J.K. Rowling has apologized “unreservedly” after receiving criticism for mischaracterizing Donald Trump’s interaction with a disabled boy in a series of tweets last week.
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
The “Harry Potter” author called Trump a “monster of narcissism” and claimed he deliberately ignored a young boy in a wheelchair as he met with “victims of Obamacare” ahead of a press conference on July 24.
Rowling fired off the series of tweets after seeing an edited clip of the encounter but, had she watched the full clip, she would have seen the president greet the three-year-old boy named Monty.
After “multiple sources” criticized the author for her tweets, including Monty’s mother, Rowling apologized for her comments, Fox News reports.
Re: my tweets about the small boy in a wheelchair whose proferred hand the president appeared to ignore in press footage, multiple /1
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017
sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction. I very clearly projected my own /2
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017
sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress /3
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017
to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly. These tweets will remain, but I will delete the previous ones on the subject. /4x
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017
“I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly,” Rowling tweeted on Monday.
The British author deleted the original tweets in which she criticized Trump for his interaction with the young boy.
