OK, I get that Congressman Cline’s office is unlikely to have a form letter at hand addressing job losses at the Fish and Wildlife Service. But this one wasn’t even close.
Wrong form letter, Congressman
Category: Uncategorized
Two-faced Ben Cline
(And not for the first time.)
In an apparent effort to restrain demands from his constituents for in-person town hall meetings, Congressman Cline posted this on his Facebook page:
The Friends Committee on National Legislation is a Quaker organization. As you can see from their website, their views and priorities do not often align with those of Cline and his fellow Republicans.
So while some may give credit to Cline for meeting with a group of his political opponents, I think it’s safe to say that he will ignore everything they told him.
Shortly after his meeting with the Quakers, Cline spoke to a dinner meeting of the Shenandoah County Republican Committee, where he expressed his true feelings.
According to a source who attended the Republican meeting, Cline said he had been in his Harrisonburg office meeting with “agitated liberals” who want to give money to Palestine, and was glad to be back in Shenandoah County, where, he said, he is supported.
So not only was Cline insulting the Quakers, but he was also insulting the people of Harrisonburg.
Cline went on to say that under Donald Trump, the country is moving in the right direction; that Trump has assembled the best cabinet; that he thanked Trump for dismantling the Department of Education; that the judiciary needs to be “reined in”; and that the 2017 Republican tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefited the ultra-wealthy and corporations, were “for the common family.”
And sorry, Congressman: Your constituents still demand in-person town hall meetings.
Where was Ben?
Last year the Republican-friendly Roanoke Star reported:
On Saturday, March 16, Representative Ben Cline (R-6th Dist), participated in Freedom First St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Downtown Roanoke. The mix of the Parade’s beauty and the warm weather created a joyful environment for people. As he does every year, Rep.Cline returned to Downtown Roanoke to engage and celebrate with the public and become a part of the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Not every year, it seems. Cline was notably absent from this year’s parade. The Roanoke Times reported:
Not everyone was there to celebrate. Around 30 protestors stood across the Roanoke main library during the parade, holding signs and waiting to see if Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, would be there. Cline did not participate in the parade.
Protesters have been gathering outside of Cline’s office in Roanoke each Monday since Feb. 24 to request a town hall and to express their opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies. The group Roanoke Indivisible has been leading many of the protests.
Kristi and Michael Strange with Roanoke Action Collective were among Saturday’s demonstrators. The pair has never protested until recently, Michael Strange said.
“I am very frustrated that our United States representative refuses to meet with the people — with anyone, really,” Kristi Strange said. “We have questions. We would like answers.”
Though Cline was not in the parade, state Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, was. The protesters chanted at him as he passed by.
“The scuttlebutt was that (Cline) had planned to be here, and then when he heard that people were going to be here in opposition, he backed out,” Kristi Strange said.
No one was available Saturday from Cline’s staff or Downtown Roanoke Inc. to give details on whether or not Cline ever intended to participate in the parade.
Perhaps Cline had a perfectly good reason for skipping the parade. But maybe– just maybe– it was another instance of Cline trying to dodge public exposure as he continues to stand up for an increasingly unpopular Musk-Trump administration.
Congressman: I dare you to say this directly to your constituents
Maybe one reason Congressman Cline refuses to schedule face-to-face meetings with his constituents anywhere in the Sixth District is that he’s aware of the harm that Trump’s executive orders and empowerment of Elon Muk are doing, and he could never get away with talking like this to the people who actually live and work and raise families here.
Cline and Ukraine: A disgraceful and cowardly history
Congressman Cline has had nothing to say so far about Friday’s infamous White House meeting at which Donald Trump and JD Vance excoriated Ukraine’s President Zelensky (whose country was invaded by Putin’s Russia three years ago) for insufficient groveling, while slathering praise on the invader Putin.
But don’t expect Cline to defy Trump and Vance by offering principled support for Ukraine in its war against Putin’s brutal and murderous aggression.
Soon after the invasion, Cline issued a full-throated denunciation and even tried to raise campaign money based on the fact that he had been “sanctioned by Russia.”
As I wrote at the time:
What Cline didn’t mention is that the “several” were in fact 398— ranging from Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Republicans like Marjorie Talyor Greene.
Even North Carolina Republican Madison Cawthorn— who has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and the Ukrainian government “incredibly evil”– is on the sanctions list.
In fact the only reason some House members (such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi) are missing from the list is that Russia had previously sanctioned them.
Since then, as I’ve noted in several posts, Cline’s voting record in Congress has aligned a lot closer with Russia’s interests than with Ukraine’s.
Congressman Cline: You’re not the only one who is fed up
Congressman Cline took to Facebook on Thursday to chastise the hundreds of his constituents who turned out at a scheduled meeting with his staff Thursday in Waynesboro to express their frustration and dismay over the Musk-Trump administration’s destruction of large parts of the federal government, threats to vital programs that serve tens of millions of Americans, Cline’s lockstep approval of it all, and his refusal to meet face-to-face with the people he claims to represent.
Congressman: According to your website, these “mobile office hours” are for your staff to “meet with citizens to assist with problems they might have with a federal agency and hear their views on current issues before Congress.”
As it turned out, hundreds of your constituents wanted to express their views on these issues Thursday. But you weren’t there to hear them, and you have given no indication when– or if– you will face your constituents in a public meeting, in Waynesboro or anywhere else in the Sixth District.
After your staff insisted on meeting with constituents five at a time, your 2024 Democratic opponent Ken Mitchell spoke briefly to the waiting crowd and answered some questions. Your 2022 opponent Jennifer Lewis was at the meeting but– contrary to your Facebook post– she did not make a speech. Can’t you at least correct that?
As for your claim that “people support what President Trump is doing,” that’s not even true for all your and Trump’s voters, as one of the commenters to your Facebook post affirmed:
You’ve told us that you’re fed up with hearing from your constituents. How do you think your constituents feel?
Congressman Cline: Do you care?
Cline still has only praise for Musk and Trump
In an interview last week on WFIR radio, Congressman Cline continued his rave review of the Musk-Trump administration.
Cline conceded that the start of the new administration has been “chaotic.” He said Trump is “pushing the boundaries of what our norms are in our institutions.”
Some– including federal court judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents– would say that Trump pushed through and far beyond those boundaries weeks ago.
Cline insisted that Elon Musk “still has to follow all the privacy laws and all the laws that are on the books regarding personal data so he’s not going to be taking the data of Americans and doing anything with it. He’s trying to cut out the waste, cut out the stupid woke programs that people have been furious about for so long. And he’s doing a good job from the get-go.”
These reports, among many others, do not reassure.
The interviewer pointed out to Cline that Musk has contracts with the government and asked if there are sufficient guardrails.
Cline assured us: “The President was asked about conflicts of interest and he said there won’t be any and he’ll make sure of it. Now the President’s job is not to insure that his government employees avoid conflict of interest laws. But there are agencies and employees and people there to make sure those laws against conflict of interest are followed.”
If you can’t trust someone who made 30,573 false and misleading claims during his first Presidential term alone, who can… never mind.
And yes, there are people in the government who are supposed to watch out for conflicts of interest. They are– or were— independent inspectors general. You know, the ones Trump fired as soon as he could.
A message for Cline:
Reminder: Cline says he welcomes feedback from his Sixth District constituents– even if he is “fed up” with it. You can provide that feedback by calling his Washington office at (202) 225-5431.
Cline takes a softer tone (but don’t be fooled)
Are all the phone calls and emails from his Sixth District constituents complaining about the activities of Elon Musk and his DOGE boys getting to Congressman Cline?
After making several calls to Cline’s office (202-225-5431) about Cline and others in Congress relinquishing to an unelected billionaire their responsibility to control spending, one constituent received the following letter:
Quite a change in tone from the long-winded and unpersuasive letter defending Trump, Musk and DOGE that many of us received earlier in the month. This was the letter he posted on his X account, where he whined that he was “fed up” with hearing from people in his district about Musk and DOGE.
But think of this latest letter as an effort to quiet the deluge of negative feedback Cline is receiving from constituents, and not as any change in Cline’s sycophantic approach to the Musk-Trump administration.
Just today he posted this on his X account:
In other words, keep the calls coming.
Cline is fed up: the Australian edition
Now even folks in AUSTRALIA know that Ben Cline is fed up!
The clips of Elon Musk behaving like a goofball don’t exactly reinforce Cline’s message about Musk’s supposed trustworthiness.
And it’s wrong to suggest that Cline’s letter defending Musk and DOGE was a response to “Democratic lawmakers.” It was a response to a deluge of angry phone calls and emails from Cline’s Sixth District constituents.
Cline Watch 