Trump blasted for mocking reporter with disability

“I don’t remember”, he said, waving his arms around, he hand held in a claw-like position.

A spokesman for Trump’s campaign said he was “not aware of any condition and was not mocking his physical appearance in any way”.

Trump also made unsubstantiated claims in his speech that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey were seen celebrating the attack.

A Thanksgiving Day statement from the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works to promote more inclusive policies for people with disabilities, condemned Trump. Now the poor guy, you gotta see him – ‘aaahhhh, I don’t know what I said, ahhhhh I don’t remember.’ He’s going ‘ahhhh, I don’t remember, maybe I that’s what I said.’ This is 14 years ago.

Kovaleski hit back at Trump, too.

Trump was defending his widely discredited claims that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11.

“We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters”, a Times spokeswoman said.

Trump’s presidential campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “I don’t know if he’s J.J. Watt or Muhammad Ali in his prime – or somebody of less athletic or physical ability”.

“To bolster his claim he used a report in the Washington Post [written by Kovaleski, who worked for the newspaper at the time] that did say police were investigating allegations of celebrations in New Jersey on that day”, Rattansi said. However, Mr Kovaleski has said he wrote of “a number of people… allegedly” celebrating, but that he had no idea where Mr Trump got the number in the thousands. Trump called Kovaleski “a nice reporter” but then chides him for saying he couldn’t recall anyone celebrating.

“If Mr Kovaleski is handicapped”, he added, “I would not know because I do not know what he looks like”.

Trump has been using the September 18, 2001 report co-written by Serge Kovaleski to prove his case this week – even though the investigations mentioned in the report never appeared to lead to any evidence. One of his targets has been Fox host Megyn Kelly who angered Trump with her questions during the first GOP debate on Fox.

While flailing his arms, Mr Trump appeared to imitate his disability during his address.