The House Oversight Committee is putting heat on the White House to release accurate transcripts after it allegedly altered President Biden’s remarks to soften inflammatory remarks he made calling Donald Trump’s supporters “garbage.
“To date, the White House has not issued a corrected transcript, and the false transcript remains on the White House webpage,” wrote House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) in a letter to the White House counsel’s office Friday demanding it preserve all documents related to the transcript.
Top members also ripped the White House’s alteration of the official transcript, saying that the stenographers’ office cannot “simply rewrite President Biden’s rhetoric,” according to Fox News, which first reported the request.
“In this case, it appears the White House is doing so to safeguard Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign,” the letter said.
Stefanik and Comer noted an Associated Press report citing an internal email from the head of the stenographer’s office that said Biden’s press office “conferred with the president” to change the transcript.
The stenographers’ office had complained of “spoliation of transcript integrity” and a “breach of protocol” by the press office after Biden, 81, said on a campaign call with the Voto Latino group that “the only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump’s] supporters,” according to the report.
The official transcript, however, included an apostrophe on the word “supporter’s,” suggesting that Biden was only attacking comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who had called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 26.
Traditionally, transcripts of presidential remarks are forwarded to reporters by the press office without correction, with strikethroughs to mark when the commander in chief misspeaks or noting when his words are unintelligible.
The White House has insisted Biden was criticizing Hinchcliffe’s comments — and not all Americans supporting Trump’s presidential bid.
