Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has accused the “establishment” of launching a “coordinated drip campaign” against him, a comment that comes as the congressman finds himself in the midst of several controversies.
“They’re going to drop an attack article every one or two days just to try and kill us with a death by 1,000 cuts, and that is really their main strategy,” Cawthorn, 26, said late Tuesday night on his Instagram account.
In the 2 1/2-minute video, the first-term lawmaker said that “statistically, it’s virtually impossible to beat an incumbent member of Congress after they won their first reelection.”
He added that it was why “you’re starting to see this coordinated attack” against a lot of the first-term members of Congress who “are hardcore conservatives going up for re-election across the country.”
Cawthorn also harshly criticized an ad released by state Sen. Chuck Edwards (R), one of a number of his primary challengers, in which he knocked the congressman for his use of Instagram.
He said that the people who want him to stay quiet and off Instagram “obviously don’t understand what’s going on.”
He added that his constituents will start to see “these ridiculous salacious lies” and said he makes “no apologies for making sure that we have a good platform to get the truth out about conservatism out to these people when they have been indoctrinated with these lies of socialism.”
Edwards made headlines after securing an endorsement from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who said Cawthorn “has fallen well short of the most basic standards Western North Carolina expects from their representatives.”
His accusations against the “establishment” come after Politico released photos showing him wearing women’s lingerie at what appears to be a party.
When the photos surfaced, Cawthorn claimed these were part of another attack from the left and that the pictures were taken during a game on a cruise before he was elected to Congress.
Additionally, on Tuesday Cawthorn was cited for trying to bring a loaded gun through security at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
A former district staff member who worked for the congressman also recently accused him of improperly firing her after being denied family and medical leave.
During his Instagram post, Cawthorn added that he was “proud of my constituents who are seeing through kind of this this political shenanigans, and I’m very confident that we’re going to be able to win our reelection.”
Cawthorn has come under fire from his colleagues in Congress after he claimed that lawmakers in Washington invited him to an orgy and did cocaine in front of him.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters at the time that “he’s got to turn himself around.”
Cawthorn is currently running for reelection in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. The Republican primary in North Carolina is scheduled for May 17.
