Madison Cawthorn is not the loudest newish member of Congress. He’s no Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert. But he tries. News stories involving him tend to be outside-the-box: tickets for driving infractions; claims of cocaine and orgies in D.C.; former staffers calling him a “bad person.” Speaking of, on Friday Politico published photos given to them by “a person formerly close to Cawthorn and his campaign.” What do they show? Why, they show the hyper-masculine, anti-LGBTQIA+ representative in women’s lingerie.
The two photos, Cawthorn later revealed (while effectively confirming their veracity), were taken years ago, “waaay before I ran for Congress.” He claimed they were “goofy vacation photos” taken during a cruise, though he did not say when. He also attacked “the left,” who, he said, are “running out of things to throw at me.”
The images inevitably turned a lot of heads. Some argued that they revealed a double standard at play — that a prominent rightwinger who preaches hypermasculinity and denounces gay and trans people is also not above dressing in women’s clothing.
Others dwelled on his suggestion that they were leaked by the left, not by yet another person who was once close to him and no longer is.
Some took his suggestion and shared “embarrassing vacay pics,” though not of themselves.
There were lots of jokes, including one involving Tucker Carlson’s wackadoodle forthcoming documentary The End of Men.
But some actually liked the pics.
(Via Politico)