How did Serge Kovaleski describe his interactions with Donald Trump after the incident?

1. The core claim: Kovaleski says they “interacted… around a dozen times”

Kovaleski told The New York Times and other outlets that, when he covered Trump for the New York Daily News in the late 1980s, he interviewed Trump in Trump’s office and spoke with him at press conferences — “all in all, I would say around a dozen times” — directly contradicting Trump’s later public statements that he didn’t remember ever meeting the reporter ^{[2] [1]}.

2. What prompted the public restatement of those interactions

The exchange entered public view after Trump, at a November 2015 rally, imitated Kovaleski while criticizing a 2001 story; Trump said he had “no idea” what Kovaleski looked like and suggested he did not know him. Kovaleski responded by recounting their prior professional meetings and first-name relationship, emphasizing that he had in fact interviewed and spoken with Trump repeatedly as a Daily News reporter ^{[3] [2]}.

3. How different outlets reported Kovaleski’s description

Major wire and regional outlets quoted Kovaleski nearly verbatim: he “interviewed him in his office,” and “talked to him at press conferences,” summing those encounters as roughly a dozen interactions while at the Daily News ^{[2] [4]}. Encyclopedic summaries (Wikipedia) likewise note Kovaleski’s statement that the two were on a first-name basis and met face-to-face “on a dozen occasions” in the late 1980s ^[1].

4. Competing narratives: Trump’s denial versus Kovaleski’s account

Trump’s campaign and his public statements insisted he did not know Kovaleski and repeatedly said he had “no idea” who the reporter was; fact-checking and news outlets documented that contradiction by publishing Kovaleski’s account and earlier reporting showing they had crossed paths ^{[5] [2]}. Some outlets and commentators treated Trump’s denial as central to the controversy because the denial undercut his defense against accusations that he had mocked a reporter’s disability ^{[5] [3]}.

5. Wider context and stakes: why these interactions mattered publicly

The dispute mattered because it bore on whether Trump’s onstage gestures appeared to be knowing mockery of a disabled reporter. Kovaleski’s assertion that they were on a first-name basis and had met repeatedly undermined the claim that Trump could not have recognized him, which intensified criticism and coverage of the rally incident ^{[3] [5]}.

6. Limitations in the public record available in these sources

Available sources confirm Kovaleski’s description of the number and nature of interactions and record Trump’s denials, but they do not reproduce a comprehensive list of specific dates, transcripts, or contemporaneous meeting notes that would independently verify each meeting ^{[1] [2]}. Sources provided here do not mention whether either side produced corroborating documentation beyond contemporaneous reporting cited by the campaign ^[1].

7. How outlets and fact-checkers framed the disagreement

Fact-checkers and mainstream news organizations framed the story as a straightforward contradiction: Kovaleski said they’d met a dozen times; Trump said he didn’t remember meeting him. Those outlets emphasized the context — Trump’s imitation and the 2001 Washington Post story at issue — and reported both Kovaleski’s direct quotes and Trump’s denials ^{[5] [2] [3]}.

8. Bottom line for readers

Kovaleski’s own description is clear and consistent across multiple reports: he interviewed and spoke with Trump multiple times in the late 1980s and characterized those encounters as about a dozen interactions, including face-to-face interviews and press-conference exchanges ^{[2] [1]}. Sources show a direct factual dispute between Kovaleski’s account and Trump’s denials; available reporting documents the contradiction but does not provide exhaustive contemporaneous records in the excerpts provided here ^{[2] [1]}.