Trump Brands Norah O’Donnell a ‘Disgrace’ After She Reads Part of WHCD Shooter’s Manifesto on Targeting a ‘Pedophile’
President Donald Trump called 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell a “disgrace” when she read part of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter’s manifesto where he said he was targeting administration officials and an unnamed “rapist” and “pedophile.”
O’Donnell had just asked if Saturday night’s shooting incident at the Washington Hilton Hotel will change his relationship with the press.
“Look, for whatever reason, we disagree on a lot of subjects. We talked about crime, I am very strong on crime. It seems like the press isn’t,” Trump said. “It’s not so much the press, but the press plus the Democrats. It’s almost like they are one and the same.”
O’Donnell then brought up the gunman’s manifesto calling it a “stunning thing to read.”
“He appears to reference a motive,” O’Donnell said. “In it, he writes this: quote, ‘Administrative officials, they are targets.’ He also wrote this: ‘I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’ What’s your reaction to that?”
“Well, I was waiting for you to read that, because I knew you would. Because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump spat. “Yeah, he did write that. I am not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
“Oh, do you think he was referring to you?” O’Donnell asked.
“Excuse me. Excuse me. I am not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person,” Trump 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.”
Trump added, “But I said to myself, you know, I’ll do this interview and they’ll probably — I read the manifesto. It was a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I’m not any of those things. And I was never —”
“Mr. President, these are the words the gunman,” O’Donnell interrupted.
“Excuse me. Excuse me,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 minutes. You’re a disgrace. But go ahead, let’s finish the interview.”
Watch the clip above via CBS News’s 60 Minutes.
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