Trump Denies Mocking Reporter With Physical Disability

“I took a lot of heat about a reporter”. I think you called him “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator” because he was in favor of the H-1B visas. “I would never do it”.

Trump, whose statement repeatedly criticized The Times, insisted that he “merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago”. Somebody told me yesterday, whoever he is, he did endorse me. Uhh I don’t remember.

“I went out, I made a fortune, a big fortune, a tremendous fortune….”

Those allegations were never corroborated but have persisted in online rumours in the 14 years since the attacks. In the face of mounting criticism, Trump released a lengthy statement on Thanksgiving, claiming that he had had no idea that Kovaleski was handicapped.

At a rally in SC on November 24, Trump waved his hands crookedly by his chest when discussing a 2001 news article by Serge Kovaleski that mentioned reports of Muslims celebrating the terrorist attacks that toppled the World Trade Center. The journalist suffers from arthrogryposis, a condition that hampers the movement of the joint.

Donald Trump denies mocking a New York Times reporter’s disability during a campaign speech Tuesday night, saying he’s never seen the reporter before and has no knowledge of his physical appearance. I don’t know because, as I said above, I can’t read minds. He’s going like ‘I don’t remember.

Joe Gruters, chairman of Florida’s Trump for President campaign, says more than 10,000 expected at Trump’s Saturday Rally.

The White House hopeful added that he was not familiar with who Kovaleski was. “Maybe that’s what I said”. “It’s possible, probable, that I met him somewhere along the line”. And all of that stuff, right?

But that hasn’t stopped The Donald from conveniently forgetting to know who people or organizations are when it suits him best. “I really don’t know him”.

Under fire for mocking disability, Trump claimed he couldn’t be making fun of Kovaleski’s condition because Trump didn’t know the reporter.

“The sad part about it is, it didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record”, Kovaleski said. It was frightful. And we said get him out, get him out. “Actually I don’t think it was an endorsement”.

“Nobody gives more money to Americans with – you know, the Americans with Disability Act – big act”. It said that Kovaleski spent the day with Trump inaugurating the flight. “And I’m proud of doing it”.

But what I did want to share with you was my initial reaction to seeing Trump’s mocking of the reporter.

“I don’t mock people that have problems”.

The candidate said he had no memory of Kovaleski, though the journalist covered Trump extensively between 1987 and 1993 while working for the New York Daily News.