The New York Times released a strongly worded statement after Trump’s comments about Kovaleski, saying, “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters”.
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Trump appeared to imitate Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis – a congenital condition that affects joint movement – during a speech to his supporters on Tuesday night.
“I do not know the reporter for the @nytimes, or what he looks like”. You ought to see the guy: ‘Err, I don’t know what I said.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump began receiving some harsh criticism after video of him mocking disabled journalist Serge Kovalevski surfaced on the internet.
According to the Washington Post, Trump cites an article written by Kovaleski proves his claims.
Trump was widely criticized for his gestures, but said he didn’t know what Kovaleski looked like.
During his campaign rally, Trump clarifies his previous controversial statement that says thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrated 9/11 attack.
Trump said Friday evening that he has met “thousands of reporters over my life time”. Only Rosie o’donnell. Oh, I don’t know what I said. None of those accusations or reports turned out to be true, and Kovaleski said so in a New York Times interview.
He also accused Kovaleski of “using his disability to grandstand”.
“If he catches on, I guess we’ll have to go to war”, Trump has admitted in a CNBC interview, the New York Times noted. Kovaleski was a Washington Post correspondent then.
In a different statement, Trump demanded an apology from the newspaper. He claims to have known nothing about him other than him having great respect for the way he wrote the story, on September 18, 2001, and in particular the section that talked about Muslims and tailgate parties taking place in New Jersey. “He’s going, ‘I don’t remember. And there was a big presser in NY, of course – all of which I covered”, he said of the shuttle launch day back in 1989.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the mocking incident, a Boston-based advocacy group offered sensitivity training to the Republican presidential candidate on Thursday.
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“It is unacceptable for a child to mock another child’s disability on the playground, never mind a presidential candidate mocking someone’s disability as part of a national political discourse”, said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, an advocate for disability inclusion.
