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Trump offered sensitivity training after mocking disability

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. (AFP photo)

US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s continued campaign of controversy has drawn more criticism.

An advocacy group has offered Trump sensitivity training after the Republican presidential candidate mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability.

Jay Ruderman of the Ruderman Family Foundation in Boston said on Thursday Trump should apologize to the US public and the New York Times. The newspaper expressed outrage over Trump’s mocking of its reporter.

In a speech in South Carolina on Tuesday, Trump cited a 2001 article by reporter Serge Kovaleski to defend his controversial claim that Arab Muslims in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001 in New York.

Kovaleski has a congenital condition that affects joint movement.

Trump imitated the reporter’s movements as he was challenging recollections by the reporter and many others about the 9/11 aftermath.

“Now the poor guy, you gotta see this guy: ‘Uhh, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember.’ He’s going, ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said,’ ” Trump said, flailing his arms as he imitated Kovaleski. “This was 14 years ago – they didn’t do a retraction.”

A spokeswoman for the Times said that it is "outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters."

In response, Trump wrote on his Twitter page on Wednesday night, “The failing @nytimes should be focused on good reporting and the paper’s financial survival and not with constant hits on Donald Trump!”

The Times reporter had rejected Trump’s claims that Muslims were seen “dancing in the street” after the September 11, 2001 attacks, calling them unfounded.

Trump not backing down

But Trump is not backing down from his controversial claim that “thousands of people” in Arab Muslim communities in New Jersey cheered as the Twin Towers fell on 9/11.

The leading Republican candidate told an NBC News reporter on Monday night that he has "the world’s greatest memory" and everybody knows about this, insisting that his claims were valid and flaunted the support he said he received on his Twitter page.

“He was adamant,” NBC News reporter Katy Tur told MSNBC after talking to the billionaire real estate mogul on telephone.

Trump also demanded apologies from those people who dared to doubt his recollection of the 9/11 attacks. “I want an apology,” he tweeted. "Many people have tweeted that I am right.”

Trump provoked a controversy by making repeated claims that he saw thousands of Arab Muslims in New Jersey cheering the fall of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Trump first said on Saturday that Arab people cheered on 9/11 speaking at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama.


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