President Trump on Sunday sharply rebuked 60 Minutes anchor Norah ODonnell for airing portions of the Washington Hilton shooters manifesto during a tense interview about the latest attempt on his life.
The confrontation followed a shocking incident in Washington, D.C., where a heavily armed man stormed the lobby of the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, sprinted past a Secret Service checkpoint and opened fire on a federal agent, according to Gateway Pundit. The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrence, California, was quickly taken into custody and charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
Authorities later revealed that Allen had written a manifesto laced with venomous rhetoric against President Trump, echoing the kind of dehumanizing language that has become commonplace in left-wing media and online discourse. In the document, Allen branded Trump a pedophile, rapist and described himself as a friendly federal assassin, language that raises serious questions about the climate of political hatred being stoked in the country.
Allens manifesto adopted a self-righteous tone, attempting to justify violence under the guise of moral outrage. Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. Im not the person raped in a detention camp. Im not the fisherman executed without trial, he wrote, before escalating his claims against the Trump administration.
Im not a schoolkid blown up, or a child starved, or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressors crimes, Allen continued, casting himself as a vigilante rather than a criminal. I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes, he added, explicitly tying his violent intentions to his hatred of Trump.
During the 60 Minutes sit-down, ODonnell chose to read these inflammatory passages back to President Trump, a move that many conservatives view as legitimizing the words of a would-be assassin. Trump immediately pushed back, telling her, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because youre horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. Im not a rapist. I didnt rape anybody.
Rather than backing off, ODonnell pressed further in a classic media gotcha attempt, asking, Oh, do you think he was referring to you? Trump did not hesitate, responding forcefully, Im not a pedophile.
He then condemned the decision to platform the shooters smears on national television, saying, You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated, an apparent reference to efforts to tie him to Jeffrey Epstein. President Trumps frustration mounted as ODonnell continued to push, prompting him to declare, You should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because Im not any of those things. Excuse me! Excuse me! You shouldnt be reading that on 60 Minutes. Youre a disgrace, but go ahead, lets finish the interview.
The exchange underscores a broader concern on the right: that major media outlets are not merely reporting on political violence but, by amplifying the words of extremists, are feeding a narrative that dehumanizes their political opponents and normalizes hatred against them. At a moment when President Trump has already faced multiple close call assassination attempts, the decision to spotlight a shooters manifesto on prime-time television raises serious questions about journalistic ethics, media bias, and the real-world consequences of a culture that treats conservative leaders as fair game for the most vicious accusations imaginable.
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