PHOTO: Composite. Joe Corrigan/Getty Images
The nation is abuzz following allegations that Donald Trump has reportedly sexually assaulted multiple women—and he vehemently denied any allegations on Thursday. Now, reports have surfaced revealing even more reported inappropriate comments from the presidential candidate. The Daily Beast reports that Trump called actress and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Marlee Matlin, who is deaf, "retarded."
Marlee is the only deaf performer to win an Oscar for Best Actress to date.
Three former Apprentice staffers told The Daily Beast that Trump would equate Marlee's deafness with a mental disability. One recalled a time when Trump, who often took notes during scenes taking place in the show's boardroom, wrote on a piece of paper "Marlee, is she retarded??"
Another said Trump had made fun of the way Marlee's voice sounds during a break from filming.
"It actually sounded a lot like what he did [to] the New York Times guy," the source said, referring to a time when Trump mocked a disabled New York Times reporter at a rally last year. "Like, to make it seem like she was mentally not there? [It] sounded like he got a real kick out of it. It was really upsetting."
A third source said Trump had made insensitive comments to Marlee's face, and that his comments about her deafness relating to a mental disability were a regular occurrence throughout the filming of the season.
"In the boardroom, he would talk to her like she was 'special,'" the source said. "He took her deafness as a some kind of [mental] handicap."
According to the staffer, people would "just laugh this [stuff] off—it was just the culture of [the show]."
Earlier this week, former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Richard Hatch told People that he witnessed Trump make inappropriate sexual comments to women on the show, including Marlee.
"He went back and forth with Marlee," Hatch said. "No matter how she responded, no matter how politely, he would push it a step further with comments about her looks, and how she was making him feel, and about what he thought of her, and how happy he would be to do something with her."
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Source: http://www.glamour.com/story/donald-trump-reportedly-called-deaf-actress-marlee-matlin-retarded
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