Months into Russia's war in Ukraine, the United States had intelligence pointing to "highly sensitive, credible conversations inside the Kremlin" that President Vladimir Putin was seriously considering using nuclear weapons to avoid major battlefield losses, journalist Bob Woodward reported in his new book, "War."
The famed Watergate reporter also details Donald Trump's conversations with Putin since leaving office, Biden’s frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and more. The Associated Press obtained an early copy of Woodward's book, which is due out next week.
The US intelligence pointed to a 50% chance that Putin would use tactical nukes if Ukrainian forces surrounded 30,000 Russian troops in the southern city of Kherson, the book says. Just months before, in the far northeast, Ukrainian troops had stunned the Russians by recapturing Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and were pivoting to liberate Kherson, strategically located on the Dnieper River not far from the Black Sea.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan stared "with dread" at the intelligence assessment − described as coming from the best sources and methods − in late September 2022, seven months after Russia's invasion, the book says. It caused alarm across the Biden administration, moving the chance of Russia using nukes up from 5% to 10% to now 50%.
According to Woodward's account, President Joe Biden told Sullivan to "get on the line with the Russians. Tell them what we will do in response." He said to use language that was threatening but not too strong, the book says. Biden also reached out to Putin directly in a message, warning of the "catastrophic consequences" if Russia used nuclear weapons.
In terms of the war starting at all, the book details Biden’s criticism late last year of President Barack Obama’s handling of Russia seizing Crimea and a section of the Donbas in 2014, at a time when Biden was serving as the Democrat’s vice president.
"They f----- up in 2014," Woodward wrote that Biden said to a close friend in December, blaming the lack of action for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. "Barack never took Putin seriously."
Biden was angry while speaking to the friend and said they "never should have let Putin just walk in there" in 2014 and that the U.S. "did nothing."
Woodward also reports that Trump sent Putin COVID-19 test machines for his personal use as the virus began spreading in 2020. Putin told Trump not to tell anyone because people would be mad at Trump over it, but Trump said he didn’t care if anyone knew, according to the book. Trump ended up agreeing not to tell anyone.
The book doesn’t specify when the machines were sent but describes it as being when the virus spread rapidly through Russia. It was previously reported by The Associated Press and other agencies that Trump’s administration in May 2020 sent ventilators and other equipment to several countries, including Russia.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview Tuesday with radio host Howard Stern, accused Trump of giving the machines to a "murderous dictator" at a time when "everyone was scrambling" to get tests. "This person who wants to be president again, who secretly is helping out an an adversary while the American people are dying by the hundreds every day," said Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
The book also details Biden’s complicated relationship with Netanyahu as well as private moments when the president has been fed up with him over the Israel-Hamas war.
Biden’s "frustrations and distrust" of Netanyahu "erupted" this past spring, Woodward writes. The president privately unleashed a profanity-laden tirade, calling him a "son of a bitch" and a "bad f——— guy," according to the book. Biden said he felt, in Woodward’s accounting, that Netanyahu "had been lying to him regularly." With Netanyahu "continuing to say he was going to kill every last member of Hamas." Woodward wrote, "Biden had told him that was impossible, threatening both privately and publicly to withhold offensive US weapons shipment."
Biden and Netanyahu have long been acquainted, although their relationship has not been known to be close or overly friendly. Last week, Biden said he didn’t know whether the Israeli leader was holding up a Mideast peace deal in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.
Asked about the book's reporting, White House spokesperson Emilie Simons told reporters Tuesday that "The commitment that we have to the state of Israel is ironclad."