Trump Denies Mocking ‘Grandstanding’ NYT Reporter’s Disability

In this Nov. 13, 2015, file photo Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Sunshine Summit in Orlando, Fla. The Republican outsiders have been getting a pass on their limited grasp of foreign poli... In this Nov. 13, 2015, file photo Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Sunshine Summit in Orlando, Fla. The Republican outsiders have been getting a pass on their limited grasp of foreign policy in the presidential race. That may be ending. Republicans favored Trump even after he acknowledged not knowing the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah. And they didn’t fret over Ben Carson’s mistaken belief that the Chinese are involved in the Syrian conflict. Yet Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris have sparked an urgent focus on national security that will test the appeal of the outsiders like nothing they’ve faced so far. (AP Photo/John Raoux) MORE LESS
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Donald Trump refused to apologize Thursday for imitating and making fun of a reporter with a disability, The Washington Post reported.

In fact, Trump said he doesn’t even remember the reporter he impersonated.

During a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina earlier this week Trump tried to defend his story about seeing thousands of Muslims in New Jersey applauding the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which has no basis in fact. In the attempt, Trump read a passage from reporter Serge Kovaleski’s 2001 Washington Post story that noted police questioned a few individuals who were allegedly celebrating the attacks. Kovaleski told CNN this week that he did “not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating,” however.

Trump, in what appeared to be a very direct mockery of the reporter, flapped his arms in the air widely and said “Now, the poor guy. You’ve got to see this guy,” according to the Post.

Kovaleski, who now works at the New York Times, has arthrogryposis, a condition that reduces his arm’s range of motion. He told the Post that it “didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record.”

But Trump said he wasn’t disparaging Kovaleski at all and didn’t even remember the reporter, who wrote a lot about Trump when he worked for the New York Daily News from 1987-1993, according to the Post.

“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 said in a statement, as quoted by the newspaper. “He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a paper that is rapidly going down the tubes.”

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