Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) on Monday took to Fox News to complain about a lawsuit that cites his “Stop the Steal” rhetoric and appearance at a rally preceding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in hopes of preventing him from running for re-election.
That a far-right blowhard would vent on Tucker Carlson Tonight is, of course, less than shocking. But it’s how the MAGA cheerleader—who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump—went after his home-state critics that veered into the stuff of parody.
Cawthorn told Carlson that the lawsuit was anti-democratic because, if successful, it would “subvert the will” of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Presumably those hundreds of thousands are not among the tens of millions whose will would have been subverted were the 2020 election awarded to the man who lost it.
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“I’m sure that you were as puzzled as I was following Jan. 6 when they started saying that we were insurrectionists, seditionists, traitors. I thought they were just trying to get a flashy headline,” Cawthorn said.
But apparently, he explained, this was all part of a “plan” that’s now staring him in the face in the form of legal action.
Last month, a group of 11 voters in Cawthorn’s home state filed a lawsuit before the North Carolina State Board of Elections alleging that he is constitutionally barred from running for office. The suit cites false claims of election fraud Cawthorn made in a speech prior to the insurrection, and how Cawthorn or his top staffers were reportedly communicating with planners of at least one “Stop the Steal” event.
The suit hinges on the 14th Amendment. Passed after the Civil War, the amendment includes a measure intended to prevent ex-Confederates from holding public office, which states that no person “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
In other words, some North Carolina residents were none too pleased at their far-right congressman undermining democracy.
Meanwhile, Cawthorn seems to think every single person living in his district is on his side.
“What is going on here is that they are actually very close to being able to subvert the will of over 700,000 Americans,” Cawthorn claimed, referring to the rough population of any given congressional district.
“And make no mistake, Tucker: This is not just about a 26-year-old from western North Carolina in a wheelchair. This is about the future of our very nation. If they’re able to set this precedent in North Carolina, they will be able to keep anybody who had valid and legitimate concerns about what happened in the 2020 election from being able to ever hold office.”
Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who also voted to overturn Biden’s Electoral College win, successfully fought off the same challenge last week. But Carlson, a man who has demanded Republicans like Ted Cruz kiss the ring rather than criticize rioters and has made more than his fair share of bogus claims about the election, agreed with Cawthorn’s assessment of Democrats’ motivations.
“I think your analysis is so smart. You’re exactly right,” the Fox News host gushed. “That’s why they called the rioters ‘insurrectionists.’ And so many conservative officeholders and news organizations have ignored it. They’re so embarrassed. They don’t see what this is really about, which is ending democracy.”
