Far-right Congressman Madison Cawthorn continues to face isolation from his own party following the anecdote he relayed on the Warrior Poet Society podcast, in which he likened Congress to the Netflix political drama House of Cards, claiming that older politicians he'd looked up to his whole life were inviting him to orgies and doing "key bumps" of cocaine in front of him.
Cawthorn was met with fury from his fellow Republican representatives, who accused him of using the anecdote to generalize the entire conference. Some urged him to name names if the moments he described were truthful, so the public would know the actions weren't indicative of all of Congress.
He even got reprimanded in a private sit-down with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said that Cawthorn admitted to exaggerating the claim.
Cawthorn blamed the media for the comments he made, writing in a statement:
"My comments on a recent podcast appearance calling out corruption have been used by the left and the media to disparage my Republican colleagues and falsely insinuate their involvement in illicit activities."
But the criticisms isn't blowing over.
In recent comments on his Fox News show, Republican former Congressman Trey Gowdy railed against Cawthorn's podcast anecdotes, further accusing him of making the whole thing up.
Watch below.
On his Fox News show, former Representative Trey Gowdy called on Madison Cawthorn to “admit” he made up being invited to sex parties and seeing a colleague use cocaine. pic.twitter.com/gUYzoB8K6N
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) April 4, 2022
Gowdy invoked his own time in Congress, saying:
"The people I was around did none of what you described. Ever. So if you're being invited to NC-17 parties and watching people do cocaine, then you're hanging around with the wrong people. But you should name them so their constituents know what they're doing on the people's time."
He went on to suggest Cawthorn was lying:
"If on the other hand none of what you described really happened, you need to admit that too. Congress has enough problems without making things up. ... So either tell us who you saw doing cocaine and who invited you to sexually explicit parties, or admit what we suspect, which is that you made it up. And then ask yourself where fairness and honesty fall on the list of qualities we should be looking for in members of Congress."
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads