By Ben Kamisar
Getty Images
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has a request for Donald Trump
Donald TrumpLatino House Dem mockingly tweets photo of 'cultural dominance' at taco truck Polls show tight races in Iowa, Virginia Trump hasn't paid many of his top staffers MORE: more attacks on the media.
“The one thing Trump could do more is more direct attacks on the media," Coulter told The Hill in an interview Friday.
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Coulter's main sticking point is accusations that Republican presidential nominee mocked disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski during a speech last year. Trump flailed his arms in different directions as he pretended to be Kovaleski claiming he didn’t remember something.
The incident has become a frequent attack line for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham ClintonSpokesman: If elected, Clinton will hold press conferences Clinton hazy on server details in FBI interview, notes show Polls show tight races in Iowa, Virginia MORE, and a pro-Clinton super-PAC featured it in a TV ad.
"I think one of the most devastating attacks about Trump was his alleged mocking of the disabled reporter, which I didn't believe at the time for a few reasons,” she said.
“He's not a stupid man. Would anyone running for office mock a disabled reporter?"
The conservative pundit pointed to her recent column from Wednesday that argues that Trump has used flailing arm gestures in the past, like those he used while speaking about Kovaleski, to make fun of someone who is flustered.
She said Trump’s imitation was solely about Kovaleski being flustered, not about his medical condition that limits the movement of his arms. Trump himself has also argued this.
"It's a deliberate lie, and it is the one deliberate lie that hurts Trump the most," Coulter said.
"If it were true, that goes across party lines. It seems to show a meanness. So to discover that that is not a lie, the media knew it was a lie because in the exact same speech he does the same imitation for a general.”
Democrats have repeatedly balked at the explanation, noting that Kovaleski had interviewed Trump regularly while working in New York and that his gestures were significantly more spastic than in his other impressions.