, according to an internal email obtained by the AP from the head of the stenographers’ office.
“The supervisor, in the email, called the press office’s handling of the matter ‘a breach of protocol and spoilation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices,’” AP reported.
While Vice President Kamala Harris has distanced herself from the comments, Trump on the other hand, has sought to benefit from the blunder through fundraising off the quote and even appearing in a garbage truck for a photo-op on Wednesday.
