60 Minutes interview takes an explosive turn as Trump shames O’Donnell for reading from gunman’s manifesto: ‘I’m not a pedophile!’
Lashing out.
A tense 60 Minutes interview with President Donald Trump took a dramatic turn this week when he lashed out at correspondent Norah O’Donnell for reading excerpts from the manifesto of the suspected gunman who targeted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The president, visibly agitated, denied any connection to the gunman’s accusations and called O’Donnell’s line of questioning “disgraceful.”
According to The Daily Beast, the confrontation unfolded when O’Donnell presented Trump with passages from the manifesto written by Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old accused of attempting to storm the Washington Hilton on April 25, 2026. Allen allegedly sent the document to his family moments before the attack.
In it, he described administration officials as “targets” and claimed he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” When O’Donnell read the line aloud, Trump interrupted her sharply.
Trump labelled O’Donnell ‘disgraceful’ for doing her job
“I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile,” the president said. “You read that c— from some sick person? I got associated with 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.” He later added, “You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace.”
The president’s outburst comes amid ongoing scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. While Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, his association with Epstein has resurfaced in recent years, particularly after a 2023 civil trial in which a New York jury found him liable for sexually abusing journalist E. Jean Carroll in 1996.
Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83 million in damages for defamation, on top of a separate $5 million judgment for the assault claims. His attempts to overturn the defamation verdict were unsuccessful.
A March 2026 report from The Daily Beast presents details of another case involving a woman who accused him of sexual abuse when she was 13. New evidence emerged that corroborates parts of her story, though not the allegations against Trump himself. The woman, whose identity remains protected, gave four interviews to the FBI in 2019 detailing alleged abuse by both Epstein and Trump.
While the Department of Justice initially withheld her statements, a recent investigation by The Post and Courier verified key details about a third man she accused, Jimmy Atkins, who died in 2003. Atkins, a real estate executive in Hilton Head, South Carolina, was allegedly connected to the woman’s mother, who worked in the same industry. The woman claimed Epstein trafficked her to multiple men, including Trump, when she was between 13 and 15.
According to FBI documents, she described being taken to a “very tall building with huge rooms” in the New York or New Jersey area, where Trump allegedly assaulted her after sending others out of the room. The documents quote her as saying Trump told her, “Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,” before forcing her to perform a sexual act.
The White House had dismissed the allegations as completely baseless
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the accuser a “sadly disturbed woman.” Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team has pointed to his cooperation with investigations into Epstein, including the release of thousands of pages of documents and his signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. They argue that Democrats, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Stacey Plaskett, have yet to explain their own ties to Epstein after his conviction.
Meanwhile, Hugh Dougherty, an executive editor at The Daily Beast whose hotel room was next to Allen’s, called the security lapse a “fiasco.” He recounted how Allen was able to check into the hotel without any scrutiny, writing, “How on earth could someone with a disassembled long gun check into a room at a hotel where the president was going to speak? I can answer that: Nobody even looked at my luggage on Friday afternoon.”
Allen’s manifesto also included a notable exception to his list of targets: FBI Director Kash Patel. He wrote, “Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” The reason for Patel’s exclusion remains unclear, but the distinction suggests Allen had specific grievances against other officials.
This interview isn’t the first time Trump has faced tough questions about his past
His relationship with Epstein has been a persistent point of contention, particularly after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and subsequent death. While Trump has distanced himself from Epstein, old photos and videos show the two socializing at events in the 1990s and early 2000s. Epstein’s infamous “little black book” also contained Trump’s contact information. The White House has argued that such associations are meaningless without evidence of wrongdoing.
The 60 Minutes segment has reignited debates about media ethics and the boundaries of political journalism. Some viewers praised O’Donnell for pressing Trump on the manifesto, while others criticized her for giving the gunman’s words a platform. The interview also underscored the broader tensions between the press and the administration, particularly as Trump continues to dismiss unfavorable coverage as “fake news.”
(Featured image: dl bone)
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