The White House reportedly edited the official record of a call where President Joe Biden made a controversial comment in which he appeared to call Trump supporters "garbage" despite subsequent attempts to clarify the matter.
The attempt to alter the transcript was met with objections from the officials tasked with the job, according to a report by The Associated Press, which cites government officials and an internal email discussing the issue.
The statement in question took place during a call with Voto Latino, an activist group. There, Biden made reference to the now-infamous joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe where he referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."
According to the transcript from the White House's stenographers, Biden's remarks were as it follows: "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American."
However, after broad condemnation, the president sought to clarify the message, saying he "referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage - which is the only word I can think of to describe it."
"His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don't reflect who we are as a nation." White House spokesperson Andrew Bates later told CNN that Biden had meant to say "supporter's" rather than "supporters," making reference to a single person.
The transcript indeed reads "supporter's" rather than "supporters," a change reportedly made after the press office "conferred with the president," reads a passage of the internal email reported by The AP.
The supervisor criticized the press office for its handling of the situation, calling it a "breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices." "If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently," the official added.
The Trump campaign quickly sought to seize the timing of the comment, with the former president even climbing on a garbage truck while wearing an orange safety vest. He also dismiss Hinchcliffe's joke, saying "nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do" in another public appearance.
"I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans," he said in a rally in Allentown, a Latino-heavy town in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
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