While most Americans are elbow-deep in Thanksgiving stuffing, Donald Trump is hip-deep in recriminations after mocking the disability of a New York Times reporter who failed to corroborate the Republican presidential candidate’s claim that Muslims in New Jersey cheered the toppling of the World Trade Center.
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Kovaleski told MSNBC on Monday that he did “not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating”. Maybe that’s what I said, ‘ ” Trump said.
Speaking while flailing and twisting his arms, he ridiculed Kovaleski, who suffers arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects joint movement, over the reporter’s recollection of an article he wrote days after the attacks. In recent times, Trump has also angered reporters by requiring that journalists covering his campaign rallies be escorted to the bathroom to and from.
But a campaign official was heard saying that Trump was apparently not aware of the journalist’s condition nor was it his intention to mock Kovaleski’s appearance or disability-a point that Kovaleski was quick to refute saying that he is sure Trump remembers him.
At an event in SC on Tuesday, Trump held his arm in a claw-like position as he ripped into Kovaleski.
“Somebody at the financially failing and totally biased New York Times said that, over the years, I have met Mr Kovaleski”, Mr Trump said in a defiant statement on Thursday. “Despite having one of the all-time great memories I certainly do not remember him”.
A statement posted on his Twitter account said Trump doesn’t know the reporter personally or what he looks like and was only mocking his journalism.
Mr Trump cited a 2001 article by Mr Kovaleski, who was working for the Washington Post at the time.
Kovaleski said in an interview with The Washington Post that he isn’t even surprised that the Republican frontrunner would “do something this low-rent. I don’t remember.’ He’s going like, ‘Uhhh I don’t remember'”.
The reporter covered Mr Trump for the New York Daily News between 1987-93.
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Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey were seen celebrating the attacks.
