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Joe Biden’s presidential crusade called President Donald Trump’s conduct “absolutely despicable” after Trump said he had not asked any questions in a recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about alleged Russian bonuses to US troops in Afghanistan.
When asked through Axios’ online news page about statements through a senior U.S. commander that Russia was arming Taliban fighters fighting U.S. troops, Trump replied, “Well, we also provided weapons when they were fighting Russia.”
Andrew Bates, Biden’s spokesman, said in a statement: “The ultimate critical and sacred legal responsibility of a commander-in-chief is to those who serve our country in danger.”
“But months after the U.S. intelligence network sounded the alarm, Donald Trump and our allies, that Russia puts bonuses on the heads of the U.S. military in a war zone, our president continues to turn his back on those who put them in danger.for our country and by its own duty.” Bates said.
“This continues an indefensible trend of Donald Trump that weakens America in the world in a way that no American president has done before, and that is surely despicable,” he said.
In the Axios interview, Trump said he never questioned or challenged Putin on his call Thursday over the allegations, first reported through the New York Times in June, about American intelligence that Russia was paying bonuses to Islamic fighters. for killing American troops in Afghanistan.
“No, it’s a phone call to talk about other things,” Trump told Axios.
“Frankly, this is a factor that many other people have called fake news,” Trump said, adding that “many other people” had said so.
In a brief exchange Wednesday with reporters in the South White House garden, Trump asked him if he thought Russia had not put bonuses on the heads of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
“Like I told you, I’ve read it and I’ve spoken it ever since,” Trump said.
He added that former secretary of state “Colin Powell says that’s not true and Colin Powell isn’t exactly someone I’m a big fan of, Colin Powell says it’s not true, others say it’s not true, if it’s true I’m very angry about that.”
But Powell, a retired army general, said the bonus reports were false.
Powell said earlier this month: “Our army commanders on the floor did not consider it as serious a challenge as the newspapers and television reported.”
Powell added at the time: “They were given some control before we understood what had happened.I’m not sure we’re fully sensing it now.”
Trump said in Axios’ interview that bonus intelligence reports “never made it into my office.”
But he did not respond directly when journalist Jonathan Swan continually pointed out that the allegations were included in the president’s intelligence briefing.
Trump has questioned the alleged bonuses in the past and said he was never informed of US data about them because he did not meet the popular evidence for him to know about them.
But the New York Times, which mentioned two officials familiar with the case, reported backwards last month that Trump had won a briefing last February on Russia’s alleged dealings.The Associated Press also reported that additional reports were included in the president’s intelligence.reports, that Trump told Axios he reads.
The White House and other Trump administration officials said the reports were verified and reported to the president.
In Axios’ interview, Trump asked why he had not challenged Putin on a similar subject: Russia had provided weapons to the Taliban.
Swan noted that Army General John Nicholson, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, had that.
“Well, we also used weapons when they were fighting Russia,” Trump replied, “when they were fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
The president referred to the American armament of the mujahideen guerrilla forces, not the Taliban, from 1979 to 1989, who fought against Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan to the Marxist government of that nation.
When Swan pointed to Trump “this is the time,” Trump replied, “I’m just saying we did it too.”
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask Nicholson about it. He’s been there a long time, he hasn’t been very lucky because you know he was before me and I still made a change,” Trump said.
Trump then said, “I hear that ” Russia has armed the Taliban.
“But, again, it came to my desk, ” he added.
Trump told Axios that his call with Putin on “nuclear proliferation, which is a very important issue, on which they would like to do anything and so am I.”
“We discuss a lot of things,” Trump said, but “we don’t discuss” the reported Russian bonuses.
When Axios reported that Trump simply did not do it in intelligence, the president did not respond to that.
“It’s interesting, you know, nobody talks about China,” Trump said.
“They bring Russia, Russia, Rusia.Si we can do anything for Russia in terms of nuclear proliferation, which is a very big challenge, a bigger challenge than global warming, a much greater challenge than global warming in the genuine global world,” that would be a smart thing.”
“It never made it to my desk, you know why? Because they didn’t think, intelligence, they didn’t think it real,” Trump said.
“If he’d come to my office, I’d have something.”
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