Serge Kovaleski Reporter Mocked by Donald Trump

Serge Kovaleski

Serge Kovaleski originally from Cape Town, South Africa is a professional, talented, successful reporter for the New York Times, who suffers from arthrogryposis a congenital disability that causes muscle weakness and severe joint contractures; Kovaleski’s joint condition was mocked by the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Myrtle Beach, SC.

“Now, the poor guy — you’ve got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!’ ” Trump said

Donald Trump berated Serge Kovaleski after wrote an article that contradicts Trump’s debunked claim that he had witnessed thousands of Muslims cheering in New Jersey as the World Trade Center in the New York 9/11 attacks; Trump said his comment was also reported by an article written in 2001 by Mr. Kovaleski then a reporter for the Washington Post about authorities questioning a number of people holding tailed-style parties on rooftops while watching the two towers collapsing.

“In Jersey City, within hours of two jetliners’ plowing into the World Trade Center, 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.”

Mr. Kovaleski said he did not recall anyone saying there were thousand or even hundred of people celebrating adding he was not the least bit surprised Trump would pull out something that low, given his record. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman said Trump was not aware of any condition and was not mocking his physical appearance in any way, but Mr. Kovaleski said he is pretty sure knows him and knows about his condition.

You see, Serge and Donald Trump’s story goes way back to the time when he was a reporter for the New York Daily News (1987 to 1993), and wrote a series of articles about Donald Trump’s tumultuous financial struggle.

Serge Kovaleski Biography

Serge Kovaleski graduated in 1979 from the Dwight School in New York, received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1984 from the College of William & Mary and studied music theory and electric bass at the Guitar Study Center. He moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1970, around 1974 he moved to New York where he lived for ten years. In 1985, he relocated to Paris, France and San Salvador, El Salvador in 1998.
Serge who speaks Spanish fluently became a Metro/ National reporter and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post in March, 1993. After leaving the Washington Post in 2006 he was hired by the New York Times as their Metro investigate reporter. He was part of the team that covered the Bronx fire that killed one adult and eight children in 2007 this story made him  a 2008 Pulitzer finalist in the breaking news category.

Serge also covered the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado and the Boston Marathon Bombings, as well as the Eliot Splitzer prostitution scandal that awarded him with a Pulitzer Prize in 2009. In 2011, he was named Sports and National investigate reporter at the NY Times who named him their culture and Arts correspondent & investigate reporter in December, 2014.

Serge F. Kovaleski (b. April 8, 1961) resides in New York with his wife Joan “Jo” Becker. Jo has been a reporter for the New York Times since 2007; she was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Award for her work on then Vice-president Dick Cheney while she worked for the Washington Post, that same year she won two Goldsmith Awards (Investigative Reporting, Political Reporting), in 2009 she won the Gerald Loeb Award for Business and Financial Journalism.

Jo Becker also worked for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire, the St. Petersburg Times in Florida and The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour.

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