The Kremlin confirmed on Wednesday reporting that former President Donald Trump sent Covid-19 testing kits to his then Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the height of the pandemic.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the kits were indeed sent, as journalist Bob Woodward detailed in his upcoming book "War": "We also sent equipment at the beginning of the pandemic," said Peskov in a written response to Bloomberg.
However, he later denied other reporting alleging that Trump and Putin had "at least seven" phone calls since the former left office in 2021. "It's not true," Peskov added in the document.
Trump's campaign had issued a blanket rejection of Woodward's reporting, with campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung saying on Tuesday that they were all "made up stories" and calling the journalist a "truly demented and deranged man."
Woodward wrote that Putin asked Trump to not "tell anybody" that he sent him the Covid-19 kits for his "personal use." Putin said, according to Woodward, "I don't want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don't care about me."
As for the calls, the book quotes an aide of Trump's who said he held "multiple" calls on his private phone following his presidency. "According to Trump's aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021," Woodward's book reads. He also claims Trump previously asked a senior aide in Mar-a-Lago to leave the room so "he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin."
Vice President Kamala Harris reacted to the reporting with new criticism of Trump. "You're getting played and some would say...you're getting punked if you stand in favor of somebody who is an adversary over your friends on principles that we all agree on," Harris told Stern on Tuesday.
Harris also called the former president "weak" and accused him of having "this desire to be a dictator."
"He admires strongmen 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 added.
In contrast, Trump's vice presidential candidate JD Vance shrugged off the reporting. During a rally in Detroit, Vance admitted he "has never talked to Trump about his calls with Putin" but asked attendees whether they saw an issue with it. Vance also called Woodward a "hack."
"Even if it's true, is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? Is there something wrong with engaging with diplomacy?" Vance asked rally attendees to resounding "noes."
The Ohio senator then attacked Vice President Kamala Harris, stating her approach has been "to hide in a basement, hide from the American people, and hide from world leaders," which he said has gotten the country "on the verge of World War III."
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