Thread by @DavidPepper

THREAD

H/t to @RealBarabbas on this find.

For years, @senrobportman has gushed and patted himself on the back for having founded and co-led the Senate’s Ukraine Caucus.

From the day he kicked it off, in fact, he proudly dubs himself the “co-chair” and “co-founder.”

1/

He touts an award he received in this role, he discusses a productive meeting w Ambassador Yovanovitch, and he also uses that role in particular to talk about how hard he is pushing for aid and funds to go to Ukraine.

2/

But then, it all stops.

It looks like he last tweets explicitly about his role with the Ukraine Caucus on Sept. 8.

3/

No coincidence, Sep 9 is the day the whistleblower complaint becomes public

After then, he never refers to himself in that role. He quickly pivots into talking about other roles he plays, leading the AI Caucus, an an Investigations Committee & the Great Lakes Task Force

4/

What’s interesting is that he has a call w Trump on Sept. 11.

While he never mentions that he chairs the Ukraine Caucus, his tone changes dramatically from his 9/8 tweet.

From that point on, everything he tweets and says are perfectly aligned w Trump talking points

5/

The cover story he and Trump put out there is that Portman’s call is the reason Trump released the aid.

This turns out to be false.

A false cover story put out by Trump and echoed by Portman.

First, the scandal was already blowing up so that was what prompted the change

6/

Second, and more egregious, the Sept 11 narrative is false because the State Department had already authorized the funds to be released days before, after concluding that holding them back broke the law.

Nevertheless, Portman covered for Trump

7/

aol.com/article/news/2…

Just as bad, or maybe worse, Portman also echoes in his initial tweet, and later media appearances, that he AGREES with Trump that he had a legitimate concern that Europeans needed to do more to help Ukraine.

This is two lies in one.

8/

1) it leaves the false impression that the reason Trump held up the money was because of European allies not giving enough. An absurd cover story.

2) it leaves the false impression that Europe wasn’t helping Ukraine enough. Also an absurd lie.

9/

factcheck.org/2019/09/trump-…

And just like that, as Portman starts touting false talking points about the Sept. 11 call, Trump repeats the exact same false talking points:

"I gave the money because Rob Portman and others called me and asked.”

10/

dispatch.com/news/20191002/…

And:

“But I don’t like to be the sucker and European countries are helped far more than we are."

11/

dispatch.com/news/20191002/…

So sometime after Portman’s Sept 8 tweet, where he last references his Ukraine Caucus role, Portman:

1) stops using that title completely

2) stops challenging the administration and instead...

12/

3) starts spewing false talking points that clearly are meant to create a cover up of the president’s reasons for holding and then releasing the funds, that also perfectly align with the president’s false talking points.

12/

Which leads to two questions.

1) what did Portman learn, and when, that motivated him to never tweet a reference to his Ukraine Caucus role after Sept 8 ?

2) what did he talk about on his Sept. 11 call with Trump, which could be only one of two scenarios?

13/

1) He and Trump concocted a set of false narratives to cover for all of Trump’s illegal actions leading up to that point.

If true, Portman was a willing participant in a public and pre-planned cover up

14/

Or 2) Rob was duped and lied to by Trump for why he both held up the money and released it, and then repeated those lies multiple times in a way that covered for Trump.

You’d think if this was the case, he’d be absolutely livid and want to explain that this was the case.

15/

Bottom line: Portman may be trying to now duck from his role in this Ukraine scandal—including dropping his once proud title at a strangely coincidental moment in this scandal.

But he has many questions to answer for his role here. And can’t hide forever.

END