A letter to Congressman Cline

Dear Congressman Cline,

The Washington Post reports:

President Trump and the White House on Tuesday continued to promote a baseless conspiracy theory about a woman’s 2001 death, ignoring her grieving widower’s plea for peace and putting renewed pressure on social media companies about the president’s toxic use of their platforms.
…..
“I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him — the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain,” Timothy Klausutis wrote last week in a letter to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey. “My wife deserves better.”
…..
One Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), urged Trump to “stop creating paranoia,” adding that the divisive political strategy “will destroy us.” But most Republican lawmakers said nothing…

Unfortunately, but all too predictably, you are among the vast majority of Republican lawmakers saying nothing.

Congressman Cline, as the author the the Cline Watch website, I have had very little positive to say about you and your record in Congress. But I believe that– unlike the current occupant of the White House– you are not emotionally crippled. I know how rough politics can be, but you must understand at some level the horror of what President Trump is doing by needlessly inflicting pain on a grieving widower.

If that isn’t bad enough, Trump then retweeted a video of a Republican in New Mexico proclaiming to cheers: “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Although the speaker claimed he wasn’t being “literal,” what possible reason could Trump have for sending out that hateful message to his tens of millions of Twitter followers? Do I need to ask how you would have reacted if President Obama had retweeted a video of someone saying: “The only good Republican is a dead Republican”?

Of course, as even you might acknowledge, Obama would never have done that.

Trump doesn’t care what I and my fellow Democrats say about him. But it just might get his attention if you and more than a brave handful of Republicans like Congressman Kinzinger spoke out for simple human decency– even at the risk of some flak from the pro-Trump “base.”

I look forward to hearing back from you on this.