‘I’m not a pedophile’: Trump lashes out at ‘60 Minutes’ journalist for reading gunman’s manifesto

[0:00] the US President Donald Trump says he wasn't worried by the shooting at the White House [0:03] Correspondents Dinner in Washington DC last night. That appears to have been an attempt on his life [0:10] and the lives of his cabinet secretaries. Let's go to the White House now and our correspondent [0:15] there Jonathan Kersley. The President says he was asking the Secret Service to keep him back so he [0:21] could see what was unfolding. This was extraordinary detail from President Trump speaking with CBS's [0:28] 60 Minutes here in the United States of America the interview broadcast not long ago and what it [0:34] revealed was an insight into the President's mindset as he was essentially ushered away from the stage [0:39] and the seconds after those shots echoed out of the Washington DC Hilton at the night of the White [0:45] House Correspondents Association dinner. He had said he wasn't worried he had said that the Secret Service [0:50] were trying to whisk him away that he wanted to stay to see what was going on. He revealed his wife [0:56] the First Lady Melania Trump was scared. She obviously wasn't in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024 [1:01] when the bullet grazed the ear of the then presidential candidate. We have seen the video [1:07] of the President seated alongside the First Lady. The mentalist owes standing between them on the stage [1:12] before those shots rang out. President Trump said that the mentalist was essentially trying to guess [1:17] the baby's name of President Trump's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. All of this coming on [1:24] the day that we also learned more detail about the suspected reasons behind the suspected gunman's [1:31] attack at the Hilton Hotel last night. 31-year-old Cole Allen from Torrance in Los Angeles in California [1:37] was detained meters away outside the ballroom up a flight of stairs having stormed through there [1:44] stormed through the security gates armed with a shotgun a handgun and knives. You could see in CCTV [1:50] vision law enforcement officials opening fire. There was a Secret Service agent who was injured [1:56] and eventually Cole Allen was brought down. Well today we have heard that he sent a 1,000 word [2:02] manifesto to family members. They received notified law enforcement but by that time it had been [2:07] passed about 8.35 when the shooting had taken place inside the Hilton Hotel. This manifesto reportedly [2:13] listed targets. It spoke about anti-Christian values according to President Trump and anti-Trump [2:20] messaging according to law enforcement officials. I want to read you a little bit of it because while [2:25] the manifesto reportedly written by Cole Allen specifies targets and insists that people inside [2:32] the room, the guests, the staff and the 3,000 or so, two and a half thousand people inside the room [2:36] weren't targets, well then they could well be in the way. This is what he had to say. He said [2:42] I would still go through almost everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary [2:48] on the basis that most people chose to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist and traitor and [2:55] thus complicit but I really hope it doesn't come to that. It didn't because Cole Allen was stopped [3:01] but this is the president responding to that on CBS's 60 Minutes. [3:05] I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody. I'm not a pedophile. Excuse me, excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. [3:14] You read that crap from some sick person. I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with [3:23] me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were [3:30] involved with, let's say, Epstein or other things but I said to myself, you know, I'll do this [3:37] interview and they'll probably, I read the manifesto, you know, he's a sick person but you should be [3:42] ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things. Mr. President. Cole Allen has been [3:50] charged with two offenses so far. That could be more by the time he appears before court in Washington, [3:54] D.C. tomorrow. There may well be questions about security inside the hotel precinct where this [4:01] shooting took place. Cole Allen had checked in the day before. There'll be questions around how he was [4:05] able to get those firearms in, why there weren't extra security measures in place at that hotel [4:10] on the day prior to the president's address, what was intended to be a major address. [4:17] The president also reflected in this CBS 60 Minutes interview on the moments after the shooting. [4:23] Here's how he recalls it. What was your thought at that moment? What did the first lady say? [4:27] Well, my thought was, you know, I've been through this before a couple of times and [4:31] she has not to this extent. She handled it great. I mean, she was, she's very strong, smart. She got it. [4:41] She knew what was happening. She listened. I did too, by the way. Because this was the first time. [4:44] When they said, yeah, when they said drop down, that meant trouble. And obviously I'm the president and [4:50] I listened to what they said. Please drop down, sir. Please drop down. [4:55] Well, Jono, he's very relaxed, isn't he? I mean, even after the second assassination attempt, [5:00] he said that essentially he thought he was being protected by a higher power. He was there by the [5:07] grace of God, essentially. Yeah, he's very relaxed. I think Melania a little less so, but she, you could [5:14] certainly see her face in the room at the Hilton from that footage when the gunshots rang out. [5:20] You were there too. What was it like? How loud were those gunshots? Were they pretty obvious what [5:25] it was straight away? As soon as I heard the sounds, I knew where they were. It's an unmistakable sound. [5:33] Some people afterwards said it was crashing plates. No, that came afterwards. What we heard distinctly was [5:39] a number of shots. I was seated at a table towards the back of the room to the left of President Trump, who was up [5:46] on the head table. I was probably 150 metres or so from him, maybe 30 metres from the central doors. I stood up to [5:53] look where it was coming from, saw the Secret Service barge straight in, caught the eyes of one of them who was [5:58] looking around at all of us saying, get down, get down, get down. And they were making their way to their various [6:02] protectees that they had to get to. We saw one person stand in front of President Trump as almost like a human shield. [6:08] One of the Secret Service agents inside the room, and then armed police stormed the stage as President [6:12] Trump was whisked away. It was a matter of seconds he was left on that stage before he was eventually [6:17] moved off. Look, it was a picture of chaos and confusion inside. It was a room that had been full [6:22] of chatter just seconds earlier. When the Secret Service came in, it went deathly quiet. People started [6:27] to panic in some parts. There were people under tables nearby us. There were people in tears. [6:34] There was one woman who was having an asthmatic episode. So we got her some water and tried to [6:42] get her tie on. She was one of the waitresses there. And then once things calmed down, get [6:46] her to a space where there was a little bit more air. And then we were all kept inside that [6:50] room for another hour or so. Clearly, the Secret Service was trying to make the area safe. I [6:54] actually went outside to this little lobby area, just outside the ballroom itself. And standing [6:59] there, we saw Pete Hegseth being whisked away by Secret Service officials. Mark Wayne Mullen [7:04] being moved very quickly too. We asked him, he's the Homeland Security Secretary, how's the [7:08] President doing? He stopped and he said he's okay. And then he was taken away upstairs. [7:13] There were many corners of the building cordoned off at that time. Secret Service agents guarding [7:17] the lifts upstairs to where the gunman had been. And then obviously that entire hotel was scoured [7:22] for any possible sign that there might have been any other threat. But Laura, I think what [7:26] this really brought home was the level of discourse, the level of political violence and [7:31] the level of gun violence. We hear about it, we talk about it, we report on it. To see it in [7:36] person, this story is obviously not about me in the slightest, but to see it in person, it gives you [7:41] a different perspective. I was in Butler, Pennsylvania in the hours after that shooting [7:45] in 2024. And remember thinking then how a shooting like that could have happened and how the [7:50] conversation nationally could have led to a moment like that being carried out. And once again, [7:55] the same questions were being asked last night as we stood inside the ballroom of the Hilton [7:59] Hotel. And you really have to wonder what is going to change in order to change it here. [8:05] The President was asked himself last night, why does this keep happening to him? [8:09] So it's clearly on the minds of many people here. I imagine you'll see a very much a bolstered [8:13] security presence. When the King's visit starts tomorrow, that will obviously be to protect [8:18] the King, but it will be to protect the President too. [8:21] Yeah. Bolstered security and an emboldened President, no doubt. [8:26] Jon O'Kersley, as always, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.