White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers tasked with recording the president’s remarks for posterity.

White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters,” which aides said pointed to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans who are supporting Trump for president.

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    59·
    21 hours ago

    I used to transcribe podcasts and you make damned sure that what was said - including every “umm”, (long pause) or questionable comment - is what you typed out.

    I would think for the WH stenographers they would be mandated to do that.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      21·
      11 hours ago

      Absolutely. Did you do so in a language in which an unvoiced apostrophe is the difference between the possessive and plural? Because here in English, at least the American variety we do that

    • dgmib@lemmy.world
      81·
      18 hours ago

      Did you read the article? The difference between the two transcripts was:

      “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters”

      vs

      “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s”

      And stenographers use a special keyboard that records phonics, not words. It doesn’t have punctuation. That gets added later.

      • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        14·
        18 hours ago

        The context of the words before and after.

        “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

        Making the word “supporters” possessive means the sentence makes no sense at all.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          21·
          11 hours ago

          Oh you’re missing a [garbage].

          “The only employees out there are Bobs” vs “The only employees out there are Bob’s [employees]”

          Is it the best and most precise English? No, it’s a known trait of Biden’s that he trips over words and doesn’t have the best intuitive sense of sentence structure when he’s speaking informally. Especially when he’s relaxed enough to let his stutter through. Personally as a fellow stutterer I find it relatable.

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
          61·
          17 hours ago

          The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s demonization of Latinos.

          Makes sense to me.

        • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          17 hours ago

          It’s explained in the summary you posted.

          The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters,” which aides said pointed to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans who are supporting Trump for president.