Just a few days ago on August 30th, Steve Scalise tweeted out one of the most offensive things I have ever had the displeasure to lay eyes on.

For those of you who are not aware, Scalise is currently serving in Congress as the House Minority Whip representing the first district of Louisiana. He is a vocal supporter of President Trump, as well as a subscriber to the Trumpian idea that the truth is something that can be manipulated without consequence.

Scalise reinforced his devotion to this ideology just days ago when he tweeted out a doctored video of an exchange between Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden and outspoken lawyer and social justice activist Ady Barkan.

You may know Ady Barkan because he has been vocal about his desires to see the US adopt a system of national healthcare following a diagnosis of ALS which has left him paralyzed and unable to speak. Recently, Ady has done interviews with prospective candidates in which he discusses their plans for healthcare and other policy issues. In order to be able to do these interviews and to communicate in his everyday life, Barkan uses assistive technology meaning he speaks with a computer. That's where Steve Scalise comes in.

In a now deleted tweet, Scalise posted a video containing a clip of Ady Barkan asking Joe Biden if he had plans to "defund the police" to which Biden responded "yes". The thing is, Barkan never asked that question. In the original unedited interview, Barkan asked Joe about "reallocating funding" which is entirely different from the narrative of police abolition that Scalise and the GOP were trying to pursue by releasing their doctored version of the video interview to the public.

Scalise took advantage of Ady's inability to speak and dubbed over a different audio clip of a computerized voice to change the question Ady asked with the intention of making it look like Joe Biden supports totally defunding the police. Barkan never asked that question and Biden never answered saying he wants to defund the police. In fact, you can watch the interview clip in this article where Biden says the exact opposite.

The reason why this is so offensive is not just because Scalise took it upon himself to change the words of an interview to push a lie about Joe Biden. As I already said at the start of this article, Republicans like Scalise have made such a practice of distorting the truth for political gain, it's practically party platform. If you're not used to it by now, I suggest you do your best to become accustomed to the fact that lying to and misleading people is now commonplace for the GOP. It is no longer something that people are surprised or offended by, but rather something that the public has come to expect on a daily basis from Republican leadership at all levels.

The reason why Scalise's actions this week were so offensive, and why you should be outraged regardless of your own party affiliation is because Steve Scalise has concluded that it is acceptable for him to use someone else's inability to speak as some sort of political tool against his opponents. To take advantage of someone with a disability is an action that can only be described as the lowest of the low. But to take advantage of someone with a disability in order to distort their words to perpetuate a lie is on another level of assholery. To make matters even worse, Scalise has yet to apologize to Barkan for intentionally distorting his words, and unfortunately I don't think anyone should expect an apology from him anytime soon. Scalise's choice to tweet this doctored video was not just disrespectful to Ady Barkan, but to the entire community of people who use assistive technology to communicate. It's a slap in the face to the entire disability community as Scalise demonstrates that their voices are ones to be altered for political gain rather than ones to be valued and listened to for what they actually have to say.

The larger problem at hand here, is that in past elections this type of campaigning would be seen as unacceptable yet today, it doesn't even come across as a blip on the radar. Why is that? Maybe the more prudent question to be asked is where do you think Steve Scalise learned that disrespecting people with disabilities is acceptable? Where did he get the idea that doctoring videos and using them to lie to the public is appropriate behavior? And who taught Steve Scalise that these disgusting and shameful actions do not merit an apology?

No one but Donald Trump is to blame for spreading these distinctly Trumpian ideologies and practices across all levels of government. However, the fact that Steve Scalise and others like him not only embrace such disgusting behavior but even go so far as to practice it themselves makes the case for a big blue wave this November all the stronger.