Vice President Harris is criticizing Trump over the reported shipment, which is detailed in a new book by the journalist Bob Woodward. The president’s campaign has denied the reporting.
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 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.
