May 19, 2022 by Saqlain Farouk. David Madison Cawthorn (born August 1, 1995) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district from 2021 to 2023. He has become one of the most vocal peddlers of the claim that the presidential election was fraudulently stolen from Donald Trump, another lie. He called on Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment and oust Biden from office in a letter in which he misspelled her name. I took the thought of suicide completely out of my mind, he said. Hes endorsed two people running for Congress in Georgia. I said, Listen, I think this young guy can get in a runoff. One of his accusers worked as a Republican intern on Capitol Hill at the time she went public with her allegation. We kept all politics local, he said. I cant run. Despite the fact that he was there for only a single semester, Cawthorn reportedly developed a reputation among female members of the student body, a significant number of whom told Buzzfeed and the Washington Post that he had sexually harassed themallegations Cawthorn has denied. Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer at POLITICO and POLITICO Magazine. While his injury was a tragedy, others who have suffered such tragedies have endured without committing the crime of sedition, as . When Cawthorn was a teenager, he and his friend Bradley Ledford were driving back to North Carolina after a spring break trip to Florida, when Ledford fell asleep at the wheel and crashed. Madison Cawthorn's divorce just went from boring information to national security concern in about 77 seconds of interview time with the Daily Caller. Cawthorn has also claimed that he was accepted to Princeton and to an online program at Harvard, only to later confess that he hadnt been admitted to either. I cant wake up in the morning by myself. He assumed office on January 3, 2021. Hes now the youngest House representative. He wasnt going to school. Cawthorn has repeatedly been stopped and cited for speeding. He proposed marriage to his girlfriend the week after that. They were at the Quest show, too, they said, and have specific recollections of Cawthorn. Bill Clark/Pool via AP. Madison Cawthorn at the Republican National Convention. Video: Madison Cawthorn calls Ukrainian president 'thug' 01:47 Now playing . In their depositions, Cawthorn stated that he had "no memory from the accident," while Ledford said that he had helped rescue an unconscious Cawthorn. Rod Honeycutt saw Cawthorn over the weekend at the Asheville Gun & Knife Show at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in Fletcher. Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation. ACCUSED OF LYING. Cawthorn described the moment to The North State Journal, saying that at a Meadows victory party, the congressman got on his knees, at Cawthorn's eye level, and asked him to come work for him . I cant go adventuring in places. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? Instead, Ledford said, he reached over Cawthorn and punched out the passenger window. I cant wrestle with my brother. The right-wing star claimed his friend left him to die in a "fiery tomb." Hes got a big voice. Screenshot from Instagram, Clearer for Cawthorn were the first conversations he had with his therapists once he was in Atlanta. Amanda Greene for Politico Magazine. Im as disappointed as anyone in the headlines that were seeing and the behavior and the decisions of our sitting congressman., Madison, said Rod Honeycutt, a retired Army colonel whos been running since last summer, is a young man in trouble., Cawthorn's campaign headquarters are in a repurposed former auto repair shop in Hendersonville, N.C. By Reuben Jones Washington, D.C. The 26-year-old is a member of the Republican party. Hes in pain when hes sitting there with you. Soon-to-be-former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) used his last speech on the House floor on Wednesday to rally his colleagues against the impending threat of "soft metrosexuals."In a fitting coda to a bizarre single term in office, Cawthorn wasted his final precious minutes on C-SPAN sounding the alarm on the death spiral of masculinity. More than 70 interviews with people who know Cawthorn, who have worked for him and against him, allies and enemies, activists and operatives and longtime watchers of politics here in the mountains of western North Carolina, paint a picture of a man in crisis. She explained to me, he said of another, that she was basically going to teach me how to live in a wheelchair, and I remember saying, Well, thats pointless. In a speech he made to the student body in a chapel on campus, he falsely suggested he had gotten into the Naval Academy before the accident, and he said Ledford had left him to die in the car in a fiery tomb when Ledford in fact had helped pull him out. . He jet-skied in Miami, scuba-dived in Mexico, pumped his fist while swimming in the Dead Sea and drank shirtless from a pineapple in the Bahamas. Cawthorn has implied that as a result of the accident, he was unable to follow through on his dreams of attending the US Naval Academy. You either need to give up or you need to move on. That night, he said, he stayed up for more than four hours making a list of pros and cons of staying alive.. Elected into Congress in 2020, Cawthorn is the youngest member of Congress since Jed Johnson Jr in the 1990s. He was riding as a passenger in a BMW X3 SUV near Daytona Beach, Florida when his friend Bradley Ledford fell asleep behind the wheel. Chip In. Madison Cawthorn posted a picture of him in the hospital surrounded by his medical team on July 19, 2016. The report states a review of Cawthorn's expenses also showed "$491 for a trip to Papa's and Beer Mexican Restaurant, two visits to Chick-fil-A totaling $382," with Cawthorn labeling the . View our online Press Pack. But his stunt last night proves that he has no place in Congress. How do you know that?, Everyone is always hopeful, but, I mean, with my injury, its unlikely that Ill walk or procreate or, you know, recover.. Hes reckless, said Tim Moore, the North Carolina House speaker. Before January 6, 25-year-old Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) was known for being the youngest member of Congress, an ardent Trump supporter, and one of the few wheelchair users in . And while Cawthorn widely is seen as a favorite of Donald Trump he spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention and appeared at a recent Trump rally near Raleigh Trump in 2022 conspicuously has not issued an endorsement email for Cawthorn the way he has for scores of other candidates. | | Want to read more stories like this? Cawthorn has said in mailers and text-message blasts that he has Trumps endorsement, but Trump has yet to put out a formal statement doing so, as he has for other candidates he supports. commitment 2020 now in western north carolina a 24 year old named madison cawthorne defeated linda bennett for the republican nomination for us house district eleven. I cant hike. Hes very unwell, said a Republican strategist familiar with Cawthorn. On Tuesday, Cawthorn was cited for attempting to bring a loaded gun through airport security in his carry-on bagthe second time in little more than a year that TSA officials have had to prevent the member of Congress from flying with a firearm. To conservatives, lets define what we support, and win the argument in areas like health care and the environment, he said from the stage at the Republican National Convention that August. Madison Cawthorn's birth took place on August 1, 1995, in Asheville, North Carolina. The most charitable way to see Cawthorns first month in Congress is that it was the last gasp of his best self. He overcame injuries suffered in a 2014 vehicular . Theres no excuse for it., I have no problem calling that out, even though a lot of those people probably wouldve voted for me, he told Cory Vaillancourt of the Smoky Mountain News. In a 2017 speech, Cawthorn said that Ledford left him "to die in a fiery tomb," however, Ledford publicly disputed this in 2021 saying that he pulled Cawthorn from the wreck once he escaped the car. Republicans, many of whom reportedlyhad to field concerned questions from their spouses, were really pissed off. He left office on January 3, 2023. You shattered me completely, he said. | A cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious, life-threatening emergency that can cause paralysis and loss of sensation throughout the entire body. I feel like he thinks that he could have done so much more had the accident not happened, said Hunter Clark, a former intern in Cawthorns district office. RALEIGH, N.C. U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina told supporters he thought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a "thug"a comment that runs counter to the overwhelming . Days after the Harmony of the Seas returned from the Caribbean to Port Canaveral, Mark Meadows announced he was opting not to run for reelection, ostensibly to put himself in position to be Trumps fourth White House chief of staff. In the March 2020 Republican primary for North Carolina's 11th congressional district, Cawthorn finished second behind Lynda Bennett, who had been endorsed both by former President Donald Trump and Meadows. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2023 demands. History Made. Im sure her and I will get along when I get to Congress., Black lives matter, Cawthorn said that month during a debate with his Democratic opponent Moe Davis, a retired Air Force colonel and former prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. May 5, 2022 by Randy Slovacek. Congressman Cawthorn, it said. Cawthorns congressman at the time was Mark Meadows, and he had gotten a part-time job as an assistant in Meadows Hendersonville office, starting in January of 2015. Rep. Madison Cawthorn ( screen capture) Rep Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) took Hump Day to a whole new level when a video clip of him naked humping a buddy was released on Wednesday. Brad Ledford and Madison Cawthorn on spring break in April 2014. He was invited to the White House. Writing for the conservative Washington Examiner, investigative reporter Andrew Kerr claimed that Rep. Madison Cawthorn dropped close to $3000 in taxpayer money at a lavish resort in his hometown . I miss everything too, Cawthorn shot back, unleashing one long, raw message, screens and screens of anguish and loss. I cant stand up and pee. He shrugged off the lingerie snaps as " goofy vacation photos " and of Wednesday's humping video, he tweeted: "A new hit against me . Rep. Madison Cawthorn stood up from his wheelchair . He was suing Ledford and Ledfords fathers business for millions of dollars of medical bills. In a 2017 speech, Cawthorn said that Ledford left him "to die in a fiery tomb," however, Ledford publicly disputed this in 2021 saying that he pulled Cawthorn from the wreck once he escaped the car. paranoia about "unclean bottoms" rages at a 1938-War-of-the-Worlds level 24/7. Amanda Greene for Politico Magazine, I was truly impressed, George Erwin, the politically influential retired Henderson County sheriff, told me. I read somewhere, said one of the attorneys toward the end of the day-long deposition, that you wanted to be a congressman?, Cawthorn speaks with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and supporters after a "Get Out the Vote" rally with North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis in October 2020. As a Christian, Burril said, it is to me very painful to watch his spiral.. Experts told the Examiner that if Cawthorn had inside knowledge of the deal and if he owned the cryptocurrency at the time, his actions could constitute a potential violation of federal law. Rep. Madison Cawthorn Addresses Pictures of Him in Lingerie: 'Goofy Vacation Photos' On Twitter, Cawthorn wrote that the old images were in jest and indicated they were taken during part of an . More than 150 former students at his college signed a letter late last year accusing him of sexually predatory behavior, which Cawthorn has denied. But that would be the plan., Scenes from Cawthorns neighborhood, including his church in Flat Rock (top left) and a depository for retired American flags (bottom right). Listen to the author discuss this piece with our Editor in Chief on the Lawfare Podcast. In October of 2017, in a second deposition in a separate accident-related lawsuit, Cawthorn admitted under oath that what he had said in his first deposition about having been accepted to Harvard and Princeton wasnt true. Now, though, heading into his first reelection, Cawthorn is mired in controversy, facing the very real possibility that the end of his electoral career might come as quickly as it began. "And [Ledford] leaves me in a car to die in a fiery tomb. But for Cawthorns older, more experienced advisers, the tweet was one of the first signs of a stark, disquieting change. Cawthorn, they say, is an immature college dropout with a thin work resume, a scofflaw and serial embellisher who was neither qualified nor prepared for the responsibility and the scrutiny that comes with the office he holds. I cant climb anything. The right-wing star claimed his friend left him to die in a "fiery tomb." The friend told The Washington Post he pulled Cawthorn from the wreck. 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