House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) is facing backlash from his Democratic colleagues after sharing a video that appears to have doctored audio altering the dialogue of an interview between Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and activist Ady Barkan.
On Sunday evening, Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took to Twitter to share their disapproval of the video as they called for the video to be taken down.
Pelosi tweeted, “[Steve Scalise] tried to steal [Ady Barkan’s] health care with more than 60 votes to repeal or undermine Americans’ health care. Now, he’s trying to steal Ady’s words by lying. Congressman Scalise must take his doctored video down and apologize immediately.”
Twitter also previously flagged the since-deleted video shared by Scalise as “manipulated.”
.@SteveScalise tried to steal @AdyBarkan’s health care with more than 60 votes to repeal or undermine Americans’ health care.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) August 30, 2020
Now, he’s trying to steal Ady’s words by lying.
Congressman Scalise must take his doctored video down and apologize immediately. https://t.co/sWlufPsazf
Biden also echoed similar sentiments, tweeting, “This video is doctored — and a flagrant attempt to spread misinformation at the expense of a man who uses assistive technology. It should be removed. Now.”
Additionally, Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said the video was a “deep fake.”
This video is doctored — and a flagrant attempt to spread misinformation at the expense of a man who uses assistive technology.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 30, 2020
It should be removed. Now. https://t.co/Bnv5H2NhZT
Biden and Pelosi’s tweets came shortly after Barkan called out Scalise for altering his words.
The since-deleted clip reportedly contained an excerpt from an interview between Barkan — who uses an artificial computerized voice due to having ALS — and Biden.
In the original clip, Barkan asked Biden if he could “agree that we can redirect some of the funding” from law enforcement agencies to programs that focus on mental health and social services, according to The Hill.
However, Scalise’s clip reportedly contained doctored footage that added the words “for police.”
Shortly after Pelosi and Biden tweeted their disapproval, Scalise took to Twitter claiming Biden “clearly said ‘yes,’ twice, to the question of his support to redirect money away from police.”
Scalise tweet did not address the actual accusation, but he did honor the request of removing the portion from the video.
While Joe Biden clearly said “yes,” twice, to the question of his support to redirect money away from police, we will honor the request of @AdyBarkan and remove the portion of his interview from our video.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) August 31, 2020
Scalise spokeswoman Lauren Fine said in a statement that the video was “condensed … to the essence of what he was asking, as is common practice for clips run on TV and social media, no matter the speaker,” according to The Washington Post.
Fine added, “We paired the police portion with Barkan’s final question for clarity because we couldn’t include an entire 3-minute clip in a one minute montage. We believe Biden’s position and answer is clear regardless: When asked twice, he says ‘yes’ he is open to redirecting funding away from the police, and that is clear in our video.”
