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North Carolina Republican Representative and Hitler-enthusiast Madison Cawthorn lashed out at Democratic President Joe Biden over his handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He used a most unlikely weapon to do it—Toby Keith lyrics.
Speaking from the House floor earlier this week, Cawthorn either complained Biden hasn't yet declared war on Russia or complained Biden seems to want to declare war on Russia, it's honestly hard to tell because his speech made very little sense.
But that's all beside the point.
The real kicker was when he quoted country musician Toby Keith's post-9/11 jingoistic hit "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" and called him "the great philosopher."
See the moment below.
Cawthorn: As the great philosopher Toby Keith said, we put a boot in their ass\u2026 I am here to remind them Congress declares war, not Joe Biden, not some woke general\u2026 The sons and daughters of America are too precious to sacrifice on the altar of globalismpic.twitter.com/LLI7F0LrQQ— Acyn (@Acyn) 1646242741
Cawthorn, an elected Representative in the United States Congress, actually said:
"When the United States military shows up, kings and kingdoms fall to their knees. As the great philosopher Toby Keith once said, 'We put a boot in their a**, it's the American way.'"
Ah yes, "we put a boot in their a**," sounds just like Plato or Descartes.
Cawthorn went on to extol American military might as "unmatched," saying "our brand is dominance"—and threw in an anti-semitic dog-whistle about "globalism" too, just for fun.
The blood-thirsty glee with which Keith's infamous song talks about the killing of human beings—which made many people blanch even in the shell-shocked and war-hungry early 2000s—is bad enough.
But the song was also inspired by 9/11, an attack on American soil by terrorist actors we still, 20 years later, have not yet vanquished. It's all a pretty strange choice of references if hollering about American military dominance is the goal.
The rest of Cawthorn's speech didn't exactly make any sense either.
He next moved on to yelling about President Biden being some kind of power-hungry war monger, or something?
"Congress declares war, not Joe Biden, not some woke general!"
Aside from the fact that that's not even how declaring war actually works, Biden has repeatedly said he has no intention of sending our military to fight in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
But even if Biden were sabre-rattling, wasn't Mr. Cawthorn just bloviatingabout American military might and citing the writings of "the great philosopher" Toby Keith about putting "a boot in their a**"?
What exactly does Cawthorn want?
As you might expect, Cawthorn's nonsensical speech went over like a lead balloon on Twitter.
Let's see what Kris Kristofferson, someone who actually has served in the military, has to say about Toby Keith and this songpic.twitter.com/GkSfz7RxDz— Ghoul\ud83c\udff4\ud83e\udde2\ud83c\udf7a\ud83e\udd43\ud83d\udeac (Black Lives Matter) (@Ghoul\ud83c\udff4\ud83e\udde2\ud83c\udf7a\ud83e\udd43\ud83d\udeac (Black Lives Matter)) 1646266527
I fed a bunch conservative stereotypes into an AI chatbot, here's the result:https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1499105006586249217\u00a0\u2026— TiM STRaNGe (@TiM STRaNGe) 1646267771
I remember learning about General Toby Keith in history class. He led the charge into the Battle of Applebee\u2019s Ridge. Not one chicken tender survived. There was honey-barbecue splattered everywhere.— Tim NoWars \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b\u262e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd4a (@Tim NoWars \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99\ud83d\udc9b\u262e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd4a) 1646245355
Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" was released eight months into an indeterminate war that lasted 20 years, killing 71,000 civilians and 2,400 US service members.\n\nCawthorn did not serve there, but he did almost get accepted to Annapolis oncehttps://twitter.com/thehill/status/1499105006586249217\u00a0\u2026— Adam Weinstein (@Adam Weinstein) 1646269215
Good morning to everyone who does not view:\n\nToby Keith as a "great philosopher" or Putin as "savvy" or "genius"— NewbieHoward \u2721\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@NewbieHoward \u2721\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1646315317
Yeah because we've won how many wars since WWII?https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1499105006586249217\u00a0\u2026— Kim Iversen (@Kim Iversen) 1646266437
\u2022 We haven\u2019t declared war.\n\u2022 Moving troops to allied nations isn\u2019t war.\n\u2022 Toby Keith is a country singer, not a philosopher.\n\nTake your fake deep voice and go home, Cawthorn. You \u201cShould\u2019ve Been A Cowboy.\u201dhttps://twitter.com/acyn/status/1499076825577783296\u00a0\u2026— Heather Gardner (@Heather Gardner) 1646252777
So Madison Cawthorn thinks Toby Keith is a great philosopher. I suppose he also thinks Cap'n Crunch was the first person to sail around the world in 80 days. My, what a rigorous homeskool curriculum won't do for you.— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 MAX McQANON \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 MAX McQANON \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1646256484
no way he isn't a Danny McBride characterhttps://twitter.com/thehill/status/1499105006586249217\u00a0\u2026— alan mustache (@alan mustache) 1646259835
Cawthorn is wild, using a hyper right wing militaristic front combined with being confined to a wheel chair and talking about his (failed) naval academy acceptance to imply he was injured in a war, and not that his friend flipped a beamer drunk driving during spring break.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1499076825577783296\u00a0\u2026— grimm (@grimm) 1646256798
This little punk is the perfect Nazi: Shamefully ignorant, cringe-makingly shallow, cruelly sociopathic, blatantly anti-Semitic, and so desperate to assert his masculinity he becomes a slave to strongmen he thinks make him look valorous, even an obvious criminal like Trump.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1499076825577783296\u00a0\u2026— Steve Silberman (@Steve Silberman) 1646248049
Anyway, if you need an actual, truthful indication of how much respect Representative Cawthorn has for the U.S. military, look no further than his lies about his entry to the Naval Academy.
Nothing like a little stolen valor to prove your loyalty to the men and women in uniform.