Media mogul and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has denied claims that he mocked a disabled journalist.
Earlier this week Trump came under fire for flailing his arms while referring to an article about the 9/11 attacks by Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition.
The politician, making his first statement on the matter, insisted he did not know what the reporter looked like. He tweeted that he simply was "showing a person grovelling to take back a statement made long ago".
Kovaleski, of the New York Times, has a condition known as arthrogryposis, which affects the movement of his arms.
During a rally in South Carolina on Tuesday, Trump appeared to imitate his disability as he put on a slurred voice and mimicked the reporter: "Argh I don't know what I said, argh I don't remember".
The Republican was discussing an article the reporter wrote after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and accused Kovaleski of backing down from his own story.
Previously Trump had used the article to back up his own widely disputed claims that "thousands" of Muslims celebrated the attacks in the US.
The article stated: “lawmakers detained and questioned a number of people” who were seen celebrating the terror attacks.
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The journalist told CNN this week a lot of that reporting has “faded from memory” but that he doesn’t recall thousands or even hundreds of people celebrating after the attacks.
After the apparent imitation of Kovaleski, the New York Times hit out at Trump. A spokesperson told Politico: “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.”