Rep. Madison Cawthorn (RN.C.) admitted his claims that colleagues invited him to orgies and used cocaine were “exaggerated,” Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday.
McCarthy told reporters he could take further action against Cawthorn’s comments, which sparked an outcry among Hill Republicans.
The row erupted when Cawthorn, at 26 one of the youngest and most controversial members of the House of Representatives, claimed he saw evidence of “sexual perversion” in Washington during an interview with John Lovell for the Warrior Poet Society.
McCarthy said he had a tense meeting with Cawthorn.
“I just told him he’s lost my trust, he needs to earn it back, and I’ve spelled out everything I think is indecent,” McCarthy told Axios and other outlets.
“And you can’t just say, ‘You can’t do that again.’
“I mean, he has a lot of members who are very upset.”
And McCarthy said Cawthorn admitted he exaggerated his claims.
“In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he walks in, he tells me he thinks he may have seen an employee in a parking garage 100 yards away,” McCarthy said.
“It’s just frustrating. There is no evidence for his statements.
“And when I sat down with him … I told him that as a member of Congress, you cannot make statements like this that affect everyone else and the country as a whole.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (pictured) plans to sit down with 26-year-old GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn to discuss allegations he has made, including being invited to orgies and using cocaine was widespread in Washington, DC
Cawthorn, 26, was asked during an interview with the Warrior Poet Society how closely his experience on Capitol Hill aligns with House of Cards, specifically the elements of “corruption, power, money and perversion.”
Cawthorn said he once heard a former president say the only thing unrealistic about the Netflix show was that Congress could ever pass legislation that quickly, and he concurred
Politico reported Tuesday that Cawthorn’s Republican colleagues stood up and aired their grievances during a closed-doors GOP daytime conference session, complaining that the North Carolina Republican was posing as party members as sexual dissenters and drug users.
CNN reported that colleagues wanted Cawthorn to name names because otherwise his comments could unfairly slander the entire party.
Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, 65, told the group that he rarely spoke during weekly meetings, but he did so on Tuesday because he received questions from voters about Cawthorn’s allegations of orgies and drug use, Politico said.
Noting that many lawmakers go to bed by 9 p.m. and use clamshell phones and fax machines, Womack called it inappropriate that Cawthorn would paint his fellow congressmen with a broad brush.
Senator Richard Burr, the senior Republican Senator from North Carolina, was asked by CNN about Cawthorn’s job performance.
“That’s something his constituents need to find out, but obviously he was embarrassed at times,” Burr replied.
Cawthorn was asked during the interview how much DC resembles the Netflix show House of Cards, particularly in its “corruption, power, money and perversion” elements.
The North Carolina Republican responded that the “sexual perversion” and drug use were exactly what people saw on TV.
“The sexual perversion that’s going on in Washington … as a young man in Washington, where the median age is probably 60 or 70, I look at all these people — a lot of them I’ve looked up to all my life.” …then you’re suddenly invited to say, “Well, hey, we’re going to have some sort of sexual encounter at one of our houses. You should come,” like, what did you just ask me? Come to?
“And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy.”
“There’s some of the people who are leading the movement to try to eliminate addiction in our country and then you watch them do a key jab of cocaine in front of them and it’s like wow, that’s wild. ”
Cawthorn announced in December that he and his wife, who was eight months old, were filing for divorce.
Cawthorn, a staunch conservative not known for his friends across the aisle, appears to be accusing his fellow Republicans of illegal behavior. He recently sparked controversy for calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an “alcoholic” and Ukraine’s President Zelensky a “thug.”
Cawthorn announced in December that he and his wife, who was eight months old, were filing for divorce
The young congressman, a staunch conservative not known for his friends across the aisle, appears to be accusing his fellow Republicans of illegal behavior.
The “former president” that Cawthorn appeared to be referring to was Democratic President Bill Clinton.
In 2015, House of Cards lead actor Kevin Spacey said that he and Clinton were close friends and played poker together. Spacey told Gotham Magazine at the time Clinton told him the show was accurate.
“Kevin, 99 percent of what you do on this show is real. The 1 percent you get wrong is you could never get an education bill passed that quickly,” Clinton told Spacey, according to the actor’s comments.
Earlier this month, Cawthorn hinted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was an alcoholic.
Cawthorn said of the California Democrat at a campaign event: “I will tell you that I have to work with her every day, so please pray for me. The theories of alcoholism are very true and it’s very sad,” he said, according to a video posted by Patriot Takes.
His line got giggles during the event.
Pelosi, 81, doesn’t drink and hasn’t in years.
Her daughter Christine attacked previous insults about her mother’s alleged alcoholism in 2019, tweeting: “Republicans and their Conservative allies have been pumping this vile fake meme for years! Now they are trapped.
‘#FactCheck: Madam Speaker doesn’t drink alcohol at all!’
Also last month, a video surfaced of Cawthorn calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug.” He said his government is “corrupt, incredibly evil” and “promotes bright ideologies”.
He appeared to be discussing sending US military aid to Ukraine before lashing out at leaders in Kyiv – who have refused to flee the country despite reports that many are on a Russian “kill list”, including Zelensky and his family.
In December 2021, Cawthorn announced that he and fellow CrossFit athlete Cristina Bayardelle were divorcing after just eight months together.
“When Cristina and I were engaged, I wasn’t a congressman. I felt called to serve and we agreed that I should run. Our victory was unprecedented, but overnight our lives changed,” he said in a statement from his spokesman.
“This change has been both hectic and difficult, it’s not the pace nor the lifestyle we envisioned.”
In December 2021, Cawthorn announced that he and fellow CrossFit athlete Cristina Bayardelle were divorcing after just eight months together