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Apostrophegate: White House, Politico Writer Try to Cover Up Biden’s Latest Whopper

Apostrophegate: White House, Politico Writer Try to Cover Up Biden’s Latest Whopper

As I see it, apostrophegate rather ends the Hinchcliffe story as a problem for the Trump campaign. And lays it squarely at the feet of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Reacting to an offensive joke about Puerto Rico delivered by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at former President Donald Trump’s Sunday night mega-rally, President Joe Biden made an even more offensive remark about Trump supporters. On a Tuesday night Zoom call with members of Voto Latino, Biden said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump’s] supporters.” Yes, the President of the United States called 74 million Americans garbage. Mary Chastain reported on this story here.

News of Biden’s inflammatory remark immediately went viral on social media and eventually reached the podium in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Trump was holding a rally.

In the clip below, Trump tells the crowd he finds Biden’s comment to be even worse than when Hillary Clinton called half of his supporters a “basket of deplorables” during a 2016 campaign speech.

Trump said, “Remember Hillary? She said ‘deplorable’ and then said ‘irredeemable,’ right? But she said ‘deplorable.’ That didn’t work out. ‘Garbage’ I think is worse.

He continued, “But he doesn’t know – you have to please forgive him. Please forgive him. For he not knoweth what he said,” adding, “And I’m convinced he likes me more than he likes Kamala.”

The story gets worse.

NBC News reporter Gabe Gutierrez broke the story. According to independent writer Jerry Dunleavy, the White House gave Gutierrez a copy of the original transcript that said “supporters” (plural), but gave other reporters an ever-so-slightly altered version that added an apostrophe to the word. It said “supporter’s” (singular possessive).

This minor bit of stealth editing changed the meaning of Biden’s remark. Rather than calling Trump’s supporters garbage, the White House would like people to believe that Biden was referring to his supporter’s “fill in the blank,” when he suddenly loses his train of thought, as he often does, in the middle of the sentence.

Attaching the new, improved version (that included the apostrophe), Politico’s White House bureau chief Jonathan Lemire, posted “the full Biden quote” on X. He claimed the quote was “being taken out of context.”

But unfortunately for Lemire, Biden can clearly be heard on the Zoom call saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” It simply wouldn’t make sense – even in Bidenspeak – to say “supporter’s” in this context.

It was a valiant effort, but considering that a video of the call is all over the internet, Lemire wasn’t fooling anyone. One wonders why a smart man would risk his journalistic integrity over this. Oh – that’s right.

The Trump War Room reported that not even CNN was buying the spin.

Senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller weighed in.

Before calling a lid, Team Biden made a final attempt at damage control. But it was way too late for that.

As I see it, apostrophegate rather ends the Hinchcliffe story as a problem for the Trump campaign. And lays it squarely at the feet of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. So much for Harris’s promise just hours earlier to be the president for all Americans during her much ballyhooed speech on the Ellipse.

Biden’s comment will also give fodder to those who believe he is trying to sabotage the Harris-Walz campaign.


Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.

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Comments


 
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Ninth Dimension | October 30, 2024 at 8:05 am

Poor Joe Biden has a stutter. That’s why he wished people a winter of severe illness and death. It isn’t easy being a moron President.


 
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PrincetonAl | October 30, 2024 at 8:10 am

“Listen up, Jack … An insult comic’s bad joke that no one laughed at is unforgivable – but it’s okay for me as President to demonize and dehumanize 80 million voters. Ok?”

Message received.
.


 
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TargaGTS | October 30, 2024 at 8:23 am

Apostrophegate, indeed. The level of shameless hackery 99% of the mainstream media will engage in to protect Democrats is only eclipsed by the revulsion and contempt it feels for anyone to the right of Fidel Castro. This is Leni Riefenstahl-level agitprop.


 
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rhhardin | October 30, 2024 at 8:24 am

Nobody is offended by any of it. It’s fake offense for the benefit of pundits to spin to an audience that agrees to pretend to care, as part of the narrative as life structure.

Comedian tells joke and the response is an ad hominem. The other side responds with an ad hominem. That’s the way political argument is done these days. Hegel hadn’t seen that coming. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis goes cancel culture. Thesis, ad hominem, ad hominem.


     
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    Tom M in reply to rhhardin. | October 30, 2024 at 11:30 am

    I’m not sure I would say I am offended by it but it does accurately show how he feels. I’m thinking of going to my Early Voting Location (which still have long lines) here in Jersey wearing a 30 gallon trash bag around my neck like a poncho as a sign of support.

Eventually, a pile of **** becomes too large to be covered up by anything…


 
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Whitewall | October 30, 2024 at 8:29 am

I had never heard of this Hinchcliffe person before. Now he is probably famous for a tasteless joke.


     
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    TargaGTS in reply to Whitewall. | October 30, 2024 at 8:38 am

    He’s a reasonably famous stand-up comic who specializes in insult comedy. He’s been a fixture on the ‘roast circuit’ for a decade and has worked with Joe Rogan (both opening for Rogan and working on his podcast) for at least as long. If a person is a fan of stand-up and/or celebrity roasts, they would definitely know who he is. A couple months ago, he created another viral moment when he said some less-than-charitable things about Tom Brady’s wife Giselle, during Brady’s roast which Brady did not care for. He also made some gay jokes while appearing on ESPN’s Game Day…which of course weren’t received well.


     
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    AlinStLouis in reply to Whitewall. | October 30, 2024 at 5:15 pm

    It isn’t a tasteless joke if you understand the context and have a sense of humor.


       
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      henrybowman in reply to AlinStLouis. | October 31, 2024 at 4:11 am

      I gotta say, if somebody had asked me whether or not PR was having a garbage problem, I would have thrown my hands up. It’s like tossing geek humor at the College of Cardinals.


 
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guyjones | October 30, 2024 at 8:35 am

Knowing that the vile Dhimmi-crats are always angling to create controversy out of anything, it was a stupid decision to allow this comedian on stage, knowing that these people often go unfiltered and off-program. We have to be smarter than this and stop giving these opposition pukes ammunition.

A little more campaign discipline in this regard would be nice.

I still think Trump=Vance wins the election, but, these sideshow distractions and own-goals are frustrating.


     
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    MarkSmith in reply to guyjones. | October 30, 2024 at 8:53 am

    Make Jokes Great Again! DEI is making us joyless.


       
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      guyjones in reply to MarkSmith. | October 30, 2024 at 9:24 am

      I get it. It’s just, in the current environment, in a very tight race, when President Trump is already unfairly vilified and tarnished as (on any given day), an alleged racist, alleged Nazi, alleged xenophobe, having a comedian on stage making racial jokes is tactically stupid.

      Have this guy perform after Trump-Vance wins; that would be smarter, as a middle finger trolling stunt.

New York Times print edition headline is “If Donald J. Trump wins, he is ready to radically reshape American government from the moment he regains the White House.”

.. you don’t have to convince me, I already decided to vote for Trump


     
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    henrybowman in reply to Neo. | October 31, 2024 at 4:13 am

    It’s to the point that every time they claim that he will cancel all elections and become a dictator for life, I’m almost ready to stand up and applaud.


 
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Tsquared79 | October 30, 2024 at 8:58 am

Biden is way over due a bitch slapping.

This garbage seems to have steped on this other message …
https://x.com/TheCalvinCooli1/status/1851412148460626109


 
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Concise | October 30, 2024 at 9:33 am

Being a deplorable, I can’t say that I’ve had the opportunity to attend an elite DC cocktail party but I suspect it’s considered the height of wit at such gatherings to label Trump supporters as “trash.”


 
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scooterjay | October 30, 2024 at 9:37 am

Democrats have become the pinch-faced charicatures made popular by New Yorker magazine.


 
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E Howard Hunt | October 30, 2024 at 10:03 am

Sherlock Holmes would not accept this explanation. Indeed, he might call it the curious case of the ellipsis that didn’t appear to the right.

My wife and I are looking for some matching, holiday T-shirts saying Garbage Granny and Deplorable Dad.


 
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jakebizlaw | October 30, 2024 at 12:02 pm

Another instance of Trump jujitsu, in which the Dems attacks on him are leveraged against the attackers. Thanks, judoku Joe!


 
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destroycommunism | October 30, 2024 at 1:05 pm

dnc:

garbage is deplorable


 
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nordic prince | October 30, 2024 at 2:08 pm

Where is Victor Borge’s “Phonetic Pronunciation” when you need it?

https://youtu.be/TIf3IfHCoiE?si=mxFKqFFD7d36gTlh


 
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diver64 | October 30, 2024 at 4:18 pm

I think that for the majority of people paying attention this just solidifies their view of the censorious left. No humor or unapproved comments will be allowed.


 
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tbonesays | October 30, 2024 at 5:45 pm

This is like a joke on the animated comedy Archer, the only show of its kind that focuses on grammar.

As a former teacher I would have red penned Awkward the use of the singular possessive “supporter’s” in that place in the sentence.

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