A new book reveals what Biden says about other world leaders behind closed doors

“That f*****g Putin,” Biden said to advisers in the Oval Office not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This according to investigative journalist Bob Woodward.

Woodward (pictured) is publishing a book called ‘War’ on October 15, which, according to CNN, offers “ a remarkable look behind the scenes at President Joe Biden’s blunt, profanity-laced assessments and interactions with the world leaders who have shaped his presidency.”

“That son of a b-, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad f*****g guy!”, reveals another excerpt of the book, stating Biden said to one of his associates in the spring of 2024 as Israel’s war in Gaza intensified.

According to Woodward, while Biden supported Israel publicly, he fought with Netanyahu behind the scenes over how Israel was conducting the war in Gaza.

“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden asked Netanyahu during an April phone call, Woodward reports.“We have to go into Rafah,” Netanyahu said. “Bibi, you’ve got no strategy.” Biden responded.

Later, in July, when an Israeli airstrike was directed at the Lebanese capital, killing a top Hezbollah commander and many civilians, Biden yelled at Netanyahu, according to Woodward, he said “Bibi, W T F?!”

Netanyahu responded that they saw an opportunity and they took it. “The harder you hit, the more successful you’re going to be in the negotiation,” he added.

Woodward’s ‘War’, also reveals just how worried White House officials actually were at some point of Putin using nuclear weapons, with intelligence reports showing they believed there was a 50% chance Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon, Woodward reports.

“On all channels, get on the line with the Russians,” Biden instructed his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. “Tell them what we will do in response,” he said, according to Woodward.

The book then recounts a tense phone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in October 2022.

Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants, Woodward’s book, also reveals things that Trump has said in private and gives new details about the former president’s close relationship with Putin.

In 2020, Woodward writes, Trump had “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.” Trump, however, has told ABC News that these reports are false.

Moreover, a senior Trump aide told Woodward that there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, “maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021,” he writes.

Woodward also goes into Trump’s decision to run for president again, including a series of conversations with his ally and golfing buddy, Senator Lindsey Graham.

“Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” Graham said. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.”

Woodward goes on to describe Graham’s attempts to give Trump campaign advice for 2024. “You’ve got a problem with moderate women,” Graham told Trump after the midterms. “The people that think that the earth is flat and we didn’t go to the moon, you’ve got them. Let that go.”

Graham repeatedly urged Trump to move on from the 2020 election, telling him if he is reelected, “then January 6 won’t be your obituary.”

“I gave a speech today and I only mentioned the 2020 election twice!” Trump said to Graham a few days later, “as if it had shown maximum restraint,” Woodward writes, adding Graham says Trump is becoming “more erratic”.

The book also gives an insight into Joe Biden’s personal battles, such as his decision to step down from the presidential campaign and endorse Kamala Harris.

According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, his decision to endorse Harris was based on how bad he felt when he was not endorsed by Obama in 2016. “He was disappointed. He felt that, you know, as his vice president that’s the normal and natural order,” Blinken is quoted saying.

Woodward also interviewed Kamala Harris, who gives an insight into her close friendship with Biden, saying that he feels he can swear freely around her. “He knows that I’m the only person around who knows how to properly pronounce the word motherf*****,” Harris is quoted saying.

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