“Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy”, Trump said, before jerking his arms in apparent imitation of Kovaleski’s arthrogryposis, a condition that impairs joint function.
Advertisement
During his campaign rally, Trump clarifies his previous controversial statement that says thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrated 9/11 attack.
Trump challenged Kovaleski and others on their recollection of their post-9/11 reporting.
In an interview for the Times, Kovaleski said he was certain Trump remembers him from his days covering the real estate developer for the New York Daily News in the 1980s.
Trump cites the story as proof of his claim.
Since entering the Republican presidential race Donald Trump has been insulting our intelligence, shouting a seemingly endless string of exaggerations, misstatements, fantasies and fabrications that reporters have a hard time keeping up with.
On Thursday, Trump posted a statement on his Twitter account saying “I have no idea” who Kovaleski is and claiming to have “one of the all-time great memories”.
Serge Kovaleski, now a New York Times reporter, said he closely covered Trump’s launch of an airline in 1989.
In South Carolina, Trump took issue with subsequent comments made by Kovaleski on CNN that he couldn’t remember all of the details of his reporting from that time but that he didn’t remember large numbers of people celebrating.
Daily Beast reporter Gideon Resnick has started a petition calling for Trump to personally apologize to Kovaleski. “‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I’ve talked to him at press conferences”, he added. “All in all, I would say around a dozen times, I’ve interacted with him as a reporter…”
“Somebody at the financially failing and totally biased New York Times said that, over the years, I have met Mr. Kovaleski”.
“I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago”, Trump wrote.
If there’s one thing you can say for Trump it’s that he never, ever backs down, which will either make him an excellent president or the reason America falls and is reborn as the twelve districts forced to participate in The Hunger Games.
Ruderman said Trump would benefit from a “series of sensitivity training sessions” and offered to provide them.
Advertisement
He also accused the reporter of “using his disability to grandstand”.
