‘The Lincoln Project’ Rallies Red & Blue America Against Madison Cawthorn

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Republicans including North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn are, no matter their intentions, providing direct support for the ambitions of the murderous, authoritarian leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin — and that’s not conjecture! Clips of remarks from Cawthorn have repeatedly aired on Russian government-run television. In one example included in a recent video targeting the Congressman from The Lincoln Project, Russian broadcasters also highlighted Cawthorn’s recent tweet that his followers should pray that “we are not drawn into conflict based on foreign leaders pushing misinformation.” In the original post, Cawthorn makes clear that he’s referring in part to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In an on-screen message in their aforementioned video, The Lincoln Projects asks, “Wondering what’s airing on Russian state TV? Just ask Madison Cawthorn.” In a caption for the video, the group added: “[Retweet] if you think Madison Cawthorn has no place in Congress.” Watch below:

Cawthorn recently faced a challenge to his candidacy for re-election under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, which bans individuals from running for at least certain public offices if they engaged in insurrection or provided certain support to “enemies” of the United States. Cawthorn was tied to insurrection through January 6 — he’s one of the most prominent Republican members of Congress who helped lay the rhetorical groundwork for last year’s attack on the Capitol, and afterwards, he even said he wanted to “bust” out jailed participants in the Capitol violence. After Cawthorn sued, U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II — a Trump appointee — ruled, however, that an 1872 law called the Amnesty Act sufficiently overcame the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment so as to leave Cawthorn free to run for re-election. Those opposing the path Myers took insisted that the Amnesty Act’s lifting of political restrictions associated with the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to Confederates rather than essentially everyone.

On March 24, Free Speech for People — a legal advocacy group involved with the challenge to Cawthorn’s eligibility for office and a similar challenge against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — provided the following update about the Cawthorn matter: “On March 4, 2022, a federal district court judge in North Carolina, appointed by Donald Trump, issued an injunction blocking the North Carolina State Board of Elections from hearing the challenge on the grounds that an 1872 law which provided amnesty to ex-Confederates also applied to Cawthorn. The voters have filed an expedited appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, on March 17, 2022, the appellate court issued an order retaining jurisdiction of the appeal and remanding the matter to the district court to rule, in the first instance, on the voters’ refiled motion to intervene.” It therefore sounds like additional proceedings at the district court level are on the horizon.