Madison Cawthorn wasn’t always grabbing as many headlines as fellow newbie MAGA lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. But lately that’s changed. The North Carolina representative seems to have enraged his own party members, partly by claiming that Congress is full of orgy-loving cokeheads, partly because he keeps getting busted bringing loaded handguns through airports. (And acquiring traffic violations.)
Then there’s some of the more colorful stories of his personal life. Recently Politico published a leaked photo of Cawthorn, no fan of the LGBTQIA+ community, in drag, which he later explained was him goofing around on a trip with friends. Fair enough. Soon thereafter came a video of him hanging with a guy putting his hand on the politician’s crotch. Now, as per The Independent, the embattled lawmaker decided to address them both in a new video address.
Madison Cawthorn: “The media is pushing a narrative that I’m some kind of drag queen on the side .. This is just poor journalism. But, I’m not surprised. It is Politico after all – not exactly the same journalistic standards as Fox or Newsmax.” pic.twitter.com/rGWiTHHfG3
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 4, 2022
“The media is pushing a narrative that I’m some kind of drag queen on the side, aside from being a congressman,” Cawthorn said. “This is just poor journalism, and I’m not surprised. It is Politico after all — not exactly the same journalistic standards as Fox or Newsmax. And, really, with about five minutes of investigation they could have found that this was taken well before I was in Congress, and even before I was running for Congress.
“Ask yourself this,” he told viewers. “Have you ever taken a dumb photo on vacation?”
Cawthorn also addressed the homoerotic video, which was actually of himself and a relative. “Now, this video is just stupid locker room talk between two cousins, that grew up like brothers taken long before I served in Congress,” he said.
He also pointed out that Smith is his aide on Capitol Hill, which he probably shouldn’t have admitted: Federal law prohibits public officials from hiring relatives. As per Newsweek, the PAC called Fire Madison Cawthorn has accused him of ethical violations, among other things claiming Cawthorn has given him thousands of dollars in gifts, loans, and other benefits. Much like Matt Gaetz, Cawthorn has done this over Venmo, and The Independent claims they like to give the transactions jokey, blue names, like “Nudes,” “The quickie at the airport,” and “getting naked for me in Sweden.”
But at least Smith seems to get along with Cawthorn. Not all of his aides do.
(Via The Independent and Newsweek)