Kamala Harris seizes on claims that Trump sent Putin Covid testing devices | World News
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Trump’s relationship with Putin has become a target for Democrats, including Harris and Biden. Image: Bloomberg
By Josh Wingrove and Justin Sink
Kamala Harris sought to capitalise on reporting from a new book by journalist Bob Woodward that alleges former President Donald Trump while in office sent Russian President Vladimir Putin Covid-19 testing devices during the height of the pandemic.
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“That is just the most recent, stark example of who Donald Trump is,” Harris said Tuesday in an interview on The Howard Stern Show.
The vice president said people were “scrambling to get these kits” during the pandemic, adding, “And this guy who is president of the United States is sending them to Russia, to a murderous dictator, for his personal use?”
The book from the renowned journalist of Watergate fame reports that Trump, while president in 2020, secretly sent Putin Abbott Covid testing machines when the devices were scarce, according to CNN.
In a statement earlier Tuesday, the Trump campaign pushed back on the book’s allegations, saying “none of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true” and accusing the journalist of bias.
“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,” Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, wrote in a statement.
Pressed by radio host Howard Stern on Trump’s relationship with Putin, Harris argued the former president is unfit for office, calling him a leader who is being “punked” by authoritarian leaders.
“I believe that Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator,” Harris said. “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.”
President Joe Biden also criticised Trump over the report during a fundraiser for Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening.
“Those tests to tell you whether you had Covid were in short supply, so he called his good friend, Putin, not a joke, to make sure he had the tests,” Biden said. “What’s wrong with this guy?”
Tuesday’s interview with Stern, a legendary radio shock-jock, is part of a media blitz Harris is conducting this week as she looks to amplify her campaign message and break out of what polls show is a tight race with Trump.
Woodward also reported that Trump has spoken with Putin several times since he left office. The White House declined to comment on that and other anecdotes from the book on Tuesday, including a claim that Biden used an expletive to refer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s relationship with Putin has become a target for Democrats, including Harris and Biden, looking to cast the Republican presidential nominee as too cozy with dictators and jeopardizing the security of the US and its allies.
Trump has long boasted about his relationship with Putin, including claiming that he could broker an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if he is elected again to the White House without detailing how he would accomplish that.
The former president has assailed Biden over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war with Hamas in the Middle East, saying they would not have happened if the Republican was still in office.
First Published: Oct 09 2024 | 8:56 AM IST
