On Monday the House of Representatives voted 394 to 18 to express support “for the sovereign decision of Finland and Sweden to apply to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as well as calling on all members of NATO to ratify the protocols of accession swiftly.”
The governments of Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s brutal and murderous invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. Expanding NATO to include these two countries with strong military capabilities will strengthen the alliance and send a powerful message of unity to deter further aggression by Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Putin, of course, does not approve and issued his usual blustering threats.
All Democrats and 176 Republicans supported the measure. The 18 NO votes all came from Republicans, and one of them was from Congressman Cline.
If a majority of the House had voted as Cline and the 17 other Republicans did, it would have been a huge victory for Putin. Fortunately that didn’t come close to happening.
This is not Cline’s first anti-NATO vote. One of his first votes in Congress was against a bill to block then-president Trump from withdrawing the United States from the NATO alliance, as Trump had suggested doing. Cline was one of only 22 members of the House– all Republicans– to vote NO.
Then in April he voted against a resolution expressing “unequivocal support” for the NATO as an alliance founded on democratic principles. The resolution was approved by all of the Democrats and 143 of the 206 Republicans who voted.
Perhaps some of the veterans and active-duty service members Cline claims to support, who have worked closely with troops from other NATO countries in our common defense, should ask him about it.
Cline Watch 
This is reprehensible! Has Cline given an explanation for his anti-NATO votes?
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Ben Cline does not represent either the sixth district or the United States. He doesn’t recognize the validity of President Biden , he is seditious and must be removed and replaced by Jennifer Lewis
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good morning, Gene,
Thank you as always for posting information about our Congressperson’s words and deeds. I appreciate the info very much as well as your compelling way of presenting it! I always use your information and insight; I still keep calling his office as often as I can.
I am not sure precisely what I can say to Rep. Cline about his votes regarding NATO, though; you and I may have different opinions about the war in Ukraine. I’m against NATO myself, believing that our world needs less military-oriented strategy and more diplomatic-oriented strategy for peace and security, even in Ukraine. In fact, some of the calls I made to Rep. Cline’s office in recent times appealed to him to resist ever more investment into NATO on the part of the US. I understand that my views are in the minority even among progressives. I understand that some think “the west” can’t go for diplomacy with Russia until after “we” smash Russia; I do disagree with that notion though. I appeal for negotiation now in order to save lives of Ukrainians and Russians and to lower the possibility of nuclear annihilation. In fact, the danger of nuclear conflagration (by intentional or accidental detonation) is the most urgent factor on our planet right now but it doesn’t seem to be talked about much in the media.
Rep. Cline may have different reasons to oppose the expansion and bolstering of NATO than I do; he may be too young to even be very aware of the nuclear dimension. But I want to keep appealing to him to stand for peace and against war. When I call his office today I will hopefully get to talk through some aspects of the issue with a staff person.
I have been thinking aloud as I am writing to you this morning. Thank you for reading my musings here. And thank you again for tracking our Representative’s work and for posting what you find, Gene!
Kathleen Temple (Rockingham County)
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I mistakenly said Norway, I meant Sweden and Finland that Ben Cline voted NO to join NATO
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