Screenshot via YouTube
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is denying that he mocked a reporter with a rare musculoskeletal disorder at a campaign rally earlier this week.
Trump said in a statement today that he has “no idea who” the reporter is, making a strange comparison between pro athletes as a way of showing his alleged lack of knowledge about the reporter.
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“I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovlaski, is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence,” the statement reads. “I don’t know if he is J.J. Watt or Muhammad Ali in his prime—or somebody of less athletic or physical ability.” [all sic]
Kovaleski, who has been reporting for the Times for over a decade, has a physical disability that prevents him from having full control over his arms. At the rally on Tuesday, Trump appeared to mock the reporter as he went on a tirade about Kovaleski’s critical reporting of Trump’s claims that New Jerseyans were cheering as the Twin Towers fell on September 11.
Kovaleski had previously reported that police were investigating a claim regarding the New Jerseyans, but that it never panned out. Trump ran with this line in his campaign anyway.
In video of the incident, Trump is seen shaking his arms uncontrollably while making a stifled, mumbling sound with his voice as he recites a paraphrased line from Kovaleski’s story.
Trump also went on a Twitter rant last night about the Times following their reporting about the incident, calling them “incompetent.”
“So, since the people at the @nytimes have made all bad decisions over the last decade, why do people care what they write.” [all sic]
Trump and Kovaleski have a history that stretches back to 1987 when Kovaleski was a reporter for NY Daily News. Kovaleski often wrote pieces critical of Trump and continued the trend while a reporter for the Times.
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