Trump tells 60 Minutes he ‘wasn’t worried’ during correspondents’ dinner shooting | White House correspondents’ dinner shooting
Donald Trump spoke to CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell in a broadcast interview Sunday night on 60 Minutes He describes his distress when gunshots were heard at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
A gunman opened fire at the Washington Hilton hotel on Saturday night, but did not breach the basement ballroom where Trump was sitting at the time. The President described the events in a balanced tone and said he was not particularly alarmed as events unfolded.
“I wasn’t worried,” Trump said in the interview when asked how worried he was about possible injuries after hearing the gunshots. “I understand life. We live in a crazy world.”
Trump told 60 Minutes that his curiosity likely slowed the Secret Service’s efforts to get him to safety.
“I wanted to see what was going on,” Trump said. “I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. And by then we started to realize that this was a bad problem, a different kind of problem, a bad problem, and it was different from the normal noise coming from the ballroom.”
“I was surrounded by great people,” Trump added. “And I probably made them move a little slower. I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.'”
But Trump said Secret Service officers repeatedly told the president and first lady Melania Trump to get on the ground.
“I started walking,” Trump said. “And they said, ‘Please get down, please get down.’ “I fell too, and so did the First Lady.”
Secret Service officers took Trump and other members of the administration to safety after the shooting.
Law enforcement tackled and arrested the armed suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, after he opened fire on the hotel. Allen was armed with knives, a shotgun and a handgun when he was arrested.
The shooting appears to be politically motivated and may have targeted Trump as well as other senior U.S. officials, according to acting U.S. attorney Todd Blanche.
“Based on initial efforts to understand what happened, we believe he was targeting members of the administration.” Blanche said in an interview: Sunday with CBS News.
The suspect allegedly sent angry messages to family members against the Trump administration, which some described as a “manifesto.” The 1,100-word text is signed “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen.”
The 60 Minutes interview turned confrontational when O’Donnell read on air parts of the manifesto that referred to Trump as a “rapist” and “pedophile” and demanded Trump react.
“I was waiting for you to read this because I knew you would, because you are terrible people,” Trump said. “Yes, that’s what he wrote, I’m not a rapist… I read the manifesto. You know he’s a sick person. You shouldn’t read this on 60 Minutes, you’re a disgrace, but go ahead, let’s finish the interview.”
Trump continued to take jabs at O’Donnell throughout the remainder of the interview. After suspected shooter Allen was reported to have attended a “No to Kings” protest, Trump fired back: “The reason there are people like that is because there are people doing ‘No to Kings.’ I’m not a king. What am I – If I were a king, I wouldn’t mess with you.”
Trump called on the White House Correspondents Association to reschedule the event within the next 30 days, despite criticism of the press that he described as “soft on crime.”
“I don’t want to see it cancelled. I think it’s really bad that a crazy person can cancel something like that,” he said, adding: “It’s not that I want to go. I’m too busy. I don’t need it.”
