Donald Trump has blasted CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell again for questioning the president on the alleged manifesto of the suspect accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month.
“She’s terrible,” Trump said of O’Donnell in his latest attack against women reporters.
O’Donnell drew Trump’s ire during a 60 Minutes interview the day after Cole Thomas Allen, 31, allegedly rushed past security inside a Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C. Allen is accused of firing a shotgun outside of a ballroom where Trump, top administration officials and members of the media were attending the black-tie event on April 25.
The journalist had asked Trump about a manifesto that Allen allegedly wrote. The suspected gunman said in the manifesto that he planned to target Trump administration officials, according to several news outlets.
O’Donnell quoted the alleged manifesto in her interview with the president including accusations of sex crimes against an unknown person.
“Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody,” Trump fired back.
When O’Donnell asked Trump if he thought Allen was accusing him of sex crimes, the president said, “I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person?”
“You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things,” Trump said. “You’re a disgrace.”
Allen faces multiple charges, including attempted assassination of the president. He is yet to enter a plea.
Trump has continued to berate O’Donnell more than a week after his tense exchange with the senior CBS reporter in an interview with the conservative Salem News Channel.
“I can’t believe Norah O’Donnell did that,” host Hugh Hewitt said during the Monday interview. “Did you think about walking off?”
Trump responded: “No, because then you make it a bigger story, actually.”
“She’s a regular person that gets paid a lot of money. She’s no different. I could get any woman off the street, practically, and they would do just as good of job as her. There’s nothing special,” the president said.
O’Donnell is a multiple Emmy Award-winning journalist with nearly 30 years of experience. She has covered eight national elections and interviewed every living president.
Shortly after the 60 Minutes interview aired, O’Donnell defended her line of questioning and said Trump’s responses were “certainly newsworthy.”
“These are important questions about what happened and why it happened,” O’Donnell said on CBS Mornings.
The Independent has reached out to the White House and CBS News for comment on Trump’s latest rebuke of O’Donnell.
Trump has frequently attacked women reporters who have asked unwelcome questions or scrutinized the job he’s doing. He’s called them “stupid,” “incapable,” and even referred to one as “piggy” for asking about the government files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Last month, Trump went after Fox News host Jessica Tarlov after the former strategist for the Democratic Party spoke about the president’s negative poll numbers.
