President Trump on Wednesday said the reason he released $400 million in military aid to Ukraine last month was because Ohio Sen. Rob Portman asked him to.
The President also gave the Buckeye Republican a warm shout-out during a contentious news conference after he was asked what he hoped to learn from Ukraine about his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Rob Portman backed me up, and there’s nobody more honorable than Rob Portman of Ohio,” Mr. Trump said. “Because he called up and said, ‘Please, let the money go,’ and I said, ‘Rob, I hate being the country that’s always giving money when Ukraine helps European countries far more than they help us.’ They’re like a wall between Russia and Europe. They’re like a big, wide, beautiful wall.”
The President was referencing a Sept. 11 conversation he and Mr. Portman, co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, had about the frozen aid to the European nation. The money was released the following day.
Mr. Trump attributed the hold up to European countries not paying their fair share to help Ukraine fortify itself against Russian advances. Critics believe the move was intended to pressure the country to investigate Mr. Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of an energy company there while Joe Biden was in the White House. Joe Biden is leading the 2020 Democratic field to challenge Mr. Trump.
“On that date, I called the President because we were getting to the point where the funds had to be released, and the President was very clear with me. He only raised one issue and that issue only, and that was about the Europeans not doing enough,” Mr. Portman said last week on Fox News.
The senator’s one-on-one with the President followed another critical call: the July 25 conversation Mr. Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that was the subject of an Aug. 12 whistleblower complaint and the U.S. House’s subsequent impeachment inquiry, which Mr. Trump called a “fraud” and a “hoax” during the news conference.
“I don’t see the quid pro quo that the Democrats are claiming,” said Mr. Portman, who appeared alongside the President earlier this month at a paper mill in Wapakoneta.
In his joint news conference with the Finnish president, Mr. Trump said Mr. Portman’s call was a decisive factor in releasing the aid Sept. 12.
“I gave the money because Rob Portman and others called me and asked,” Mr. Trump said. “But I don’t like to be the sucker, and European countries are helped far more than we are and those countries should pay more to help Ukraine.”
Mr. Portman said in a statement last week following House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry: “The American people want us to get things done for them rather than focus on more and more partisan investigations. The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry will distract Congress from the bipartisan legislative work we should be doing to find solutions and deliver results for the American people.”
The Ohio Democratic Party, in a statement after the news conference, said it wanted more answers from Mr. Portman about his talks with Mr. Trump and Ukraine officials.
“It’s time for full transparency from Rob Portman,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said. “What did he know about the growing Ukraine scandal and when did he know it?”
First Published October 2, 2019, 8:33 p.m.
