President Donald Trump erupted during a "60 Minutes" interview over a topic that he's clearly "sensitive" about, according to CNN's Audie Cornish.
The 79-year-old president sat down for an interview with correspondent Norah O’Donnell, who asked him about allegations about assault made by would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen in his manifesto.
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people – horrible people,” Trump said after O'Donnell read Allen's allegations. “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
“I’m not a pedophile," Trump added. "Excuse me, excuse me – I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with 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, [Jeffrey] 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.”
Cornish flagged the president's comments during a panel discussion.
"What struck me is thatit's not unusual for thepresident to lash out on theissue of Epstein," Cornish said. "Like, when Ihave seen these moments where hemight have insulted a reporterin a really striking way, it'soften around this issue, and isit still a sensitive issue?"
Associated Press correspondent Seung Min Kim agreed, saying Trump was clearly uncomfortable with the topic of his longtime association with the notorious sex offender.
"You do see just the uncomfortableness that whenever this topic comes up, and I think we should say here that he has never been, you know, accused of any wrongdoing in this manner," she said. "But the problem is the issue of Jeffrey Epstein has remained a political problem for the Trump administration, particularly as we started to get the files out. We see just the close ties that we have had with Jeffrey Epstein and kind of the the, the elite circles of the world, and which is also why that statement from Melania Trump a few weeks ago was so shocking."