Donald Trump has launched a furious attack on CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell after she read out lines from the suspected gunman's manifesto during his 60 Minutes interview about the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting.

Trump condemned O'Donnell's line of questioning in a manner consistent with his long-running attacks on the press, which he has repeatedly described as a "disgrace." When she read from the document allegedly sent by Cole Tomas Allen minutes before the attack — in which Allen referred to a "peadophile, rapist, and traitor" — Trump erupted.

"I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because … you're horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody. I'm not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all — 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, lets say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, 'You know, I'll do this interview and they'll probably … read the manifesto'. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things."

What did the manifesto say?

Allen described his targets as "administration officials: prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest" — though he apparently excluded FBI Director Kash Patel from his list.

Apparently referring to Trump, Allen wrote: "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes."

Authorities also found anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on Allen's social media accounts. In what is reported to have been shared with authorities by his brother, Allen allegedly wrote: "Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I'm not the person raped in a detention camp. I'm not the fisherman executed without trial. I'm not a schoolkid blown up, or a child starved, or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration. Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor's crimes."

How did Melania react?

Trump said the First Lady was visibly shaken by the shooting. Asked whether she had been scared, he said: "Well, I don't wanna say, and people don't like having it said that they were scared. But certainly, I mean, who wouldn't be when you have a situation like that?

"By that time I think she realized ahead of time that that was more of a bullet than it was a tray. And she was … I looked at her face just a little while ago before I came. I saw the scene. They played it for me and, you know, pretty good closeup. And she looked very upset about what just took place, you know? Why not?"

Trump added that Melania had handled the situation with strength and composure. "She handled it great. I mean, she was, she's very strong, smart. She got it. She knew what was happening. She listened. I did too, by the way."