Hours after President Donald Trump called the Paralympic Games “tough to watch,” the organization called on the President to join the billions of viewers around the world who are inspired by the competition.
“Record numbers of people around the world are not finding @Paralympics tough to watch,” the organization tweeted on Saturday. “Billions of viewers now take in the Paralympics in hundreds of countries around the world. We hope the US President continues to watch and be inspired by the Paralympics.”
The tweet comes in response to a remark Trump made at a Friday ceremony celebrating this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. “What happened with the Paralympics was so incredible and so inspiring to me,” Trump said at the ceremony, according to The Daily Beast. “And I watched — it’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.”
The remark sparked immediate backlash online, with many recalling an incident during the 2016 presidential campaign when Trump appeared to mock a reporter with physical disability. Trump denied the accusation.
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Write to Jamie Ducharme at jamie.ducharme@time.com