Months into Russia’s war in Ukraine, the United States had intelligence pointing to “highly sensitive, credible conversations inside the Kremlin” that Russian President Vladimir Putin was seriously considering using nuclear weapons to avoid major battlefield losses.

Bob Woodward writes in his new book “War” that Donald Trump has had as many as seven private phone calls with Vladimir Putin since leaving office and that he secretly sent the Russian president COVID-19 test machines in 2020.

Happy 50th “SNL!"

Not even a presidential election is likely to slow the wave of fantasy novels that has been building the past few years.

Bob Woodward’s next book, continuing a long tradition of election year releases, will focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and their place in American presidential politics.

Student journalists across the United States have done their bit to cover small town news for years, but a college paper in Iowa is taking a bigger swing at it.

One of the world’s largest and most influential publishers, Simon & Schuster is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Simon & Schuster has been sold to the private equity firm KKR, months after a federal judge blocked its purchase by rival publisher Penguin Random House because of concerns that competition would shrink the book market.

Richard Snyder, a visionary and imperious executive at Simon & Schuster who presided over the publisher’s exponential rise during the second half of the 20th century and helped define an era of growing corporate power, has died.

Former President Donald Trump is suing journalist Bob Woodward, claiming the reporter didn't have permission to release interview recordings of Trump to the public.

More than eight hours of conversations between Donald Trump and Bob Woodward will be released next week as an audiobook.

The U.S. government and publishing titan Penguin Random House have exchanged opening salvos in a federal antitrust trial.

The biggest U.S. book publisher’s plan to buy the fourth-largest for $2.2 billion represents a key test for the Biden administration's antitrust policy.

Watergate and Jan. 6 are a half-century apart, in vastly different eras, and they were about different things.

There’s nothing official Washington loves better than a juicy whodunit.

CBS News announced the hiring of Robert Costa of The Washington Post as the network's chief election and campaign correspondent.

The top U.S. military officer has told Congress he knew former President Donald Trump wasn’t planning to attack China and it was his job to reassure the Chinese of this in the phone calls that have triggered outrage from some lawmakers.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley are scheduled to appear before the House Armed Services Committee to review the war in Afghanistan.

Gen. Mark Milley has been the target of more political intrigue in two years as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff than any of his recent predecessors were in four.

The top U.S. military officer says calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump's presidency were “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job.

A top U.S. general's calls to China are coming under new scrutiny in Congress.

The top U.S. military officer is defending his phone calls to his Chinese counterpart during the final months of Donald Trump's presidency as an effort to avoid misunderstandings and conflict.

Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not suddenly go to war.

The fall book season will be packed with new works by such high-profile authors as Jonathan Franzen, Sally Rooney and Colson Whitehead.

The author of “Fire and Fury,” the million-seller from 2018 that helped launched the wave of inside accounts of the Trump White House, will have a last look coming out next month.

New York Times editor Bill Hamilton appears in this April 18, 2012 photo. Hamilton is joining Celadon Books as executive editor. Bill Hamilton will begin his new job April 5 and will focus on acquiring books about politics and history. (Earl Wilson/The New York Times via AP)NEW YORK – The Washington editor for The New York Times is joining Celadon Books as executive editor. Bill Hamilton will begin his new job April 5 and focus on acquiring books about politics and history.

I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens," said Biden, who has long addressed grief more powerfully than perhaps any other American public figure. AdAfter he spoke, the president along with first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff stood outside the White House for a moment of silence at sundown. In one of his many symbolic breaks with his predecessor, Biden has not shied away from offering remembrances for the lives lost to the virus. The COVID-19 death total in the United States had just crossed 400,000 when Biden took the oath of office. The administration says it expects to have enough vaccine available for every American by the end of July.

FILE - Actor Hal Holbrook appears during an interview in his New York apartment on Feb. 8, 1973. Holbrook died on Jan. 23 in Beverly Hills, California, his representative, Steve Rohr, told The Associated Press Tuesday. Holbrook died on Jan. 23 in Beverly Hills, California, his representative, Steve Rohr, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Holbrook’s material is uproarious, his ability to hold an audience by acting is brilliant,” said The New York Times. AdWhen he wasn’t portraying Twain, Holbrook showed impressive versatility.

The deaths projection wasn't much different from what Biden himself has said, but nonetheless served as a stark reminder of the brutal road ahead. Administration officials appeared on Zoom from separate locations, in keeping with the Biden administration's efforts to model best practices for safe work habits in the pandemic. “We’re bringing back the pros to talk about COVID in an unvarnished way,” Biden said Tuesday. Dr. David Hamer, a professor of global health and medicine at Boston University’s School of Public Health, said having briefings from health officials that are “based on serious science” would go a long way toward improving public perceptions of the vaccine. Those messages found few champions in the former administration, as Trump openly flouted science-based guidance from his own administration.

The measured approach is drawing praise in some corners for being realistic -— but criticism from others for its caution. “I found it fascinating that yesterday the press asked the question, ‘Is 100 million enough?'" You can’t do 100 million in 100 days.’ Well, we’re — God willing — not only going to 100 million. Trump provided an overreach of his own in May 2020, when he said the nation had “prevailed” over the virus. Trump’s lax approach and lack of credibility contributed to poor adherence to public safety rules among the American public.

(Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)NEW YORK – Even before “The Dissident” made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, director Bryan Fogel had a sense that his explosive Jamal Khashoggi documentary was going to be a tough sell. The audience at Sundance included Hillary Clinton, Alec Baldwin and Reed Hastings, the Netflix chief executive. In 2019, Netflix removed an episode of Hasan Minhaj’s “Patriot Act” that condemned the cover-up of Khashoggi's murder after a Saudi complaint. Mohammed denied Saudi Arabia was behind the murder, then eventually granted it was carried out by agents of the Saudi government. “Ultimately, those risk assessments took the place of whether or not their couple hundred million subscribers would like to see this film,” Fogel says.

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)NEW YORK – Book publishing in 2020 was a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same. To its benefit and to its dismay, publishing was drawn into the events of the moment. Penguin Random House, among other initiatives, asked all employees to read Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be an Anti-Racist.” Kendi later presided over a company town hall. Macmillan CEO Don Weisberg, who cited a wide range of diversity programs at the publishing house that began before “American Dirt,” said he “understands the skepticism." The CEO of Penguin Random House U.S., Madeline McIntosh, noted how well book publishing could meet the public's needs during the pandemic and other events of 2020.

Woodward is teaming with Costa on a book about the waning days of Donald Trumps administration and on the initial phase of Joe Bidens presidency. The book does not yet have a title or release date. (AP Photo)NEW YORK – Bob Woodward's next book finds him in the familiar world of documenting a presidency's ending. Woodward is teaming with Washington Post colleague Robert Costa on a book about the waning days of Donald Trump's administration and on the initial phase of Joe Biden's presidency. Woodward already has written two best-sellers on Trump, “Fear” and “Rage.”For the new book, Woodward and Costa will have competition, from other Post reporters.

NEW YORK – Former Watergate sleuth Carl Bernstein took to Twitter to list the names of 21 Republican senators who he says have “repeatedly expressed contempt” for Donald Trump and his fitness to be president. Many Washington reporters have talked about lawmakers who have privately expressed reservations about Trump but rarely attached names to their stories. Bernstein said he believed several of the Republicans on his list were privately happy about Democrat Joe Biden's victory. Michael Zona, a spokesperson for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who was on Bernstein's list, said the characterization was untrue. There was no article on CNN's website about Bernstein's list on Monday.

NEW YORK – Charles Yu's “Interior Chinatown,” a satirical, cinematic novel written in the form of a screenplay, has won the National Book Award for fiction. Tamara Payne and her father the late Les Payne's Malcolm X biography, “The Dead Are Arising,” was cited for nonfiction and Kacen Callender's “King and the Dragonflies” for young people's literature. The traditional dinner ceremony is the nonprofit National Book Foundation's most important source of income and is usually held at Cipriani Wall Street, where publishers and other officials pay thousands of dollars for tables or individual seats. The scholar Manning Marable died right before the 2011 publication of “Malcolm X,” which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and receive a National Book Award nomination. This is a story you should try to tell.”Winners in each of the competitive categories receive $10,000, and other finalists $1,000, with the money divided equally between the author and translator for best translated book.

NEW YORK – One of publishing's most thriving genres of the past four years, books about President Donald Trump, is not going to end when he leaves office. In 2021 and beyond, look for waves of releases about the Trump administration and about the president's loss to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. “But there are tens of millions of Americans who look to the Trump presidency as an important time and are fans of his administration. Center Street, a Hachette Book Group imprint, has published Donald Trump Jr., Newt Gingrich and Judge Jeanine Pirro among others. Any publisher signing with Trump or a top administration official might face the anger not just of Trump critics among the general public, but from within the industry.

Thousands of President Donald Trump's supporters regularly cram together at campaign rallies around the country — masks optional and social distancing frowned upon. Trump rallies are among the nation's biggest events being held in defiance of crowd restrictions designed to stop the virus from spreading. Some states have fined venues that host Trump rallies for violating caps on crowd size. But I’m not canceling, and we’ll find out what happens.”The Trump campaign blamed the dispute on “free speech-stifling dictates" of Democratic Gov. He calls the Trump rallies “super-spreader events” and says he's listening to the warnings of public health experts.

Thousands of President Donald Trump's supporters regularly cram together at campaign rallies around the country — masks optional and social distancing frowned upon. Trump rallies are among the nation's biggest events being held in defiance of crowd restrictions designed to stop the virus from spreading. This at a time when public health experts are advising people to think twice even about inviting many guests for Thanksgiving dinner. Some states have fined venues that host Trump rallies for violating caps on crowd size. He calls the Trump rallies “super-spreader events” and says he's listening to the warnings of public health experts.

“President Trump still does not seem to be taking the pandemic seriously enough. Today, Winnebago is among the top 10 counties where new Wisconsin COVID cases are being reported, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and compiled by The Associated Press. Iowans’ view of Trump’s handling of the pandemic is also more negative than positive, according to The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll and Monmouth University polls. “ALL THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IS COVID, COVID, COVID,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. !”During his debate with Biden last week, Trump insisted of the virus, despite the spike in cases: “It will go away.

Trump's “don't be afraid” takeaway is infuriating public health experts — who note that basic prevention measures do work contain the spread of the deadly virus. But for many of Trump's supporters, the president was merely adopting an attitude they expect, and they themselves reflect, when it comes to the pandemic. Trump's supporters don't view these practices as irresponsible and were largely quick to dismiss the level of risk involved. Zirpolo praised the president for briefly leaving the hospital over the weekend for a drive-by to wave to supporters, despite his infection. Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada and Sam Metz in Carson City, Nevada contributed to this report.

Crowds of people gathered shoulder to shoulder on the White House South Lawn. Instead, he flouted his own government’s guidelines and helped create a false sense of invulnerability in the White House, an approach that has now failed him as it did a nation where more than 200,000 people have died. And their use, while technically required, wasn’t enforced in the White House either. Even in the hours after the president’s diagnosis, senior White House staff, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and economic adviser Larry Kudlow, walked around the White House complex without wearing masks. The White House, even now, says the face coverings are a matter of “personal choice” for most staffers.

Then, just as quickly, they receded into memory with the revelation Friday that Trump had tested positive for COVID-19. CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta called it “a bit unsettling.”Meanwhile, the White House Correspondents Association said three journalists there tested positive for COVID on Friday. All had covered White House events last weekend. Then, at 12:54 a.m. Eastern, the president tweeted that both of them were positive. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was asked pointedly why he was not wearing a mask when he briefed reporters Friday afternoon.

Journalist Bob Woodward spoke about his reporting on the Trump presidency for his latest book, "Rage," at the 2020 Texas Tribune Festival. Bob Woodward said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s failure to bring order in a time of turmoil is a tragedy for voters. And in 2020, Woodward said, there is always the next surprise. In those recordings, Trump admitted downplaying the threat posed by the virus despite knowing it was much worse than the flu. When Trump said the pandemic and the economy were only “a little bit” related, “I almost fell out of my chair,” Woodward said.

“People need to understand how dangerous a moment we are in.”There are plenty of others weighing the same decision. But Mattis and Coats, like former White House chief of staff John Kelly and former national security adviser H.R. The White House punched back with an aggressive attack campaign aimed at discrediting her through a barrage of statements, interviews and denunciations from the lectern in the White House briefing room. “The White House knows if they show this is a very costly thing to do they will scare people from going forward," he said. He added that while more people are still considering coming forward, the White House tactics have worked to some extent — dissuading one senior official who had been on the cusp of speaking out.

FILE - In this April 29, 2017, file photo journalist Bob Woodward sits at the head table during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)NEW YORK – Bob Woodward's “Rage” sold more than 600,000 copies in its first week of publication, continuing a yearlong wave of blockbuster books about President Donald Trump. Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday that Woodward's book will be going into its fourth printing, with total books in print to be 1.3 million copies. Featuring 18 interviews with President Trump, including one in which he acknowledges in February the potential severity of the coronavirus, “Rage” has topped Amazon.com and other bestseller lists since coming out Sept. 15. “Rage” also hasn't matched the pace of Woodward's previous Trump book, “Fear,” which sold more than 1 million copies its first week and has sold 2 million since its 2018 release.

NEW YORK – Bob Woodward says he hadn't planned on releasing audio tapes of his interviews with President Donald Trump for his book “Rage” until CNN reporter Jamie Gangel and the author's wife convinced him. “The microphone really is a microscope.”Gangel worked in tandem with Elsa Walsh, herself an accomplished reporter who helps edit her husband's books, to encourage release of the tapes. For a CNN reporter to help push a news source toward a decision that amplifies the impact of a book that is highly critical of Trump may open Gangel to some criticism. But it's an important role for journalists to advocate for public release of as much information as possible, said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. CNN chief Jeff Zucker, who was interviewing Woodward at the conference, also said that “we're all better” for Gangel pressing the point.

Any time the justices divide 4-4 in a case, the lower court ruling remains in place. If say, the court were to split that way in a case involving the election, the tie would ratify whatever the lower court decided. In 2016, “the court actually did a pretty good job when the court had eight justices for a while. Any case that divides the court 4-4 after arguments could be held and set for a new round of arguments when the court is back at full strength. The Supreme Court has managed at less than its full nine-member strength at three points in the past 50 years, in 1970, 1987-88 and 2016.

And although he has not fully detailed his nuclear policy priorities, Biden says he would push for less reliance on the worlds deadliest weapons. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)WASHINGTON – Democrat Joe Biden leaves little doubt that if elected he would try to scale back President Donald Trump's buildup in nuclear weapons spending. James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment, says Biden's instincts on nuclear weapons are more liberal than those of much of the Democratic Party's defense establishment. Biden embraces the notion that nuclear weapons should play a smaller role in defense strategy and that the ultimate goal should be a nuclear-free world. “This outcome will result partly from the fact that Joe Biden is a common-sense centrist who respects the views of experts,” Thompson wrote recently.

In a video released Thursday by the group Republican Voters Against Trump, Troye says working for Trump was “terrifying” and says he was more concerned about his reelection chances than about protecting the nation from the virus. Troye alleges that, during one task force meeting she attended, the president said: “'Maybe this COVID thing is a good thing. She was on the task force as some kind of a lower-level person. '”The vice president's office released a copy of Troye's departure email, dated July 23 and addressed “Dear Task Force Members.” Pence chairs the task force. The White House adamantly denied the exchange Troye described, with White House spokesperson Judd Deere saying “her assertions have no basis in reality and are flat out inaccurate."

President Donald Trump’s town hall in front of undecided Pennsylvania voters offered an intriguing preview of how he may approach his first debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden in two weeks. LONG-PROMISED POLICY PLANS“We’re signing a health care plan within two weeks,” Trump said on July 19. MODERATORS MATTERABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos pushed back against some of Trump’s comments but didn’t always challenge the president’s misstatements. But, facing a moderator and not an opponent, Trump was able to often set the tone for the discussion. A debate in which Trump is face-to-face with Biden and has a strict time limit will be a different challenge entirely.

“There are people that don’t think masks are good,” Trump said, though his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly urges their use. Taped at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, it featured Trump taking questions from an audience of just 21 voters to comply with state and local coronavirus regulations. Trump has been unusually mum on his debate preparations ahead of the first debate, set to take place in Cleveland. “Well, I sort of prepare every day by just doing what I’m doing,” Trump said. Biden is to have his own opportunity to hone his skills taking questions from voters on Thursday, when he participates in a televised town hall hosted by CNN.

FILE - In this April 29, 2017, file photo journalist Bob Woodward sits at the head table during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington. ___THE BIG QUESTIONSHow much more damage can Woodward do? There is no more expensive swing state on the 2020 map and there is no state more important to Trump's reelection than Florida. See it here: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/Every state allows voters to cast ballots before Nov. 3, either in person or by mail. ___2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election.

“This is just good commonsense public health." Sandra Crouse Quinn, a University of Maryland professor who researches crisis communications during public health emergencies, said it’s critical not to overreassure people in a pandemic. Dr. Howard Koh of Harvard’s school of public health said unflinchingly communicating what’s known as soon as possible helps build trust that will be necessary as the pandemic progresses. Koh said the role of the White House in a pandemic is to galvanize national attention for public health officials and then step out of the way. As the fallout played out last week, Trump got some backup from Fauci, who told Fox News that he didn't get the sense that Trump had distorted anything.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)WASHINGTON – “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt. ___In times of crisis — wars, hurricanes, pandemics — effective leaders strike a balance between inspirational rhetoric and leveling with the public about the tough times ahead. “In Trump’s case, he was saying it was not a dire situation, he was putting people off their guard,” Beschloss added. She cited public skepticism even after schools, sports, entertainment and other industries shut down to keep the virus at bay. Still, “you want people to be informed and to make decisions that are for individual safety and for public safety.

And now, a secret nuclear weapon. Some think he may have been talking about a nuclear warhead that was modified to reduce its explosive power. Known as the W76-2, this weapon certainly is unknown to the general public — not because of secrecy or mystery but because of its obscurity. It cannot be ruled out that the U.S. is developing a new nuclear weapon in complete secrecy. A hypersonic weapon is one that flies at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, will both be traveling to rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Friday, where the hijacked Flight 93 crashed in a field, killing everyone on board. While Trump will speak at the site's annual memorial ceremony held Friday morning, Biden will visit later, in the afternoon, after attending the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s annual commemoration at Ground Zero in New York, along with Vice President Mike Pence. Still, Biden insisted that he would steer clear of politics on a national day of mourning. In 2016, the 9/11 memorial events became a flashpoint in the campaign after then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton abruptly left the Ground Zero 9/11 ceremony and was caught on tape stumbling and then falling as she tried to get into a van. The 2,200-acre Flight 93 National Memorial marks the spot in rural Pennsylvania where the hijacked flight crashed, killing all 40 people on board.

But four years later, the president has plenty to say about Kamala Harris. “Kamala Harris and her voting record helps make the case against Joe Biden,” Murtaugh said. Like Biden, Harris has staked out relatively moderate stances over the course of her career on issues such as health care and law enforcement. Kamala,” Trump said, mispronouncing and stretching out each syllable of her name each time he said it in North Carolina. By elevating and trying to define Harris, the Trump campaign is trying to change how voters view Biden.

PORTLAND, Maine – Democrat Sara Gideon sought to link Republican Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, with President Donald Trump during their first debate Friday night, and she demanded several times that Collins say whether she’ll vote for him — a dare Collins wouldn't take. “Let me say this: I don’t think the people of Maine need my advice on whom to support for president,” Collins said. Gideon already has raised more than $24 million, compared with more than $16 million for Collins, according to the latest campaign finance reports. That doesn’t include $3.8 million for Gideon that was crowdsourced by critics of Collins during the debate over Kavanaugh. Gideon had suggested five debates, while Collins proposed debating in each of Maine’s 16 counties.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaking at a press conference. Credit: Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via REUTERSU.S. Sen. John Cornyn suggested Thursday that President Donald Trump could have better balanced his initial response to the coronavirus pandemic between trying to keep calm and providing reliable information to the public. It came out earlier this week that Trump told as much to journalist Bob Woodward for a forthcoming book, saying he did not want to create a panic. Trump told Woodward in February that the virus was transmissible by air and "more deadly than ... even your strenuous flus." During the afternoon call with reporters, Cornyn did not raise any concerns about the credibility of the reporting on the comments.

NEW YORK – It's high season for books that pick apart Donald Trump's presidency, and Rachel Maddow is a big beneficiary. With less than two months before the election, authors are elbowing each other for space on the best-seller lists. Conservative authors have also sought attention for new books during the political season. That was the case with Schmidt's book. Maddow gave more attention to Schmidt's discussion about why Trump's personal and business dealings with Russia have not been investigated.

President Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, play golf at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., as seen from the other side of the Potomac River in Darnestown, Md., Saturday, July 18, 2020. On Wednesday, Carlson suggested that Graham is a false supporter of Trump, rhetorically asking his viewers why Graham — as a Republican — would have set up such a meeting. “Lindsey Graham was against all of that, more than many Democrats,” Carlson added. Book excerpts were released Wednesday, as well as taped conversations between Woodward and Trump. “Lindsey was in the room when one of the interviews took place,” Harrison said.

This week, the state of Nevada became the first to scuttle Trump’s plans for rallies initially set for Las Vegas and Reno. The back-and-forth comes as the White House is grappling with fallout from a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. In a burst of tweets Thursday morning, Trump defended his comments admitting that he had been warned about the danger of the virus. Trump has characterized the rallies as “peaceful protests” and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said attendees were exercising their First Amendment rights. ___Associated Press writers David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan, Brian Slodysko in Washington, and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2017, file photo The Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward arrives at Trump Tower in New York. Woodward, facing widespread criticism for only now revealing President Donald Trump's early concerns about the severity of the coronavirus, told The Associated Press that he needed time to be sure that Trump's private comments from February were accurate. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:1. N95S ARE STILL IN A SHORTAGE White House officials say the U.S. has all the medical supplies needed to battle COVID-19, but health care workers, hospital officials and even the FDA say thats not the case. CHIEFS BAN NATIVE IMAGERY AT ARROWHEAD Kansas City fans wont be wearing headdresses or face paint at the NFLs opener amid a nationwide push for racial justice following the police-custody death of George Floyd

As he engaged in nuclear arms talks with Kim, Trump dismissed intelligence officials' assessments that North Korea would never give up its nuclear weapons. Trump told Woodward that the CIA has no idea how to handle Pyongyang. Critics said that by meeting Kim, Trump provided the North Korean leader with legitimacy on the world stage. Kim wrote to Trump that he believed the deep and special friendship between us will work as a magical force." But the sources did not provide details and told Woodward, according to the book, that they were surprised Trump had disclosed it.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON Try as he might to change the subject, President Donald Trump cant escape the coronavirus. And now, Trumps own words are redirecting attention to his handling of the pandemic when he can least afford it less than two months before Election Day. I wanted to always play it down, Trump said of the threat from the virus. Revelations from the Woodward book emerged just as Trump's campaign was beginning to feel that the virus was receding from public view. By evening, Trump's own words, captured on the Woodward tapes, had popped up in a Biden campaign ad.

Woodward, facing widespread criticism for only now revealing President Donald Trump's early concerns about the severity of the coronavirus, told The Associated Press that he needed time to be sure that Trump's private comments from February were accurate. Woodward, the celebrated Washington Post journalist and best-selling author, spoke with Trump more than a dozen times for his book. Trump says things that don't check out, right? Woodward told the AP during a telephone interview. But Woodward said that only in May was he satisfied that Trump's comments were based on reliable information and that by then the virus had spread nationwide. "If I had done the story at that time about what he knew in February, that's not telling us anything we didn't know," Woodward said.

NEW YORK President Donald Trump and his Republican Party jointly raised $210 million in August, a robust sum but one dwarfed by the record $364.5 million raised by Democrats and their nominee, Joe Biden. Both campaigns are raising massive amounts of money but have very different priorities about how to spend it, said Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien. The Trump campaign, however, faces questions about how it has managed to lose a massive financial advantage. Trump campaign officials have kicked off a review of expenditures, including those authorized by former campaign manager Brad Parscale, who was demoted this summer. But even Parscales internal critics give him credit for helping the Trump campaign construct an unparalleled Republican operation to attract small donors online.

You just breathe the air and thats how its passed, Trump said in a Feb. 7 call with Woodward. Trump told Woodward on March 19 that he deliberately minimized the danger. The Washington Post, where Woodward serves as associate editor, reported excerpts of the book, Rage" on Wednesday, as did CNN. The book is based in part on 18 interviews that Woodward conducted with Trump between December and July. "Trump never did seem willing to fully mobilize the federal government and continually seemed to push problems off on the states, Woodward writes.

WASHINGTON Veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's new book about President Donald Trump is titled Rage and will be released Sept. 15, less than two months before Election Day, according to a listing on Amazon.com. Publisher Simon & Schuster says the forthcoming book follows Trumps moves as he faces a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. It says Woodward conducted a series of exclusive interviews with the president. The Amazon listing also notes that Woodward obtained 25 personal letters between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including one in which Kim describes their bond as something out of a fantasy film.Woodward's first book about the Trump presidency, Fear, was published in 2018 and went to No. 1 on The New York Times' nonfiction bestseller list. Simon & Schuster was the publisher of two books this year that were harshly critical of Trump: The Room Where It Happened, by former national security adviser John Bolton, and Too Much and Never Enough, by Trump's niece Mary Trump.