At a certain point, I almost – almost! — feel sorry for House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Sure, as the most powerful Republican in the House, he embodies a laundry list of abhorrent policies that appeal to the worst, most xenophobic, avaricious, hypocritical impulses in this country. But on the other hand, he also has to deal with Madison Cawthorn.
On Wednesday, McCarthy followed up on his promise to have a little chat with the freshman congressman from North Carolina, nearly a week after Cawthorn claimed he’d witnessed conservatives he’d once looked up to in Washington doing “a key bump of cocaine” and had even been invited to an orgy by one of them. That the claims were fairly ridiculous on their face seems to have been less of a concern to McCarthy (why didn’t Cawthorn name names, huh?) than the fact that Cawthorn had inadvertently (?) embarrassed the GOP in the service of boosting his own profile. And so, like a moody high schooler hauled into the principal’s office, Cawthorn met with McCarthy, along with Republican whip Rep. Steve Scalise, on Wednesday, where McCarthy claims Cawthorn walked back some of the more salacious elements of his allegations and generally endured a real stern talkin’-to.
