U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn – a first-term Republican representing North Carolina’s 11th district in the US House of Representatives U.S – has become in recent weeks the center of chaos within his party.
At 26, the youngest member of Congress has caused an uproar in the Republican party after stating in a podcast that people in Washington invited him to participate in orgies and used cocaine in front of him.
It was the latest incident in a series of controversies surrounding Cawthorn, including calling the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of “bandit” and the government Ukrainian of “unbelievably bad”.
The comments by the rookie politician, who faced charges in March for driving with a suspended license for the second time in five years, drew the ire of members of his own party.
THE CNN reported Wednesday that Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina is supporting one of Cawthorn’s main opponents.
It’s an extraordinary attack on a fellow Republican from his home state, as internal frustration with Donald Trump’s controversial congressional supporter has reached a boiling point.
According to multiple sources, other GOP lawmakers who are at the end of their rope with Cawthorn are also considering endorsing one of his opponents, amid growing concerns that the North Carolina Republican is hurting the entire party with his troublesome behavior. .
On Friday night (1st), Cawthorn generated his latest controversy in a statement on the twitterblaming the media and the left and vowing to “keep fighting for many years to come”.
In the state primaries on May 17, Cawthorn will face a number of opponents, including state senator Chuck Edwards, whom Tillis said he was endorsing, Michele Woodhouse, a self-styled “businesswoman and political activist,” Bruce O’Connell, a hotel and restaurant operator. , Rod Honeycutt, retired US Army colonel, Matthew Burril, local businessman and economic leader, and Wendy Nevarez, a Navy veteran.
Cawthorn’s opponents are trying to capitalize on his numerous controversies, including his speech on January 6, 2021, in which he urged attendees at the then-president’s “Save America” rally Donald Trump to contest the election, leading to capitol invasion.
Controversial from the start
Cawthorn — who was partially paralyzed in a 2014 car accident and owned a real estate investment company as well as a motivational speaker before joining Capitol Hill — caused a stir even before he walked the halls of Congress.
In 2020, he took a stunning political turn when he won the Republican Party’s nomination for the then-Chief of Staff’s seat. White HouseMark Meadows, despite Trump endorsing one of his Republican Party opponents.
After winning the second round of the primaries, the young Republican (who turned 25 before the general election, making him eligible to serve in the House) received Trump’s support and was praised for his charisma and appeal to younger voters.
“He is 24 years old, he is dynamic, he has managed to articulate the ability to reach younger voters. I’ve heard him referred to by some as ‘The AOC [a deputada democrata Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] from the right’. I don’t know if that’s true, but I think the generational part is also key here,” said Chris Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina University after Cawthorn’s primary victory.
However, Cawthorn became defensive after photos from a trip he took in 2017 to his vacation home Adolf Hitler emerged on Instagram.
He wrote that the visit had been on his “wish list for some time” and “did not disappoint.”
Allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against the deputy by several women when he was in college also surfaced after he began his political career. For his part, Cawthorn said, “I’ve never done anything sexually inappropriate in my life.”
electoral lies
Cawthorn became a close ally of Trump and voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Since then, however, the North Carolina congressman has contradicted himself when it comes to his statements about the 2020 election.
In January 2021, Cawthorn admitted that there was no fraud in the 2020 election, after voting to object to Arizona and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes when Congress met to certify the victory of then-President-elect Joe Biden.
“Yes, I think the election was not fraudulent,” he told CNN in season. “You know, the Constitution allowed us to back off as far as we could and I did that with as many constitutional limits as I had at my disposal. So now I would say Joseph R. Biden is our president”.
However, last August, Cawthorn suggested that there could be “bloodshed” in future elections and made false claims about electoral security and fraud.
Speaking at a Republican event in a North Carolina county, Cawthorn repeated the lie about America’s electoral systems being “rigged” and “stolen,” something he claimed would “lead to a place, and that’s bloodshed.” ” if continued.
“As much as I am willing to defend our freedom at all costs, there is nothing I fear to do more than take up arms against a fellow American. And the way we can appeal against that is if we all passionately demand that we have electoral security in all 50 states,” the Republican said at the time.
At the time, Cawthorn spokesman Luke Ball told CNN in a statement: “Congressman Cawthorn is CLEARLY advocating that violence not occur for reasons of electoral integrity.”
“He fears that others will wrongly choose this path and strongly asserts that issues of electoral integrity must be resolved peacefully and never through violence,” he wrote.
Ball maintained in August that “Congressman Cawthorn’s views on the 2020 election remained consistent.”
In February, Cawthorn filed a lawsuit to end efforts by liberal activists to disqualify him from running for Congress because of his role in the January 6 insurrection.
Cawthorn spoke at Trump’s rally on January 6, 2021 and posted militant tweets in the run-up to the attack on the United States Capitol.
In the lawsuit, lawyers for the group Free Speech For People said that Cawthorn essentially aided and abetted the insurrection, and should be disqualified from office because he “was involved in efforts to intimidate Congress and the vice president into rejecting valid electoral votes and subverting the essential constitutional function of an orderly and peaceful transition of power”.
In early March, a federal judge closed the case for Cawthorn’s candidacy, but anti-Trump liberal, legal and Republican activists who oppose Cawthorn asked the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to step in and revive the process.
Daniel Dale, Kate Sullivan, Dianne Gallagher, Kelly Mena, Caroline Kenny and Paul LeBlanc da CNN contributed to this report.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
