A New York Times reporter said in a new interview that Donald Trump often flatters journalists even if he doesn’t know who they are, an admission that lends credibility to Trump’s defense that he had never intended to mock another reporter’s physical disability.
In a podcast interview published on Wednesday, Times politics reporter Michael Barbaro recalled occasions where he has interviewed the Republican presidential candidate, both on the phone and in person.
“The other fascinating thing about [Trump] is how much time he will spend, sometimes inaccurately because he doesn’t really even know sometimes who you are, saying how much he’s enjoyed your coverage over the last 10 years even though you’ve covered him for five and how he loved seeing you that time, if you might have been there,” Barbaro said.
He went on to describe a time that he spoke on the phone with Trump, who had asked Barbaro about his Thanksgiving holiday, “as if we were intimates and knew each other.” He said a short time thereafter, he interviewed Trump in person and got a very different reception.
“When I went last to interview him about his use of social media, in his presence in his office, he had absolutely no idea who I was,” Barbaro said. “I’ve been a political reporter for almost a decade and he asked me if I covered technology for the New York Times, so it’s just a fascinating kind of game that goes on.”
Trump recently defended himself from claims that he mocked another Times reporter’s physical disability.
At a campaign rally last week, Trump reacted to a reporter, Serge Kovalski, who was expressed doubt about his own previous reporting on American Muslims rumored to have been seen cheering the 9/11 attacks. Trump had been citing Kowalski’s reporting to back up his own claim that he personally saw many American Muslims cheering on the attacks.
“[The story was] written by a nice reporter,” Trump said at the rally. “Now the poor guy, you gotta see this guy.”
Trump then went on to jerk his arms around and speak in a mocking tone. “‘I don’t know what I said, uh, I don’t remember.’ He’s going like, ‘I don’t remember, maybe that’s what I said.'”
It turned out that Kovaleski is afflicted with a physical disability that severely limits his arm movements. That led some in the media to suggest or insist that Trump was making light of Kovaleski’s disorder.
“Trump in this campaign has gone after African Americans, immigrants, Latinos, Asians, women, Muslims and now the disabled,” wrote Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.
In an interview on CNN this week, anchor Jake Tapper confronted Trump adviser Michael Cohen on the issue. “He said, ‘It was written by a nice reporter, you’ve got to see this guy,'” Tapper said, suggesting that Trump must remember the reporter specifically.
Cohen replied that Trump has been interviewed by “thousands” of reporters, implying that Trump would forget many of them.
Trump has denied he was making fun of the reporter’s disability and said he was only mocking his “groveling” walk-back of his own reporting. “I have no idea who this reporter, Serge [Kovalski], is, what he looks like, or his level of intelligence,” Trump said in a statement last week.
Neither the Trump campaign nor Barbaro, the Times reporter, returned a request for comment from the Washington Examiner media desk.
