Steve Scalise removes video accusing Biden of wanting to defund police after backlash over alleged manipulation

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Rep. Steve Scalise on Sunday removed a video he had posted on Twitter of an edited interview between Joe Biden and a disabled liberal activist after backlash that the clip was "doctored" to portray the Democratic presidential nominee as supporting the defunding of police.

Scalise's video was initially marked as doctored by Twitter before it was removed.

The activist, Ady Barkan, Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., all condemned Scalise, R-La., over the video on Sunday. The controversy is the latest episode in the ongoing debate over whether Biden supports defunding police, despite the insistence of his campaign and Democratic Party spokespeople that he does not.

"These are not my words. I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts," Barkan, who has ALS and speaks through computerized voice assistance, tweeted in reaction to the video on Sunday night. "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."

BIDEN SAYS SOME FUNDING SHOULD 'ABSOLUTELY' BE REDIRECTED FROM POLICE

Biden answered, "yes, absolutely" to a question from Barkan about whether "we can redirect some of the funding" to police during an early July interview. That exchange has been held up as proof by the Trump campaign and Republicans that Biden does want to defund police -- they equate redirecting funding from police departments, presumably decreasing the police budgets, with defunding police.

A short clip of the interview posted by Scalise edited Barkan's voice to add the words "for police" to the end of Barkan's question asking Biden whether "we can redirect some of the funding," despite the fact that Barkan did not say "for police" at the end of the question. The context of the original exchange made clear that Barkan was talking about redirecting police funding, but the edit drew strong criticism nevertheless.

"This video is doctored — and a flagrant attempt to spread misinformation at the expense of a man who uses assistive technology," Biden tweeted. "It should be removed. Now."

DNC SPOKESPERSON INSISTS BIDEN 'DOES NOT SUPPORT DEFUNDING THE POLICE' AFTER LAW ENFORCEMENT GROUP BACKS TRUMP

Added Pelosi: "@SteveScalise tried to steal @AdyBarkan’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."

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 that was cut from a longer interview. Fine said such edits are "common practice" in such videos for television and social media, where it's important to get "the essence" of a longer exchange into a short clip.

"We believe Biden’s position and answer is clear regardless," Fine said. "When asked twice, he says ‘yes’ he is open to redirecting funding away from the police, and that is clear in our video."

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Biden's comment in the interview with Barkan was not an embrace of full defunding of police departments or eliminating police, as Trump allies have framed it. And the Biden campaign and Democrats have repeatedly denied that Biden wants to defund police.

"Let me be very clear about this," Democratic National Committee communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said in July on "Bill Hemmer Reports" in reaction to the Barkan interview. "Joe Biden does not support defunding the police. And specifically, what he is saying is [that] he wants to make sure that police departments have the tools that they need in order to do their jobs."

But Democrats have still not provided a full explanation of why redirecting funding from police to other programs, as Biden says "yes, absolutely" to in his conversation with Barkan, is not the same as partially defunding police, a point that Scalise made on Sunday.

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"Twice in one interview Biden says 'yes' & 'yes absolutely' to questions about 'redirecting' police funding," Scalise tweeted in a post that included the full, unedited interview with Biden and Barkan. "Dems & their partners in the media want to blame “editing” to pretend this isn’t exactly what he believes."

Scalise did eventually take down the shorter clip as Barkan asked, though he continued to maintain that it was not deceptively edited and that Biden's answers to the activist's questions were the equivalent of supporting the defunding of police.

"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," the congressman said.

Fox News' Morgan Phillips and Yael Halon contributed to this report.