J.K Rowling, author turned liberal voice, apologized on Monday for a series of tweets that falsely accused President Donald Trump of not shaking hands with a handicapped child.
The offending tweets were from Rep. Pramila Jayapal's (D., Wash.) deputy communications director, Ansel Herz. Last Friday, Herz tweeted out a misleading video, which has now been deleted, that showed Trump appearing to ignore a child in a wheelchair, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A viewing of the full video revealed that Trump had specifically sought out the child and greeted him.
The clip came from a statement on health care Trump delivered on Monday, amid the Senate's haggling over their repeal-and-replace bill for Obamacare.
"If you're disgusted by this, follow my boss: @RepJayapal. People call her ‘the anti-Trump,'" Herz wrote in a follow-up tweet [that has also been deleted.]
Rowling, the author of the popular Harry Potter series, retweeted Herz's deceptive tweet, writing, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them," a quote from Maya Angelou.
On Monday, Rowling sent out four tweets apologizing for any "distress" that she has caused the little boy or family. She did not issue any apology to Trump.
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
Rowling deleted almost all of her original tweets castigating Trump for not shaking hands with the youngster.
PolitiFact rated her original tweets "Pants on Fire"on Monday.