Stuttering advocates have words for Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump drew laughter from supporters at a rally in Georgia over the weekend as he mocked President Joe Biden for his stutter.

He also fired up a network of “proud stutterers” ready to put Trump on blast over his behavior.

Among them is Maya Chupkov, a stuttering advocate and San Francisco-based podcast host who has her own speech impediment.

Chupkov, who is also a proud stutterer, was flying home from a weekend trip to Los Angeles when her husband texted her a video clip of Trump. “I’m gonna bring the country tuh-tuh-tuh-together,’” the former president said as he parodied Biden’s State of the Union Speech on Saturday.

“Just hearing the audience laugh took me back to the bullying days,” she said, recalling painful high school memories.

Within hours, Chupkov and a network of stutterers around the country sprang into action. They sent a press release to major media outlets denouncing Trump and launched campaigns to urge stutterers to respond on social media and write letters to the editor.

The response has been swift. Around the country, advocates have been giving media interviews and sharing emotional testimonials.

“This time, we’re not going to stay silent,” said Chupkov, who wrote a comic book called “Proud Stutter” and hosts a podcast of the same name. Her nonprofit holds events around the country.

Trump’s ridiculing of Biden comes as advocates have built broader acceptance of speech impediments. Chupkov said Biden’s visibility as president has helped and noted the headlines Biden made a few years ago when he met a boy with a stutter and offered his encouragement.

The president has spoken openly about how coping with a stutter was one of his greatest challenges as a young person, and he still sometimes struggles with halting speech in his public appearances.

He’s not the only public figure to embrace a speech challenge. California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, who also stutters, authored a bill last year to designate Stuttering Awareness Week in May and spoke at a Capitol press conference with Chupkov and other stutterers.

“I still have my stutter,” Rivas said at the time. “But certainly, at the end of the day, that is who I am, and I am a better person now because of my stutter.”

Chupkov said she worries that Trump’s behavior could “normalize” insults directed at people with speech impediments. She said many advocates are hopeful Trump's mockery will inspire Biden to have an open conversation about stuttering, which advocates estimate affects 3 million people nationwide.

“That would be really powerful, especially for young people. I just wish he could talk more about that,” she said. “It makes him more empathetic. It makes him a good listener.”

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of Chupkov's comic book.