Tag Archives: Cawthorn

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Madison Cawthorn under investigation by House Ethics subcommittee

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A House Ethics Committee subpanel is investigating Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn to determine whether he engaged in an improper relationship with a staff member and whether he improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have had an undisclosed financial interest. 

The Democratic-led House Ethics Committee announced Monday that a unanimously established investigative subcommittee, led by Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, will investigate the North Carolina Republican’s relationship with the staff member and the cryptocurrency matter. Congress’ youngest member at 26, the Trump-backed Cawthorn lost his primary race earlier this month. 

The investigation comes after a political action group opposing Cawthorn, American Muckrakers, filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics alleging multiple violations by Cawthorn and one of his House aides, claiming the congressman had provided the aide with free housing, travel and loans. The group cited social media posts suggesting a personal relationship between Cawthorn and the aide, Stephen Smith. Some in Cawthorn’s own party have pushed for an investigation as well. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina backed a Cawthorn challenger and and pushed for an ethics probe into Cawthorn, citing potential insider trading. 

Cawthorn has declared the allegations a “coordinated assault,” and insisted in an ad that he won’t back down. 

On Monday evening, Blake Harp, Cawthorn’s chief of staff said in statement, “We welcome the opportunity to prove that Congressman Cawthorn committed no wrongdoing and that he was falsely accused by partisan adversaries for political gain.” 

“I’ve never folded in Washington and the swamp hates me,” he said in a video released last month, before the primary. “They want someone who will make backroom deals and sell out our values, and someone who will abandon ‘America first’ principles.”

Cawthorn drew attention earlier this year for claiming his colleagues invited him to an orgy, sparking criticism from some GOP colleagues. Cawthorn was also stopped with a loaded gun at an airport earlier this month in Charlotte, after authorities caught him trying to bring a handgun onto an airplane in Ashville early last year.

It isn’t clear how long the House Ethics panel’s work will take. The subcommittee also said Monday it will not investigate the congressman for driving with a revoked license and speeding in North Carolina. 

Republican Rep. Michelle Fischbach and Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester will also work on the investigative subcommittee. 

 — CBS News correspondent Nikole Killion contributed to this report.

Kathryn Watson

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C.



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Primaries 2022 election day live: Trump rages as Dr Oz struggles in PA and Madison Cawthorn crashes out

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‘Great guy’: Trump endorses Dr Mehmet Oz in Republican primary for Senate race

With almost all the results now in from Tuesday’s key primary elections, Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to baselessly suggest mail-in ballots were fraudulent in Pennsylvania, where his chosen Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz is locked in a tight battle with former hedge fund executive David McCormick.

With only a small portion of the vote yet to be counted, the two men are just a tiny number of votes apart, putting them within the 0.5-point margin that triggers an automatic recount – and raising the possibility that mail-in votes could put Mr McCormick ahead.

Elsewhere, strong performances by several Trump-backed candidates indicate the former president still has plenty of clout within the party, but it was far from a perfect scorecard. North Carolina Republicans threw out the far-right congressman Madison Cawthorn in his primary.

That result met with celebration even within the Republican Party, whose establishment increasingly wanted to see the congressman removed from office because of his extreme statements and outlandish behaviour.

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Focus on Idaho as far right makes strides at state level

Solidly Republican Idaho has long been a stronghold for hardcore right-wing politics, but the recent far-right drift among state Republicans is attracting increasing attention from beyond the state’s borders.

While several extremist challengers to incumbent officials lost their races on Tuesday, a very different dynamic played out in the state senate, where mulitple incumbents were ousted by candidates holding extreme views.

Boise State Public Radio has a detailed report on the situation here.

Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 12:59

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Oz-McCormick: the state of play

As things stand this morning, only a tiny proportion of votes in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary remain to be counted, and the gap between first-placed Dr Mehmet Oz and chaser Dave McCormick has closed to a mere 1,240 votes out of more than 1.3 million already counted.

It is not entirely clear how many votes remain outstanding, but Mr McCormick appears to have an edge in mail-in ballots (much to Donald Trump’s chagrin). The state’s counties have until next Tuesday to certify their results. And if the result ends with a margin of less than 0.5 points, as currently seems likely, an automatic recount will be triggered.

In the meantime, catch up below on why the mail-in ballot process has slowed the count down so much.

EXPLAINER: How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania

Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Former President Donald Trump blasted the state’s elections procedures on social media, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county

Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 12:15

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Hannity complains about failed far-right candidate

Kathy Barnette’s supposed last-minute surge in the Pennsylvania Senate primary turned out to be an illusion, as she polled several points behind the near-tied Mehmet Oz and David McCormick. But she earned herself quite an audience on the right with her exuberantly extreme persona, and she is now using her newly earned platform to complain about Fox News’s Sean Hannity and his efforts to tarnish her as dangerous in his efforts to boost Dr Oz.

Here’s what Mr Hannity had to say about the matter last night:

Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 11:30

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Catch up: Who really won this week’s primaries?

Eric Garcia has taken the measure of this week’s primary results – the ones that are final, anyway – and he has this analysis of what they tell us about the state of the two parties, and about Donald Trump’s inconsistent power to shape the electorate’s preferences:

It’s clear that while Trump’s endorsement helps, it isn’t a guarantee. As of Wednesday, it is still too early to determine whether Dr Mehmet Oz, the former television host that Trump endorsed, won or lost the Senate primary in Pennsylvania. But the fact that the ex-president’s backing failed to slingshot him far ahead of the pack shows that a Trump endorsement won’t override reservations conservatives have about a candidate – as many did with Dr Oz, worrying that his beliefs on abortion, guns and fracking put him beyond the pale.

Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 10:45

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Madeleine Dean endorses John Fetterman

Democrat Madeleine Dean, who represents the 4th congressional district of Pennsylvania and has stayed away from endorsing any candidate so far, has backed lieutenant governor John Fetterman in the race.

“I am delighted to get behind John Fetterman,” Ms Dean said on Wednesday, adding that she ran against him for lieutenant governor for a period of time in 2018 and saw “a genuineness — willing to be himself, willing to be outside the box”.

Stuti Mishra19 May 2022 10:00

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How Mastriano’s win in Pennsylvania could turn election lies into action

Doug Mastriano was deeply involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the last election. He was at the US Capitol during the 6 January insurrection.

If he’s elected in November, Mr Mastriano has pledged to end the no-excuse vote by mail, a process that hundreds of thousands used in this week’s primary. He also wants to force millions of registered voters to register again.

Here’s what his victory would mean for the state with his far-right brand of politics:

Stuti Mishra19 May 2022 09:00

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How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania

Former President Donald Trump blasted Pennsylvania’s elections procedures on social media on Wednesday, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county.

He has relentlessly criticised the state’s voting procedures since his loss in Pennsylvania two years ago when it took several days to tally the results from all mailed ballots.

Here’s an explainer on how the state’s mailed ballot system works and what is causing the delay:

EXPLAINER: How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania

Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Former President Donald Trump blasted the state’s elections procedures on social media, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county

Stuti Mishra19 May 2022 08:00

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Do Republicans like ‘Big Lie’ supporter Doug Mastriano suddenly now believe in legitimacy of elections?

Doug Mastriano spent the months after the 2020 presidential election demanding an audit of results and amplifying Trump’s lie that his loss was due to fraudulent outcomes.

Last night Mastriano declared victory almost immediately after news networks predicted his GOP primary win for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, relying on the same electoral process that saw Trump lose two years ago.

Why do Mastriano and all the other previous deniers who won their races now believe the election process is fair?

The governor in Pennsylvania appoints the secretary of state, an immensely powerful position that runs the state’s elections and signs off on electors.

Alex Woodward19 May 2022 07:00

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Trump says ally Dr Oz should declare victory in Pennsylvania primary

The former president baselessly suggested that his preferred candidate Dr Oz simply declare himself the winner in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary, and falsely claimed election officials are “unable” to count ballots – keeping up his bogus narrative that elections, if they don’t go his way, are rigged against him, throwing a wrench into the democratic process.

Alex Woodward19 May 2022 06:00

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Defeated GOP primary candidate blames Sean Hannity for her loss accusing him of ‘flat out lies’

Far-right candidate Kathy Barnette, who is trailing in third in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, is blaming her finish on Fox News host Sean Hannity.

In a video posted to her Twitter account early on Wednesday morning, she thanked her supporters and attacked the Fox personality.

She said: “I do want to say: never forget what Sean Hannity did in this race. Almost single-handedly, Sean Hannity sowed seeds of disinformation, flat-out lies every night for the past five days. And that was just extremely hard to overcome, apparently”.

Alex Woodward19 May 2022 05:00

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2022 North Carolina primary: Cawthorn struggling to keep seat in primary

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — First-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn conceded his Republican primary race Tuesday to state Sen. Chuck Edwards, ousting the pro-Donald Trump firebrand from Congress after his personal and political blunders translated into constituent unhappiness.

Cawthorn called Edwards to concede the 11th Congressional District primary to Edwards, Cawthorn campaign spokesperson Luke Ball told The Associated Press.

The AP late Tuesday had not called the race, in which Edwards was leading Cawthorn and six other Republican candidates with nearly all votes counted. Cawthorn had vaulted to national prominence after winning the mountain-area seat in 2020 at age 25.

Edwards is fast-food franchise owner who with a victory would advance to the November election against Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, who won Tuesday’s six-candidate Democratic primary.

Cawthorn is a vocal supporter of Trump whose series of unforced errors led top Republican leaders in North Carolina to turn against him. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who endorsed Edwards, said Cawthorn was an embarrassment to his constituents.

“Republicans chose Chuck Edwards tonight because he is the embodiment of mountain values who will fight for them every single day in Congress with honor and integrity,” Tillis said in a news release.

Cawthorn faced negative publicity for speeding and gun violations, as well as for calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug.” And his initial decision to run for reelection elsewhere — only to switch back to the 11th District — didn’t sit well with many locals.

Within days of taking office in early 2021, Cawthorn spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally questioning Joe Biden’s presidential election victory that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Cawthorn soon became a leading spokesperson for Trump’s “America First” policies and conservatives in the culture wars. Trump has endorsed him.

Besides the remark about being invited to an orgy, Cawthorn said he had seen leaders in the movement to end drug addiction use cocaine. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy reprimanded him publicly for the remarks.

Cawthorn has been stopped by police on driving citations three times since October and caught with guns at airport checkpoints twice since last year, including last month. And videos released in the campaign’s final weeks showed Cawthorn in sexually suggestive poses, which he said were from several years ago — meant to be funny and nothing else.

Cawthorn acknowledged speeding and gun citations as failings, but said the videos were part of a “drip campaign” by his political enemies, of which he has included some Republicans, to flood the district with negative stories.

Cawthorn was seen as a rising star by many conservatives when in 2020 he won a primary runoff for the seat being vacated by Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff.

Cawthorn, who uses a wheelchair after being partially paralyzed from a car accident as a teenager, turned 25 — the constitutionally mandated minimum age to serve in the House — during the 2020 campaign.

In an election-eve post on his social media site Truth Social, Trump asked primary voters to back him again: “Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again … let’s give Madison a second chance!”

Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday evening at his campaign headquarters in Hendersonville with the result still uncertain, Cawthorn said Trump’s support had been solid.

“I’ve found that most people in politics, if it’s not politically expedient to them, they’ll turn their back on you in a heartbeat,” he said. “But no matter what you are facing, when Donald Trump has your back, he has your back to the end.”

Cawthorn’s biggest political mistake may have occurred last fall, when he decided to run for a different U.S. House seat that could have led to an easier reelection bid, only to return to the 11th District when redistricting litigation shifted the lines again. Edwards and others accuse Cawthorn of trying to walk away from his constituents for political convenience.

Edwards, 61, operates McDonald’s franchises in western North Carolina. He joined the state Senate in 2016 and moved up the seniority ladder in the chamber, taking on chairmanships and more substantive measures in recent years involving small businesses, guns and immigration.

He championed legislation, vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, that would have required all county sheriffs to assist federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement by holding inmates it believes are in the country unlawfully.First-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn has conceded to North Carolina state Sen. Chuck Edwards in the Republican congressional primary.

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Trump rally news: Ex-president backs Cawthorn as DeSantis bans protests outside private homes

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Donald Trump is supposedly writing a book on how presidency was stolen from him

Donald Trump is facing a complex night of Republican primaries, as two of his most conspicuous endorsees, Madison Cawthorn and Mehmet Oz, await potentially career-changing results in North Carolina and Pennsylvania respectively. Where Mr Cawthorn has become a paraiah in much of the GOP because of various recent scandals, Dr Oz is disliked and even despised by much of Mr Trump’s base because of his long record of liberal positions.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor and popular Republican leader Ron DeSantis has signed a bill making it illegal to protest outside a private home in his state. The issue has become a top GOP talking point since the leak of the Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade, a seismic story that saw pro-abortion demonstrators setting up outside the homes of right-wing justices and senators.

The Republican Party and right-wing media have sought to shift their audience’s focus away from the implications of throwing out Roe and instead towards the circumstances of the leak from the court and the tone of the protests that have ensued.

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Report: Jan 6 committee preparing for hearings

As the 6 January select committee gears up for what promises to be a dramatic set of hearings over the summer, one question is central to its members’ discussions: the extent to which they need to focus on former president Donald Trump as they piece together the chain of events that led to the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.

The Washington Post has released an excellent deep-dive report that includes this account of a discussion between two of the panel’s members last month:

Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), insisted the committee should focus less on former president Donald Trump and do more to examine the security and intelligence failures that led to the breach of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. She also urged the committee to look harder at what can be done to prevent another attack, according to people familiar with the matter.

The other member, Republican Vice Chair Liz Cheney (Wyo.), argued that the committee should keep an intense focus on the former president.

“Rep. Cheney’s view is that security at the Capitol is a critical part of the investigation, but the Capitol didn’t attack itself,” said Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Cheney.

The tense discussion — which played out in a conference room tucked inside the world’s largest library, where members posed for pictures with historic texts such as the Gettysburg Address — reflected just one among numerous weighty questions the committee must resolve before nationally televised hearings kick off next month.

Andrew Naughtie17 May 2022 14:25

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Trump agrees to limit his Twitter engagement

Many Trump fans are eager to see their leader back on Twitter, and Elon Musk has said that he thinks the former president’s account should never have been blocked. But according to financial filings from the company that will oversee the IPO of his own platform, Truth Social, the ex-president has agreed to limit what he can post on Twitter and when if he returns.

Under the agreement, Mr Trump must post anything unrelated to politics first on Truth Social, and can only post on another social media site six hours later, the federal securities filing shows.

But if Mr Trump wants to post on a personal social media account anything “related to political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts” he can do so at any time.

Graeme Massie has the story.

Andrew Naughtie17 May 2022 13:51

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Ron DeSantis outlaws protest outside private homes

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill sent to him by state legislators that bans protests outside private homes, drilling down on the right-wing insistence that the law should not tolerate demonstrators who gathered outside the homes of conservative justices and senators to protest the imminent end of Roe v Wade.

Among those whose homes were visited by anti-abortion protesters was Maine Senator Susan Collins, who phoned the police over a message chalked on the sidewalk outside her house.

Andrew Naughtie17 May 2022 13:00

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Trump phones in to Oz event in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump is selective with his in-person appearances on the campaign trail these days, restricting himself mainly to rallies in carefully chosen states with candidates he has heartily endorsed. He held such an event for Dr Mehmet Oz not long ago, but since it became clear the TV medic is in danger of losing his primary, Mr Trump has not appeared in Pennsylvania again.

However, an Oz campaign event last night – billed as a “telerally” – saw the president dial in on speakerphone to address a roomful of supporters, reassuring them that the candidate was in fact pro-life and pro-gun. Dr Oz’s long record of relatively liberal positions on both issues is the main strike against him for many conservatives, who have been resistant to his entreaties despite Mr Trump’s backing.

Andrew Naughtie17 May 2022 12:30

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Joe Biden reverses Trump’s withdrawal of US troops in Somalia

Reversing a decision taken by former President Donald Trump, Joe Biden has approved the redeployment of US troops in Somalia.

BBC reported that the deployment was requested by the Pentagon to support the fight against militant group al-Shabab.

In 2020, Mr Trump withdrew about 700 US troops from Somalia.

Andrew Naughtie17 May 2022 11:45

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ICYMI: Pelosi calls Trump a ‘creature’ as she dubs Supreme Court ‘dangerous to US freedoms’

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed that former president Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointees have made the bench “dangerous to the freedoms” of the country.

She criticised the judges as the court prepares to issue a ruling that could end decades of constitutional protections for abortion care and trigger a wave of laws making abortion illegal in roughly half the US.

Read the full story here:

Maroosha Muzaffar17 May 2022 11:00

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With echoes of Trump, GOP splinters over $40B for Ukraine

Signs of Republican resistance are mounting over a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, a reemergence of the Trump-led isolationist wing of the GOP that’s coming at a crucial moment as the war against the Russian invasion deepens.

Read the full story here:

Maroosha Muzaffar17 May 2022 10:00

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Ted Budd looks poised to coast to victory with Trump’s support

North Carolina Congressman Ted Budd is poised to claim victory on Tuesday over the state’s former governor in the race to be the GOP nominee for the seat held by retiring Sen Richard Burr.

His ascendancy is being buoyed by Donald Trump’s endorsement as well as that of the affluent Club for Growth, which has poured millions behind Mr Budd after breaking with the former president and being burned by Josh Mandel’s defeat in Ohio.

Mr Budd’s success despite running against an opponent who started with far greater name recognition is a sign of the clear power that Donald Trump still wields.

Read more in this profile of the race from the Associated Press:

North Carolina Senate race tests Trump’s endorsement power

When Ted Budd won a surprise endorsement from former President Donald Trump last year, he was a little-known congressman running for a Senate seat in North Carolina against some of the state’s most recognizable Republicans, including a former governor

John Bowden17 May 2022 09:00

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‘Cancel culture’ reason PGA moved from Trump-owned course, says Jack Nicklaus

Jack Nicklaus said that PGA Tour pulled its championship out of New Jersey in favour of Tulsa, Oklahoma because of Donald Trump.

He said that the PGA Tour pulled out because Mr Trump owns the course in New Jersey.

He said: “But this move is cancel culture. Donald Trump may be a lot of things, but he loves golf, and he loves this country. He’s a student of the game and a formidable figure in the game. What he does in the future in golf will depend on what the cancel culture will allow him to do.”

Mr Nicklaus has won 18 majors — the most in history. He also endorsed Mr Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

Maroosha Muzaffar17 May 2022 08:15

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Can Madison Cawthorn survive Thom Tillis?

Freshman Congressman Madison Cawthorn has no shortage of political foes but one of his most dangerous in his home state is Thom Tillis, the state’s junior Republican senator who will become the senior senator in January following the retirement of Richard Burr.

Mr Tillis is pouring his own super PAC’s money behind the effort to oust the Trump-endorsed Mr Cawthorn, who is beset by a myriad of scandals.

Read more from The Independent’s Eric Garcia:

John Bowden17 May 2022 08:00

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Cawthorn addresses video released by opposition group showing him naked in bed ‘being crass’

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After the video appeared on social media, Cawthorn tweeted, “A new hit against me just dropped. Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny. We were acting foolish, and joking. That’s it. I’m NOT backing down. I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won’t win. We will.”

CNN has not been able to independently confirm the video. CNN has reached out to Cawthorn for comment.

It’s the latest controversy for the 26-year-old, who is running for reelection with early voting already underway. The primary will be held on May 17.

The freshman Republican has angered and annoyed a number of his colleagues with a string of antics. Cawthorn became a national figure in 2020 when he beat then-President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate in the primary to replace then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in Congress. But he has caused a number of distractions for House Republicans, who are trying to win the majority in November.
Late last month, Cawthorn was cited for bringing a loaded handgun through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Charlotte airport. And in February 2021, agents at the Asheville Regional Airport found an unloaded gun and a loaded magazine in Cawthorn’s carry-on bag. A Cawthorn spokesman told the Asheville Citizen-Times when the paper published a story about the incident in July 2021 that the congressman had had brought the gun “by mistake.” Cawthorn was not charged.
In March, Cawthorn sparked an uproar after claiming on a podcast that people in Washington have invited him to participate in orgies and used cocaine in front of him. The episode prompted members of his own party to consider endorsing one of his primary opponents, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions at the time, amid growing concerns that the North Carolina Republican was dragging down the party with his problematic behavior. Sen. Thom Tillis has thrown his weight behind state Sen. Chuck Edwards in his primary against Cawthorn.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, amid complaints from members following Cawthorn’s allegations, told the freshman lawmaker he needed to get his act together or else he could face internal consequences, saying also that Cawthorn admitted the allegations were untrue.

“He’s got to turn himself around,” McCarthy told reporters at the time. “I just told him he’s lost my trust, and he’s going to have to earn it back. I laid out everything I find that’s unbecoming. … He’s got a lot of members upset. You can’t just make statements out there.”

CNN reported that same month that Cawthorn was facing charges of driving with a revoked driver’s license — the second time in the last five years he had faced that charge.
He also drew negative headlines when a video surfaced in which he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “thug” and said that the Ukrainian government was “incredibly evil.”
In 2021, CNN reported on a series of allegations of sexual misconduct made against Cawthorn by women who said he behaved inappropriately toward them during his college years. Cawthorn has denied any wrongdoing.

CNN’s Dianne Gallagher, Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju, Alex Rogers and Chris Cillizza contributed to this report.

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Madison Cawthorn is Under Pressure as Scandals Pile Up

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Mr. Wheeler provided The Times with a screenshot of the anonymous text he received that included the video, and he said he believed the tipster to be a former Cawthorn campaign aide. Another former aide, Lisa Wiggins, went public in an audio recording released by Mr. Wheeler with her consent, saying, “We all want the ultimate goal of him never serving again.”

Republicans in the state insist that accusations of lawlessness and neglect of his district are more damaging than details of his sex life. Democrats say they are most concerned with Mr. Cawthorn’s support for the protesters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A legal effort led by North Carolina Democrats to label him as an “insurrectionist” and constitutionally disqualify him from the ballot failed last month.

But the revelations about his conduct are making a splash. The photos of Mr. Cawthorn in women’s lingerie, first published in Politico, stemmed from a bawdy game aboard a cruise that he took before he was elected to the House, said Melissa Burns, a self-described conservative Republican from Tennessee who witnessed the game, part of an onboard show.

For the finale, the audience was divided into teams, each of which selected a man to dress as a woman, “the sexier ‘she’ is, the more points you get,” Ms. Burns said in an email. Mr. Cawthorn volunteered.

The description is consistent with a description that Mr. Cawthorn provided in a link on Twitter, when he dismissed the photos, saying, “I guess the left thinks goofy vacation photos during a game on a cruise (taken waaay before I ran for Congress) is going to somehow hurt me?”

Ms. Burns also provided a link to a dating app for the cruise from someone identified as “Cawthorn,” using the same photo that was published in Politico, saying, “Im in search of sexy women or couples for some wild sexapades. You wont be disappointed.”

Luke Ball, a spokesman for Mr. Cawthorn, did not deny Ms. Burns’ description of the lingerie game, but he said the dating app was a fake that used the wrong age, wrong hometown and wrong name of the ship.



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Rep. Madison Cawthorn cited for having gun at Charlotte Douglas – WSOC TV

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CHARLOTTE — Rep. Madison Cawthorn was cited for having a gun at Charlotte Douglas International Airport Tuesday morning, police said.

According to the TSA, a 9 mm handgun was discovered in a bag at Checkpoint D, and TSA officials contacted Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

A photo obtained by Channel 9 shows that a loaded Staccato C2 was recovered at the airport Tuesday.

Officers confirmed the gun was Cawthorn’s and said he cooperated with police.

Cawthorn was cited for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property, which is a city of Charlotte ordinance.

CMPD said it took the firearm, which is normal procedure.

[ RELATED: Rep. Madison Cawthorn tried to bring gun through security at NC airport, police report says ]

This is not the first time a gun has been discovered on Cawthorn at an airport. In February 2021, TSA found a 9 mm handgun in Cawthorn’s carry-on bag at Asheville Regional Airport. Cawthorn did not face any criminal charges for the incident.

The TSA found 106 guns at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2021.

A spokesperson for Cawthorn did not respond to a request for comment.

(WATCH BELOW: Police concerned over increase in guns stolen from cars in Charlotte)

©2022 Cox Media Group



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Congressman Madison Cawthorn under fire over claims of DC drugs and orgies | Republicans

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The North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn will not face immediate disciplinary action over his claim to have been invited to orgies and to have seen Washington figures using cocaine.

After meeting Cawthorn on Wednesday, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters the comments were “unacceptable”.

“There’s a lot of different things that can happen,” McCarthy added, regarding possible consequences.

“I just told him he’s lost my trust, he’s gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And you can’t just say, ‘You can’t do this again.’ I mean, he’s got a lot of members very upset.”

Cawthorn is a rightwing gadfly, controversialist and Trump supporter. He made the remarks about orgies and drugs in an interview with a podcast, Warrior Poet Society, posted online last week.

Asked if the Netflix hit House of Cards, about amoral Washington politicians and fixers, was anything like reality, Cawthorn said: “The only thing that isn’t accurate about that show is that you could never get a piece of legislation about education passed that quickly.”

The 26-year-old added: “I mean, being kind of a young guy in Washington, where the average age is probably 60 or 70 – you know, I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life – I’ve always paid attention to politics.

“Then all of the sudden you get invited to, ‘Well, hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come.’

“I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realise they are asking you to come to an orgy.”

The Republican also claimed: “You know, some of the people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country and then you watch them do, you know, a key bump of cocaine right in front of you and it’s like, ‘Wow, this is wild.’”

“Key bump” is a slang term for a small amount of cocaine.

McCarthy met Cawthorn with the Republican chief whip, Steve Scalise, in attendance. According to the minority leader, Cawthorn admitted some of his remarks had been untrue or exaggerated.

“In the interview,” McCarthy said, “he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in he … says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away.

“It’s just frustrating. There’s no evidence behind his statements … I told him you can’t make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affect everybody else and the country as a whole.”

Cawthorn did not immediately comment.

McCarthy fielded complaints about Cawthorn’s remarks from numerous House Republicans. Senators weighed in too. But on Wednesday McCarthy and Scalise told reporters they would wait to see how Cawthorn behaves before considering disciplinary action.

Scalise said: “Obviously, the ball’s in his court in terms of how to respond but we were very clear with the concerns we had.”

Cawthorn is a vocal member of the powerful far right of the House Republican caucus. McCarthy is aiming to become speaker next year.

On Wednesday a prominent House Democrat, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, asked on Twitter why “Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn’s alleged revelations about their party.

“One of their members [Matt Gaetz of Florida, another fa-right congressman] is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they’ve been pretty OK w[ith] that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump.”



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GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy Shreds Sen. Madison Cawthorn Over ‘Unacceptable’ Orgy Claims

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appears to have had enough of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) and his “orgy” allegations.

“There’s a lot of different things that can happen,” McCarthy told Politico after a sit-down with the freshman legislator. “But I just told him he’s lost my trust. He’s going to have to earn it back. I mean, he’s got a lot of members very upset.”

Last week, Cawthorn, a “Big Lie” proponent, appeared on the “Warrior Poet Society” podcast, a show hosted by NRA instructor John Lovell, and claimed he’d witnessed all sorts of “sexual perversion” in Washington.

When Lovell asked Cawthorn to compare the Kevin Spacey series House of Cards with real life as a member of Congress, the 26-year-old Republican said, “I’ve always paid attention to politics guys that, you know, then all of the sudden you get invited to like, well, hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes. You should come there, like, What did you just ask me to come to? And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy.

“Or the fact that there’s some of the people that are leading…the movement to try and remove addiction in our country and then you watch them doing a key bump of cocaine right in front of you and it’s like, Wow, this is wild,” he continued.

The remarks caused an uproar among numerous GOPers, and McCarthy confronted Cawthorn during the meeting on Wednesday, according to CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melania Zanona.

“You can’t make statements like that as a member of Congress, it affects everybody else and the country as a whole,” McCarthy told Politico, suggesting that Cawthorn may not have been entirely truthful about what he claims to have observed up close.

Perhaps Cawthorn “thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage maybe 100 yards away,” McCarthy told the outlet, saying that Cawthorn “doesn’t know what cocaine is.”

“It is just frustrating,” he said. “There is no evidence behind his statements.”

McCarthy later told CNN that Cawthorn confessed to having “either exaggerated or made up” the story.

“He did not tell the truth,” McCarthy fumed. “That’s unacceptable.”

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) was also in the room on Wednesday and told Politico that he and McCarthy told Cawthorn that they have “real concern with some of the things that he’s done recently. And obviously, the ball’s in his court in terms of how to respond.”

On Tuesday, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) called Cawthorn “an embarrassment.”

A short time before casually floating the “coke-fueled-orgies” tale, Cawthorn was called out by legislators on both sides of the aisle for describing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “a thug.” He is also currently facing misdemeanor charges after being caught driving with a revoked license for the second time in five years.

Last year, more than two dozen of Cawthorn’s former college classmates described multiple instances of alleged sexual misconduct by the future lawmaker while attending a small Christian school in Virginia.



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McCarthy says Cawthorn ‘did not tell the truth’ about orgy, drug claims

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“This is unacceptable,” McCarthy told reporters Wednesday after meeting with Cawthorn, Axios reported. “There’s no evidence to this.”

McCarthy added that Cawthorn “changes what he tells” and “did not tell the truth,” describing his actions as “not becoming of a congressman.”

Cawthorn was seen leaving McCarthy’s office Wednesday morning after a meeting that lasted about half an hour. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) also attended the meeting, according to Politico.

“There’s a lot of different things that can happen. But I just told him he’s lost my trust. He’s going to have to earn it back,” McCarthy told reporters, Politico reported. “I mean, he’s got a lot of members very upset.”

A McCarthy spokesman confirmed the leader’s remarks. Spokespeople for Scalise and Cawthorn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In an interview last week with the “Warrior Poet Society” podcast, Cawthorn was asked whether the hit television show “House of Cards” was an accurate reflection of life in the nation’s capital. Cawthorn responded by talking about the “sexual perversion that goes on in Washington” and suggested that he had been invited to an “orgy” by an unnamed lawmaker.

“I mean, being kind of a young guy in Washington, where the average age is probably 60 or 70 — you know, I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve always looked up to through my life, always paid attention to politics, guys that, you know. Then all of the sudden you get invited to, like, ‘Oh hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes. You should come,’” Cawthorn said in the interview, which was reported Sunday by Business Insider. “And I’m like, ‘What? What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy.”

Cawthorn also claimed that he had witnessed unnamed prominent figures in Washington doing cocaine.

“Or the fact that, you know, there’s some of the people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it’s like, this is wild,” he said.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) reportedly stood up at the meeting and told his colleagues that Cawthorn’s comments did not describe House Republicans as a whole, and that some of his constituents have been asking him about the North Carolina lawmaker’s remarks. A Womack spokesperson confirmed that the congressman addressed Cawthorn’s remarks during Tuesday’s GOP conference meeting.

Some Senate Republicans have expressed frustration about Cawthorn’s comments as well. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) called Cawthorn an “embarrassment at times,” while Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said the lawmaker has a “lack of judgment” and had “not done much” for his House district, the Daily Beast reported.

On Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) questioned why Republican lawmakers had voiced anger over Cawthorn’s comments but not over the federal sex-trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

“Not sure why Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn’s alleged revelations about their party,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet. “One of their members is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they’ve been pretty OK w/ that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump.”

Cawthorn, 26, was elected to Congress in 2020 and represents North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. He has become a star of the pro-Trump right and was among the most fervent supporters of former president Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020.

But his actions and statements have also prompted scrutiny. Earlier this month, Cawthorn was charged for the second time in his home state with driving with a revoked license, an offense that carries a maximum $200 fine or 20 days in jail.

He also faces two speeding citations — one for driving 89 miles per hour in a 65-mile-per-hour zone Oct. 18, and another for driving 87 miles per hour in a 70-mile-per-hour zone on Jan. 8, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

House Republican leaders have been criticized by Democrats — and even some members of their own party — for not taking action against Reps. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and other GOP lawmakers who have made threatening or extremist remarks.



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