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.
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The New York Times, where Kovaleski works now, blasted Trump’s attack on the reporter. “I don’t remember!'” Trump said as he flailed his arms in front of his body and distorted his speech.
But on Saturday, Trump refused to apologize for his comments and his mocking impersonation: “I was very expressive in saying it. I don’t take that back because the person was groveling in terms – if you read his statement about well, did you say this and did you write this paragraph”.
“I would definitely not say anything about his appearance”, Trump wrote”.
Kovaleski, in interviews since Trump made his claim, has said his reporting did not bear out the “thousands” number, or even “hundreds”.
Now, Trump has tried to explain via Twitter he “didn’t know” that the reporter suffered from the condition, and was therefore not impersonating him.
“Trump and the guy who was running the Trump Shuttle for him… called me the day the story ran and Trump started screaming over the speaker phone about what a piece of sh- the story was”, Kovaleski said. The New York Times earlier in the week issued a statement condemning Trump, while the mogul maintains it’s the news outlet that should be saying sorry.
“Serge Kovaleski must think a lot of himself if he thinks I remember him from decades ago – if I ever met him at all, which I doubt I did”, Trump added. In a statement he accused the reporter of using his disability to “grandstand”.
Duke even gets cited in Trump’s 2000 campaign book, The America We Deserve. So when Trump began touting the Post article as proof of his claim, Kovaleski felt compelled to clarify his story. Since Mr. Kovaleski’s credibility is rock-solid – he is one of the most highly respected journalists of his generation – Mr. Trump could only respond with his usual juvenile playground taunts. Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey were seen celebrating the attacks. Kovaleski’s story referred to Federal Bureau of Investigation probes of the alleged celebrations, but quoted no witnesses and contained no specific evidence that celebrations occurred.
Trump: Well I think if I will oftentimes, and I don’t call it a lie, I call it a fib, if somebody is not looking good, I never would say that. “Perhaps that is 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. “I don’t remember.’ He’s going like, ‘Uhhh I don’t remember'”.
