Former Congressman Chaffetz Hits New Low by Shaming a Homeless NYC Resident on Instagram

Jason Chaffetz may be only a month into his new career as a Fox News contributor, but he's already back to his old talking points — albeit with even less pretense and tact. The former congressman from Utah was slammed earlier this year after he told the press that the Obamacare replacement plan would simply encourage low-income families to make a decision between buying health care and buying iPhones. The condescending, uninformed comment did not go over well.

"Americans have choices, and they've gotta make a choice," Chaffetz said, "And so maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They've gotta make those decisions themselves." The statement would later require a walkback, but it should go without saying that people spending irresponsibly on expensive gadgets instead of their health is not the problem; only 25 percent of Americans have an iPhone at all, and the majority of those who do are more affluent.

Seemingly having not learned his lesson, Chaffetz took his war on the poor and iPhones to the next level on July 24.

After a morning appearance on Fox & Friends in which he suggested that an investigation into Donald Trump's kids should, logically, lead to an investigation into Chelsea Clinton, Chaffetz headed over to Instagram. There, he attempted to Insta-shame an NYC homeless man by posting a photo of the individual watching a video on a phone while camped out on the sidewalk. Chaffetz added the caption: "NYC Times Sq 6:53am streaming video on a phone." Despite the fact that this is an issue the congressman put forth — and completely got shut down on! — earlier this year, he's still harping on the connections between smartphones and poverty . . . connections which unequivocally do not exist.

The only upside of this totally grotesque day in the life a former House representative? Jason Chaffetz thankfully no longer possesses the power to govern.