House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said that he will speak to North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn about his comments that he’s been invited to orgies in Washington, DC and that he has seen people do cocaine.
The expected reprimand comes following expressions of frustration from Republicans at Mr Cawthorn’s comments.
The 26-year-old freshman congressman recently got into hot water for calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and his government “corrupt” and “evil”. Mr Cawthorn went on to claim that Ukraine was spreading misinformation in an effort to pull the US into the conflict.
Arkansas Republican Representative Steve Womack addressed Mr Cawthorn’s comments on drugs and orgies during a House GOP Conference meeting on Tuesday.
Politico reported that Mr Womack stood up, noting that he almost never stands to speak, and said that he’s now getting questions about which members are taking part in orgies and doing illegal drugs. Mr Cawthorn was not present.
Mr Womack said that many legislators go to bed at 9pm and still use flip phones and fax machines.He added that it was unfair to generalise about members in the way Mr Cawthorn did.
Some thought he may have made the comments in an effort to appear to be above those kinds of events and actions. Sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Cawthorn have previously been reported. Some Republicans allegedly want Mr Cawthorn to name names to prove his allegations, but that could also lead to further scandal, Politico noted.
Several other Republicans reportedly also shared their frustrations, saying that the comments were not okay and that they don’t believe the allegations made by Mr Cawthorn.
He appeared on the Warrior Poet Society podcast last week, where he was asked if the Netflix show House of Cards is “closer to a documentary”.
“I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life, I’ve always paid attention to politics,” Mr Cawthorn said. “Then all of the sudden you get invited to, ‘Well hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come.’”
“I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to?’” he added. “And then you realise they are asking you to come to an orgy.”
He also claimed that he has seen people who work against drug addiction do cocaine in front of him.
“You know, some of the people leading the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and they watch them doing, you know, a key bump of cocaine right in front of you,” he said.
Mr Cawthorn didn’t mention any names or what party the people he referred to represent.
Retiring North Carolina Senator Richard Burr said Mr Cawthorn has been “been an embarrassment at times”, according to NBC News.
The Independent has reached out to Mr Cawthorn’s office for comment.
Earlier this month, Mr Cawthorn said, “remember that Zelensky is a thug”.
“Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies,” he told supporters in Asheville, North Carolina.
“Madison is wrong. If there’s any thug in this world, it’s Putin,” Mr McCarthy responded during a press briefing. He added that he still supports Mr Cawthorn’s reelection to the House.
