Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden wanted to be a ‘president of all Americans’ when asked why the press office changed a transcript to make it look he didn’t call Trump supporters ‘garbage.’
On Tuesday, as Vice President Kamala Harris was making her grand ‘closing argument’ speech on the Ellipse, Biden was sticking his foot in his mouth as he gave his two cents on a Trump-aligned comedian calling Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage.’
Biden said on the call: ‘The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.’
But a transcript sent out by the White House press office read ‘supporter’s’ instead – the grammatical construction for a singular supporter – comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that the transcript had been altered by Biden’s press staff over objections from the official White House stenographers, government employees who stay on staff regardless of who’s the president.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden wanted to be a ‘president of all Americans’ when asked why the press office changed a transcript to make it look he didn’t call Trump supporters ‘garbage’
Jean-Pierre was asked about the new reporting on board Air Force One to Philadelphia on Friday.
‘I was asked this question, multiple versions of this question on Wednesday. I don’t have anything else more to share,’ she told reporters.
Her Wednesday press briefing happened before the revelation that the White House press shop added the apostrophe.
‘What I can say is and the President put out a statement that was tweeted out that’s on X obviously being very clear what he meant, understanding that his words could have been taken out of context,’ she continued. ‘He was talking about the comedian.’
‘He was talking about the hateful rhetoric coming out of from the comedian at the Sunday rally in Madison Square Garden,’ Jean-Pierre said. ‘And I said this on Wednesday, and I’m going to keep saying this is that the president is always going to continue to call out hateful rhetoric.’
As his comments starting going viral, Biden did post to X trying to reflect that he was talking solely about Hinchcliffe.
‘Earlier today I 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,’ Biden posted to X Tuesday night.
President Joe Biden made the ‘garbage’ comment Tuesday night during a call with Voto Latino as Vice President Kamala Harris was making her closing argument speech on the Ellipse
In the AP story, the change in the official transcript was made after the press office ‘conferred with the president,’ according to an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office that was obtained by the wire service.
In the email the supervisor called the press office’s edit ‘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 email went on. ‘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.’
Beyond the infighting among government officials, Biden’s ‘garbage’ comments were quickly gulped up politically by Trump and his MAGA allies – with the ex-president dressing up and driving a garbage truck on Wednesday and others – including Donald Trump Jr. and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly – dressing up like trash for Halloween.
It created a headache for Harris, just as she was imploring that she would reunite the country after the hyper-partisan Trump era.
Jean-Pierre wouldn’t address the press shop editing.
‘I don’t have anything else to share beyond that,’ she said.
‘What the most important thing for Americans to know is that this is a president that went back and wanted to clarify what he said, because he didn’t want to take it out of context,’ she said.
‘I think that says a lot about this president and we’ve been pretty consistent about him wanting to be a president and continuing to be a president of all Americans,’ she continued. ‘And that’s what you’re going to see. I don’t have anything else to add beyond that.’
