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Adam Parkhomenko posted a CBS News video snippet that captured Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tripping and falling as he takes the stage.
A bout with polio paralyzed McConnell’s left leg as a child. He was unable to walk until he was five. He credits his recovery to his mother’s devotion to his extensive physical therapy.
Parkhomenko is a seasoned Hillary Clinton aide and supporter of Michael Avenatti’s ill-fated presidential bid. He has more than a quarter of a million followers on Twitter.
The Democratic operative recently offered advice to the “Draft Beto” team based on his experience founding the “Ready for Hillary” campaign, according to The Atlantic.
Despite urging from people on both sides of the aisle, rather than apologizing for the reprehensible, ableist jab, Parkhomenko doubled and tripled down.
CNN National Security and Legal Analyst Susan Hennessey gently reminded Parkhomenko that McConnell’s physical challenges stemmed from a childhood battle with polio. She called the remark “cruel and unnecessary” and urged him to delete the post.
Parkhomenko offered to remove the post if McConnell “stops trying to take away coverage from those with pre-existing conditions or. . . in general.”
“Maybe he fell because it’s hard to walk with your head in his ass,” he told Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra, adding a taunt about Saavedra’s occupational choices.
CNN political reporter Daniella Diaz made a similar remark in the fall of 2017, as Fox News reported. Diaz appeared to mock an image depicting a “hand-lock” between McConnell and President Trump in a since-deleted tweet. President Trump was assisting McConnell on the stairs to the White House at the time.
Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) had some choice words for Parkhomenko on Thursday night.
Roy shared that his own father was a polio survivor who struggled to walk, but soldiered on in his life and his vocation without complaint or calls for sympathy.
“What kind of human being does this?” Roy asked in a quartet of tweeted responses.
“You the same type of Democrat who doesn’t give two craps that migrants are being abused on the journey through Mexico right now while you play politics?” he continued.
“. . . any human being that would post this, and not by now see fit to delete it. . . well, it speaks for itself,” Roy concluded.
Like Roy, other Twitter users were quick to let Parkhomenko know how they felt about him mocking polio survivors. Here’s a sampling:
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