By Cassandra Fairbanks
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has issued an apology after referring to disabled children as “retarded” during a radio interview.
The 70-year-old Democrat was asked on a OneNYCHA podcast about opposition to an effort in New York to shelter homeless people when he made the insensitive remark.
“I have found that my whole career, I wanted to build, when I first was an assemblyman, they wanted to build a congregant living place for retarded children, and the whole neighborhood was against it.”
“These are harmless kids,” he added. “They just needed some help. We got it done, [but] it took a while.”
His comments regarding the homeless housing initiative begin around the 38:20 mark in the following video.
None of the podcast hosts said anything about his use of the word during the interview — even though they are an organization dedicated to fighting for people with mental disabilities.
In a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, who first reported on his use of the term, Schumer’s office said that he was “sincerely sorry” for “using an inappropriate and outdated word.”
“For decades, Sen. Schumer has been an ardent champion for enlightened policy and full funding of services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He used an inappropriate and outdated word in his description of an effort he supported that was led by the AHRC to build a group home in his Brooklyn district decades ago to provide housing and services to children with developmental disabilities. He is sincerely sorry for his use of the outdated and hurtful language.”
The term is widely considered to be a slur and unfit for polite society.
When then-candidate Donald Trump was said to have mocked a reporter with disabilities by using exaggerated hand gestures while mimicking him it sparked national outcry. A poll conducted by NBC News in 2016 found that voters believed it was his worst offense. Trump insisted that he did not know the reporter was disabled and was trying to convey that he was groveling.
“Democrats have made sure the public has seen and heard about Trump’s extended riff over and over again. It has been played in ads created by the Clinton campaign, including a highly-circulated one involving children silently watching, and by groups working on Clinton’s behalf,” the NBC report on the poll noted.
Bill Clinton even said in his convention speech that his wife “never made fun of people with disabilities. She tried to empower them based on their ability” to push the issue.
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