After Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) went on a podcast and alleged that some of his Republican colleagues in Congress are orgy-frequenting degenerates with a fondness for hard drugs, members of the House GOP had a simple response on Tuesday.
Name names.
That’s what Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said when asked about Cawthorn’s bomb-throwing remarks, which, in implicating no one specifically, ended up casting a bizarre cloud of suspicion over all of his fellow colleagues.
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“It does paint the picture here that isn't accurate,” Crenshaw said. “Name names. Let’s see who he hangs out with.”
That sentiment was expressed in private, too, as the House GOP gathered for their weekly meeting on Tuesday morning.
According to Politico, lawmakers stood up unprompted and vented their frustration that their 26-year old colleague from North Carolina would suggest that lawmakers “leading on the movement to try and remove addiction” would “do a key bump of cocaine in front of you” or that people “I’ve looked up to through my life” in Congress had invited him to a “sexual get-together” at their homes as Cawthorn told the Warrior Poet Society podcast.
The backlash was so severe that House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told his conference that he plans to speak with Cawthorn about the allegations.
In the meantime, a number of House Republican lawmakers approached by The Daily Beast to discuss the latest Cawthorn controversy declined to comment or say much about the episode at all.
“I don’t know anything about what Madison referenced,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a leader of the right-most flank of the conference that includes Cawthorn. “I’ve heard about it; I haven’t seen the video.”
Among Republicans who did weigh in, the prevailing attitude was genuine bewilderment. Certainly, there have been politicians who burst into the headlines in recent years for their over-the-top partying, but coke and orgies?
“I've been here a decade, and besides the fact we're just cruel to each other, at many levels, it's one of the most boring places,” said Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ). “Truly, it’s one of the most banal places you can imagine.”
The vision of a sordid and seedy D.C. that Cawthorn painted in his interview—which he openly compared to the over-the-top Netflix drama House of Cards—made several long-serving lawmakers laugh in response. By accounts of practically anyone who’s been part of it, D.C. politics is much more like Veep, or a political version of The Office.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said Tuesday’s caucus meeting was the first he’d heard of Cawthorn’s comments.
“I haven’t seen those parties. So, I need to find out more about it before I comment, because that just seems rather bizarre,” he told The Daily Beast.
That Cawthorn might recast what is, for many lawmakers, a place of long hours and drudgery into a bacchanalian den of sin is not exactly surprising, given his track record.
He’s suggested House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who doesn’t drink alcohol, is an alcoholic. He told MAGA personality Charlie Kirk that he carried “multiple weapons” with him to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
When he ran for Congress in 2020, part of Cawthorn’s story was that he was headed to the U.S. Naval Academy as a high school senior before a car accident paralyzed him from the waist down. In reality, his application had actually been rejected well before his accident. He has boasted that he had an “opportunity” to compete in the Paralympic Games, but extensive reporting has found no evidence supporting that claim.
In recent months, Cawthorn has notched a string of controversies that have damaged his standing, capped by his allegation that Ukraine’s president is a “thug” who controls an “evil government.”
But even by Cawthorn standards, the orgy-and-coke claims reach new heights. On Tuesday, North Carolina’s two GOP senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, both sounded off on their colleague. Burr called him an “embarrassment at times” while Tillis told reporters he has a “lack of judgment” and had “not done much” for his district.
Republican lawmakers have reason to be angry at having those claims out there—perhaps more so because they could impact their standing with the party base.
Cawthorn’s story about “sexual perversions” has made the rounds on right-wing conspiracy theory outlets like The Gateway Pundit and InfoWars.
The comment sections on a Gateway Pundit post about Cawthorn’s allegations filled up with readers connecting his claims to Pizzagate, the discredited conspiracy theory that Washington power players sexually abuse children in a Washington pizzeria. Others worried that Cawthorn could be murdered for his brave whistle-blowing.
“I wish he would name names,” wrote one commenter.
Cawthorn’s allegations fit well within QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy theory that, like Pizzagate, holds that an elite cabal of Satanic sexual villains controls Washington.
“Oops, don’t think he was supposed to tell anyone about that…” one prominent QAnon promoter wrote on the social media app Telegram.
When they get over their frustration, laughter, and confusion, though, some Republican lawmakers seem to be losing their patience with a colleague who has a seemingly unending ability to cause headaches and controversy.
“I don’t even know what to make of it, anymore, man,” Crenshaw said. “I’m just kind of exhausted by it.”
