Madison cawthorne7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() THE POINT - NOW ON YOUTUBE! In each episode of his weekly YouTube show, Chris Cillizza will delve a little deeper into the surreal world of politics. He also has a serious problem with telling the truth, as the Citizen Times, AVL Watchdog and other outlets have reported, but he’s also supremely confident and unapologetic. Cawthorn seems to fully embrace far-right policy points and rhetoric, and he shows almost no interest in reaching out to moderates or progressives. On the other hand, as evidenced by his “ Cry more, Lib” tweet on Election night, he seems incredibly immature and disrespectful toward the left end of the political spectrum, or even the middle. On the one hand, he seems very sincere in his conservative convictions and his respect for the Constitution. For someone with a serious dearth of real-world and political experience, that’s not a good combination, in my opinion. ![]() He seems very susceptible to conspiracy theories, and he really seems to crave the limelight. So, who is he, really?īoyle: Boy, that’s a million-dollar question. He really was a political novice.Ĭillizza: Cawthorn seems to ping pong between promising to reach across the aisle and embracing the worst conspiracy theories of Trumpism. Mark Meadows, Cawthorn’s predecessor before leaving to become Trump’s chief of staff, was a well-known businessman and prominent in Republican circles before he ran for Congress.Ĭawthorn had brief work experience at a Chick-fil-A and as a part-time worker in Meadows’ office here in the district, but that’s about it. Some, like Heath Shuler, have tremendous name recognition from sports or other endeavors. Historically in the 11th Congressional District, most candidates, both Democratic and Republican, are older, established in a career, have some name recognition and often have served in some elective office before running. I think his age and lack of experience play a major role with his relative anonymity previously. I’ve been in the Asheville area for 26 years now, by the way. But I know I hadn’t heard of him beforehand, and most folks I know had never heard of him, either. He seemed to gather some steam during the primary, where he came in second behind Lynda Bennett. Was he a known commodity in the district before he won? Our conversation – conducted via email and lightly edited for flow – is below.Ĭillizza: Cawthorn became a massive national story when he beat Trump’s endorsed candidate last year. ![]() I reached out to John Boyle, a columnist at the Asheville Citizen Times. ![]() I wanted to get a better sense of who Cawthorn was and what his district’s voters made of all the publicity – positive and negative – he’s drawn over the past six months or so. The Washington Post published an exposé earlier this week detailing a number of falsehoods in Cawthorn’s personal story and CNN reported on accusations by several women that Cawthorn behaved inappropriately with them during college. His personal story – a paraplegic following a teenage car accident – his youth ( he was elected at age 25) and his good looks all combined to make him an immediate national, figure within the GOP.īut that image has taken a major hit in recent months. Madison Cawthorn (R) was one of the biggest surprise winners of the 2020 election – upsetting then President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate in the Asheville-area district once held by his chief of staff Mark Meadows. ![]()
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