Liberal NYT columnist says 'desperate' Biden camp pressured her to change transcription of gaffe

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd accused the Biden campaign of pressuring the publication to change the wording in an article transcribing a recent gaffe made by the president.

In her Sunday column, headlined "Joe Biden, in the Goodest Bunker Ever," Dowd detailed an exchange between herself and the Biden campaign after she quoted the president in her Saturday column telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he would feel content staying in the race, even if Trump won, "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."

The ABC News transcript of Biden's Friday interview with Stephanopolous also initially transcribed him as saying "goodest." However, ABC News then updated the transcript to read, "I did the good as job as I know I can do," and added an editor's note that read, "This transcript has been updated for clarity."

After using the original Biden quote in her Saturday column, Dowd said she was contacted by T.J. Ducklo, a Biden campaign spokesman, who emailed her to "flag" that ABC had updated its transcript.

He reportedly asked her to "tweak" her column and change the word "goodest" to make her reporting "consistent with the corrected transcript."

Dowd noted that while "goodest isn't a word," she and her researcher had listened to footage of Biden making the comment with "our ears up against the computer, 10 times, and that’s what it sounded like."