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According to emails obtained by The Associated Press, career administration officials expressed objections Tuesday to the process by which President Joe Biden's aides inserted an apostrophe into a transcript of remarks that appeared to show the president was supporting supporters of Called Donald Trump “trash.”

The objections from staffers in the White House stenographer's office had their origins in the way the protocol was changed, not necessarily the accuracy of the change.

Still, they reflect the urgent struggle to clarify Biden's comments, which Republicans used to accuse the president of denigrating Republicans.

In his remarks, Biden recalled a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” before Trump's speech at Madison Square Garden last week. Then he said, “The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American.”

The change in question came when White House press staff inserted an apostrophe and changed “supporters” to “supporters,” meaning the president was only talking about the comedian and not all of Trump's supporters.

According to the emails, Biden staffers “consulted with the president” before making the change, and Biden himself later clarified the comments on social media.

But in doing so they apparently bypassed the protocol for changing official protocols, which would require approval from a superior in the stenographer's department. The emails noted that a supervisor was not immediately available to view the audio recording of the event, but the press office released the amended minutes anyway.

The urgency in distributing the transcript, including the apostrophe, reflected the potentially damaging impact of Biden's comment. While the event was on camera and the President's words were allowed to speak for themselves, some transcripts circulated on social media that took the President's words out of context.

But according to the emails, the decision to include the apostrophe in the minutes and distribute it without permission from the stenographer's office manager was a violation of protocol.

“If there are differences in interpretation, the press office may withhold the transcript, but cannot edit it independently,” the supervisor wrote in the email, adding: “Our Stenography Office transcript – published for our distribution, to which also belong to the National Archives.” – now differs from the version edited by press office staff and made available to the public.”

“Regardless of the urgency, it is critical to the authenticity and legitimacy of our transcripts that we adhere to a consistent protocol for requesting edits, approvals and releases,” the supervisor wrote in the emails obtained by the AP had.