Takes One To Know One

Score!

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell got Trump to open his mouth and put his foot in!

Trump lashes out at ‘60 Minutes’ anchor for reading alleged gunman’s manifesto

Any detente between the president and the press after the shared horror of Saturday’s dinner appears to be short-lived.

Politico

By Eli Stokols

04/26/2026

President Donald Trump lashed out at CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview Sunday for quoting from the manifesto of the suspected gunman who tried to storm the White House Correspondents Dinner less than 24 hours earlier.

Trump had initially expressed a sense of camaraderie with members of the press corps who hosted him at their annual dinner and experienced the same initial panic when armed law enforcement agents stormed into the ballroom.

But when O’Donnell, during an interview recorded at the White House on Sunday, quoted from the accused gunman Cole Allen’s apparent manifesto — “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” she read — Trump, who’d been relatively subdued in his responses, flashed a familiar anger.

“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 interjected, “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?”

But the president blew past her question, declaring, “I’m not a pedophile.”

Trump bristled at what he seemed to deem an insinuation about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was not mentioned by name in the manifesto or by O’Donnell. “You read that crap from some sick person,” the president said. “I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”

Okay, here’s my take on this.

I’ve done it. You prepare for interviews by thinking through everything that might come up and practicing your responses. You practice a lot. Only once did I ever need to fall back on rehearsed answers, but the key is actually listening to the question; something Trump didn’t do here.

You plan it out: if they say this, you respond with that. If they bring up the manifesto, you’re ready with a clear reply. But she threw a curveball and followed up his answer with: “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?”

Gotcha!