Donald Trump has condemned for mocking a disabled New York Times reporter during a campaign speech in SC.
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Video shows him appearing to question the credentials of Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from congenital arthrogryposis, which interferes with movement of the limbs. According to Trump, he was “showing a person groveling to take back a statement made long ago”.
Later, at a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump impersonated the reporter by saying ‘Ughh I don’t know what I said “I don’t remember”.
Trump, in an uncharacteristically lengthy statement posted on Twitter, said he does not know Kovaleski and had not meant to mock his disability. He added: “Despite having one of the all-time great memories I certainly do not remember him”. One paragraph in a post-9/11 piece Kovaleski wrote noted that there were some individuals brought in for questioning for “tailgate” style parties on 9/11 in Jersey City–a far cry from “thousands totally did it, guys”. He said he did not know how the reporter looks like nor his disability. “The New York Times has become more and more irrelevant and rapidly becoming a total joke – sad!”
Kovaleski said in an email interview with the Daily News on Thursday that he met Trump repeatedly while he was still working for the Daily News and was covering Trump’s business career in the late 1980s. “Maybe that’s what I said, ‘” Trump said at the rally. Of course, if it wasn’t Kovaleski, who was Trump mocking? And for all his troubles, Trump is demanding that The Times issue him an apology.
The gesture was more personal for Kovaleski, who religiously covered Trump while reporting for the New York Daily News from 1987 to 1993.
None of those allegations were ever substantiated and Trump’s claim that “thousands” in New Jersey celebrated the terrorist attacks has been rebutted by law enforcement and government officials. He then mimicked reporter Serge Kovaleski, the journalist who wrote the article he used as reference.
“I went out, I made a fortune, a big fortune, a tremendous fortune….”
The liberal media always seems to be after Donald Trump. “‘Ah, I don’t remember what I said!”
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It socially unacceptable to mock someone’s disability as part of the national political discourse, said Jay Ruderman from Ruderman Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities to have education and employment.
