Of the freshman class of Republican lawmakers, Madison Cawthorn hasn’t anywhere close to the headline-staple infamy of Marjorie Taylor Greene or even a Lauren Boebert. But it’s not for lack of trying. He’s fumbled about as he tried to spread voter fraud lies; he’s made bizarre and lazy claims about President Biden’s vaccine push. He can’t even get into a screaming match correctly, as he did on Friday, with a member of the wrong party.
As per Politico, on Thursday Cawthorn got into a spat with fellow Republican representative David McKinley. Their beff? A bill to which Cawthorn no longer wanted his name attached. He was so incensed that he first took out his anger on a female member of McKinley’s staff. As the argument escalated, Cawthorn reportedly condescended to her, telling her to lower her voice when speaking to a member of Congress. He also referred to her boss as ” that guy with the mustache that nobody f*cking knows.”
Cawthorn later took his aggression to the floor of the House, where he confronted McKinley personally. McKinley called him out for pushing around his staff, and refused to take his name off the bill. Things soon mushroomed into a screaming match. At one point Cawthorn called McKinley out for daring to support the bipartisan committee investigating the events of Jan. 6.
“I said, ‘Your district will remember that. And if you want to run for re-election and you’re going to sit here and attack me all over this stuff, I will make sure they remember,’” Cawthorn later recalled tellin ghim. “And then he started getting all kinds of angry.”
The McKinley staffer later filed an ethics complaint, which seemed to have caused Cawthorn to simmer down. He sent both McKinley and his staffer letters of apology. In one he said he doesn’t “wish for any ill will between our offices” and hopes they can put “our differences behind us” and “focus on our true adversaries.”
The letters even made their way to social media, but some couldn’t get past Cawthorn’s handwriting.
I just saw Madison Cawthorn's handwriting so now you have to see Madison Cawthorn's handwriting. pic.twitter.com/l12gjMvP9r
— Zach Heltzel (@zachheltzel) July 31, 2021
My hand to god, I thought this note from Rep. Madison Cawthorn was parody at first. I don't even know what to say. https://t.co/Nx8c3dP9oD
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) July 31, 2021
I wanted to check it out some more, 'cuz I didn't believe the letters could possibly be real, but… they are.https://t.co/qpjxUMLDxL
— Fred Barton (@FredBarton1899) July 31, 2021
Cawthorn’s name was finally removed from the bill. It remains to be seen if the House Ethics Committee will pursue the staffer’s complaint, details of which are currently unknown.
(Via Politico)