Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” books, provoked a barrage of criticism on social media and beyond after accusing US President, Donald Trump of willfully ignoring Montgomery Weer, a 3-year-old boy with spina bifida who uses a wheelchair, during an event late last month at the White House.
“How stunning, and how horrible, that Trump cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the President,” wrote the author, a canny Twitter user who has adeptly fended off critics with the aplomb of a Hogwarts magic spell.
“My mother used a wheelchair. I witnessed people uncomfortable around her disability, but if they had a shred of decency they got over it,” she wrote on Twitter in comments that have since been deleted. “So, yes, that clip of Trump looking deliberately over a disabled child’s head, ignoring his outstretched hand, has touched me on the raw.”
Problem is, it appears Ms. Rowling did not check her facts. She made a false assumption based on widely circulated, but incomplete, video footage. The boy’s mother, Marjorie Kelly Weer, wrote in a post on Facebook over the weekend that Ms. Rowling had misinterpreted the situation. “If someone can please get a message to JK Rowling: Trump didn’t snub my son; Monty wasn’t even trying to shake his hand,” she wrote, adding that Monty didn’t much like shaking hands.
The raw video footage showed that Mr. Trump had crouched down to shake the boy’s hand. He appeared to have gently touched the child’s left elbow, as the boy lifted his clenched left hand.
Ms. Rowling apologised to the boy and his family, but not to Mr. Trump.“Multiple sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction,” Ms. Rowling wrote on Twitter on Monday. “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 added that she had subsequently deleted the original tweets, though screenshots of them survive online. A spokeswoman for Ms. Rowling said the author would not comment further.
A longer version of this story appeared on the New York Times
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