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California’s “First Partner,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, ripped into President Donald Trump after his contentious “60 Minutes” interview with the female host, slamming the president for “speak[ing] to a woman journalist with that level of contempt.”
The interview included a contentious back-and-forth between Trump and Norah O’Donnell over her questions about the shooter from this past weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, with President Trump calling O’Donnell a “disgrace” and “disgraceful” amid the interview.
Trump’s comments came after O’Donnell was reading excerpts from the shooter’s alleged manifesto, which described the president as a “rapist,” “pedophile” and “traitor,” O’Donnell recounted during her talk with the president Sunday evening.
“My family and I watched the 60 Minutes interview with Donald Trump and Norah O’Donnell last night, and we were shocked. Seeing a president speak to a woman journalist with that level of contempt — and a clear allergy to facts — is disturbing, though at this point not unexpected given his pattern of behavior,” California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife said in a scathing X post on Monday.
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Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California’s first partner, speaks during a Gender Equity Summit in Sacramento, California, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. Bloomberg’s Emily Chang meets California’s First Couple, Governor Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and visits their home in Marin County and offices in Sacramento to see how they work together. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“But that is the problem,” she continued. “Because when that level of disrespect from the highest office in the country repeats itself, it starts to trickle down into our culture and define what power looks like, shaping how boys and plenty of men see women and girls and what they come to accept as normal behavior.”
Fox News digital reached out to the White House and to representatives for Governor Newsom and his wife, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Trump’s “60 Minutes interview came Sunday evening after authorities identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Allen, of Torrance, Calif. Authorities indicated Allen had prepared a manifesto outlining his intent, which included anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on social media. O’Donnell, during the interview, read alleged portions of the document that alluded to concerns about Trump being a sexual abuser and a traitor, leading to a defensive reaction from Trump.
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people,” Trump answered. “Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
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“Do you think he was referring to you?” O’Donnell asked.
Norah O’Donnell on the new set of CBS Evening News with Norah ODonnell in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 16, 2022. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/CBS via Getty Images)
“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,” Trump continued. “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. 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.”
O’Donnell interrupted to argue that she was quoting the alleged gunman’s words, but Trump continued to call her “disgraceful.”
“You shouldn’t be reading that on ’60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace. But go ahead. Let’s finish the interview,” Trump said.
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Trump’s “disgrace” comments garnered widespread attention online, including from Siebel Newsom, who said after the interview that the “culture of misogyny” exhibited by Trump “is on all of us, and it has to end.”
US President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, shortly after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25, 2026. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)
“Add in rhetoric rooted in political division, amplified by a digital ecosystem that rewards outrage and misinformation, and this cultural norm of hate, othering, and misogyny becomes pervasive,” Siebel Newsom continued. “Behavior that should be challenged gets normalized; what should raise concern is amplified and cheered on. It’s no wonder we have a culture that normalizes dominance and aggression toward women and girls, which not only silences them but also leads to internalized misogyny in others.”
However, conservatives rallied around Trump.
“What’s really disgusting about this clip is Norah O’Donnell’s fake innocent surprise: ‘oh you think he was referring to you?’ She knows perfectly well that every day some fellow Democrat like Ted Lieu calls Trump a pedophile and rapist,” said New York Post columnist Miranda Devine in response to pushback on Trump’s interview comments.
“Their white supremacy lies ran out of steam so this is the new hoax. Rich from a party that protects illegal alien child molesters.”
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“Norah O’Donnell may have reached the low point in disgusting and inhumane demagoguery disguised as journalism,” added former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “The idea that you would take the vicious dishonest and disgusting words of a would be killer who had been blocked by the Secret Service but would otherwise have killed a lot of people and you would dignify them by putting them on the air and asking the President of the United States to comment is about as destructive as anything a major reporter has done in a long time.”
Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the US House of Representatives, speaks during the third day of Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, on July 17, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Gingrich said O’Donnell “should be fired for demeaning her entire profession and being the mouthpiece of a would-be killer.”
