Trump, who has contrinued to enjoy popularity despite a series of recent controversies, responded to the criticism in a tweet addressing the New York Times, who also branded Trumps behaviour “outrageous”.
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So we’re completely unsurprised that he reached new lows this week as he desperately struggled to keep his much-debunked NJ 9/11 cheering story alive, stooping to making fun of a NY Times reporter with a disability during a rally in SC.
The Ruderman Family Foundation says Kovaleski has a congenital condition affecting joint movement.
The Times expressed outrage afterward that Trump would “ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters”.
In 2001, Kovaleski, then with The Washington Post, and another Post journalist wrote a week after the 9/11 attacks about authorities in New Jersey detaining and questioning “a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks”.
Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks declined to comment on the record about the incident.
But those claims have been refuted by numerous New Jersey and NY officials – as well as the author of the article. Trump has recently been insisting that the reports were true. “Maybe that’s what I said'”.
Mr Kovaleski covered Donald Trump while reporting for the New York Daily News between 1987 and 1993. Numerous credible sources have patiently debunked Trump’s eyewitness claims, including Kovaleski himself, who told the Washington Post, “I certainly do not remember anyone saying that thousands or even hundreds of people were celebrating”.
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A spokesman for Mr Trump’s campaign said he was “not aware of any condition and was not mocking his physical appearance in any way”. In a speech Tuesday in South Carolina, Trump said: “poor guy, you oughta see this guy”, and gestured in a jerky fashion as if imitating Kovaleski’s movements. “He’s going like, I don’t remember”. One of his targets has been Fox host Megyn Kelly who angered Trump with her questions during the first GOP debate on Fox.
