@madisoncawthorn/Instagram
February 27, 2021, 8:53 am
Madison Cawthorn won the 2020 primary in North Carolina over Republican Lynda Bennett, Buzzfeed News reports. He apparently succeeded through the Trump-style tactics of lying, yelling, insulting people, and embracing QAnon types and their conspiracies. The 25-year-old is a graduate of Patrick Henry College, and the community there has come forward with some accusations about Cawthorn’s reputation on campus.
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The small Christian college had a high focus on purity culture—for the girls. That meant that instead of reprimanding Cawthorn when he allegedly started harassing young women at PHC, they started warning the female students not to get into his car.
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BuzzFeed News interviewed dozens of people who “described or corroborated instances of sexual harassment and misconduct on campus, in Cawthorn’s car, and at his house near campus.”
Reading the accusations aren’t necessarily shocking: they paint a picture of an entitled misogynist who used every opportunity to behave inappropriately with women he didn’t respect. Sounds like a Republican!
And unfortunately, this report isn’t breaking news. In October of 2020, just before the election, 160 people signed an open letter about Cawthorn’s “predatory” behavior:
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In seeming response, Cawthorn published his own letter on Facebook signed by PHC alums…six of them.
BuzzFeed reports that two of the signees worked on his campaign and one was a relative of his who attended the college.
The general accusations against Cawthorn were that he was sexually aggressive, followed women around campus, drove them to secluded areas in his car and pressed for sexual conversations, and reacted negatively when they refused, groping women and several forced kisses.
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In response to this new piece, Cawthorn’s communications director, Micah Bock, repeated the remarks the Congressman made in September about swirling allegations where he said, “I have never done anything sexually inappropriate in my life.”
He continued, “If I have a daughter, I want her to grow up in a world where people know to explicitly ask before touching her. If I had a son, I want him to be able to grow up in a world where he would not be called a sexual predator for trying to kiss someone.”
Well, only the former doesn’t exist right now.
*First Published: February 27, 2021, 8:53 am
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