On Thursday, text messages leaked showing that Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) had permanently banned a female staffer from her congressional office for failure to take a COVID-19 test. During the exchange, Porter went on to accuse the staffer of giving her COVID-19, refusing to let her retrieve her personal belongings in person while showing no care for the personal tragedy the staffer had been facing.

It was a mask-off moment for Porter, who has built quite the fan club among whiteboard-loving liberals who think cheap grand-standing during hearings is evidence of brilliance. But what made things even worse was who the staffer was.

Later, it was revealed the person Porter had treated like absolute dirt was Sash Georgiades, a Wounded Warrior Fellow who was operating as a veteran liaison inside the congresswoman’s office. According to Georgiades, after Porter chastised her and banned her from the office, the two never interacted again. But while all that was bad enough, a resurfaced video has managed to make this story even worse.

In it, Georgiades appears with Porter, with the latter proclaiming that “we need to be backing up our gratitude for veterans with action.” The problem? The video was was published two weeks after Georgiades was blamed for giving Porter COVID-19 and viciously banned from the office.

We need to be backing up our gratitude for veterans with action. I sat down with our office's Veteran and Servicemember Liaison, Sasha, to discuss some of my bipartisan projects that'll help veterans, including my bill to help veteran-owned small businesses get federal contracts. pic.twitter.com/0mpP6DoPgN

— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) July 24, 2022

When you put the timeline together, it’s pretty grotesque. Porter treated Georgiades like garbage, kicking her out of the office permanently and claiming the staffer gave her COVID-19 (something Porter couldn’t possibly know). Yet two weeks later, Porter put up a previously-filmed video, with Georgiades bragging about the congresswoman’s supposed concern and respect for veterans.

There’s something sociopathic about that, especially given Porter reportedly never reconnected with Georgiades to apologize or explain her behavior. Normal people don’t treat their employees like trash, only to use videos of them for what boils down to shameless self-promotion.

Porter apparently had no care or remorse at all about what happened, otherwise she would have at least canned the video, so as to not further exploit Georgiades. Instead, she just threw the clip out there anyway–as if she hadn’t banned the veteran from her office under ridiculous, self-serving pretenses.

Is this what all politicians in Washington are like? I certainly hope not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if most fit the bill. Still, Porter appears to be a special breed of obnoxious elitism mixed with abject mediocrity.