Bob Dole says he “may have” played a role in setting up President-elect Trump’s controversial call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday.
The law firm with which Dole is affiliated works with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S.
“It’s fair to say that we may have had some influence” in making the call happen, Dole told the Wall Street Journal in a report published Monday evening.
Trump’s transition team confirmed the call took place Friday evening, saying Tsai offered her congratulations to Trump, and the two discussed the economic, political and security relationship between Taiwan and the U.S. Trump also congratulated Tsai on becoming president of Taiwan earlier this year.
News of the call immediately sparked concern about the U.S. relationship with China, which views Taiwan as a rogue province that belongs to the mainland. The call is widely believed to be the first between a U.S. president or president-elect and a leader of Taiwan since 1979, when diplomatic relations between the two were cut off.
Trump later tweeted that Tsai “CALLED ME,” and not the other way around.
People involved in the planning told the Washington Post that the phone conversation had been planned for months. The report cites Stephen Yates, a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, saying that the Trump team had prepared a list of world leaders with whom to arrange calls.
While he was familiar with the preparations, Yates vehemently denied a CNN report about him taking part in arranging the call, in an interview with the Washington Examiner last week.
