Just hours after an encounter between a gunman and law enforcement not far from a table where he sat, President Donald Trump was interviewed by CBS News' "60 Minutes," parrying with his interviewer over subjects including his belief that the most US journalists and Democrats are "pretty much one and the same."

When asked by interviewer Norah O'Donnell whether the people in the ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel for the annual White House Correspondents' dinner Saturday night had a shared experience and so could be more understanding of each other, President Trump seemed skeptical.

He was also asked whether the shared trauma might bring him and the news media closer together.

"Look," he told O'Donnell, "for whatever reason, we disagree on many subjects. We talk about crime, I'm very strong on crime, it seems like the press isn't. It's not so much the press, it's the press plus the Democrats, it's like they're almost one and the same, it's like, the craziest thing."

But then O'Donnell read from a manifesto posted online that has been attributed to the gunman who tried to run past law officers in the lobby area of the hotel before gunshots rang out..

"He appears to refer to a motive," O'Donnel said in reference to the gunman, "in it he writes, 'Administration officials, they are targets,' he also writes this, 'I am no longer willing to let a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.' What's your reaction to that?

"Well, I was waiting for you to read that," the President said, "because I knew you would, because you're horrible, horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist, I didn't rape anybody."

O'Donnell appeared to setting Trump up by insinuating that the manifesto may not have been written about the President, saying, "Oh, you think he was referring to you?"

"Excuse me," Trump replied, "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 were the ones who were involved with, let's say Epstein, or other things. But I said to myself, I'll do this interview [with "60 Minutes"] and they'll probably read from -- you know I read his manifesto, he's a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself for reading that, because I was never any of those things."

No one was injured in the incident Saturday night except one Secret Service agent, who according to official reports was saved by wearing a bulletproof jacket.

Doug Pike