Why did Trump lose it during interview over WHCD suspect calling him ‘rapist’ and ‘pedophile’?
“Anger is a way to overcompensate, and also it’s a way to distract from the real issues,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright tells theGrio.
President Donald Trump was extremely peeved when confronted with perceived statements about him in a manifesto written by the suspect charged in Saturday’s shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
“Anger is a way to overcompensate, and also it’s a way to distract from the real issues,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright tells theGrio.
During an interview with “60 Minutes,” host Norah O’Donnell read excerpts from the manifesto authored by Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California man charged on Monday for the attempted assassination of President Trump, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and the transportation of a firearm in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony.
“Mr. President, he appears to reference a motive. In it, he writes this, quote, ‘Administration officials, they are targets.” And he also wrote this: ‘I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.’ What’s your reaction?” asked O’Donnell.
Though the statements were not directly about the president and more so generally his administration, Trump, who has been found liable for sexual assault and has been linked in past years to convicted sex trafficker and accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, immediately snapped at O’Donnell.
“Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” said the president. “Yeah, he did write that…I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
O’Donnell interjected, asking, “Do you think he was referring to you?”
“I’m not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person,” Trump replied. “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, Epstein or other things.”
Seawright, who advises Democrats in Congress and national congressional campaigns, said of Trump’s lashing out, “What he wanted from the interview is his lashing out, not to deal with the actual substance of the interview.”
Over the years, President Trump has repeatedly been linked to controversies related to alleged sexual assault and abuse of women. He infamously bragged about grabbing women by their private parts and has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, including writer E. Jean Carroll, whose lawsuit against Trump resulted in him being found liable for sexual abuse.
Scrutiny of Trump’s alleged misconduct has come back into the spotlight over the subject of Jeffrey Epstein, which has repeatedly caused President Trump to lash out angrily. Trump, who was friends with Epstein, has called for the press to “move on” from talking about the federal investigation of Epstein’s apparent sex trafficking ring, in which young girls were allegedly raped by Epstein and other wealthy, powerful men dating back to the 1980s.
Despite promising to release the full FBI files related to Epstein’s prosecution during the 2024 presidential election, Trump tried to stop Congress from passing a bill compelling their release, and the U.S. Department of Justice has struggled to release the full files, not to mention its botched rollout with missing documents, including allegations of a woman who said Trump sexually assaulted her as a teen. Trump and the White House have denied that the president did anything wrong.
During the 2016 presidential election, the Epstein controversy gave way to conspiracy theories about several political figures supposedly a part of a “deep state” of pedophiles that kept them protected from accountability. As a first-time candidate, Trump embraced the conspiracy movement, which helped fuel his political rise.
Seawright tells theGrio that Trump’s blow-up on “60 Minutes” demonstrates why it’s important for the media to “hold him accountable.”
“I think that’s also part of the reason why they’ve been overly aggressive about trying to take over the media and have state-run media in this country, because there will not be a sense of accountability if they get their way,” he said.