A few weeks ago, Rep. Madison Cawthorn accused his Republican colleagues of holding cocaine-fueled orgies.
Now, however, Politico has obtained photos showing Cawthorn dressed in women’s lingerie at what appears to be one hell of a party he didn’t bother to mention when he was hurling accusations at others.
Cawthorn, 26, was raised in a conservative Baptist community in Henderson County, North Carolina, and has staked his political persona on arch-traditional Christian principles and the insistence of the importance of a kind of hypermasculinity. His comments about “the sexual perversion” in Washington made on a podcast, which he later admitted were exaggerated, drew the public disapproval and disavowal of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as well as other Republican leaders including those in his North Carolina congressional caucus.
Cawthorn is already facing an uncertain bid for reelection, and this latest embarrassment is likely to sharpen criticism within the GOP for him to abandon his campaign for another term in the House of Representatives.
After the Politico story ran, Cawthorn attempted to do damage control on Twitter, writing:
“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? They’re running out of things to throw at me… Share your most embarrassing vacay pics in the replies.”
As part of a podcast he was a guest on in 2020, here’s how Cawthorn described himself to voters:
“I subscribe to Judeo-Christian beliefs. I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I think if you think about my political ideology, where it really stems from, you know, my ethics and my morals and what I think is right and wrong, you look to ancient Jerusalem, you got ancient Judeo-Christian values. So right and wrong,” he continued. “I also cling to a lot of traditional values and a lot of traditional ideas, because they’ve worked in the past.”
And earlier this week, Cawthorn had this to say in a tweet:
Which gender is supposed to wear lingerie, Congressman?
