The White House press office found itself in hot water for a “breach of protocol” after it modified the transcript of President Biden’s “garbage” comment regarding supporters of Donald Trump, despite the objections of the stenographers’ office, as revealed in an internal email.

During an address to a Latino audience, President Biden responded to a comedian’s jibe about Puerto Rico being “a floating island of garbage” that surfaced during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. He remarked, “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” highlighting his disdain for Trump’s followers.

However, the White House press office changed the transcript by inserting an apostrophe in “supporter’s,” implying that Biden was solely criticizing the comedian instead of Trump’s supporters.

“If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” expressed the supervisor of the White House stenographers in an email directed to the press office, which was acquired by the Associated Press.

“Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff,” the message elaborated.

The supervisor further asserted that the manner in which this was handled constituted “a breach of protocol and spoilation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.”

Reporters covering the executive branch regard White House stenographers as highly skilled and precise in their transcriptions. It is quite rare for the press office to challenge the stenographers on what they have recorded.

According to the AP, the press office rushed to get a transcript from the two-member stenography team that covered Biden’s remarks after they ignited a wave of controversy.

Following the campaign call, the press office “conferred with the president,” as stated in the email, and sought to amend the transcript with the addition of an apostrophe—an adjustment that typically requires consent from the stenography supervisor.

When the supervisor was not immediately reachable to approve the change, Biden’s communications team proceeded with the release of the altered transcript on social media and the White House website.

“Regardless of urgency, it is essential to our transcripts’ authenticity and legitimacy that we adhere to consistent protocol for requesting edits, approval, and release,” the supervisor, a long-serving White House employee, communicated to White House communications staff, including press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

“The President confirmed in his tweet on Tuesday evening that he was addressing the hateful rhetoric from the comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. That was reflected in the transcript,” stated White House spokesman Andrew Bates in a comment to The Post.

House Republicans are contemplating an inquiry into the “false transcript” that was disseminated by the White House.

Biden’s remarks have been embraced by Trump and his supporters this week, with the former president making an appearance at a rally in Wisconsin with a garbage truck and wearing a garbageman’s vest in response to Biden’s criticism of his followers.

“Kamala [Harris] and Joe [Biden] call us garbage. I call you the heart and soul of America,” Trump declared during the spirited rally in Green Bay, Wis.

{Matzav.com}