Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to have not spoken to President-elect Donald Trump in four years, which would appear to contradict a book by reporter Bob Woodward that claimed the two world leaders spoke several times after Trump left office.
Putin issued his claim during a lengthy news conference on Thursday in which he spoke about Russia’s mission in Syria and its war in Ukraine.
“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.”
If Putin’s admission of not speaking to Trump in four years turns out true, it would heavily contradict explosive claims by reporter Bob Woodward, who charged that the president-elect secretly sent coronavirus tests to Putin and that he regularly kept in contact with the Russian president after leaving office. As the AFP reported at the time:
Then-president Donald Trump secretly sent Covid test kits to Vladimir Putin despite a US shortage during the pandemic, and spoke multiple times with the Russian leader after leaving office, Bob Woodward says in an explosive new book.
The famed reporter’s opus also chronicles some of President Joe Biden’s own acknowledged missteps and his struggle to prevent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, including exasperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over futile efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire.
In excerpts of “War” published Tuesday by The Washington Post, where Woodward is an associate editor, he says Trump retains a personal relationship with Putin even as he campaigns for another term and the Russian president conducts a war against US ally Ukraine.
Woodward even went as far to argue that that Trump speaking with Putin made him unfit for the presidency.
Woodward concluded that Trump’s interactions with an authoritarian president at war with a U.S. ally makes him more unfit for the presidency than Richard Nixon.
“Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a presidential candidate in 2024,” Woodward wrote.
The Trump campaign vehemently denied the book as a bunch of “made-up stories,” chocking the book up to “the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
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