Veteran reporter Bob Woodward has revealed that Donald Trump secretly sent a coronavirus test machine to President Vladimir Putin when such resources were in short supply during the early stages of the pandemic. This was revealed in a new book.
Woodward said President Trump “secretly sent an Abbott point-of-care coronavirus test to President Putin for his personal use.”
In response, the Russian president told the US president, “I hope you don’t tell anyone because people will get angry.”
Notably, Woodward also said that their relationship, which was highly controversial during Trump’s first presidential campaign and subsequent four years in the White House, continued even after Trump left office. He reports that the incident has continued through seven personal phone calls.
The revelation was among a number of reports published by U.S. news outlets on Tuesday, including dramatic scenes of Joe Biden warning President Putin not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. and new reporting about how Biden was convinced to drop the Democratic presidential nomination this summer. This is the path for Vice President Kamala Harris to challenge President Trump in November.
Now 81 years old — the same age as Biden — Woodward has been a Washington institution since the 1970s, when his collaboration with Carl Bernstein on Watergate led to Richard Nixon’s resignation as president. Woodward’s new book, War, follows three books packed with scoops about President Trump: his last co-authored with Robert Costa, Fear, Anger, and Danger, which includes Russia’s war in Ukraine, Israel’s war against Hamas, It examines major events under the Biden administration, including political issues. A battle at home. It will be published next week.
The Washington Post, Woodward’s employer, and CNN published excerpts.
The United States and Russia shared ventilators and other medical equipment during the early stages of the pandemic, but Trump’s decision to send Putin a coronavirus test machine likely would have caused a huge controversy had it been known.
Apparently aware of this, Putin reportedly told Trump: “Don’t tell anyone you sent these to me.”
President Trump said, “I don’t care. It’s okay.”
President Putin is said to have replied: Don’t tell anyone because people will be mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me. ”
Trump lost the White House in late 2020, but surprisingly, Woodward said the two men have continued to talk. Earlier this year, Trump ordered his aides to leave the Oval Office in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, so he could have a private call with Putin, Woodward wrote.
There are deep-rooted concerns about President Putin’s influence over President Trump. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who investigated Trump’s ties to Russia before and after the 2016 presidential election and concluded that Putin tried to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, recently said that Russia He also said that he would interfere.
The paper reported that Woodward hesitated when Trump aide Jason Miller was asked about the ongoing phone calls between Trump and Putin.
Miller reportedly said, “Um, oh, that’s not right, oh, not that I know,” and added, “I’m not hearing them talking about it, so I’m going to push back on it. ” he added.
Mr. Woodward added that Mr. Biden’s director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, had “carefully avoided” saying, “I don’t pretend to know all the contacts that Mr. Putin had. What President Trump did. “I’m not going to talk about whether I did or didn’t.”
On Tuesday, President Trump’s communications director, Stephen Chan, said: “None of these fabricated stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly insane, deranged man… “I’m obviously upset because I’ve successfully sued him for permitting.” Publication of recordings he had previously made. ”
The lawsuit concerns tapes of phone calls that Woodward released in 2022 and that Trump sued the following year. Woodward is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
The drama surrounding Woodward’s new book comes less than a month after the Nov. 5 presidential election, which could see Trump return to office. According to Axios, which cited people who have seen Woodward’s book, Woodward discussed with the president whether Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, should withdraw due to concerns about his age and fitness. It describes a July 4th lunch at the White House.
Three weeks later, Biden withdrew, but the historic decision put a spotlight on Trump’s own 78-year-old age and mental health. “Mr. Trump is the most reckless and impulsive president in American history, and he exhibits exactly the same characteristics as the 2024 presidential candidate,” Woodward’s ruling said, according to the paper.
But even though Trump has been impeached twice, the race between Trump and Harris remains close. Conviction on 34 criminal charges related to hush money payments. Other ongoing criminal cases involving election destruction and preservation of classified information. Millions of dollars in civil penalties in lawsuits including a defamation lawsuit stemming from rape allegations that a judge found to be “substantially true.” And other scandals are rife.
Woodward’s book reportedly includes Biden’s candid responses to foreign policy challenges.
The president was reportedly pictured calling right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has resisted US attempts to secure a ceasefire with Hamas, “that son of a bitch” and “bad son of a bitch!” It is.
“That fucking Putin,” Biden reportedly said of the Russian president. “Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began when Barack Obama was president of the United States. Woodward said Biden believes his vice president, who served as vice president from 2009 to 2017, “never took Putin seriously,” despite reports of tensions between the two men. It’s a familiar perspective.
“They screwed up,” Biden told a friend in 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, Woodward said. “That’s why we’re here. We messed it up. Mr. Barak never took Mr. Putin seriously. We didn’t do anything. We ruined it. I’ve given you permission to continue! That’s right, I’m going to revoke that guy’s license!”
According to CNN, Woodward said in October 2021 that U.S. intelligence, including material from valuable sources inside the Kremlin, “conclusively” showed that Putin was planning to invade Ukraine. reported. Biden reportedly told CIA Director Bill Burns: Now I have to deal with Russia swallowing Ukraine? ”
Woodward said that in December of that year, Biden confronted Putin twice by video conference, and then had a “heated 50-minute phone call” in which Putin “threateningly raised the risk of nuclear war.” , Biden reportedly told him it was “impossible to win.” Such a conflict.
Woodward also reported that in October 2022, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Secretary Sergei Shoigu had a conversation about the possibility of using nuclear weapons.
“If you do this, all the regulations that we have been operating in Ukraine will be reviewed,” Austin reportedly said. “This will isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree that Russians will not fully understand.”
“I don’t like being threatened,” Shoigu said.
Austin said: “Minister, I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I am not threatening you.”
In another phone call two days later, Woodward reported, Shoigu claimed that Ukraine was planning to use a “dirty bomb,” a claim that the United States considers false and that it is unlikely that a Russian nuclear attack would occur. It was argued that the intention was to justify the
“I can’t believe it,” Austin said. “We don’t see any signs of it, but the world will see through this. Don’t do it.”
“Understood,” Shoigu replied.
“It was probably the most gruesome moment of the entire war,” Colin Kahl, a senior Pentagon official, told Woodward.
Woodward also reports that the United States had a hard time convincing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Russia would actually invade. At the Munich Security Conference in February 2022, Harris reportedly told Zelenskiy to “think about things like having a succession plan in case you are captured, killed, or unable to govern.” I told him to get started,” and then left Germany, thinking he might never see Zelensky again.
That same month, Russia invaded. Two-and-a-half years later, the war drags on and Mr. Zelensky is rebellious in Kiev. But Democrats have warned that a second Trump term would have dire consequences for Ukraine and its allies, given the close ties between Trump and Putin.
