President Donald Trump doubled down on his attacks against CBS News’ “60 Minutes” host Norah O’Donnell after she asked him about the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooter’s manifesto.
“She’s terrible,” Trump said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Monday. “I mean, she’s interviewed me. She’s a regular person that gets paid a lot of money. She’s just… she’s no different. I could get any woman off the street practically, and they would do just as good a job as her. There’s nothing special.”
Hewitt accused O’Donnell of rehearsing the question to provoke Trump to walk out of the interview. Trump, however, rejected the idea of walking out of the interview like he did in 2020.
“The problem with walking off, it’s like it becomes the bigger story,” Trump said.
Trump berated O’Donnell during their interview last month after she read portions of suspect Cole Allen’s manifesto, which alluded to concerns over a rapist and a pedophile, and asked for his reaction.
“Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people,” Trump answered. “Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
“Do you think he was referring to you?” O’Donnell asked.
TRUMP CRITICS BLAME PRESIDENT’S RHETORIC FOR WHCA DINNER SHOOTING
“I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? 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. But I said to myself, ‘You know, I’ll do this interview, and they’ll probably…’ I read the manifesto. You know, he’s a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things,” Trump said.
O’Donnell interrupted to argue that she was quoting the alleged gunman’s words, but Trump continued to call her “disgraceful.”
TRUMP CLAIMS CBS, ’60 MINUTES’ HAVE TREATED HIM ‘FAR WORSE’ UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP
“You shouldn’t be reading that on ’60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview,” Trump said.
In a comment to Fox News Digital, a CBS News spokesperson referred to a previous statement the organization made in defense of O’Donnell’s questioning.
“This suspect is being charged with one count of trying to assassinate the President of the United States. It is a basic tenet of journalism to ask questions and seek the truth. It was our responsibility to ask the president about the latest evidence and what we had just learned after obtaining the manifesto a few hours before the interview,” the statement read.
