RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn on Wednesday night acknowledged the authenticity of a video posted to a website and social media showing him naked in bed with “a friend.”
“A new hit against me just dropped,” Cawthorn tweeted in response. “Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny. We were acting foolish and joking. That’s it.”
Cawthorn, who at 26 is the youngest member of Congress, is a conservative Christian who has accused his colleagues in Congress of having orgies, claimed Democrats are destroying the nuclear family and criticized transgender people.
American Muckrakers PAC, a group trying to defeat Cawthorn, posted the explicit video on its website FireMadison. That video, appearing to show a nude Cawthorn on top of the other person, making fast motions and loud noises while someone filmed, was shared on social media.
“Madison Cawthorn should resign from Congress today,” the group’s president, David B. Wheeler, wrote on the site, adding that the video “was passed to us by a former supporter and big donor of Rep. Cawthorn that wishes to remain anonymous.”
Cawthorn has been the center of numerous scandals in recent weeks, including for bringing a loaded gun to an airport, facing charges of driving with his license revoked, saying his colleagues on Capitol Hill participate in orgies and cocaine use, being accused of insider trading, having photos leaked of him wearing lingerie during a cruise ship game show and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a thug.”
Cawthorn, however, said these scandals are part of a drip campaign led by the Republican establishment to ensure he doesn’t get reelected.
“I’m NOT backing down,” Cawthorn said on Twitter. “I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won’t win. We will.”
When asked about the latest video, Cawthorn’s spokesman, Luke Ball, directed McClatchy to the same tweet.
Hours earlier, Cawthorn posted a seven-minute video responding to some of the scandals and allegation and blaming the drip campaign and the “fake news.”
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