Beleaguered North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn faces yet another controversy after video of the Republican cavorting nude on a bed with another person surfaced and went viral.
“A new hit against me just dropped,” the GOP lawmaker tweeted on Wednesday, apparently acknowledging the veracity of the video. “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,” Cawthorn wrote.
In the 30-second clip, what appears to be a nude Cawthorn is shown in a bed and then climbing up to put his groin in what appears to be a man’s face, at which time he begins thrusting. Then a voice can be heard saying “Oh ma yah yah oh” repeatedly, and another male voice says, “stick it in his face.”
The latest video comes after photos surfaced showing Cawthorn dressed in women’s lingerie. At that time, Cawthorn also said it was a joke, saying the photos came from a “goofy” game on a cruise. Then a short video emerged that showed one of Cawthorn’s male staff members from his congressional office grabbing the 26-year-old lawmaker’s crotch. The latter video has sparked an ethics complaint, The Washington Times reported.
“The video shows Mr. Cawthorn, 26, in the driver’s seat of a car with his scheduler Stephen Smith, 23, who is sitting in the passenger seat with his hand in his boss’s genital area,” the Times wrote. “‘I feel the passion and desire and would like to see a naked body beneath my hands,’ Mr. Cawthorn, who uses a wheelchair because he is paraplegic, says in an embellished accent.”
The controversial Republican has been all over the headlines of late, with allegations of insider trading, reports that he tried to bring a loaded handgun onto a plane — for the second time — and driving with a revoked license. Cawthorn also recently claimed top officials in Washington, D.C., invited him to orgies and did cocaine as he watched.
Cawthorn later admitted that those allegations were “exaggerated.” After Meeting with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the House GOP leader told Axios, “It’s just frustrating. There’s no evidence behind his statements. And when I sit down with him … I told him you can’t make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole.”
“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, he’s got a lot of members very upset,” he said.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.