- Trump denies calls with Putin post-presidency
- Woodward claims stir election controversy
- Harris criticizes Trump’s ties with Russia
Former US President and current Republican contender Donald Trump has maintained regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to new, unconfirmed charges made by a well-known journalist.
According to Bob Woodward, 81, Trump has called the Russian leader at least seven times since leaving the Oval Office in January 2021.
According to Woodward’s forthcoming book, War, one of the phone contacts occurred as recently as earlier this year. Trump reportedly requested that one of his advisers leave his office at his Mar-a-Lago resort so that he could speak with the Russian president.
The Trump campaign denied the claims. On Tuesday, Steven Cheung, the former president’s communications director, stated that none of the stories in Woodward’s book are real.
Rather, he argued, they were the “work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Trump, 78, has also dismissed the allegations. Speaking to ABC News, Trump described Woodward as a “storyteller.” It’s a nasty one. “And he has lost his marbles.”
On Wednesday, the Kremlin denied that the Russian leader maintained regular touch with the former US president.
When Russia’s RBC newspaper asked if Putin and Trump had spoken over the phone, spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded, “No, that’s not true.”
The reporter helped bring down Richard Nixon.
Nonetheless, the charges came as a shock as the United States prepares for its election on November 5. After all, Woodward is best renowned for his investigative work, which helped bring down President Richard Nixon in 1974.
The book has also reignited suspicions that Trump has had a too-close relationship with the Russian president.
Those allegations date back to 2016 when Trump first ran for president. At the time, he famously asked Russia to assist in the recovery of the “missing emails” that his Democratic competitor Hillary Clinton had destroyed from private servers.
The US intelligence community concluded that Moscow interfered in the election to help Trump. However, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation revealed no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Trump has continued to boast about his bond with Putin as he seeks a return to the White House.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which Trump presented on the campaign trail as a result of the United States’ declining global leadership.
He claims he can stop the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Still, Kyiv supporters fear any such arrangement would force it to cede significant territory to Russia, something Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected.
During the presidential debate last month, Trump declined to answer if he thought it was better for the US if Ukraine won the war.
“I want the war to end. “I want to save lives,” he added, wrongly adding that “millions” had died. “I think it’s in the US’s best interest to finish this war and just get it done.”
Woodward’s book, one of over a dozen he has released over the years, also claims Trump provided Putin with COVID-19 test equipment for personal use while the virus spread in 2020.
The Russian leader is believed to have asked Trump not to tell anyone because people would be upset if information spread.
It’s unclear when the machines were delivered, but US media previously claimed that the US shipped testing machines to many countries, including Russia, in May 2020.
Kamala Harris seized on claims.
Democratic contender Kamala Harris seized on the charges.
In an interview with radio personality Howard Stern, she accused Trump of providing the equipment to a “murderous dictator” while “everyone was scrambling” for testing.
“This person who wants to be president again, who secretly is helping out an adversary while the American people are dying by the hundreds every day,” she was describing.
Aside from the controversial claims about Trump, Woodward’s book concentrates on President Joe Biden’s handling of the Ukraine war and the Middle East crisis.
It includes accusations of Biden’s “frustrations and distrust” against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has led a devastating military assault in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and there is little sign of a ceasefire as tensions rise throughout the region.
According to the book, the US president privately referred to Netanyahu as a “son of a bitch” and a “bad f***ing guy.”
It also shows that Biden believes Netanyahu “had been lying to him regularly.”
Biden claims Obama didn’t take Putin seriously.
According to the book, Biden criticized his former employer, Democratic President Barack Obama, for failing to stop Putin’s 2014 invasion of Crimea. Biden served as Obama’s vice president at the time.
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“They f***ed up in 2014,” Biden allegedly told a close friend, blaming the lack of response on Putin’s actions in Ukraine. “Barack never took Putin seriously.”
When asked about the book’s assertions, White House spokesperson Emilie Simons said, “Our commitment to the state of Israel is unwavering.
She said that Biden and Netanyahu have a long-term friendship. They have a very honest and direct relationship, and I have no opinion on those incidents.”
