North Carolina Republican Representative Madison Cawthorn seemed to think he was really making a point while lecturing his Democratic Congressional colleagues on the importance of facing facts this week.
But then he misattributed the central quote about facing facts in his speech to the wrong president. So now internet is dragging him to filth instead. Oops!
Cawthorn's gaffe, which you can see below, happened while he was addressing the House of Representatives while debating whether to repeal a banking law.
Name-checking Founding Fathers and speaking in a manner suggesting he thought he was delivering an oratory for the ages, Cawthorn said:
"It was Thomas Jefferson that said, 'Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.'"
"Let's cast our eyes over the facts, shall we?"
Yes, let's do, Mr. Cawthorn--starting with the fact that John Adams said that, not Thomas Jefferson. Facts--they are stubborn things, aren't they!
That Cawthorn attributed a quote to the wrong guy is somewhat fitting given his checkered relationship to the truth. Since taking office this January, Cawthorn has racked up a laundry list of lies he's been caught selling to the American public.
Last month, Cawthorn claimed to be the first freshman Representative to have a bill pass the House, which was a bold-faced lie.
In March, Cawthorn was caught lying about multiple details of the car crash that left him paralyzed. Cawthorn used the triumphant story of his recovery from that accident throughout his 2020 Congressional campaign in commercials and speeches.
And speaking of 2020--during a January television appearance in which he repeated lies about the supposed fraudulence of the 2020 presidential election, Cawthorn was grilled so hard by CNN's Pamela Brown that he had to recant his own lies, admitting that the election was "not fraudulent" and that Democratic President Joe Biden "is our president."
Naturally, this latest gaffe was red meat for Twitter, who mercilessly dragged the Congressman to filth.
Here's wishing Cawthorn the best of luck in all his future dealings with the stubbornness of facts.
