‘You Know Damn Well Who I Am’: Madison Cawthorn and GOP Colleague Reportedly Got Into Shouting Match on House Floor
An aide to Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) has filed an ethics complaint against freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC). It is unclear what the complaint alleges, but it comes after a verbal spat between Cawthorn and a staffer for McKinley on Thursday that preceded what Politico described as a “shouting match” between Cawthorn and McKinley.
It all began when Cawthorn, 25, went to the office of McKinley, 74, to ask that his name be removed from a bill. McKinley was not in his office at the time, and Cawthorn ended up getting into a verbal altercation with an aide, according to some on McKinley’s staff. During the exchange, Cawthorn allegedly asked if McKinley “was that guy with the mustache that nobody fucking knows.”
On Thursday night, Cawthorn approached McKinley on the House floor and asked, “What is your name?”
One Republican source told Politico that McKinley replied, “You know damn well who I am.”
The elder Republican took issue with Cawthorn’s treatment of his aide and repeatedly called the freshman congressman “junior.” According to Cawthorn, McKinley refused to remove his name from the legislation. In response Cawthorn asked McKinley how he’d feel if he affixed McKinley’s name to pro-marijuana or pro-abortion legislation.
Cawthorn told Politico he brought up McKinley’s vote for the failed bill that, had it passed the Senate, would have created an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“I said, ‘Your district will remember that. And if you want to run for re-election and you’re going to sit here and attack me all over this stuff, I will make sure they remember'”
He said McKinley “started getting all kinds of angry.”
On Friday, Cawthorn sent letters to McKinley and the staffer he got into the verbal altercation with. One of the letters said Cawthorn wants to put “our differences behind us” and “focus on our true adversaries.”
Politico reported that some House Republicans had wondered why Cawthorn didn’t just send an aide to McKinley’s office to have his name taken off the bill.
