Cawthorn downplays ‘crass’ leaked nude video, blames opponents’ ‘drip campaign’
U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn on Wednesday night acknowledged the authenticity of a video posted to a website and social media showing him naked in bed with “a friend.”
“A new hit against me just dropped,” Cawthorn tweeted in response. “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.”
Cawthorn, who at 26 is the youngest member of Congress, is a conservative Christian who has accused his colleagues in Congress of having orgies, claimed Democrats are destroying the nuclear family and criticized transgender people.
He is running for reelection in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District against seven Republican opponents.
American Muckrakers PAC, a group trying to defeat Cawthorn, posted the explicit video on its website FireMadison. That video, appearing to show a nude Cawthorn on top of the other person, making fast motions and loud noises while someone filmed, was shared on social media.
“Madison Cawthorn should resign from Congress today,” the group’s president, David B. Wheeler, wrote on the site, adding that the video “was passed to us by a former supporter and big donor of Rep. Cawthorn that wishes to remain anonymous.”
Cawthorn has been the center of numerous scandals in recent weeks, including for bringing a loaded gun to an airport, facing charges of driving with his license revoked, saying his colleagues on Capitol Hill participate in orgies and cocaine use, being accused of insider trading, having photos leaked of him wearing lingerie during a cruise ship game show and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a thug.”
Cawthorn, however, said these scandals are part of a drip campaign led by the Republican establishment to ensure he doesn’t get reelected.
“I’m NOT backing down,” Cawthorn said on Twitter. “I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won’t win. We will.”
When asked about the latest video, Cawthorn’s spokesman, Luke Ball, directed McClatchy to the same tweet.
Hours earlier, Cawthorn posted a seven-minute video responding to some of the scandals and allegation and blaming the drip campaign and the “fake news.”
Reaction
Reaction to the video came quickly Wednesday night. Some saw the video and the photos of Cawthorn in lingerie as hypocritical considering his conservative positions; others, even some of his critics, saw those attacks as being too focused on his personal life.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s press secretary, Jordan Monaghan, posted on Twitter: “There are a whole lot of reasons to not vote for Madison Cawthorn that we can talk about that don’t include very thinly veiled homophobia y’all.”
Wendy Nevarez, a Republican running against Cawthorn, said she’s both worried about Cawthorn’s well-being and embarrassed by his behavior.
“When we talk about Western North Carolina, we talk about our values and how good our people are and how beautiful our mountains are, and all of a sudden things like this come out and just reflect poorly on on our community,” Nevarez said. ”I really don’t even like dignifying his behavior with answers, really give him too much attention and honestly, it’s probably what he does a lot of this for, to be honest, is to get the attention.”
Cawthorn recently posted on Twitter that most members of Congress could not remain in office if they had grown up with cellphones like he did. Nevarez said when she gave her teenagers cellphones the first thing she taught them was to not take pictures and videos they wouldn’t want to be shared later.
Earlier in the election cycle, Cawthorn told his constituents that he was leaving the district to run for office closer to Charlotte to prevent “go-along to get-along Republicans” from getting elected there. He supported Michele Woodhouse as his replacement, before state lawmakers redrew districts and he returned to run in the 11th district.
Woodhouse is still running, and her campaign also reacted to Cawthorn’s latest headlines.
“As are most conservative voters in NC11, Michele V. Woodhouse continues to be shocked — and saddened — at these revelations,” Woodhouse’s campaign said in a written statement. “Cawthorn supporters continue to move to Michelle V. Woodhouse fearing what will be revealed May 18.”
Cawthorn’s laundry list of scandals has left North Carolina’s top Republicans like U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, state Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore endorsing another of Cawthorn’s opponents, state Sen. Chuck Edwards.
None of them could immediately be reached for comment.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Cawthorn downplays ‘crass’ leaked nude video, blames opponents’ ‘drip campaign’."