Getty President Donald Trump addressing Montgomery Weer (in wheelchair) and other children after delivering a statement on health care on July 24.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling had to apologize to the family of three-year-old Montgomery Weer, who was at the White House for President Donald Trump’s July 24 statement on health care. Rowling claimed Trump ignored Montgomery as he left the room. However, that wasn’t true and Rowling eventually apologized for her tweets on July 31.
Weer, his parents Margorie and Kevin, and his 17-month-old sister Evangeline were invited to the White House as “Obamacare victims.” They stood behind Trump as he delivered a speech in which he chastised Senate Republicans for not being able to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Here’s what you need to know about Montgomery and Rowling’s apology.
1. Rowling Was Influenced by a Video That Claimed Trump ‘Ignored’ Montgomery, but That Wasn’t True
Rowling appeared to be influenced by a video, seen above, that claims Trump “ignored” Montgomery as he held his hand out after Trump’s speech. Four days after the speech, Rowling tweeted, “Trump imitated a disabled reporter. Now he pretends not to see a child in a wheelchair, as though frightened he might catch his condition.”
She continued, “My mother used a wheelchair. I witnessed people uncomfortable around her disability, but if they had a shred of decency they got over it,” she continued. “So, yes, that clip of Trump looking deliberately over a disabled child’s head, ignoring his outstretched hand, has touched me on the raw.”
However, as Politifact notes, Rowling’s statements were not true. The full video, seen below, shows Trump stopping by to talk to Montgomery as he walks up to the podium, after Vice President Mike Pence’s brief introduction.
2. Rowling Apologized After Montgomery’s Mom Called Her Out on Facebook
As for your suggestion President Trump should have shaken the boy’s hand in the 2nd clip, @ChelseaClinton – Monty’s mum says this:
Rowling only apologized and deleted her tweets after she was criticized on Twitter and in conservative media outlets.
Montgomery’s mother also took to Facebook, writing:
Ummmm…if someone can please get a message to JK Rowling: Trump didn’t snub my son & Monty wasn’t even trying to shake his hand. (1. He’s 3 and hand shaking is not his thing, 2. he was showing off his newly acquired secret service patch). Thanks.
Rowling issued a four-tweet apology, which reads:
Re: my tweets about the small boy in a wheelchair whose proferred hand the president appeared to ignore in press footage, multiple sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction. I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly. These tweets will remain, but I will delete the previous ones on the subject.
Rowling didn’t apologize to Trump though. Although a U.K. citizen, she has used Twitter repeatedly to criticize the President.
3. Montgomery Was Diagnosed With Spina Bifida Before He Was Born
GettyJ.K. Rowling in February 2017.
Montgomery needs a wheelchair because he was diagnosed with spina bifida in utero, his parents told the Post and Courier.
As the Spina Bifida Association explains explains, it is the most common permanently disabling birth defect in the U.S. The term means “split spine” and happens when a baby’s spinal column doesn’t close all the way in the womb.
The cause of the condition is unknown, although scientists think genetic and environmental factors play a role. About one in eight babies are born with the condition or similar spine and brain defects every day in the U.S.
“Washington Democrats promised families like the Weers that if they liked their doctor they could keep their doctor, but now there is only one insurer left in the state exchange, and Marjorie says that every year she waits anxiously to learn if the doctors and hospitals which her son needs the most will remain in their network,” Trump said during his July 24 speech. “More Obamacare lies.”
4. Montgomery’s Mom Says the Family Has Benefited From Some Obamacare Provisions, but Others Have Made it Difficult for Montgomery to Get Treatment
In a July 24 interview with the Post and Courier, Marjorie Weer said there have been some Obamacare provisions that have helped her son. She also noted that since “Monty” was born after the Affordable Care Act became law, she’s not sure what her situation would be like without it.
Marjorie said the provisions that ban insurance companies from denying coverage because of a preexisting condition and lifetime spending limits have helped her. However, she blames Obamacare for making Monty’s options for care “more and more narrow.”
The issue for the Weers is that Blue Cross Blue Shield, the only ACA insurer left in the South Carolina marketplace, only covers treatment in the Palmetto State. But Montgomery has to go to Boston Children’s Hospital for an annual visit to the spina bifida clinic there. His visit for 2017 is all set, but the family isn’t sure if he can get his 2018 treatment.
Montgomery’s story first came to light in The Daily Signal, a conservative media site run by the Heritage Foundation. In that interview, Marjorie said they were taking Monty to a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri for three months and was covered through his own Aetna plan and was in South Carolina’s Katie Beckett Medicaid waiver program.
In 2016, his father enrolled the family in BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and Monty’s appointments in Boston were covered at first. Initially, it didn’t cover Medical University of South Carolina. But when BlueCross stopped covering hospitals outside the state, the Medical University was the hospital he was restricted to. Marjorie told the Daily Signal that she spent six months negotiating with BlueCross so Monty could see the specialists in Boston.
“The most I resent in all of this is the time away from my kids because the people in Washington, D.C., who have no business and no knowledge about health care just decided to screw this all up and left moms like myself to clean up their mess,” Marjorie told the Daily Signal in February.
5. Montgomery’s Mom Says She’ll Skip Voting in 2018 if Republicans Can’t Get a Health Care Bill Passed
GettyPresident Donald Trump on July 27.
After Trump’s statement on July 24, Marjorie also joined the president in criticizing Senate Republicans for not passing an Obamacare repeal and replacement. “Get your job done, or we’ll sit home in 2018,” she told Fox Business.
“I am very fine with sitting at home in 2018 and not voting if that is the only way to get their attention, I’m more than happy to not vote for them. I’m tired of this,” Weer told the Daily Signal. “I am tired of their pathetic excuses of why they are incapable of doing their job. You’ve had seven years to come up with a plan. You have the House, the Senate, the White House … If you can’t do the job, go home.”
After Trump’s statement, the Senate wasn’t able to pass its “skinny repeal” of Obamacare when three Republican Senators voted against it.
In another interview with the Post Courier, Marjorie described herself as a “small government gal” and a libertarian-leaning conservative. And even though she appreciates Medicaid, she wants it “reeled” in.
“I do know if we do nothing, it’s only going to get worse,” she told the Post Courier.