After a weekend in which she faced intense criticism online, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling apologized for her tweetstorm about President Donald Trump supposedly snubbing a disabled child at an event.
The entire imbroglio began when a video of Trump started making the rounds that showed him seemingly ignoring the outstretched hands of a child in a wheelchair after giving a speech about healthcare.
The video was quickly debunked, as it was clear that prior to Trump’s speech, he spent some time with the boy.
However, the headlines made their way to Rowling, who sent a series of tweets chastising the president for what she believed was disrespecting people with disabilities, saying his behavior hit close to home.
Rowling became the focus of scorn as the debunking made its way around the web, but her tweets stayed up. Yesterday night, four days after sending them, the author finally removed them.
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
The child’s mother claimed her son was trying to show off his “newly acquired secret service patch.”