It was a simple question from President Donald Trump to CBS 60 Minutes interviewer Norah O’Donnell. Don’t you feel safer in Washington, D.C., where crime plummeted after the National Guard was called in to help clean up crime-filled neighborhoods?
But instead of answering yes or no, she bobbed and weaved to avoid giving Trump any credit for making the city safer, something the district’s liberal mayor has repeatedly done.
Trump pressed her: “You see a difference?” She demurred: “I think I’ve been working too hard. I haven’t been out and about that much.” Trump parried back: “Oh, that’s not a fair answer. You see the difference.” She deflected again: “I get in my car and go to work, and I go home.”
The exchange between Trump and O’Donnell during a portion of their 74-minute interview that was not aired on 60 Minutes, but posted online by CBS News on their 60 Minutes Overtime page:
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’re cleaning up our cities. You know, I campaigned on crime, but I’ve done a much better job on crime than I thought. You know, the crime numbers are way down, even though we have a lot more people in our country that really shouldn’t be here. And many of them are stone-cold hard criminals. When I look at D.C. now, you can walk down the middle of the street. You can have your daughter, who’s 10 years old, meet you at the park. She’s gonna be OK.
O’DONNELL: In certain parts of D.C.
TRUMP: She woulda been murdered. Well, I — in almost—
O’DONNELL: I live in D.C.
TRUMP: Well, you tell me—
O’DONNELL: Certain parts of D.C.
TRUMP: How big a difference is D.C. now compared to what it was a year ago? Right? I mean, you have to be honest with me. People walk — people in the White House, they walk up to me, young ladies I’ve never seen. “Sir, thank you very much.” I know, they don’t even have to tell me what they’re thanking me for. But when I ask why? He said — she — one girl said, “I’d get into Uber and I felt dangerous even in an Uber.” They’d attack the car, OK. It wasn’t even safe then. “Sir, I now walk to work every day, and I walk. I’m so safe, there’s nothing going to happen — 100% safe.” And you know that too, Norah.
Pay attention to the stunt Norah O’Donnell pulls here…
Trump says DC is so much safer now. Norah attempts to downplay that: “In certain parts of DC. I live in DC.”
So Trump turns the tables: “Well, you tell me: How big a difference is DC now compared to what it was a year… https://t.co/egWdMiIplz
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) November 3, 2025
O’DONNELL: I wanna ask you about the—
TRUMP: You live here. You know that, too.
O’DONNELL: I wanna ask you about Amer—
TRUMP: Do you see a difference?
O’DONNELL: –American cities—
TRUMP: You see a difference?
O’DONNELL: –in Washington, D.C.?
TRUMP: Yes.
O’DONNELL: I think I’ve been working too hard. I haven’t been out and about that much.
TRUMP: Oh, that’s not a fair answer. You see the difference.
O’DONNELL: I get in my car and go to work, and I go home.
TRUMP: That’s good. You don’t have to use that one. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. I won’t embarrass her.
O’DONNELL: I’ve been working too hard.
TRUMP: It’s like you know what the difference is? Like, day and night.
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Brent Baker, the Steven P.J. Wood senior fellow and vice president for research and publications at the Media Research Center, explained our pick: “This interview went a lot better for the image of CBS News than did the one five years ago with the antagonistic and aggressively misinformed Lesley Stahl, but O’Donnell couldn’t let herself be seen agreeing with Trump, let alone saying anything that could be construed as positive toward any Trump achievement. That would be a cardinal sin in the eyes of her colleagues. In that way, CBS News hasn’t yet changed under its new management.”
Rating: THREE out of FIVE screams.