Video: Is GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump mocking reporter with physical disability?
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he was not mocking a reporter with a physical disability during a speech in South Carolina Tuesday night.
Trump was at a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach. He appeared to mock the speech and arm movements of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.
Kovaleski has arthrogryposis, a chronic condition that affects his movement.
Here's what Trump said:
"Written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy, you gotta see him - 'aaahhhh, I don't know what I said, ahhhhh I don't remember.' He's going 'ahhhh, I don't remember, maybe I that's what I said.' This is 14 years ago. They didn't do a retraction."
Click on the video above to see the clip.
Trump made the original comments about Kovaleski because the reporter investigated whether Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the September 11 terror attacks. Kovaleski concluded that that those reports were unfounded.
Trump has recently been insisting that the reports were true.
Following the reports about the video above, Trump released a statement Thursday afternoon, saying the reports of him mocking the reporter are misunderstood.
"I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence. I don't know if he is J.J. Watt or Muhammad Ali in his prime -- or somebody of less athletic or physical ability," Trump said.
Trump continued on, saying that Kovalsi reported about Muslims and tailgate parties taking place in New Jersey in 2001 but has since taken that back.
"His recent statement, to me, seemed like (again without knowing what he looks like) he was groveling and searching for a way out from what he wrote many years before," Trump said.
A New York Times spokesperson told CNN that the newspaper finds the remarks to be 'outrageous.'
