The editorial board of The Charlotte Observer, a North Carolina newspaper ripped their state’s freshman Republican congressman Rep. Madison Cawthorn in a blistering op-ed, calling him an embarrassment to the Republican Party, Congress and the entire state of North Carolina.
The editorial board said they have no problem with a public official taking advantage of any opportunity to speak to the public.
But, in the case of Cawthorn, the Charlotte Observer editorial board is asking someone to keep him away from the cameras, microphones, and “most situations in which he publicly tries to turn words into meaningful thoughts?” Because he’s an embarrassment.
They cited Cawthorn’s role in helping to incite the Capitol riot then not taking responsibility, his lies about being a candidate for the 2020 Paralympic Games, struggling through an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown last weekend, and an email obtained by TIME in which he said “I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation”, as examples for why they believe his microphone should be taken away.
“Cawthorn’s strategy for these kinds of mishaps? It’s apparently to keep doing interviews, which results in more head-shaking headlines and national ridicule. It’s why the North Carolina freshman is on the medal stand for worst new member of Congress,” the paper’s editorial board wrote.
They said it’s hard to feel sorry for the the state Republican Party since they were ones who created awful candidates like Cawthorn in the first place by creating some of the most gerrymandered districts in history, when they won control of the state House and Senate in 2010.
