Cawthorn spoke at rally before violent mob attacked Capitol. Now he’s facing backlash.

U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who spoke at last week’s rally that preceded a riot at the U.S. Capitol, has lost the support of a key Republican endorser in Western North Carolina as some Democrats call for his removal from Congress.

Cawthorn, 25, is the youngest member of Congress. He was elected in November to fill the seat previously held by current White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after campaigning as a new kind of Republican who would not back down.

“I’m fighting a battle for our Constitution on the house floor with other patriots. The battle is on the house floor, not in the streets of D.C.,” Cawthorn tweeted at 1:31 p.m. on Jan. 6 — around the same time a mob was breaking into the Capitol.

In his speech in front of the White House earlier that day, Cawthorn told the crowd: “The Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans, hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice.

“Make no mistake about it, they do not want you to be heard. But my friends, when I look out into this crowd, I can confidently say, this crowd has the voice of lions. There is a new Republican Party on the rise that will represent this country, that will go and fight in Washington, D.C.”

Cawthorn said he bears no responsibility for the actions of the crowd, which forced the evacuation and lockdown of the House and Senate and left five people dead and dozens of police officers injured.

“I don’t feel I had any responsibility for them attacking the Capitol,” Cawthorn told WLOS in an interview last week. “It was despicable. They are thugs.”

When Cawthon won his primary runoff victory last year against a candidate backed by President Donald Trump and Meadows, it stunned many outside observers.

But not George Erwin.

Cawthorn supporter has regrets

Erwin, who won three terms as Henderson County sheriff and served a decade as the executive director of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, had lined up support for Cawthorn from law enforcement groups throughout Western North Carolina’s 11th district.

“You will dominate her in the runoff,” Erwin said he told Cawthorn before his race against the Trump- and Meadows-backed Lynda Bennett. “All of my sheriffs and my elected officials are going to come on board with you.”

Cawthorn won easily, got a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, defeated Democrat Moe Davis in November’s general election and was sworn into Congress earlier this month.

For a time, Erwin was preparing to be Cawthorn’s district director before deciding he could not do it.

Now he regrets his actions to help. Cawthorn’s campaign website lists the endorsement of Erwin as well as 14 other sheriffs from around the area.

“As a law enforcement officer, I should have seen the red flags,” Erwin said in a telephone interview.

Cawthorn’s campaign was dogged by allegations of harassment by three women and his use of symbols used by white nationalists.

“This is all on me,” Erwin said. “Calling all these people, getting them to endorse, introducing him to county commissioners, law enforcement officials. That is all on me. I’m a big boy. I’ll take my punishment. I am not happy with what I’m seeing. I think this is just going to be the tip of the iceberg. I don’t think it’s going to get any better.”

Erwin said Cawthorn’s hiring and his treatment of people in the office turned him off, as did the new congressman’s seeming priority for a national spotlight over district concerns.

The violence at the Capitol — and Cawthorn’s talk before — led Erwin to speak out publicly.

“Words mean things. You can inflame a group and you can calm a group by the words you used. To me, he inflamed,” Erwin said. “.... You rile people up and then afterwards, you’re going to say, ‘Well, this is appalling. This is appalling and I back the blue.’ No, you don’t. You fired these people up and the first line of defense was law enforcement. People are dead. You can’t take that back.”

Cawthorn tweeted on Jan. 7 that he “unequivocally denounced the violence that took place in our nation’s capitol, it wasn’t patriotism it was thuggery.”

On Dec. 21, at a speech before the young conservative group Turning Point USA, Cawthorn said that if other Republicans were not on the record “calling for fair, free and just elections” he would come to their districts and fund primary opponents. Cawthorn also encouraged the crowd to call Congress.

“Call your congressman and feel free, you can lightly threaten them and say, you know what, if you don’t start supporting election integrity, I’m coming after you, Madison Cawthorn is coming after you, everybody’s coming after you,” Cawthorn told the group.

Cawthorn criticizes McConnell, Romney

Cawthorn was the first North Carolina representative to announce he would not vote to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Seven of North Carolina’s eight Republicans voted not to certify Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. Cawthorn was one of five from North Carolina to vote not to certify Arizona’s electoral votes.

Biden’s victory was certified by both chambers with overwhelming support in the Senate, including among Republicans. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, as well as North Carolina Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, voted to certify.

“Spineless cowards,” Cawthorn called McConnell and Romney.

Cawthorn is still selling “Cry more, lib” T-shirts on his website. That was Cawthorn’s first tweet after winning the general election in November. He later it was “probably not the most congressional thing I’ve ever done.”

“It’s still too early to know, but there’s a general sense he doesn’t realize the weight of his words,” said Chris Cooper, political science professor at Western Carolina University. “That he has not transitioned to being a member of Congress, and that’s probably putting it too lightly.”

Eddie Harwood, a Buncombe County conservative, posted concerns on his Facebook page. He said he supported Cawthorn and helped his campaign.

“But after his role in inciting this mob violence we saw (Wednesday) at the Capitol, my worst fears about his immaturity and willingness to pander to the worst instincts of the right-wing fringe were realized,” Harwood wrote.

“Make no mistake: There is blood on his hands. He played a role in encouraging the violence and attack on our democracy (Wednesday), going to get his picture taken and trying to get on the right-wing news by whipping up the crowd that attacked our democracy and our constitutional process. It was disgusting.”

Democratic Party officials from the 11th District sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting that the House conduct an ethics investigation into whether Cawthorn’s statements constitute “acts of sedition” and calling for his expulsion or censure.

A guest column in the Asheville Citizen-Times called for Cawthorn to resign.

GOP advice for Cawthorn

Carl Mumpower, former chairman of the Buncombe County GOP, said Cawthorn has become an “easy target” for people looking to be critical and that he was not impressed by beating up on the new guy.

“There are very experienced people in Washington falling all over themselves in the midst of the chaos up there right now and that’s from both parties. We shouldn’t be surprised that a new young man in such a daunting role may not function ideally,” Mumpower said.

He said he’d advise Cawthorn and other freshmen lawmaker to stick to their principles, go slow, be careful of who they pay attention to and stay clear of the drama, no matter where it comes from.

Former state Sen. Jim Davis, who finished third in the GOP primary for the 11th district in 2020, said the job is a big task for someone of any age. He said Cawthorn should find a mentor he respects, listen a lot and focus on constituent services — the same advice he’d give himself if he had won.

“It’s just too early to make an assessment of his service. He’s green and he’s new. It’s a steep learning curve. It’s too early to be critical,” Davis said.

Cawthorn, however, seems to have found his next fight, which puts him squarely in the national conversation again — taking on social media companies, especially Twitter, which banned Trump from the platform.

“I am calling for First Amendment protections to be applied to this New Town Square,” he tweeted Friday night after Twitter removed Trump’s profile. “Censorship of elected officials by unelected elites is UNAMERICAN!”

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