Republicans didn't really care that Cawthorn is a Hitler-and-Putin-loving Nazi or that he has been a vitriolic, lying insurrectionist. It wasn't until he publicly exposed their DC coke-and-orgies scene that his own party turned on him. And now it's full-scale war. McCarthy and Scalise are all in on making sure Cawthorn loses his reelection bid in a primary.
How do we know this anti-Madison Cawthorn ad up top is being run by Republicans? The PAC that paid to have it made and is paying to run it in western North Carolina is called Results for NC, Republican Senator Thom Tillis' leadership superPAC. Tillis, who is supporting state Senator Chuck Edwards (R) for Cawthorn's seat, has spent over half a million dollars running anti-Cawthorn ads so far. Also... the ad is so overtly vicious that it has to be Republican-made. Democrats are way too cowardly to ever make and run an ad like this-- portraying the scandal-plagued Cawthorn as a closet case, a cross-dresser and a Putin-loving traitor.
Cawthorn is now under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, something he has stopped blaming on "socialists" and is now blaming on RINOs. "The swamp hates me," he says in a new ad lashing out at his Republican enemies. "Right now RINOs are spending millions of dollars in North Carolina to defeat me. They want someone who will make backroom deals and sell out our values and someone who will abandon America First principles... Western North Carolina doesn't need a sell-out; we need a fighter."
The latest complaints against Cawthorn, a 26-year-old from Hendersonville representing North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, allege he is providing free housing and money to a member of his staff, carried a loaded gun into an airport and may have participated in insider trading. The allegations involving Cawthorn’s scheduler, Stephen Smith, come with photos, videos and screenshots of financial transactions between the pair that led the complainant to ask the ethics committee to also look into the nature of their relationship.
Smith is accused of taking financial gifts and handouts from Cawthorn. Cawthorn is accused of providing Smith free housing, travel expenses, loans and failing to disclose the loans and gifts. Smith doesn’t just work for Cawthorn in Congress but also works on his campaign. Between Jan. 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. Smith made nearly $34,108 working for the campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Yesterday Cawthorn's lawyer, crackpot James Bopp Jr, was at a hearing of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that North Carolina "can't enforce basic age or residency requirements for congressional candidates, let alone enforce a constitutional ban against insurrectionists from holding office," a defense he's using in teh 14th Amendment case against him, which asserts that insurrectionists aren't eligible to run for federal office.
CNN reported that the 4th Circuit Appeals Court "is reviewing a lower-court order that shut down a candidacy challenge filed by several of Cawthorn's constituents in North Carolina... Overall, the three-judge appeals panel appeared to agree with the challengers that there were some issues with the lower court ruling that might need to be corrected. The appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, didn't say when it will issue a decision. The GOP primary in North Carolina is May 17, and the challengers have said they'll continue their fight through the general election."
In March, a federal district judge in North Carolina blocked the State Board of Elections from processing the challenge, in a major victory for Cawthorn. The challengers appealed and argued that the district judge improperly protected Cawthorn by misreading an amnesty law.
"We think the district court was wrong based on the plain language of the (Amnesty Act of 1872), the context and the history... the legislative history, later Congressional interpretations, as well as logic and common sense," said Pressly Millen, an attorney for the challengers.
Several prominent constitutional scholars-- and a federal judge in Georgia who oversaw some of the Greene-related proceedings-- have said that the district judge in North Carolina wrongly applied the Amnesty Act of 1872 to Cawthorn because the law only shielded ex-Confederates.
Trump has endorsed Cawthorn and featured him at rallies but now seems to have abandoned him to his fate. Unless Trump really goes to bat for him in a very explicit way-- Cawthorn has been unsuccessfully begging him for a TV ad-- Cawthorn will lose his primary race and if we ever hear from him again it will be some horrible tragedy.