McCarthy, 57,spoke to reporters from outlets including Axiosafter Cawthorn, 26, raised eyebrows with his recent appearance on a podcast in which he claimed that some older lawmakers had allegedly invited him to participate in orgies while others had done “key bumps of cocaine” in front of him.
“It’s just frustrating. There’s no evidence behind his statements,” McCarthy said, per Axios. “And when I sit down with him … I told him you can’t make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole.”
Axios reported that McCarthy also said Cawthorn’s claims were “exaggerated,” and that the lawmaker he thought he saw doing cocaine was “maybe a staffer in a parking garage,” and not actually a lawmaker.
“In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away,” McCarthy said.
In his appearance on theWarrior Poet Societypodcast— which was filmed — Cawthorn had said, “I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life, I’ve always paid attention to politics. Then all of the sudden you get invited to, ‘Well hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come.’ I’m like, ‘What did you just ask me to come to do?’ And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.”
Rep. Madison Cawthorn.Zuma/SplashNews.com
He continued: “Some of the people that are leading on the movement to try to remove addiction in our country, then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine in front of you.”
This is the second time in recent weeks McCarthy has made a public statement regarding his frustrations with Cawthorn, a headline-grabbing North Carolina lawmaker who became theyoungest member of Congresswhen he was elected in 2020.
Earlier this month, McCarthy scolded Cawthorn for calling Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyya “thug” —a viral commentCawthorn’s office has subsequently clarified.
A spokesman for Cawthorn did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment but clarified those remarks in a statement toTheWashington Post.
“The Congressman was expressing his displeasure at how foreign leaders, including Zelensky, had recently used false propaganda to entice America into becoming involved in an overseas conflict,” Luke Ball said. “He supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian President’s efforts to defend their country against Russian aggression, but does not want America drawn into another conflict through emotional manipulation.”
“Madison is wrong,” McCarthy told reporters at a news briefing. “If there’s any thug in this world, it’s Putin.”
source: people.com
