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As Donald Trump and his allies continue to try to stem the fallout from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage,” Republican House leaders are seeking to keep President Joe Biden’s verbal gaffe about the incident in the spotlight in the final days of the election.
In a letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel on Friday, Reps. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican conference chairwoman from New York, and James Comer, the House Oversight Committee chair from Kentucky, asked the White House for documents and internal communications about Biden’s “garbage” comments. They also requested that the White House release a copy of the transcript sent to the National Archives and that the White House Stenography Office’s top supervisor brief the Oversight Committee.
Biden made his comment on a call with Latino activists on Tuesday as he criticized Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico. Biden was initially reported to say, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.” The White House transcript of Biden’s remarks included an apostrophe: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s.” In either case, the apostrophe would not be audible as spoken.
Republicans pounced on the confusion, though Biden — who is known for his stumbling speech and is prone to gaffes — later posted to X that he was talking about “the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally.” (My colleague Zeeshan Aleem goes into detail about the Republican response to Biden’s comments.)
The GOP House leaders announced Wednesday that they are launching an investigation into Biden’s comment and the transcript. In their Friday letter to Siskel, they cited a report from The Associated Press that the White House had altered the official transcript of Biden’s call to include an apostrophe in “supporters” after the press office “conferred with the president.” (NBC News, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the White House updated its transcript after a conversation with Biden about his remark.)
Stefanik and Comer have questioned whether White House officials violated federal law when they reportedly altered the official transcript of Biden’s remarks. “The White House cannot simply rewrite President Biden’s rhetoric,” they wrote, suggesting that it was doing so “to safeguard” Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
It’s worth keeping in mind that when Trump was president, the White House repeatedly altered the transcripts of his comments, at times even omitting some of his more controversial remarks entirely.
Much has been made of how Hinchcliffe’s offensive joke might affect how Puerto Ricans vote, especially in swing states. With the election mere days away, it’s equally unclear how serious or impactful Stefanik and Comer’s preoccupation with Biden’s response — and their effort to connect Harris to the gaffe — will be.