Donald Trump is demanding an apology from the New York Times for accusing him of mocking one of their reporters.
In a statement released Thursday evening, Trump’s campaign “demanded an apology from the failing New York Times which accused him … of mocking a reporter’s physical disability when in fact, Mr. Trump does not know anything about the reporter or anything about what the reporter looks like.
“He was merely mocking the fact that the reporter was trying to pull away from a story that he wrote 14 years ago,” the statement reads.
“Serge 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 added. “He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a paper that is rapidly going down the tubes.”
Trump referred to Kovaleski in a speech Tuesday as he defended his claim that Muslims had cheered on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In the aftermath of the attacks, Kovaleski published a report stating that “authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river.”
In an interview this week, Kovaleski said he could not recall saying there were thousands of people. Trump relayed the interview, saying, “The poor guy — you’ve got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!'” The Times took issue with the gesticulations Trump made as he spoke that appeared to imitate Kovaleski’s arthrogryposis, a condition in which muscles fail to move properly and limbs may be frozen. The Times said on Thursday that it was “outrageous” for Trump to “ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.”
Trump currently is ranked first in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings.
