The Cline-Putin convergence on impeachment

At a town hall meeting in Botetourt County in April, Congressman Cline made clear that he is not a fan of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“Russia is not our friend, we all need to recognize that,” he said. “The first volume of the Mueller Report should lay bare to everyone just how much Russia is not our friend.”

He characterized Russia’s attack on elections as “real,” adding that actions need to be taken to ensure the sanctity of the country’s elections.

So it should disturb Cline at least a little that he employs some of the same talking points as Putin when he justifies his down-the-line support for President Trump during the impeachment process.

Both Cline and Putin see the impeachment as nothing more than an effort by Democrats to reverse the result of the 2016 election.

And both claim that House Democrats decided on a Ukraine-related impeachment of Trump not because he did anything wrong, but only because they failed to find enough evidence of collusion with Russia.

Here is Cline on December 13:

“[T]he only abuse of power I have seen is by Speaker Pelosi and her caucus as they try to remove the duly elected President from office and overturn the will of 60 million Americans.”

Here he is on September 25:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has caved to those on the far-left of her party who are demanding an official impeachment inquiry. She knows there is not enough support in the full House to pass a formal resolution of impeachment [wrong, as it turned out], so she has thrown her support behind the embarrassing spectacle of hearings that have been going on for months in the Judiciary Committee. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I have watched as the Democrats have failed repeatedly to build a case for impeaching the President, from hearings about nonexistent Trump-Russian collusion to the flop that was the Mueller Report.”

And here is Putin on December 19:

“This is just the continuation of the internal political battle, one party that lost the elections, the Democrats, and are now trying to find new ways by accusing Trump of collusion with Russia. But then it turns out there was no collusion, this can’t be the basis for the impeachment. Now they came up with some pressure on Ukraine, I don’t know what is the [pressure] but this is up to your congressmen.”

Another thing Cline and Putin have in common is that both have earned appreciative tweets from Trump.