House Republicans are taking aim at the White House for its response to remarks by President Biden this week, when he appeared to refer to former President Trump’s supporters as “garbage” — a characterization that the White House rejects.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House GOP conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) penned a letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel on Wednesday, accusing the administration of releasing an incorrect transcript of the remarks. That action, they said, may be in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which applies to the official records of presidential administrations.
“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. The move is not only craven, but it also appears to be in violation of federal law, including the Presidential Records Act of 1978,” they wrote.
“White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to be more politically on message. Though President Biden’s relevance continues to diminish, his words continue to matter, even as they become increasingly divisive and erratic,” they continued.
Comer and Stefanik demanded that the White House release a “corrected” transcript of Biden’s remarks, and that it retain all documents and internal communications pertaining to the president’s remarks.
The Hill reached out to the White House for comment.
Comer and Stefanik are just the latest Republicans to seize on Biden’s remarks, which came during a call with Voto Latino, a major advocacy group that organizes Latino voters.
Biden on the call appeared to describe Trump supporters as “garbage,” setting off a stir in Washington. The comments came after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, during a set at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” drawing criticism from both sides of the aisle.
Biden’s comments made the rounds on social media before the White House released a fuller transcript of his remarks, which included an apostrophe with the word “supporter’s,” to indicate that Biden was referring to Hinchcliffe’s statement as “garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” the transcript reads.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates in a statement said, “The President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage.’”
And Biden himself wrote on the social platform X: “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporters 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. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
In the video clip, however, Biden sounded like he ended one thought with the word “supporters” before beginning a new sentence referring to the “demonization of Latinos.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden appears to say in the clip. “His, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
The White House spent much of Wednesday cleaning up the controversy. Vice President Harris and Democratic lawmakers distanced themselves from the remarks, while the Trump campaign and Republican members of Congress have slammed Biden.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) brought up the remark while on stage at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night.
“That’s terrible,” Trump said, suggesting Biden’s remark was worse than Clinton’s 2016 comments.
“This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country,” Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), the GOP nominee for vice president, posted on X. “There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it.”
