Madison Cawthorn Says Sexual Misconduct Allegations Are False, Addressed During Election
Source: Newsweek
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) denied renewed allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women during his time in college on Friday.
Allegations that Cawthorn, a 25-year-old rising star of the Republican party's right wing, was responsible for a string of sexual harassment incidents during his short time at Patrick Henry College were highlighted in a BuzzFeed News article published on Friday. Cawthorn was elected to Congress in November. Similar claims of sexual harassment and assault were an issue during the campaign.
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Cawthorn left Patrick Henry College, a small Christian liberal arts school in Virginia, after finishing one semester in 2016. The future congressman earned mostly "D" grades that he attributed to injuries sustained in a car crash that left him unable to walk about two years earlier, according to The Asheville Citizen-Times.
Several women who attended the college at the same time have accused Cawthorn of sexual harassment during off-campus "joy rides" in his car, Buzzfeed reported.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/madison-cawthorn-says-sexual-misconduct-allegations-are-false-addressed-during-election/ar-BB1e41Y7?ocid=hplocalnews
When you have a right wing media ecosystem where networks compete to provide a safe place for racists QAnon supporters, is it any wonder that its rising stars consist of folks like Cawthorn and Greene?
Madison Cawthorn arrived at Patrick Henry Colleges small Christian campus in northern Virginia in fall 2016 blazing with charm, bravado, and a flashing white smile. His former classmates said the future member of Congress would whip his white Dodge Challenger into the parking lot and regale his classmates with the story of how he survived a harrowing car crash as a teen, which left him paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair for life. After his intensive recovery, he was older than most students 21 and didnt fit the mold of the Christian and largely sheltered first-year students who chose the conservative school in Purcellville because of its commitment to God and rigorous academics. And, former Patrick Henry students said, it didnt take long for women on campus to start warning one another: You dont want to be alone with him, especially in his car.
BuzzFeed News spoke with more than three dozen people, including more than two dozen former students, their friends, and their relatives, who described or corroborated instances of sexual harassment and misconduct on campus, in Cawthorns car, and at his house near campus. Four women told BuzzFeed News that Cawthorn, now a rising Republican star, was aggressive, misogynistic, or predatory toward them. Their allegations include calling them derogatory names in public in front of their peers, including calling one woman slutty, asking them inappropriate questions about their sex lives, grabbing their thighs, forcing them to sit in his lap, and kissing and touching them without their consent. One of these women now works as an intern for another Republican member of Congress and passes Cawthorn in the corridors of the Capitol. According to more than a dozen people including three women who had firsthand experience and seven people who heard about these incidents from them at the time Cawthorn often used his car as a way to entrap and harass his women classmates, taking them on what he could call fun drives'' off campus. Two said he would drive recklessly and ask them about their virginity and sexual experiences while they were locked in the moving vehicle.
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Today, Cawthorn is a 25-year-old first-year member of Congress, the youngest ever elected, from Hendersonville, North Carolina. In the 2020 primary, he pulled off a surprising upset over Republican Lynda Bennett, former president Donald Trumps preferred candidate, by leaning into Trumps own strategy: bombastic attacks against the left and open support for conspiracy theories.
Cawthorn has made his Christian faith a central part of his political identity, going so far as to say in an interview with Jewish Insider soon after winning his race last November that he has tried to convert Jewish and Muslim people to Christianity. The Lord and the Bible and the value systems Ive gotten through Judeo-Christian values, he said, it affects every single decision I make. He also posts often about his faith on Instagram, sharing photos of the Bible and writing about how much prayer and the Lord uplift and guide him through lifes battlefields.
Gore1FL
(21,161 posts)And let it be known that I have not stated the allegations have legs.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)yankeepants
(1,979 posts)Captain Zero
(6,845 posts)nt
Midnight Writer
(21,820 posts)onetexan
(13,073 posts)God, guns, & sexual predatory behavior makes a male republican congress member. Sounds about right.
cstanleytech
(26,340 posts)Now that aside a simple solution is to get everyone involved to agree to swear to their claims under oath.
After that then launch an investigation to determine if its true and if it is then the guy should resign and or be removed from office especially since he would have lied under oath.
If its determined that he is telling the truth then the women of course should be held accountable as well.
JustAnotherGen
(31,973 posts)I'm comparing him to Al Franken.
cstanleytech
(26,340 posts)sign an affidavit under oath.
If one balks then the odds are they either did it or are lying about it.
JustAnotherGen
(31,973 posts)I strongly suspect All.Franken's Don Jr Trump crony would not have.
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)This thread has nothing to do with Cuomo who has a long public record and did not get elected by embracing racism and conspiracy theories despite having very little in the way of accomplishments.
Whats next? Are we going to embrace the comparisons between Margorie Green and AOC?
cstanleytech
(26,340 posts)That and a solution to such claims does exist.
My personal belief is that Cuomo is telling the truth though but in this guys case he probably did it due to the number of women claiming he did.
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)Sure, lets be fair by not buying into what aboutism to absolve Republicans of responsibility. If we do so, we might as well give Trump a free pass on insighting insurrection because some Democrat used the word fight in a different context. It is a right wing tactic that we should not fall for.
pfitz59
(10,401 posts)"He said/ she said" is a distraction from provable offenses, such as his giddy visit to Hitler's "Eagle's Nest".
Paladin
(28,280 posts)And all by age 25.
Ford_Prefect
(7,927 posts)Jesse Helms and Josh Hawley, with a side of Stephen Miller. He's a protégé of Mark Meadows and has a well publicized affiliation with white racist and neo-Nazi iconography and language.
He was turned down by the US Naval Academy before the accident that put him in the wheelchair, yet he claims the accident was what stopped him from attending.
Given how much money and energy the NC GOP put behind him at only 25 and with no professional background he is a dangerous ideologue who deserves every doubt you may think of, and a dozen more. He comes from the heart of NC and Neo-conservative darkness and he represents them thoroughly and completely.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Cawthorn
Sexual misconduct allegations
In August 2020, during Cawthorn's campaign for Congress, several women came forward accusing him of sexually aggressive behavior, sexual misconduct, and sexual assault.[8][58][59][60] Katrina Krulikas described an incident when she was 17 and Cawthorn was 19 in which Cawthorn pressured her to sit on his lap and attempted to kiss her forcefully twice, which she resisted. Cawthorn did not deny the allegations, but said, "I did try and kiss her, just very normal, just in a flirtatious way", adding, "If I did make her feel unsafe, I feel bad", but questioned the timing of her allegation.[61] His campaign characterized Krulikas' allegations as politically motivated, which she denied.[60] After Krulikas made hers, three other women made allegations of sexual misconduct against Cawthorn, including forcible touching and kissing.[62]
On October 17, 2020, a group of Patrick Henry College alumni released a public letter accusing Cawthorn of "sexually predatory behavior" while a student there, as well as of vandalism and lying. The letter originally had 10 signatories but the number increased to over 150 alumni.[63] Cawthorn claimed that most of the signers did not know him personally and his campaign posted a letter of support for him signed by six alumni, two of whom work for Cawthorn's campaign. The letter implied support by former Patrick Henry College President Michael Farris; Farris disavowed the support letter and asked that he not be associated with it.
He even looks the part.
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