Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) has diverged from his party’s stance on Ukraine in ugly fashion, calling President Volodymyr Zelensky “a thug” and the country “incredibly evil” in a bizarre rant caught on camera. It’s not clear when the clip, obtained by WRAL, was filmed but former Bush Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who first mentioned the comments in a Wall Street Journal piece, said it was filmed at a town hall in Asheville last Saturday. At the start of the clip, Cawthorn mentions sending Stinger missiles to Ukraine for self-defense, providing further evidence that the clip was filmed after Russia’s invasion began. “Remember that Zelensky is a thug,” Cawthorn said in his rant. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and it is incredibly evil and it has been pushing woke ideologies.” Meanwhile, Cawthorn is battling three court cases for driving offenses and is in the process of divorcing a woman he says he met at a fake CrossFit competition staged by a man he met at a casino in Russia, where casinos are banned.
