Donald Trump Allegedly Called Deaf ‘Apprentice’ Contestant Marlee Matlin ‘Retarded,’ Treated Her Like She Was Handicapped: Report
The Donald Trump stories keep on coming. Hours after it was reported that the presidential hopeful made sexual comments to Celebrity Apprentice contestant Marlee Matlin, there are new allegations saying that he also called the Academy Award winner, who is deaf, “retarded.”
Three separate sources, all of whom requested anonymity due to nondisclosure agreements with the show, told the Daily Beast that the Republican candidate, 70, insulted the accomplished actress and advocate, 51, just because she is hearing impaired, when she appeared the NBC show in 2011. He made the comments both in front of her and behind her back.
According to one source, Trump would take notes during the infamous boardroom showdowns. On one day, as the room was being cleaned after filming, one of the pieces of paper he wrote on was collected. It read, “Marlee, is she retarded??” according to someone on the set who saw and handled the paper.
A second source said the controversial politico also made fun of her voice. The person, who worked on The Apprentice for years, said, “It actually sounded a lot like what he did [to] the New York Times guy,” referring to when Trump mocked a disabled reporter. “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.”
Yet another source said that Matlin, who came in second place on the show, was a Trump target all season.
“In the boardroom, he would talk to her like she was ‘special,’” the source said. “He took her deafness as some kind of [mental] handicap … He would kind of do these mock voices … I think he would take the low road and mock her disability.”
Once, when Trump made an “insensitive” comment about Matlin’s deafness while filming, she “stood up for herself,” the source added. The exchange didn’t air in the final cut of the episode.
UPDATED: Matlin addressed the allegations Friday on Twitter. Describing the term “retarded” as “abhorrent” and saying she was “deeply” upset by the media reports, she went on to note that millions of people the deaf community “face discrimination and misunderstanding like this on a regular basis.” She concluded by noting that she wouldn’t engage in name-calling. Instead, she’ll be using her voice to vote.
On Wednesday, People magazine published a story with quotes from Richard Hatch, who was also a contestant that season, saying that Trump made “sexual comments to Marlee Matlin” and “all of the women on the Apprentice,” including Lisa Rinna.
“It was obvious and it was grotesque. It was blatant and it was frequent. He did it with Lisa Rinna; he did it with Marlee Matlin,” said Hatch. “He did it with whomever happened to be there at the time.”
Yesterday, the magazine also ran a first-person account from one of its former writers, Natasha Stoynoff, who was assigned to do a story on Donald and Melania’s first anniversary, in 2005. She said that during the visit to interview Trump, he forcibly kissed her and told her that she was going to have an affair with him. His response to her accusation? He said, “Look at her… I don’t think so,” seemingly suggesting she was not attractive enough for him to be interested in her.
It’s been a very bad week for Trump, who is dealing with fallout from his 2005 exchange with Billy Bush while shooting Access Hollywood, when the controversial businessman said that, because he is famous, he is able to do whatever he wants to women.
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he said in the 2005 conversation. “Grab ’em by the p***y.”
You can read about all the accusations about Trump here.