NUCLEAR/RUSSIA: [Jonathan Swan: “[I]t’s been widely reported that the U.S. has intelligence indicating that Russia paid bounties or offered to pay bounties to Taliban fighters to kill American soldiers… You had a phone call with Vladimir Putin on July 23rd. Did you bring up this issue?”]
“No. That was a phone call to discuss other things. And frankly, that’s an issue that many people said was fake news… I think a lot of people. If you look at some of the wonderful folks from the Bush Administration, some of them, not any friends of mine, were saying that it’s a fake issue. But a lot of people said, it’s a fake issue… But we had a call. We had a call talking about nuclear proliferation.”
-Donald Trump in a July 28, 2020 interview with Jonathan Swan, “AXIOS on HBO: President Trump Exclusive Interview (Full Episode) | HBO,” YouTube.com, Aug. 3, 2020