Trump secretly sent Putin COVID-19 tests during pandemic shortage, a new book reports

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