Featured Image Credit: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump
William Morgan
Donald Trump went after a CBS News host barely a day after an assassin attempted to end his life and those of several senior officials, after the journalist read out some words from the would-be shooter's manifesto.
The president was rushed out of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night after the attempted shooting by a California-based teacher, the first time he'd attended in more than a decade since snubbing the glitzy dinner.
A manifesto was uncovered following this dramatic conclusion to the event, in which no one was injured by attempted assassin Cole Tomas Allan after the 31-year-old was detained by law enforcement before he could get to the ballroom and the president.
In the wake of this third major attempt on his life, on Sunday night, President Trump spoke Norah O’Donnell on CBS' '60 Minutes' about the shooting, with the anchor asking for his opinion on his would-be killer calling him a 'pedophile, rapist, and traitor' in his manifesto.
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“Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people,” Trump responded, with his fury building. “Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
President Trump has never been criminally convicted of any sexual offence. He was found legally liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a 2023 civil court action led by journalist and victim E. Jean Carroll.
Of the other charges that Cole Tomas Allan wrote in his manifesto, which he said he was 'no longer willing to permit... to coat [his] hands', the president's friendship with notorious pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is widely accepted to have ended prior to his conviction.
Then the '60 Minutes' host asked: “Do you think he was referring to you?”
This only enraged President Trump further, who angrily replied: “I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person?"
He continued: "I got associated with all…stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things.
"But I said to myself, ‘You know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably…’ I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.”
Host O'Donnell responded that she was only reading the words written in Allan's manifesto, which some outlets have quoted from heavily or shared in its entirety, but this did nothing to quell Trump's anger.
“You shouldn’t be reading that on ’60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview,” the president responded.
Trump was also asked about whether he would re-think his relationship with the press after the shooting at the Correspondents' Dinner, to which he responded: "Look, for whatever reason, we disagree on a lot of subjects. We talk about crime. I’m very strong on crime.
"It seems like the press isn’t. It’s not so much the press. It’s the press plus the Democrats because they’re almost one and the same. It’s the craziest thing."