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Comment by GabrielF00 | Hacker News Reader

Oh come on. I just watched the video again. He says "now the poor guy, you've got to see this guy" and then he starts flailing his hands around and imitating the reporter in a strange voice: "'uh uh uh I don't know what I said ah ah ah I don't remember' he goes like 'I don't remember maybe that's what I said'". I've watched plenty of Trump speeches and have not seen him use hand gestures like that, and I wouldn't associate that gesture with not remembering or hedging on something. I would definitely associate it with a disability like cerebral palsy.

It's definitely not just manufactured by taking a freeze frame. Look at the video.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/08/...

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It is completely manufactured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiUizn19p7o

Unless Ted Cruz is disabled in the same way as the reporter, this video makes a pretty good case for this just being a general Trump depiction of people who can't answer a question.

In the first video, Mr. Trump tucks in his chin, draws back his eyelids, and adopts a "retarded" tone of voice.

In the second video, Mr. Trump just moves his hands around a bit, as you say.

I had not seen the first video until now, and I am unfamiliar with the disabled reporter, but I concluded right away that he was embodying someone with a physical/mental disability -- something like Parkinson's or cerebral palsy.

If he was not, then Donald Trump has only himself to blame, for behaving in a misconstruable manner.

Except that the disabled reporter doesn't behave like Trump's mockery at all. He has no outward shaking or hand waving at all. [1] So the situation is actually worse: The Times not only falsely painted Trump as someone who mocks the disabled, they used a reporter's disability as a prop to attack Trump, AND they took advantage of a stereotype of disabled people to mislead their own readers. You can either accept the evidence that they lied and manipulated the reader, or continue to follow the narrative. Choose wisely.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baUuXQ443fA

Depends on your take. Was he re-enacting the disabled reporter? Obviously not. Was he ridiculing him in a mocking caricature? For the audience, who is mostly unexposed to the subject, it seems likely.

Such exaggerated mimicry is a regular occurrence in American secondary schools. I saw his exact performance targeted at the "special" kids, some of whom were quite normal, many times in my youth. If Mr. Trump was raised in America, he would know not to use those kinds of expressions.

> You can either accept the evidence that they lied and manipulated the reader, or continue to follow the narrative. Choose wisely.

No, those are not the only narratives. Here's a third: Donald Trump, regardless of his intentions, briefly acted the part of the fool. The media, acting in their own self-interests, covered the story -- with dramatic embellishment -- which had practically been handed to them. Either way, it's his own damn fault.

This is quite interesting. I actually thought that Trump mocked the disability of the reporter before, but looking at this video it seems like it was unintentional. I don't know why you are being downvoted this much, since it's a valid point.

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