US President Donald Trump hit out against his 60 Minutes interviewer, CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, on Sunday (US time) for reading the alleged manifesto penned by the suspected gunman behind Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner. Slamming the veteran journalist, the MAGA leader said she should be “ashamed” of herself for even bringing it up during their recently taped interaction.
As the shooting suspect Cole Allen’s reported manifesto specifically targeted “a pedophile, rapist and traitor,” without naming anyone, Trump attempted to trash the argument while linking his own to the statement. The CBS reporter merely urged Trump to detail his reaction to the defamatory claims, potentially referencing a motive for the attack.
Like Allen’s alleged message, O’Donnell didn’t overtly insinuate that those terms were descriptive of Trump. However, the POTUS immediately took issue with the question, branding the news platform “horrible,” as he also declared, “I’m not a rapist… I’m not a pedophile.”
Trump slams CBS News journalist over ‘pedophile’ remark
Affirming that she had read the alleged manifesto, Norah O’Donnell told Trump during the Sunday interview, “He writes this quote, ‘Administration officials, they are targets… I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.'”
As she asked for his reaction to the remarks, Trump retorted, “Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re– you’re he– you’re horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m– I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
Seeing that the president had already presumed the suspect’s reported manifesto alluded to him, a taken aback O’Donnell shot back, “Oh, you think– do you think he was referring to you?”
“I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile,” Trump continued, interrupting O’Donnell. “You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all– stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
Trump name-drops Epstein in CBS interview
In line with his complicated relationship with the press, Trump also took a dig at the Democratic Party, saying, “Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, little’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 for reading that because I’m not any of those things.”
Although O’Donnell tried to clarify that those were all “the gunman’s words” and not hers, Trump responded sharply, “Excuse me. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview.”
The Republican leader, who was once friends with American financier Jeffrey Epstein, has long slammed backlash against his past ties with the convicted sex offender. As calls for the release of files related to Epstein’s case especially gained momentum with Trump coming back to office in 2025, the MAGA leader has since torched the motion as a “Democrat hoax.”
Amid repeated denials of any wrongdoing in his one-time connection to Epstein, Trump asserted a while back that he’s been “totally exonerated.” Following former Prince Andrew’s arrest in the UK over his ties to the disgraced financier, Trump also said, “I have nothing to hide. I’ve been exonerated. I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.”