Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Ted Budd to speak at Trump rally in NC next week
For details on former President Trump’s rally in Selma, NC, including how to get tickets and where to go, see this story.
U.S. Reps. Ted Budd and Madison Cawthorn will join former President Donald Trump on the stage at a rally in Johnston County next week.
The rally, which will take place on Saturday, April 9 at The Farm at 95 in Selma, about 30 miles southeast of Raleigh, was first announced last week.
Organizers said the rally would be in support of Budd, who is running in this year’s U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, and other candidates Trump has endorsed.
On Friday, organizers said in an update that Budd and Cawthorn will speak at the rally, along with Bo Hines, a political newcomer who is running in the newly redrawn 13th congressional district, and has also been endorsed by Trump.
The rally will be a “continuation of President Trump’s unprecedented effort to advance the MAGA agenda by energizing voters and highlighting America First candidates and causes,” organizers said in a news release from Save America PAC, the organization that Trump created after his defeat in the 2020 election. The rally comes about five weeks before the May 17 primary election.
Cawthorn, who has received extensive criticism from several prominent members of his own Republican party this week, said on Twitter that he was excited to join Trump at the rally.
Cawthorn criticized by GOP leaders
The Hendersonville Republican, currently serving his first-term after being elected in 2020, generated a flurry of headlines after claiming in a podcast interview on March 24 that he had been invited by fellow members of Congress to partake in orgies and had witnessed lawmakers use cocaine.
Top Republicans in the U.S. House were quick to condemn the allegations and put pressure on GOP leaders to rebuke Cawthorn for the incendiary remarks. On Wednesday, Cawthorn was summoned to a meeting with top House Republicans Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, Steve Scalise, the minority whip, and Mike Johnson, a Louisiana representative who was assigned to be a mentor to Cawthorn when he arrived on Capitol Hill last year, according to Politico.
After the meeting, McCarthy said he told Cawthorn that he had lost his trust and would have to earn it back. McCarthy also said that Cawthorn admitted his allegations about orgies and drug abuse among lawmakers were either exaggerated or untrue. Specifically, Cawthorn clarified that he may have seen a congressional staffer, not a member of Congress, snort cocaine in a parking garage from about 100 yards away.
Cawthorn didn’t publicly address his comments until Friday evening, when he issued a statement that doubled down on his claims that orgies and drug abuse take place on Capitol Hill. Cawthorn said “it’s an indisputable fact” that there is corruption and unethical activity in Washington but didn’t offer details about any specific incidents, and didn’t address his meeting with McCarthy and other top Republicans.
U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, both Republicans from North Carolina, had harsh words for Cawthorn this week.
On Tuesday, while House Republicans discussed Cawthorn’s comments and the questions they were already receiving from constituents, Burr told CNN, when asked what he thought of Cawthorn’s job performance so far: “That’s for his constituents to figure out but clearly he’s been an embarrassment at times.”
Tillis went a step further on Thursday and endorsed state Sen. Chuck Edwards, one of seven people challenging Cawthorn in the GOP primary in the 11th congressional district. In a statement, Tillis said Cawthorn had “fallen well short” of the expectations of his constituents, and implied that Cawthorn had sought “celebrity status in Washington, D.C.” and embarrassed his district “with a consistent pattern of juvenile behavior, outlandish statements, and untruthfulness.”
GOP leaders in the state legislature also showed their support for Edwards this week. Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore hosted a fundraiser on Thursday for the Buncombe County Republican which had been planned prior to Cawthorn’s most recent inflammatory comments.
In a major political upset in June 2020, Cawthorn, then 24 years old, defeated Lynda Bennett, the candidate endorsed by Trump and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, in the GOP primary, by more than 30 points. After his primary victory, Trump called Cawthorn to congratulate him, and two months later, Cawthorn was granted a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Washington.
Cawthorn has been one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in Congress. In March 2021, Trump endorsed Cawthorn for re-election.
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This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 2:46 PM with the headline "Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Ted Budd to speak at Trump rally in NC next week."
