Two top House Republicans are seeking information from the White House as they investigate whether officials illegally revised President Joe Biden’s comments in which he appeared to call supporters of former President Donald Trump “garbage.”
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) requested access to all White House documents and internal communications regarding Biden’s Tuesday comments. They are suggesting that White House officials may have violated the Presidential Records Act by releasing a revised transcript to explain his statement.
“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,” they wrote in a letter sent to White House counsel Edward Siskel on Wednesday.
“White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to be more politically on message,” the House Republicans added.
🚨BREAKING: Biden-Harris White House may have violated the law by altering President Biden’s “garbage” remarks in official transcript.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) and Oversight Chairman James Comer (@RepJamesComer) are raising concerns… pic.twitter.com/52z6J7EO7q
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 30, 2024
Comer and Stefanik have also called on the White House to “issue a corrected transcript containing the accurate wording.”
The pair argued that Biden has played a “prominent role” in Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign and that the White House “sought to change” Biden’s words rather than issue an apology.
The president said on Tuesday that “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” referring to former President Donald Trump’s followers. Biden quickly clarified his comments in a social media post following the incident saying he meant to say Trump’s supporter’s “demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say.”
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The White House argued the same, saying Biden meant “supporter’s” not “supporters” plural, making it seem as though Biden was referring to a single supporter’s “garbage,” that supporter being insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe, who made a joke about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally on Sunday.
Biden has rarely been seen on the campaign trail with Harris and the vice president has distanced herself from his comment, saying she “strongly disagree[s] with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”