NOVEMBER 30, 2015
I am so sick of writing about this man, but he keeps pushing the boundaries of human decency, and in a Presidential candidate, that remarkable fact cannot be ignored.
You may have heard that on Tuesday, Donald Trump made a snide mention of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital condition called arthrogryposis, which weakens and limits movement around the joints and has caused Kovaleski’s right hand to shrivel up near his breast. His disability has certainly not stopped the reporter, whose rising career has brought him to the Washington Post and now to the Times.
At a rally in South Carolina, Trump began by saying that Kovaleski is “a nice reporter,” before lowering the boom, observing “this poor guy, you gotta see this guy” as Trump wildly flails his arms. This is the demeanor of a candidate for President? But you have to understand that this is not a case of Trump waking up that morning and, looking over the list of the many races and ethnicities he has offended, he realized that he forgot to insult the disabled. No, as usual with Donald Trump, his outburst was about only one thing — payback.
This goes back a few days earlier when, you may remember, Trump made the remarkable assertion that on 9/11, “thousands and thousands” of Muslim residents of Jersey City, NJ were seen cheering as the World Trade Towers fell. As proof, he claimed that he saw it on television and that it was very “well covered” in the press. OK, easy to check. However, it seems that no television network or local station surveyed had any evidence on tape that this event had ever happened, which makes it questionable that it ever aired on television.
When Trump was called out on his story, his supporters dug up a 2001 article in the Washington Post written by — ta da! — Serge Kovaleski that stated 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.” “See?,” Trump supporters cheered, as they claimed that this was “proof positive!” that Trump was once again right.
The only problem was when Kovaleski was tracked down at the New York Times for a comment, he simply said that he did not recall “anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating.”
Faced with the fact that Kovaleski dared to contradict his alibi and that the GOP front-runner faced criticism from all quarters accusing him of mocking the disabled, Trump not only denied that he was making fun of Kovaleski’s condition but unequivocally stated that he had no idea of who Kovaleski was. “Someone at the financially failing and totally biased New York Times said that, over the years, I have met Mr. Kovaleski,” said Trump. “Despite having one of the world’s all-time great memories, I certainly do not remember him.”
Only, according to the reporter, he does. Kovaleski says that he was on a first-name basis with Trump for years, having interviewed Trump in his office and at press conferences in the late 1980s. “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,” Kovaleski added.
If, as he claims, Kovaleski has the evidence that the billionaire is very familiar with him, Trump, who in his mockery accurately described the disability of a man he claimed not to remember, either does not have “one of the world’s all-time great memories” or is a liar. If it’s the latter, this would not be the first time that Trump has lied in this campaign, nor will it likely be the last. But it is the cruelest. So far.
