Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., broke his silence Friday after days of GOP uproar over his remarks on a podcast claiming congressional colleagues were using drugs and inviting him to sex parties.
But in a lengthy statement, Cawthorn attempted to distance himself from his own comments by suggesting it was Democrats and the media that made the allegations about cocaine use and orgies.
“My comments on a recent podcast appearance calling out corruption have been used by the left and the media to disparage my Republican colleagues and falsely insinuate their involvement in illicit activities," he said in statement posted to Twitter.
On the podcast, Cawthorn discussed “the sexual perversion that goes on in Washington” and said some of his older colleagues had invited him to orgies.
“I mean, being kind of a young guy in Washington, where the average age is probably 60 to 70, and 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 — then all of a sudden you get invited,” Cawthorn said, quoting one such alleged exchange.
“‘Oh, 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?’ Then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy,” Cawthorn, 26, said.
The first-term lawmaker also described drug use in his presence. “The fact there are some of the people leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And you’re like, ‘This is wild.’”
The GOP outrage over Cawthorn's remarks was widespread in Washington.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Wednesday he told Cawthorn that “I lost my trust in him” and that there “could be” consequences as a result, without specifying what those consequences might be.
In Friday's statement, Cawthorn invoked McCarthy's name.
“The left and the media want to use my words to divide the GOP. They are terrified of Republicans taking back the House and seeing Leader McCarthy become Speaker McCarthy," Cawthorn said.
His statement was ridiculed by some Democratic lawmakers. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., tweeted that voters face a choice between “cocaine or competence” in November.
On Thursday, Cawthorn released a 30-second ad targeting Democrats, with an accompanying Twitter post saying “the entire left-wing establishment” was trying to “take him down.” There was no mention of his podcast remarks in the ad.
Cawthorn's latest controversy came on the heels of other comments that riled his GOP colleagues. After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a bloody invasion of Ukraine last month, Cawthorn called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug."
But Cawthorn has a strong political ally in former President Donald Trump, the party's de facto leader. Cawthorn spoke at the Jan. 6 rally before the riot at the U.S. Capitol, and he is expected to speak at a rally with Trump next week in North Carolina.
