House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is planning to sit down with Rep. Madison Cawthorn and talk to the North Carolina Republican about his latest incendiary public comment — suggesting that some of his colleagues invited him to orgies as well as used cocaine in front of him.
During a closed-door House GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, multiple Republicans in the room said lawmakers stood up to air their anger and frustration over Cawthorn portraying his own colleagues as bacchanalian and sexual deviants.
In one case, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) stood up and addressed his colleagues, telling them that he rarely speaks during the closed-door weekly meetings but felt he must address the topic because he’s now getting questions about participants in Cawthorn’s alleged orgies and drug use. Womack remarked that many lawmakers go to bed at 9 p.m. and still use fax machines and flip phones, stating that it was inappropriate to paint them with a broad brush, as Cawthorn did.
Cawthorn’s comments about “sexual perversion” in Washington comes in response to a podcast interviewer’s question about whether the show “House of Cards” – which features an ambitious, corrupt congressman trying to rise to power – is unrealistic or if it paints a somewhat accurate picture of the D.C. political scene. Cawthorn suggested the latter.
The first-term conservative said he received invitations along the lines of: “‘Well, hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come’.” The 26-year-old described his response on the podcast “Warrior Poet Society”: “I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.”
Cawthorn also claimed to have seen other people who are “leading” efforts to eradicate drug addiction using cocaine in front of him.
Many GOP lawmakers privately expressed disbelief at Cawthorn’s claims, particularly of orgies. Some wondered if he made the comments consciously in a bid to portray himself above such acts — past media reports have addressed sexual misconduct allegations against him before his election. There’s a desire among fellow Republicans for Cawthorn to identify the colleagues involved to prove the truth of his comments, but that desire to name names could also cause new headaches for a conference that’s already faced an array of controversies this Congress.
Lol. You have to love that the Republicans knew he was referring to them.
But not to worry. Kevin’s going to have a chat with him about it. It’s all good.