>> Republican Steve Scalise shared a doctored
video of Medicare For All activist Ady Barkan.
I want to show you just the last few seconds.
This is a reality, according to Steve Scalise.
>> Fundamentally transform the country.
>> We ain't about waiting until the next election.
>> We're about to go get that.
>> We agree that we can redirect some of the
funding for police.
>> Yes, absolutely.
>> That's the end of a basically two minute
video that Joe Biden is an antifa super soldier
trying to murder every white suburban lady
or whatever. Which is crazy in its own way.
In normal times we'd just do a video about
that. But what you saw of Ady right there
is him saying a question, can we redirect
some of the funding for police? He said it
there and it was in text there, which is weird
because he didn't actually say any of that.
The clip originates from a conversation that
Barkan and Biden had months ago, which has
also been taken out of context in the past
in order to falsely portray Biden as if he
supports defending the police, which he 100%
does not. The discussion which was hosted
by the progressive organization NowThis, showed
Biden calling for an increased focus on mental
health and possible reforms for police practices.
At one point, the question is but do we agree
that we can redirect some of the funding?
So Scalese doesn't think that that's convenient
enough for the narrative that he's trying
to spin. So he just inserts a fake computer
generated voice as if it's madness that we're
talking about this how sick how offensive
to do this.
So he tweeted about this thing. These are
not my words. I've lost my ability to speak
but now my agency or my thoughts. You and
your team have doctored my words for your
own political gain. Please remove this video
immediately. You owe the entire disability
community an apology.
They 100% do. Now they did remove the video
eventually but that does not mean that they
regretted or they're apologetic as we'll get
to. But I wanted to give you an opportunity
to weigh in, Francesca.
>> Absolutely speechless. Ady Barkan is a
hero and he is a dying man.
He is a dying man who has used his life to
do more than most of us will do in our entire
lives when it comes to pushing for real health
care reform for Medicare for all. But even
that, Ady Barkan's done something more than
that, which is he's worked with all kinds
of politicians, including Biden, who aren't
even on board fully for Medicare for all.
But because he is so dedicated to this country,
to his kids, to the kids he will not see grow
up. Because he is so dedicated he is continuing
to be there to talk to Biden, to push him.
And Biden, I mean, good on Biden's camp to
have the grace to put a hero like Ady Barkan
on there, and then you've got Steve Scalise,
man you POS, how dare you.
>> Yep.
>> You don't have in your in your little finger,
you have nothing that Ady Barkan has. You
don't have the heroism, you don't have what
it takes if you were stricken with ALS imagine.
>> Yeah.
>> You couldn't do what he does. So anyway,
it's so offensive.
It is offensive to the disabled community.
It's offensive to all of us. And and initially
I was like, wait a minute. Did they just fake
his voice? I didn't get whether it was just
an edit or whether they straight up took a
different computer voice and made it sound
like Ady Barkan.
Yep, that's what they did. Yep, they did the
most offensive possible part of it.
>> They thought the fact that he speaks through
a computer assistance device, they thought,
score. It'll be easier to manipulate. And
they did it. That's what happened. That is
how sick these individuals are.
Not the only thing that's sick about this,
though. I was looking for some different sources
about different aspects of this. Here's the
Fox News headline on this. Steve Scalise removes
video accusing Biden of wanting to defend
police after backlash over alleged manipulation.
Alleged, that was today that they wrote that,
alleged.
There's no alleging. They added words that
weren't there, but if you're on Fox Nws, who
can really say, maybe it was, I don't know.
And the thing is that's sick. Obviously, the
crime itself is the worst thing. They don't
agree. Scalise spokesperson Lauren Fine told
The Washington Post that the words were added
on to the end of Barkan's question for clarity
in the video.
I often make things up to add clarity. Fine
said such edits are common practice in such
videos for television and social media. Are
they? I have no doubt that you lie a lot.
It's important to get the essence of a longer
exchange into a short clip. Think about that,
for clarity, to get the essence, they add
fake words to make you falsely believe that
Joe Biden holds a position that he 100% doesn't
and has multiple times explicitly said that
he doesn't.
I've heard the tapes and I don't think Steve
Scalise had edited them yet. I think Joe Biden
is actually against defunding the police.
I wish that he wasn't, but that's the candidate
we've got. So to get to the essence and for
clarity, they lied about a disabled activist's
words to lie about a candidate's position.
>> Yep, yep. This is like the fortune cookie
add the in bed to every fortune. You can't
just do that. You're trying to make that like
an actual political policy. You can't just
add defund the police after everything to
spin it.
>> That's pretty good.
>> This is the thing, though, with Biden and
defund the police.
You mean the architect of the crime bill wants
to defend the police? I don't think so, with
the top cop as Vice President. I don't think
so. Now, I absolutely think that the Republicans
are right. And I think the Democrats and the
progressives need to understand that yes,
I think Biden and Harris in office will be
pressured and do see the writing on the wall
when it comes to doing something very concretely.
Not just middling reforms, but to reign in
the police in this country and to actually
begin to address the racism that we have in
the policing system. And both of them I think
know that and they know that their records
don't speak well on that. But to think that
they are for defunding the police.
I mean, like like John said, if only, but
like redirecting funds we can go there, that
is the first step, right? We start to redirect
the funds. And but again, Biden's not with
that. Biden's not down with the movement for
Black Lives, I wish he was.
>> I wish he was in the pocket.
>> But he is not.
>> Of AOC. He's not he's not. Run against
the mediocre candidate that you are actually
running against, how about that? That's a
strategy
you could probably win.
