Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn, who complained about cocaine-fuelled GOP orgies, has been picture partying in women’s underwear.
The lawmaker, who grew up in a conservative Baptist community in North Carolina, is facing a primary for his first re-election bid next month.
The two pictures were obtained exclusively by Politico, which says they are screenshots and have not been independently verified.
Politico says they were provided the pictures “by a person formerly close to Cawthorn and his campaign”, and says their origin was confirmed by “a second person formerly close to Cawthorn and his campaign.”
In the pictures Mr Cawthorn, who was paralysed from the waist down in a 2014 car accident, can be seen sitting in a wheelchair.
The lawmaker is wearing a pendant necklace that he has been pictured with in other photos and videos, says Politico.
Mr Cawthorn quickly took to Twitter to make light of the pictures.
“I guess the left thinks goofy vacation photos during a game on a cruise (taken waaay before I ran for Congress) is going to somehow hurt me?” he tweeted.
“They’re running out of things to throw at me ... Share your most embarrassing vacay pics in the replies.”
Mr Cawthorn has been highly vocal about the importance religion plays in his personal life since taking office.
Earlier this week he tweeted: “There’s only one God and two genders. Get back to common sense!”
“I subscribe to Judeo-Christian beliefs,” he said on the AchievingOPTIMAL podcast in September 2020.
“I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I think if you think about my political ideology, where it really stems from, you know, my ethics and my morals and what I think is right and wrong, you look to ancient Jerusalem, you got ancient Judeo-Christian values. So right and wrong.
And he added: “I also cling to a lot of traditional values and a lot of traditional ideas, because they’ve worked in the past.”
Mr Cawthorn’s “orgy” comments about the “sexual perversion” in Washington DC earned him public rebukes from his Republican colleagues.
It is the latest in a string of colorful headlines for Mr Cawthorn as he tries to hold onto his House seat.
He faces a string of traffic tickets, which includes speeding, driving with expired tags and driving with a revoked licence for which he has court dates in May and June.
Mr Cawthorn was widely criticised for branding Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” and for claiming that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has a drinking problem.
