President Donald Trump slammed a 60 Minutes anchor who quoted part of a manifesto written by the alleged White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman.
During an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for 60 Minutes, which aired on Sunday, April 26, Trump, 79, strongly opposed a passage that criticized him. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” O’Donnell, 52, quoted from the manifesto to Trump.
Trump acknowledged earlier on Sunday in an interview with Fox News that an alleged “manifesto” was written by the suspected shooter and sent to the suspect’s family prior to the incident.
Taking the quoted manifesto passage as a reference to his relationship with the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump began, “Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump said. “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
O’Donnell then asked, “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?” which drew further comment from Trump.
“Excuse me, excuse me, I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with old stuff that has nothing to do with me,” Trump responded. “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 … but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.”
Despite O’Donnell’s attempts to clarify her stance, Trump concluded, “You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes, you’re a disgrace. You’re disgraceful,” before the interview moved on.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 on charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor before he was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. He died in custody before trial. Trump’s documented relationship with the late financier has long been put under the microscope, but Trump has repeatedly denied knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump were evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, April 25, after shots rang out across the Washington Hilton ballroom. A 31-year-old California man was apprehended outside the ballroom shortly after, later identified as Cole Tomas Allen, who had recently won a “teacher of the year” award and was armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives, according to authorities.
A Secret Service agent was shot during the incident and nobody else was harmed. The alleged gunman is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Monday, April 27.
During a press conference staged in the wake of the shooting, Trump told members of the press that he was “honored” to be a target of the shooting. “When you look at our great presidents, [this] doesn’t happen to people who don’t do anything,” Trump told reporters who gathered in the White House in the late hours of Saturday. “I hate to say I’m honored by that but we’ve done a lot.”
Earlier on Sunday, Trump commented on the nature of the alleged manifesto currently circulating within the media. “When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians, that’s one thing for sure,” Trump told Fox News. “It was a religious thing, it was strongly anti-Christian.”
