The White House altered the official transcript of President Biden’s remarks this week about the Trump campaign and “garbage” as it rushed to clarify that the president’s words had been taken out of context, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The debate over the meaning of Mr. Biden’s words ultimately comes down to an apostrophe, which the White House press office inserted into the transcript without the authorization of the White House Stenography Office, the nonpartisan group that prepares the official record.
The head of the stenography office said the alteration, which was first reported by The Associated Press, was a violation of protocol. It was also a sign of how seriously the White House took the uproar over the remarks, which drew waves of criticism from Republicans just days before a tossup election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump.
The comments in question came on Tuesday night as Mr. Biden spoke during a video call with Latino supporters about Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and Trump supporter who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
According to the initial transcript prepared by the stenographers, Mr. Biden said “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
Republicans seized on the remark, saying Mr. Biden was insulting all Trump supporters. White House officials tried to clarify that Mr. Biden was talking about Mr. Hinchcliffe’s comments alone. Officials from the press office tried to reach out to the supervisor’s office, but moved ahead with the alteration without hearing back, according to the people familiar with the matter.
