(The Hill) — Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) claimed in an interview posted Thursday that fellow lawmakers have invited him to an orgy and done cocaine in front of him.
The remarks from Cawthorn, 26, who in his 14 months as a congressman has developed a reputation for unpredictable statements, came in the context of a discussion about whether, in “Warrior Poet Society” podcast host John Lovell’s words, “House of Cards” was a “fictitious show” or if it was “closer to like a documentary.”
“The only thing that isn’t accurate about that show is that you could never get a piece of legislation about education passed that quickly,” Cawthorn told Lovell.
“I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life, I’ve always paid attention to politics,” Cawthorn said.
“Then all of the sudden you get invited to, ‘Well, hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come.’”
“I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to?’” Cawthorn added. “And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.”
Cawthorn also claimed to have seen other people “leading” anti-addiction efforts doing cocaine in front of him.
“Or the fact that, you know, some of the people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country and then you watch them do, you know, a key bump of cocaine right in front of you and it’s like, wow, this is wild,” he told Lovell.
Cawthorn in another set of recent remarks to supporters described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “thug” who presided over an “incredibly evil” government even as Russia invaded Zelensky’s country. The congressman was widely panned for the comments, which a local news station in Raleigh highlighted in a video.
Voters in Cawthorn’s home state have sought to keep him from running for reelection because of statements he has made questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election.