Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado’s Second District in Congress, is everything that Ben Cline isn’t. I mean that as a compliment.

Among other distinctions, Neguse features the following on the home page of his Congressional website:

There is, of course, no similar count on Cline’s website or anywhere else. Maybe that’s because Cline hosted precisely one town hall (limited to a tiny number of constituents) during all of 2025.

As it happened, after Cline’s foolish questioning of former Special Counsel Jack Smith at a committee hearing Thursday, Neguse was the next committee member to face the witness. He took the opportunity to call out Cline.

My colleague from Virginia, a Republican colleague who was questioning you right before the break, do you know what he said in the days after January 6th? Let me share this with you. This is a quote of his from a press release on January 8th: “Congress stands united in our rejection of the violence that occurred this week, and I’ll continue to urge the swift prosecution of those involved to the fullest extent of the law.” Mr. Smith, this is theater. Republicans are trying to rewrite history. That’s what this is. Many of them were with us in the House chamber on January 6th. I remember it well. The chairman [Cline’s pal Jim Jordan] was there, as was I. There’s been a lot of discussion about witnesses today. Perhaps the chairman could muster the courage to call the four witnesses who I see, the American public may not see, I see standing behind you, Mr. Smith, the four police officers who risked everything, life and limb.

To do what? To protect the Republican members on the dais. It’s an outrage that they now sit here and have the audacity to try to rewrite history in front of the very officers who sacrificed everything to protect them.

Cline has never said a word about Donald Trump’s pardon of all the January 6 insurrectionists, including those who brutally assaulted law enforcement officers. Unlike some Republicans, he has never acknowledged that Trump had any role in provoking the violence. He voted against impeaching Trump for his role in the attack on the Capitol and against a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6. And he has shown no sympathy for in the officers who bear the physical and mental scars of that day.

Joe Neguse has Ben Cline pegged.

If Congressman Cline thought he was going to make former Special Counsel Jack Smith look bad during Smith’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Cline should know that he only succeeded in making a fool of himself.

As Blue Virginia reported:

Cline attempted, falsely, to discredit Smith’s track record and competence, in part by referencing Smith’s prosecution of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell for corruption. Recall that on September 14, 2014, McDonnell and his wife “were found guilty of public corruption charges” – “He was convicted of honest services wire fraud, obtaining property under color of official right, and extortion under color of official right.” Then, on July 10, 2015, “the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals… affirmed McDonnell’s conviction.” Finally, on June 27, 2016, the US Supreme Court “unanimously vacated McDonnell’s conviction…holding that the trial court’s construction of the statutory term ‘official act’ was too broad, encompassing activities such as setting up meetings, hosting parties and calling Virginia officials to discuss Williams’s business.” So basically, Jack Smith – as Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section – was very successful in this prosecution all the way to the US Supreme Court, which as we’ve seen in recent years, OFTEN gets things badly wrong, often at odds with the “lower courts.” In this case, as Jack Smith explained, “the Supreme Court changed the law on what constituted an official act.”

Ben Cline also criticized Jack Smith for seeking a “gag order” against Donald Trump, because of Trump’s threats to witnesses in the election interference case against him. Cline dishonestly characterized this as violating the “principle that the government doesn’t silence political speech, in particular speech before it happens,” claiming (falsely) that there was no real world harm that you could articulate that justified giving the federal government the power to silence him as a presidential candidate.”  As Jack Smith correctly explained, “The court granted those motions and found that the prosecutor did not have to wait until someone was harmed to make such a motion.” Smith also explained that the Court of Appeals agreed that there was a basis and that the threats to witnesses that came from the targeting by Donald Trump were real, and then we had a duty to protect them.” Cline basically blew that off, strongly implying that Trump’s statements about the cases against him had NOT “intimidated witnesses or prevented them from coming forward.” Again, Smith responded correctly – “I had evidence that he said ‘if you come after me, I’m coming after you’…he suggested a witness should be put to death.” And, Smith added, “The courts found that those sort of statements not only deter witnesses who’ve come forward; they deter witnesses who have yet to come forward.” Yet AGAIN, Cline blew this off, claiming Smith wasn’t “able to identify a single witness who didn’t come forward because they were intimidated by President Trump.” And yet again, Smith corrected Cline’s lying idiocy – “We had extremely thorough evidence that his statements were having an effect on the proceedings that is not permitted in any court of law in the United States.” And yet AGAIN, Cline acted as if these threats to witnesses were all a big joke or something (“I mean, if you can’t identify a single witness who’s intimidated…maybe you should reconsider the gag order.”). WTF? That’s really outrageous by Cline, and by that point most of us would have wanted to tell Clint to go f*** himself. Fortunately, Smith is a professional, kept his cool and responded, “Both courts upheld the orders and it is not incumbent on a prosecutor to wait until someone gets killed before they move for an order to protect the proceedings.” Smith added, again correctly, that “the First Amendment does not allow one to make statements that interfere with the administration of justice in a judicial proceeding” and recalled that, “in the days after Donald Trump made some of these statements, the district court in this case received vile threats, threats to the district court’s life in that environment,” so “I felt a duty as a prosecutor to make that motion, and I make no apologies.” 

Cline, on the other hand, has a lot to apologize for.

Congressman Cline posted this on his campaign Facebook page:

While the Trump administration– the most lawless in American history– violates the Constitution on a daily basis, Cline thinks the only threats to constitutional freedoms are coming from “the left.”

I’ll give the final words to the distinguished constitutional scholar (and anti-fascist) Daffy Duck:

In one of Congressman Cline’s frequent softball interviews with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business (he spends more time talking with her than he does with his constituents at town halls), he was asked about the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

He said:

Well, anytime you have a loss of life, it’s a tragedy. But what we have is law enforcement engaged in enforcing the law. What we need is for Americans to respect that action by law enforcement and to allow law enforcement to continue to do its job. When we see these tragedies occur, to have the governor of Minnesota inflame tensions by talking about using National Guard troops to prevent ICE from doing their job, that’s not only irresponsible and dangerous, that does cross a line.

In other words, no recognition that those who are supposed to be enforcing the law sometimes violate it in horrific ways. No recognition that by terrorizing a community, ICE is making the people of that community less safe. No recognition that local officials have the right to protect residents from abusive and brutal behavior no matter the source.

Cline’s record of publicly justifying or silently accepting everything Trump and his functionaries do or say remains unblemished.

On Thursday 17 Republican members of the House of Representative joined all Democrats to pass a three-year extension health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

Is anyone surprised that Congressman Cline was not among them?

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Let’s be clear: Cline’s NO vote was a kick in the teeth to more than 33,000 of his Sixth District constituents who depend on ACA subsidies to keep their health insurance premiums from doubling or tripling.

Not all his Republicans colleagues are as out of touch as Cline is with the people they represent.

“Thirty-thousand people in northeastern Pennsylvania obtain their health insurance through the exchange, and that’s always been my North Star,” said Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R), who represents a swing district in the state. “I think Congress has an obligation to address this. You can’t be a flamingo and stick your head in the sand. I think we need to have tough conversations.”

… And for the fifth year in a row, Congressman Cline has nothing to say about the Trump-incited attack on law enforcement and the effort to overthrow democracy on this day in 2021.

Instead we get this:

Once again:

Cline’s Facebook page: nothing.

Cline’s X account: nothing.

Cline’s website: nothing.

Here’s a reminder of Cline’s actions (and inactions) leading up to 1/6/2021, on the day itself and in the days, weeks and months afterwards.

As we start the new year, let’s not forget that Congressman Cline is entirely complicit in this unfolding disaster, which will affect more than 33,000 of his Sixth District constituents.

As Simon Rosenberg of Hopium Chronicles reports:

Tens of millions of Americans wake up today with far more expensive health insurance and a dramatically weakened health care system. Republicans let these subsidies expire – and aggressively cut Medicaid and SNAP benefits – in order to pay for tax cuts to the wealthiest among us. In 2025 Republicans literally took from the poor and working people and gave to the rich. It is among the most shameful things an American political party has ever done.

I’m sure Congressman Cline will be happy to answer questions and deal with any concerns about this at an upcoming town hall meeting. If there is one.

What did Congressman Cline have to say about Donald Trump’s angry, defensive, unhinged, lie-filled rant of a speech Wednesday?

What do you think?

“Last night, President Trump delivered a strong and positive address to the nation, reflecting on a remarkable first 11 months in office. From revitalizing our economy and securing our borders to restoring American leadership at home and abroad, the President has delivered real results for hardworking families,” said [Republican Study Committee] Vice-Chair Ben Cline. “The President made it clear that this is just the beginning. There is more work ahead, and the best days for our country are still to come as we continue building a stronger, safer, and more prosperous America.”

Just the beginning, Congressman? That sounds like a threat.

As Rex Huppke wrote at USA Today:

But what should worry all of us after his brief-but-disturbing address is this: Is Trump OK? Because he appeared very much not OK. Watch the speech for yourself and ask if he seems like a man of sound mind.

Wouldn’t any honest and rational person be asking the same thing? I’d like to believe Cline is asking himself that question, even if he’s too much of a coward to say so publicly.

Faced with some tough questioning on CNN (unlike his usual softball interviews with Newsmax, Steve Bannon and Maria Bartiromo) about former special counsel Jack Smith’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and other matters, Congressman Cline was reduced to Democrat-bashing, evasions and whataboutery– while carefully avoiding even the mildest criticism of Donald Trump.

(Of course this is the guy who– unlike some of his braver Republican colleagues– hasn’t said a word publicly about Trump’s morally sick comments on the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner.)

And as tens of millions of Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their health insurance face doubling or tripling of their premiums, Cline touted his support for a Republican plan that would do NOTHING– zero, zip, nada– to prevent this.

Asked about the sensational report in Vanity Fair based on interviews with Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, Cline said he hadn’t read it. The interviewer pointedly told him, “I bet it’s worth your time.”

Touché.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview that Congressman Cline recently did with WFIR News in Roanoke:

Interviewer: How do you feel about the double strike on the alleged drug running boat near Venezuela? It was going back to kill two survivors, allegedly. Some are calling it a war crime. Did it cross a line? And does Congress, Congressman, need to have a say in what’s going on in Venezuela, especially with President Trump threatening to put boots on the ground?

Cline: We absolutely do have a say in what happens. We are the body that has the power to declare war. So we’re going to decide what happens down in Venezuela in terms of whether it’s necessary to declare war. But drugs are a huge problem in this country, and there’s so many families in our district have been affected by drug abuse, and we need to tackle it at the source. And the source is South America, Central America, where the drugs are grown and made and brought up. And so by targeting drug runners, which is what our president has done effectively, is a way to stop the drugs from hurting families here in the district. So I commend the president for going to the source and trying to target these drug runners, these narco terrorists, which they are, the cartels are targeting innocent American civilians. And these are agents of these drug cartels. And so I trust our intelligence. I’m on the Intelligence Committee. I’m getting another briefing on this very subject this week. And we’ll continue to make sure that laws are followed, the Constitution adhere to, but that we stop these drugs from killing our families here at home.

Interviewer: Do you think before I throw you back to Joe, do you have a problem with the double strike or was that in the within the purview of the assignment?

Cline: As I said, I’m confident that we are following the Constitution and the letter of the law as we target these drug runners. And so I’m going to continue to get this intelligence and continue to make sure that we do that as we target the source of this cause of death for so many families here in the Roanoke Valley.

Leaving aside Cline’s reflexive deference to Trump (what makes him “confident” that the administration is “following the Constitution and the letter of the law” when there is so much evidence to the contrary?), his professed concern about Sixth District families affected by drug abuse rings hollow if he refuses to acknowledge Trump’s monumental hypocrisy when it comes to drug criminals.

The Washington Post reports:

On President Donald Trump’s first full day in office this year, he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted of creating the largest online black market for illegal drugs and other illicit goods of its time.

In the months since, he has granted clemency to others, including Chicago gang leader Larry Hoover and Baltimore drug kingpin Garnett Gilbert Smith. And last week, he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for running his country as a vast “narco-state” that helped to move at least 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

Overall, Trump — who campaigned against America’s worsening drug crisis and promised to crack down on the illegal flow of deadly drugs coming across the border — has pardoned or granted clemency to at least 10 people for drug-related crimes since the beginning of his second term, according to a Washington Post analysis. He also granted pardons or commutations to almost 90 others for drug-related crimes during the four years of his first term, the analysis showed.

At the same time, Trump has threatened military action against Venezuela over accusations that the country’s government is supporting the drug trade and has pushed the Pentagon to conduct targeted strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean. The contrasting actions have come under fire from Democrats and other critics, who say Trump’s broad use of clemency contradicts promises to get tough on drugs.

What say you, Congressman?