Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House Whip, was caught doctoring a video of a disabled man with Lou Gehrig’s disease (or ALS) in an attack that seems purely an attempt at political exploitation.

Rebecca Cokley from the Campaign for American Progress (CAP) was the one who discovered the “deep fake” in which Scalise appeared to apply a computerized voice over what Ady Barkan actually said. Barkan is a progressive activist who led the “Fed Up” campaign and has become a courageous healthcare advocate.

“This is dangerous and not ok,” tweeted Cokley, before admonishing the GOP for such a move.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1300091182081609728&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2F2020%2F08%2Frepublican-steve-scalise-caught-doctoring-video-of-a-disabled-man-with-als-to-joe-biden%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&width=550px

As the Washington Post‘s Dave Weigle pointed out, Barkan uses a voice assistance device to speak. He commented about Vice President Joe Biden’s comments about “re-directing” public safety funding to social workers and mental health experts, something police have actually requested because it typically isn’t crime-related and they aren’t trained to handle such mental health crises.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1300108126260260864&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2F2020%2F08%2Frepublican-steve-scalise-caught-doctoring-video-of-a-disabled-man-with-als-to-joe-biden%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=223fc1c4%3A1596143124634&width=550px

The real line Barkan said was, […]