If you were relying on the White House transcript of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s visit to Harvard, you would have missed the best quote.  

Biden’s joke to a student body vice president about the No. 2 job being “a bitch?” It took place during a question-and-answer session following the speech at the John F. Kennedy Forum at the Harvard Institute of Politics that followed the remarks, which ended at 7:20 p.m. The official transcript of the Thursday evening event ends, “God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you.”  

Biden, being the vice president and not the president, doesn’t always have his remarks transcribed. And even when he does, the Q&A’s that follow frequently are exluded.  

An administration official said there was no effort to hide the vice president’s remarks. The transcript wasn’t posted until Friday — well after CQ Roll Call reported the “bitch” comment.  

“The event was open press and the entire video is posted on Harvard’s website,” noted an administration official. “Many reporters have written about moments that occurred during Q&A portion of the event. Any suggestion that there is something to hide is not accurate.”  

Boston magazine , which covered the remarks and the question-and-answer session, said the total run time was an hour-and-a-half. Questions covered wide range of topics, including the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia and U.S. efforts to fight AIDS in Africa.  

Biden, who was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when George W. Bush was in the White House, emphasized to the crowd that the Republican president deserved credit for that program.  

“Democrats can be as petty and as mean as any Republican I know, so George Bush deserves the credit,” Biden said.  

Related:

Overheard: Being Biden Is a ‘Bitch’?


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