Business mogul and the GOP front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday responded to another controversy. After Trump mocked a physically handicapped reporter recently, a string of comments have simultaneously prompted an outcry and rocketed him to the top of the polls.

Trump made a mocking impression of Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times reporter. Kovaleski is physically handicapped and this limits movement of his arms. According to CBS News, a spokesperson for the Times called Trump's impression "outrageous."

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From his statement, Trump said he had no idea who Serge Kovalski [sic] is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence. He said he did not know if he is Muhammad Ali or J.J. Watt. He claims to have known nothing about him other than him having great respect for the way he wrote the story, on September 18, 2001, and in particular the section that talked about Muslims and tailgate parties taking place in New Jersey.

Trump's campaign team has demanded an apology from the Times saying that he does not know anything about the reporter or anything about what the reporter looks like.

As a reporter for the New York Daily news, Kovaleski covered Trump from 1987 to 1993 giving the two a history that stretch back.

Kovaleski told New York Times on Thursday that Donald and he were on a first-name basis for years. He has interviewed him in his office and also talked to him at press conferences.

During an interview with the Washington Post, Kovaleski said that the sad part about this that it did not in the slightest bit jar or surprise him that Donald Trump would do something this, given his track record.

Trump, who made the comments in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on a Tuesday night rally, claims he was defending false claims that thousands of Arab-Americans were celebrating the terrorist attacks in Sept. 11 2001.

The presidential aspirant used a piece that Kovaleski authored for the Washington Post right after the attacks as evidence. Kovaleski has dismissed the reporting years later.

The story that Trump cited was written on Sept. 18, 2001. The story said that the law enforcement authorities questioned a number of people after detaining them who were seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style ceremonies on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river.

The claims were never substantiated or corroborated.

Tagsdonald trump, GOP front-runner, New York Times, Serge Kovalski, Muhammad Ali, Myrtle Beach