WASHINGTON: Then-president Donald Trump secretly despatched COVID-19 take a look at kits to Vladimir Putin regardless of a US scarcity through the pandemic, and spoke a number of occasions with the Russian chief after leaving workplace, Bob Woodward says in an explosive new e book.
The famed reporter’s opus additionally chronicles a few of President Joe Biden’s personal acknowledged missteps and his wrestle to forestall escalation of battle within the Center East, together with exasperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to achieve a ceasefire.
In excerpts of Struggle revealed on Tuesday (Oct 8) by The Washington Submit, the place Woodward is an affiliate editor, he says Trump retains a private relationship with Putin whilst he campaigns for one more time period and the Russian president conducts a warfare towards US ally Ukraine.
With the coronavirus raging in 2020, Trump despatched a batch of coveted checks to his counterpart in Moscow. Putin accepted the provides however sought to keep away from political fallout for Trump, urging he not reveal the dispatch of medical gear, the e book says.
Based on Woodward, Putin instructed Trump: “I do not need you to inform anyone as a result of folks will get mad at you, not me.”
Woodward additionally cites an unnamed Trump aide who indicated the Republican chief might have spoken to Putin as much as seven occasions since leaving the White Home in 2021 – regardless of the US effort to assist Ukraine resist Russian invasion and the extreme deterioration of relations with Moscow.
The Submit, reporting Woodward’s account, stated that at one level in early 2024, Trump ordered an aide out of his workplace in his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida as a result of he needed to carry a non-public name with ex-KGB officer Putin.
At a marketing campaign occasion on Tuesday for Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, Biden stated the way in which Trump dealt with the pandemic was a “shame”.
“Over 1,000,000 folks died. However guess what … he referred to as his good good friend, Putin, not a joke, and made certain he had the checks,” Biden stated.
