We shouldn’t be surprised by Congressman Cline’s utter silence on social media about the horrific murder on Saturday of 10 African Americans in Buffalo by a white nationalist.
For one thing, Cline– who rejects any kind of regulations on firearms– would have to confront the inconvenient fact that the 18-year-old shooter was able to purchase the AR-15-style assault rifle he used to gun down his victims.
For another, he would have to address the shooter’s espousal of the “Great Replacement Theory” propounded by many leading figures on the political Right.
[The theory] has two parts: 1) a belief that non-White immigrants are taking not just White people’s jobs but their communities and culture, and 2) a conspiracy that this is all being orchestrated by the left to replace Republican voters with illegal voters of color.
As I reported last September, Cline’s buddy Congressman Matt Gaetz posted on Twitter that Tucker Carlson of Fox News “is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America.” (Carlson is a leading proponent of the theory.) I wondered if Cline had returned a $2,000 campaign contribution he received from Gaetz. I’m still wondering.
Despite Carlson’s longtime advocacy of the racist and antisemitic theory, Cline was proud to be featured in one of Carlson’s misleading reports.
Another believer in the theory is Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. In 2019 Cline helped raise funds for Stefanik’s reelection campaign.
I realize that Cline (like most Congressional Republicans) has absolutely no use for the courage, honesty and integrity of his Republican colleague Liz Cheney. But for the sake of his own soul, he should take her words to heart.
And not just leaders, but pathetic mouthpieces like Cline.
I can’t think of a more urgent question for his constituents and the media to ask him.
What say you, Congressman?
Cline Watch 
I applaud the work you are doing with Cline Watch, but there is an error in this post. As most of the media has reported, the manifesto, and previous manifestos on Great Replacement are both racist AND anti-Semitic.
From The Guardian: “Replacement theory is a set of racist and antisemitic paranoid lies and delusions that has cropped up around the world in the past decade. In the US it is expressed as the false idea that an elite cabal of Jews and Democrats is “replacing” white Americans with Black, Hispanic and other people of color by encouraging immigration and interracial marriage – with the end goal being the eventual extinction of the white race.” The racism is important but so is the anti-Semitism. Because the racism doesn’t allow for the possibility that poc are rising to positions of power in America on their own merits, there must be some smarter, evil force putting them in power. For believers, poc are the problem, but Jews are the cause of the problem. The inclusion of Democrats as well as Jews is a very recent development that came about as Replacement Theory advocates have entered political life, most notable in Congress. They find it more acceptable to their constituents to attack Democrats, but within the leadership of the movement (Proud Boys etc.) Democrats aren’t mentioned, it’s only Jews who are responsible.
Leaving out the anti-Semitic aspect of this theory is erasing the impact on the American Jewish community of the far right and dismissing the validity of Jewish voices.
To be clear, this is a mistake that most of the US media is making at this time. The Guardian was the only source I could find that got that part of the story right, and yet every media outlet is reporting that the Buffalo shooter’s manifesto was filled with anti-Semitism. They just didn’t think it was important to explain why or how.
Thanks again for your work on Cline Watch. I hope you will take this in the constructive spirit in which it is intended.
Abby
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Thanks, Abby. Yes, many of the advocates of “Replacement Theory” couch it in antisemitic terms. I’ll amend my post.
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