Outrage Mounts Over Trump’s Ridicule of Reporter's Ailment

By Kathy Kiely

November 27, 2015

While most Americans are elbow-deep in Thanksgiving stuffing, Donald Trump is hip-deep in recriminations after mocking the disability of a New York Times reporter who failed to corroborate the Republican presidential candidate's claim that Muslims in New Jersey cheered the toppling of the World Trade Center.

The Times and journalists inside and outside the newspaper reacted with outrage after Politico reported Wednesday that Trump, at a South Carolina rally the day before, jerked his arms while imitating Serge Kovaleski, a journalist who suffers from arthrogryposis, a chronic condition that affects his movements. Trump is familiar with Kovaleski because Kovaleski covered the billionaire real estate mogul when he was a reporter for the New York Daily News. The story was corroborated by video from CNN.

“We're outraged that Donald Trump would ridicule the physical appearance of one of our reporters,” a spokesperson for the Times said.

“Our presidential candidates should be moral examples.”

Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation

A Thanksgiving Day statement from the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works to promote more inclusive policies for people with disabilities, condemned Trump. 

“It is unacceptable for a child to mock another child's disability on the playground, never mind a presidential candidate mocking someone's disability as part of a national political discourse,” said Jay Ruderman, the foundation president. “Our presidential candidates should be moral examples for all Americans and not disparage people with disabilities, who make up twenty percent of the American population.”

Trump repeatedly has insisted that Muslims living in Jersey City, a community overlooking Manhattan from bluffs above the Hudson River, celebrated the downing of the Twin Towers. Challenged on the claim, he cited as evidence a story that Kovaleski wrote 14 years ago while working as a reporter for the Washington Post. The story reported that “law enforcement 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.” 

But in interviews this week, Kovaleski said he and other journalists never found evidence of the “thousands and thousands” of people that Trump has claimed were celebrating the attacks.

Trump responded to the criticism with a series of tweets disparaging the New York Times and denying familiarity with the reporter. Kovaleski says otherwise. “Donald and I were on a first-name basis for years,” he told a Times colleague in a story published Thursday, saying he'd spoken to Trump in his office and at press conferences. “All in all, I would say around a dozen times, I’ve interacted with him as a reporter while I was at The Daily News.”