Madison Cawthorn

About

Madison Cawthorn is an American politician and a part of the U.S. House of Representatives within the Republican party, assuming office in early 2021 as the representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district. Cawthorn and his conservative politics have put him in conversation with former President Donald Trump and fellow Representative Lauren Boebert, among others close to Make America Great Again. He's surfaced in online discourse and in memes regarding false statements surrounding the January 6th, 2021, Capitol Riots and the 2020 Presidential Election. His electability is based on his conservative values, his young age and his handicapped condition, which has put him in a wheelchair. Controversies regarding Cawthorn involve photographs of him at Hitler's vacation home, claiming that his Republican colleagues hosted orgies and did cocaine, photographs of him wearing lingerie on a cruise and a viral video of him humping a friend's face while naked in bed.

Background

Madison Cawthorn, whose full name is David Madison Cawthorn, was born on August 1st, 1995, in Asheville, North Carolina.^[1] He was home-schooled throughout elementary, middle and high school but played football with a local travel team consisting of home-schooled students. Cawthorn also worked at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in his adolescence.

In 2014, when he was 18, Cawthorn was injured in a car accident while returning from a spring break trip in Florida. His friend reportedly fell asleep at the wheel near Dayton Beach, Florida, and Cawthorn had his legs up on the dashboard at the moment of impact. In a speech^[2] Cawthorn gave at Patrick Henry College on January 27th, 2017, he detailed the crash and what had happened. Many of his details regarding it, however, raised speculation later on in his political career.^[3]

In the same year as the crash, Cawthorn was nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy, however, due to his injury that left him partially paralyzed and in a wheelchair, his nomination had to be rescinded. Cawthorn instead attended Patrick Henry College in 2016, studying political science.

Political History

Starting in January 2015, Cawthorn worked part-time in Representative Mark Meadows' office. His position there ended in 2016, however, Cawthorn would keep in contact with Meadows and later deem him his mentor.^[1] In March 2020, Cawthorn ran for office for the first time, facing off against Lynda Bennett who was endorsed by both Donald Trump and his mentor, Mark Meadows. Although he was projected to lose, Cawthorn won in a run-off election in June 2020.^[4] He was later sworn into office on January 3rd, 2021, becoming the youngest member of the House of Representatives in 200 years at 25 years old.

2020 Republican Convention

On August 26th, 2020, Cawthorn gave a speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention on night three of the event. His speech was posted to YouTube on the same day by PBS News Hour, where it received roughly 226,200 likes over the course of one year and a half (shown below).

January 6th, 2021, Statements

Soon after taking office, Cawthorn attended the rally that sparked the Storming of the U.S. Capitol. He gave a speech at the rally, posting a video clip to his Twitter,^[5] where, over the course of 14 months, it received roughly 178,900 views and 4,700 likes (shown below). Cawthorn reiterated in his speech how the 2020 election results were fraudulent.

Offers Kyle Rittenhouse an Internship

On November 19th, 2021, Cawthorn posted a video to Instagram that reacted to the not-guilty verdict from the Trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. He appeared pleased in the video, offering Rittenhouse an internship. The video was reposted to Twitter on November 19th, 2021, by the page patriottakes,^[6] where, over the course of five months, it received roughly 1.7 million views (shown below).

Controversies

Hitler's "Eagles Nest" Instagram Post

In July 2017, Cawthorn visited the location of Adolf Hitler's vacation home called "Eagles Nest." Although the posts have since been deleted, they were screenshotted and included in an article written by The Times of Israel^[7] on August 14th, 2020 (shown below). Within the description of his post, he detailed how visiting the Führer's Eagles Nest was on his bucket list.

Amid the resurfacing of the Instagram posts, Cawthorn denied his loyalty to Hitler's beliefs and being a Nazi himself. He posted a tweet^[8] on August 11th that levied his defense, earning roughly 3,100 likes in seven months (shown below).

Invited to an Orgy and Witnessing Key Bumps of Cocaine

On March 22nd, 2022, Cawthorn was on the Warrior Poet Society podcast. At the 3:30-minute mark, he went off on a tangent about his Republican colleagues in the Congress and the House who purportedly invited him to orgies at their homes. Additionally, he added that he witnessed these men doing key bumps of cocaine right in front of him. Over the course of one month, the YouTube video received roughly 235,700 views (shown below).

Lingerie Photos

On April 22nd, 2022, photographs of Cawthorn wearing lingerie at a party were surfaced by the news outlet Politico^[9] (shown below, left). The photographs were levied against Cawthorn in an attempt to dismiss claims he made about his Republican colleagues having orgies and doing drugs in early 2022.

On the same day, April 22nd, 2022, Cawthorn revealed in a tweet^[10] that the photos were taken of him on a cruise before he was elected. He admitted they were embarrassing but also added, "They're running out of things to throw at me…" The tweet earned roughly 8,300 likes over the course of four days (shown below, right).

Madison Cawthorn Humping Video

On May 4th, 2022, the American Muckrakers PAC released a video on the website firemadison.com^[11] that shows Cawthorn naked, humping a friend's face and moaning loudly in a bed. Some initially claimed the friend was Cawthorn's cousin. They shared the link multiple times on Twitter^[12] that day where it received viral spread through reposts. That night, Cawthorn responded to the video on Twitter,^[13] claiming he was being "crass with a friend" and was "joking," calling the video "blackmail" (shown below).

The video inspired reactions and memes across social media. That day, Twitter^[14] user @Trump_Detester posted a video of a chihuahua humping a Trump doll's face, writing, "I’m gonna tell my grandkids that this was Madison Cawthorn…" gaining over 9,200 likes in under 24 hours (shown below). On the same day, Instagram^[15] user boomer.jim posted an image macro telling people not to google "Madison Cawthorn video," gaining over 4,200 likes in a similar timeframe. The video was picked up by various media outlets, including CNN,^[16] the Daily Mail,^[17] CTV^[18] and The Hill.^[19]

Search Interest

External References