Biden derails Kamala's closing pitch by demonizing Trump supporters, as White House is caught altering transcript
Joe Biden is facing pushback from his fellow Democrats after stepping all over Kamala Harris' closing argument to the American people.
The sitting president unleashed a stunning vitriolic attack against millions of Americans this week, describing Donald Trump supporters as "garbage."
Biden blows up Kamala's closing pitch
The insult undermined Vice President Harris' campaign narrative that she would be a president for "all Americans," as she attempted to paint Trump as a hateful "fascist."
Biden's divisive comment put Harris on the defensive in the last full week of campaigning before Election Day - leaving Democrats scrambling to downplay and deny what Biden said.
"The only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump’s] supporters," Biden said on a Zoom call with the non-profit Voto Latino.
The White House awkwardly tried to clean up Biden's comment by claiming "garbage" referred to rhetoric from a comedian at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally - and not Trump's supporters.
When asked for a response, Harris claimed that Biden "clarified" his comments as she claimed she would be a president for "all Americans."
"Listen, first of all, I think he clarified his comments, but let me be clear I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for," Harris said.
White House edited transcript
Despite Harris' attempts to turn the page on Biden's comments, the scandal escalated when the White House was caught altering the transcript - over the objections of stenographers who slammed the "breach of protocol."
The version the White House Press Office released added an apostrophe to change Biden's meaning.
"If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently," a concerned supervisor wrote in an internal email.
"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."
Clearly, the White House knows what Biden really said - and they know how bad it was, otherwise they wouldn't have stealth edited the transcript.
In a sign of the real damage Biden caused, Democratic Senate candidates in key races are also scrambling to distance themselves from Biden and his comment.
"He shouldn’t have said it. It’s inappropriate," Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate and current congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said. "For me, I just think that kind of talk is the last thing we need in our politics."