Donald Trump says his phone call on July 23rd with Vladimir Putin was to “discuss other things.”  Trump confirmed to Axios’ Jonathan Swan that he didn’t bring up the issue of bounties paid by Russia to the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American soldiers.

Axios writes: “Pressed on why he didn’t raise the matter in Thursday’s call, he said: “That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that’s an issue that many people said was fake news.”

“Trump has spoken to Putin at least eight times since intelligence about the alleged Russian bounties was reportedly included in the President’s Daily Brief — his written intelligence briefing — in late February.

“Trump’s team says he was not verbally briefed on the matter before a June 26 reportfrom the New York Times brought the controversy out into the open.”

Watch a clip from the interview above.