Taking every opportunity to fight the culture war, the Republicans approved amendments banning reimbursements to soldiers who need to travel out-of-state for abortions if they are stationed in states that outlaw the procedure; banning payments for soldiers who undergo transgender surgery or hormone replacement therapy; and gutting programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the military.
The House version of the NDAA stands no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
But several amendments, because they failed, flew under the radar. I want to call attention to three in particular:
- An amendment by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to cut $300 million in funding to Ukraine.
- An amendment by Republican Andy Ogles to cut off lend-lease authorityto Ukraine.
- An amendment by Republican Matt Gaetz to prohibit security assistance to Ukraine.
On all three amendments, Cline voted YES. He voted to cut off all US military assistance to Ukraine in its fight against brutal Russian aggression. He and the other Republicans who voted this way did exactly what Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wanted.
Besides Republican Bob Good, Cline was the only Virginian in the House to support this effort to betray Ukraine and enable Russia to crush a free, independent and democratic country.
This isn’t the first time Cline has voted in agreement with Putin. Last year he was one of only 18 House members to vote NO on expressing support for Finland and Sweden to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
What makes this all the more disgraceful is that Cline actually bragged last year that he was one of “several” House members being sanctioned by Russia.
In fact, as I noted 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.
The sanctions are in apparent retaliation for the US government sanctioning more than 300 members of the Russian Duma in March.
Now that Cline is voting precisely the way that Putin wants him to vote, I doubt he’ll end up on any more Russian sanctions lists. Rather, he probably would be a most welcome guest at the Kremlin.
Gene Zitver is the editor of ClineWatch.
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