PAC Claims More Explicit Madison Cawthorn Videos Are Out There Amid Rumors Trump May Pull Support
A certain Madison Cawthorn video has been making the rounds in the political sphere.
That video, the Daily Beast says, showed "a naked Cawthorn mounting another man in bed and dry-humping his face while making bizarre yelping noises—seemingly as a joke, but bizarre nonetheless. Cawthorn did not deny the video was authentic, but he dismissed it as horseplay, and said his foes were trying to 'blackmail' him by publishing it. Few news outlets reported on it. His opponents didn't even go near it."
That video was released by one of the numerous Cawthorn opposition groups — this one called American Muckrakers PAC. Spokesperson David Wheeler spoke with the Daily Beast.
"That firehose of oppo includes much more explicit material featuring the congressman—material Wheeler said he could not publish without breaking North Carolina law."
American Muckrakers received the video via email, from a man who wanted to remain anonymous as a "former supporter and donor" for Cawthorn," the Daily Beast said.
But they took it down just 24 hours after posting, "citing terms of service violations," according to the website Smoky Mountain News.
In addition, AM discovered they were hacked. "While the site was down, Wheeler said they discovered someone had inserted pornographic content into the folders on the back end of the website where photos and videos were stored. The pornographic content was never posted on the site, nor was it able to be viewed by visitors to the site."
"I mean, the timing was just too coincidental to have not been directly related," he said.
After being down for around 18 hours, the website was relaunched — sans video — on the morning of May 6.
It remains to be seen whether more videos of Cawthorn will be released before the May 16 primary where the first-term congressman faces strong opposition.
The Hill said that Cawthorn likely knows who sent the video. "Of course, Cawthorn may have a good idea of who the material is coming from — both because some of it must be from limited original sources (how many people were in the room during the nude 'joking?' And the angle of the crotch-grab video seems to suggest it was his own aide who recorded it) and because he suggests that it's a 'blackmail' campaign, although he doesn't say quite what he's being pressured to do in order to stop the releases."
The 26-year-old faces stiff opposition in next Tuesday's primary with many leading Republicans, including North Carolina senator Tom Tillis, actively opposing his candidacy.
According to the Washington Post, "Tillis and many of North Carolina's top Republicans, including the state's House speaker and Senate leader, are backing a challenger, state Sen. Chuck Edwards, in next Tuesday's primary. Tillis has personally raised money for the effort. An allied super PAC is bombarding the district with TV ads and mail pieces highlighting Cawthorn's string of scandals and indiscretions — a list that gets longer with almost each passing day."
Cawthorn has pushed back. "Madison decided to throw elbows at these people," Carlton Huffman, a Republican operative from North Carolina who's supporting Edwards, told the Post. "He believes that there are new rules of politics in the Trump era and you don't have to kiss anybody's ring in the established party."
Cawthorn has written: "The Establishment in Washington and North Carolina has fought against my reelection to Congress in a way I've never seen before. The people of Western North Carolina see through it. Our campaign is on track to win a great victory next week, no matter what comes our way."
But rumors are circulating that Cawthorn may lose the support of Donald Trump before Tuesday due to the most recent video.
Rolling Stone reported that "Just a month after he invited Cawthorn to speak at a North Carolina rally, Trump has grown increasingly annoyed and disappointed with his MAGA apprentice. The twice-impeached former president has described some of what he's heard about Cawthorn's latest woes — and the online sexual imagery associated with it — as 'gross,' according to two sources who've heard Trump speak about the matter in the past couple weeks."
Farron Cousins, co-host of the podcast "Ring of Fire," pointed out the Rolling Stone article in a commentary on May 10. "But Donald Trump, according to his allies who spoke to Rolling Stone isn't happy with all of this," he said. "And even though he says he's not ready to pull his endorsement of Cawthorn just yet, he does, according to these aides, want to sit back and just see how things play out. Which, of course, means that if more damning information or disturbing videos emerge of Madison Cawthorn between now and the May 17 primary, Donald Trump absolutely could end up rescinding that endorsement, similar to what he did obviously for Mo Brooks in the state of Alabama."
Cousins added that the sensational videos and scandals only obscure Cawthorn's real problems.
"What does bother me, of course, are the actual real scandals that have emerged, the potential insider trading scandal...You have other allegations that he may have violated campaign finance laws, and house ethics rules. He's got some very real scandals that actually should be paid attention to. But, of course, all of that gets overlooked because there's a video of him naked on top of his friend and that's very weird. But we need to be paying attention to the real scandals, because those are the ones that obviously show us the true character of Madison Cawthorn."