President Trump angrily erupted at CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell after she read portions of the White House Correspondents Dinner gunman’s writings on ’60 Minutes.’
Even as he expressed hope for a better relationship with critical media after the shooting, Trump blew his top when O’Donnell asked him about his reaction to the letter left behind by suspect Cole Tomas Allen that seems to reference sex assault and misconduct allegations against the president.
“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.”
Accused White House correspondents’ dinner attacker is tutor and computer programmer from California
“I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
Trump ignored O’Donnell’s effort to nail down whether he believed the shooter was definitely talking about him, since the note didn’t mention him by name.
“You read that crap from some sick person,” Trump said. “You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I’m not any of those things,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace.”
The rapid pivot to attacking O’Donnell suggests any truce in Trump’s war with the press will be short-lived at best.
Trump lavished unusual praise on the media at a post-shooting late night press conference at the White House Saturday night.
In an unusual act of self-reflection, he even said it would have been tone deaf for him to have gone ahead with a planned speech that was going to skewer the press corps.
Trump continued the honeymoon a day later in the 60 Minutes interview, saying he hoped the experience of being potential victims of the shooting could build bridges of understanding.
“We have some great people in the press, some very fair people, and people that are just on my side,” he said. “I was really happy to see the — I don’t know how long it’ll last — the relationship, the friendship, the spirit after a very bad event took place.”
