In an incident stirring controversy, White House officials in the Biden-Harris administration reportedly altered the official transcript of President Joe Biden’s recent remarks, in which he referred to supporters of former President Donald Trump as “garbage.” According to a report by the Associated Press, this alleged alteration has drawn fierce objections from federal stenographers responsible for documenting presidential statements for historical accuracy, calling the edit a “breach of protocol” and “spoilation of transcript integrity.”
The official White House stenographers, tasked with creating an unfiltered and precise record of presidential statements, recorded Biden as saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
However, officials from the Biden-Harris administration reportedly altered this quote by adjusting the word “supporters” to “supporter’s” in the official transcript. This seemingly small punctuation change subtly altered the meaning of Biden's statement, making it appear less directly accusatory toward a group of individuals and more ambiguous.
This edit came after consultations between the White House press team and the president, according to emails obtained by the AP. However, the alteration sparked an immediate backlash from federal staff responsible for preserving the integrity of presidential records.
One official called the White House’s action a violation of standard protocol, insisting that the Press Office is permitted to withhold transcripts if clarification is needed, but it is not authorized to independently edit these records.
In a memo detailing the protocol breach, a supervisor from the White House Stenography Office stated, “Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.” This supervisor, a long-serving White House employee, emphasized that authenticity, not speed, is the priority when documenting presidential communications.
The timing of this incident is also notable, occurring during the final stretch of Biden's re-election campaign, where words—and their exact phrasing—are closely scrutinized. House Republican leaders, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Rep. James Comer (R-KY), swiftly condemned the White House’s actions, issuing a joint statement criticizing the transcript alteration as “a false transcript” and hinting at potential investigations into the matter.
“Instead of apologizing or clarifying President Biden’s words, the White House instead sought to change them (despite them being recorded on video) by releasing a false transcript of his remarks,” their statement read. Both leaders pointed out that the move could violate the Presidential Records Act of 1978, a law requiring the preservation of accurate presidential records.
Critics argue that such alterations could deepen public mistrust and further politicize presidential communications, especially given that the President’s comments were caught on video, offering a clear, unaltered record of his exact words.