‘Goodest Job’ or ‘Good as Job’? The White House Wants a Word.

ABC News adjusted its initial transcript of a much-discussed moment during President Biden’s Friday interview after White House officials told the network that they believed the president’s words had been inaccurately rendered, according to several people familiar with the discussion.

The moment occurred toward the end of Mr. Biden’s interview, when George Stephanopoulos asked the president how he would feel if he stayed in the presidential race and was defeated by former President Donald J. Trump.

“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” Mr. Biden said, according to the official transcript that was distributed by ABC on Friday night.

By Saturday afternoon, the quote in the network’s online transcript had changed slightly: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.” The network appended an editors’ note explaining that the transcript “has been updated for clarity.”

Mr. Biden’s actual words at that point during the interview were difficult to make out and open to some degree of interpretation.

ABC’s standards team decided to review the audio after receiving queries on Saturday from the White House along with several news organizations, asking whether Mr. Biden had said “goodest” or “good as,” according to a person briefed on the network’s discussions.

After conducting its review, the network decided to adjust the transcript and append the editors’ note, the person said. The network did not modify the audio and video of the interview itself.

After the ABC transcript was adjusted on Saturday, a spokesman for the president’s re-election campaign emailed several reporters for The New York Times