Vice President Harris is criticizing Donald Trump following new reporting by the journalist Bob Woodward that the former president secretly shared COVID-19 test machines with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a moment in 2020 when tests were out of reach for most Americans.
The revelation, first reported by CNN and The Washington Post on Tuesday, is detailed in a forthcoming book called War by the famed Watergate journalist, about Trump’s record on the international stage, as well as President Biden’s.
According to the book, Trump sent the secret shipment of testing equipment to the Russian leader at the height of the pandemic in 2020, even as the U.S. and other nations were facing crippling shortages of testing kits.
“I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don't care about me,” Putin told Trump, according to the book. Trump responded, "I don't care. Fine," according to Woodward.
NPR has not independently verified the account, which was based on interviews with unnamed sources.
Asked about the report during an interview Tuesday with Howard Stern, Harris said Woodward’s reporting was an example of why Trump cannot be trusted as commander-in-chief, because she said he is easily manipulated by authoritarians he hopes to befriend.
“He admires strong men, and he gets played by them because he thinks that they're his friends, and they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor," Harris said. “Remember, people were dying by the hundreds, everybody was scrambling to get these kits ... and this guy, who was President of the United States, is sending them to Russia to a murderous dictator for his personal use.”
The Trump campaign has dismissed the book as “made up stories” written by a “deranged man,” according to a statement by its communications director, Steven Cheung.
“President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or used as toilet tissue,” the statement read.
Woodward’s reporting adds to the swirl of questions that have surrounded Trump about his relationship with Putin dating back to his 2016 campaign for the White House, when he publicly called on Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. Trump has defended his stance toward Putin, maintaining that had he still been in office Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022.
It is a relationship that appears to have continued even after Trump left the White House, according to Woodward, who reports that the former president may have spoken with Putin as many as seven times since Biden took office.
In one episode reported by Woodward, Trump ordered an aide away from his office at Mar-a-Lago in order to take a private call with Putin early in 2024.
The book, which comes out Oct. 15, also details pivotal moments in the Biden presidency, including the administration's response to the war in Ukraine and Biden's fractious relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Woodward recounts the president's frustrations with Netanyahu amid the ongoing war in Gaza as he concluded that Netanyahu's instincts for political survival outweighed his interest in defeating Hamas.
"That son of a b****, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad f****** guy!” Biden reportedly told advisers, according to Woodward.
Asked about the anecdote, the White House declined comment, but deputy press secretary Emilie Simons said the U.S-Israel relationship is "as strong as ever" and said Biden and Netanyahu have a long and candid relationship.
"They can have very honest and straightforward conversations with each other," Simons said.
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