Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin prayed for President Trump after he was injured following an assassination attempt during the presidential campaign last year.
Speaking to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his podcast, Witkoff said Putin told him about his reaction to the attack on Trump during a meeting he had with the Russian leader in Moscow.
The special envoy has visited Russia twice to discuss details surrounding negotiations about the Ukraine conflict.
“When the president was shot, he [Putin] went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff said.
According to Witkoff, Putin has “a friendship” with the president. “He was praying for his friend,” Witkoff said.
Last July, Trump, then a presidential candidate, was addressing a rally near Butler, Pa., when he was injured by a bullet fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Witkoff added that Trump was “clearly touched” when he told him Putin had prayed for him following the shooting incident.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it,” Witkoff said in the podcast.
U.S. and Russian officials are set to meet in Saudi Arabia next week to resume bilateral talks.
Earlier this month, Putin said he is open to a 30-day ceasefire, as proposed by the U.S. However, he suggested vague terms for his support, including wanting to eliminate the root “causes of this crisis.”
Ukraine recently agreed to support the framework in talks with the U.S., after which the Trump administration is trying to get Russia to sign on.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for Kremlin, told reporters following the meeting that Putin received Witkoff on the evening of March 13 and that “additional signals” regarding Kremlin’s position have been conveyed to Trump.
