This is the moment Donald Trump mocked a disabled journalist

DONALD Trump is back in damage-control mode over an infamous incident Meryl Streep raised during her Globes speech.

DONALD Trump has fired back at Meryl Streep after she denounced him during a speech at the Golden Globes.

The actress ripped into the President-elect over his mockery of a journalist’s physical disability during a campaign rally in late 2015 — an allegation Mr Trump has systematically denied.

“There was one performance this year that stunned me,” said Streep. “It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back.”

Mr Trump denied the incident on Twitter, saying he was actually “showing (the journalist) ‘groveling’ when he totally changed a 16-year-old story that he had written in order to make (Trump) look bad.”

Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him.......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

"groveling" when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

But what actually happened that day?

During a campaign rally in South Carolina in November 2015, Mr Trump made a reference to reporter Serge Kovaleski.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter suffers from arthrogryposis, a condition which affects his arm movement.

The journalist had previously disputed a 9/11 conspiracy theory put forth by Mr Trump. In response, he held his arm in a claw-like position while addressing the rally.

“Now the poor guy. You ought to see the guy: ‘Err, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember,’” Trump said, waving his arms around.

“He’s going: ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.’”

The whole thing lasted just a few seconds, but it sparked global outrage, with accusations Mr Trump was impersonating and making fun of the reporter’s disability.

Kovaleski said Mr Trump’s antics did not surprise him.

“The sad part about it is, it didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record,” he told the Washington Post.

The New York Times rebuked Mr Trump in a statement, saying: “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly been forced to deny the campaign ever since.

In the immediate aftermath, he tweeted that he was “showing a person groveling”.

I do not know the reporter for the @nytimes, or what he looks like. I was showing a person groveling to take back a statement made long ago!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2015

Likewise when his opponent Hillary Clinton released a campaign ad alluding to the incident, Mr Trump posted a fresh tweet denying what happened.

Clinton made a false ad about me where I was imitating a reporter GROVELING after he changed his story. I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

But the incident was never forgotten.

During the third presidential debate in Las Vegas, Ms Clinton said: “He also went after a disabled reporter, mocked and mimicked him on national television.”

“Wrong,” Mr Trump interrupted.

Following Streep’s speech, the President-elect has once again been forced to defend himself.

“I was never mocking anyone,” Trump told the Times yesterday. “I was calling into question a reporter who had gotten nervous because he had changed his story. People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter’s disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing.”

Likewise, his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway has gone into damage-control mode.

“You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this, and he’s telling you what was in his heart?” she asked CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

But Cuomo wasn’t buying it.

“It’s a gesture that he’s making on video,” he replied. “Everyone can see it.”

Watch the video above and judge for yourself.