By Zackary Nichols
Courier Staff Reporter
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is under heavy fire for his comments towards New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition.
During a speech in South Carolina, Trump appeared to mock the reporter’s physical condition.
“Now, the poor guy, you’ve got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!’ ” Trump said during an impression of Kovaleski, flailing and jerking his arms around at odd angles.
Serge Kovaleski suffers from arthrogryposis, a chronic condition that affects the movement and flexibility of his arms.
“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.
During the speech, Trump claimed to have witnessed “thousands” of Muslims cheering on top of rooftops as the World Trade Center fell on 9/11, citing a 2001 article by Kovaleski. The article noted that authorities detained several people allegedly seen celebrating the attacks. These allegations were never confirmed and Kovaleski has stated that he doesn’t remember “anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating.”
A spokeswoman for the New York Times has stated that “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.”
Trump has gone on to deny mocking the reporter’s disability.
“I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago. If Mr. Kovaleski is handicapped, I would not know because I do not know what he looks like. If I did know, I would definitely not say anything about his appearance.”
Even though Kovaleski covered Trump frequently from 1987 to 1993, for the New York Daily News, Trump claims that “Despite having one of the all-time great memories I certainly do not remember him.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Kovaleski said that Trump indeed does remember him as well as his condition. The reporter says that they were “on a first-name basis for years.”
Trump stated that “His meeting with me may have been the highlight of his career, it certainly wasn’t the highlight of mine. While I may have met him, I don’t remember it, he made no impression on me.”
Kovaleski’s colleagues have come out in support of the Reporter on social media.
“The measure of men. Know this: Serge Kovaleski, aka @sergenyt, is a journalistic rock star and one great colleague,” wrote New York Times reporter Dan Barry.
Trump slammed the New York Times during a recent statement in response to the controversy.
“They should focus on the survival of their newspaper and not on dishonest and very bad reporting about me,” he said. “The New York Times has become more and more irrelevant and rapidly becoming a total joke — sad!”
This has not been the first time Trump has been accused of mocking another person’s physical appearance. Earlier this year during an interview with NBC news, Trump lashed out against journalists Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg who referred the the presidential candidate as a “rodeo clown”
“I get called by a guy that can’t buy a pair of pants, I get called names?”
Many felt as though the comment was intentionally targeted at Krauthammer, a paraplegic. Although Krauthammer has stated that the comment was not aimed towards him, but at Goldberg.