SCRANTON -- That Golden Globes speech by actress Meryl Streep called out Donald Trump for the way he supposedly mocked a reporter for a disability while on the campaign trail and it has advocates for the disabled speaking out.
It didn't take long for President-elect Trump to fire back at Streep saying he didn't mock the reporter who has a disability and that he would never do that.
The speech and Trump's response have one advocate for the disabled concerned for the cause.
"Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy. 'I don't know what I said. I don't remember!' He's going, 'I don't remember,'" said candidate Trump back in November 2015, talking about a New York Times reporter, one with a condition that limits the movement of his joints.
"There was nothing good about it, but it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. 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. It kind of broke my heart, and I saw it, and I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate when it's modeled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing," said Meryl Streep, as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes Sunday night.
Keith Williams can relate to that reporter. He has the same condition and works at the Center for Independent Living in Scranton, helping others with disabilities.
"I’m glad Meryl Streep did make the comments that she said at the awards show. You’re right, Jim. It is bullying, the comments that were expressed about people with disabilities," said Williams.
Williams was taken aback when Trump first acted this way back in 2015. And now, he is even more concerned what a Trump presidency means if even a portion of the country doesn't question anything he says.
"There will be millions of people across the country who saw the mocking, who will hear this degradation against people with disabilities and take that as gospel. In turn, they will take that as an OK, that it’s OK to make fun of people with disabilities and bully people with disabilities," he added.
Trump responded on Twitter, "For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter but showed him '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!"