DONALD Trump has sparked outrage by mocking a disabled reporter during a party
rally.
The Republican nominee hopeful was slammed for performing an impression of New
York Times journalist Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a joint condition.
Trump flailed his arms around and imitated the reporter’s voice before
describing Kovaleski as “the poor guy”.
Speaking to a rally in South Carolina, he said: “You gotta see this guy.
He’s going like ‘I don’t remember.
“Maybe that’s what I said.”
Trump was branded “outrageous” by the New York Times following his
imitation of the reporter who suffers from arthrogryposis – a condition that
causes joints to seize up.
A spokeswoman for the paper said: “We think it’s outrageous that he would
ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.”
But Kovaleski said he was not surprised by Trump’s action.
He said: “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.”
The row erupted after Trump quoted an article written by Kovaleski in 2001,
which he said claimed that thousands of Muslims ‘celebrated’ the 9/11 terror
attacks.
But Kovaleski said the billionaire businessman’s claims were wrong – and said
he did not remember anyone saying “there were thousands, or even
hundreds, of people celebrating”.