President Donald Trump declared, “I’m not a rapist” during an interview with CBS News correspondent Norah O’Donnell. This was in a 60 Minutes interview, which happened less than 24 hours after a gunman attempted to storm the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Donald Trump lashes out at 60 Minutes anchor
The interview was Donald Trump’s first on-camera response to the Saturday evening shooting at the Washington Hilton. Secret Service agents detained the alleged shooter, Cole Allen, while Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other administration officials were rushed backstage to a secure holding room.
Norah O’Donnell asked Donald Trump about multiple aspects of the incident before reading directly from what authorities have described as Cole Allen’s manifesto. “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes (via New York Post).”
Trump, who had maintained a measured tone earlier in the interview, immediately lashed out with his response. “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.”
When O’Donnell asked, “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?” Trump ignored the question and continued, “I’m not a pedophile.” The president appeared to interpret the manifesto excerpt as a reference to his past association with Jeffrey Epstein, though Epstein was not named in the manifesto text O’Donnell quoted, nor did she mention him. “You read that crap from some sick person,” Trump said. “I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
O’Donnell pointed out that Allen’s manifesto does not refer to Trump by name. Trump dismissed the clarification and said, “You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I’m not any of those things. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace, but let’s go ahead and finish the interview… you’re disgraceful.”
Federal prosecutors have charged Allen. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
