NC-11 Cawthorn vacationed at the eagle's nest

[Greedo punched first]

Calling Hitler "the Fuhrer" is giving him an honorable title that Hitler doesn't deserve.

[Figueira]

The Forward listed his use of "SPQR" and the 13-star US flag as more evidence of far-right sympathies, but to me those (along with this Instagram post) make it seem more like he's a history nerd with really bland tastes than anything else. The Hitler thing is problematic but doesn't really give off the impression that he's an actual Nazi.

Still an awful person with awful policies though and I hope he somehow loses.

[Greedo punched first]

How did Cawthorn beat a primary opponent who was endorsed by the establishment, Trump, and many Freedom Caucus members?

[Indy Texas]

How did Cawthorn beat a primary opponent who was endorsed by the establishment, Trump, and many Freedom Caucus members?

By selling a compelling, almost unimpeachable personal narrative that is only now being more closely examined.

[Calthrina950]

This has certainly changed my opinion about him. His race is still Safe R, but he's definitely not going to be a good addition to the House.

[Greedo punched first]

This has certainly changed my opinion about him. His race is still Safe R, but he's definitely not going to be a good addition to the House.

There will be many bad Republican additions to the House, many of them major downgrades from the Republicans who previously held those seats.

[Brittain33]

How did Cawthorn beat a primary opponent who was endorsed by the establishment, Trump, and many Freedom Caucus members?

By selling a compelling, almost unimpeachable personal narrative that is only now being more closely examined.

Also, the way Meadows snuck out of his seat and tried to gift the nomination to a friend probably upset a lot of Republicans in the district, plus as a woman she faced headwinds in a Republican primary.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Having an interest in ww2 history is not a crime. Cawthorn still seems like a Chaddy d!ck though.

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

He also deliberately misled the public about being accepted to the Academy before his accident "changed" those plans. Apparently he got rejected. A Congressional nomination is typically not that hard to come by for the service academies, and is often just the first step in the application process.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

There's a lot of stuff in his story that doesn't add up, including passing himself off as a would-be midshipman at Annapolis.

Reddit

I grew up with Madison -- we all called him "Maddie" until he started taking himself too seriously around 2016/2017. I played football with his older brother Zach on the Asheville Saints homeschool football team, and I was also homeschooled and ran in the same homeschool circles (largely centered around both Biltmore Baptist and Scott Clifton's neo-confederate, libertarian bullsh**t 'homeschool partners' classes in the Arden/HVL area). Thankfully I escaped that culture, and I count myself very lucky to have been able to do so.

When the 'accident' happened, Maddie and his family didn't just 'leave out the timing details' about the naval academy rejection. They were all very explicit in saying that he had been accepted and was all set to go (on a 'full-ride' to a tuition free school...), but the 'accident' made that impossible. This, again, was stated explicitly by Maddie and his family in the months/years after the car wreck. A big component of the 'Prayers for Madison 2014' movement (mostly run by Biltmore Baptist) was talking up how unfortunate it was that Maddie was not going to be able to 'serve his country' as an 'officer' because the car wreck stole his precious scholarship and future from him.

I say all that to say, details weren't merely left out. Outright lies were told for months and years after the wreck, and Maddie is still capitalizing on that today with his militaristic image, the molon-labe-emblazoned bulletproof vests, calling himself a 'fighter,' and coming about as close to stealing valor as you can.  that guy, and  his rich family, too, for propping him up like this.

the day I believe a reddit poster who puts neo-confederate and libertarian in the same sentence is the day I eat my shoe

[Calthrina950]

This has certainly changed my opinion about him. His race is still Safe R, but he's definitely not going to be a good addition to the House.

There will be many bad Republican additions to the House, many of them major downgrades from the Republicans who previously held those seats.

I certainly agree. Just about the only positive changes we've had on that front thus far has been the defeats of Steve King and Steve Watkins, and their impending replacement by Randy Feenstra and Jake LaTurner, both of whom are decidedly generic Republicans.

[LtNOWIS]

How did Cawthorn beat a primary opponent who was endorsed by the establishment, Trump, and many Freedom Caucus members?

From my understanding as an outsider who reads blogs:

1) Meadows didn't file on the last day of filing, so that his realtor friend could have a relatively clear path to the nomination. Many people in the district saw this as unfair and held it against Bennett.

2) Bennett just had really, really bad campaign skills. It didn't help that she went against a charismatic, handsome kid like Cawthorn, but her skills were just objectively bad.

[Continential]

There's a lot of stuff in his story that doesn't add up, including passing himself off as a would-be midshipman at Annapolis.

Reddit

I grew up with Madison -- we all called him "Maddie" until he started taking himself too seriously around 2016/2017. I played football with his older brother Zach on the Asheville Saints homeschool football team, and I was also homeschooled and ran in the same homeschool circles (largely centered around both Biltmore Baptist and Scott Clifton's neo-confederate, libertarian bullsh**t 'homeschool partners' classes in the Arden/HVL area). Thankfully I escaped that culture, and I count myself very lucky to have been able to do so.

When the 'accident' happened, Maddie and his family didn't just 'leave out the timing details' about the naval academy rejection. They were all very explicit in saying that he had been accepted and was all set to go (on a 'full-ride' to a tuition free school...), but the 'accident' made that impossible. This, again, was stated explicitly by Maddie and his family in the months/years after the car wreck. A big component of the 'Prayers for Madison 2014' movement (mostly run by Biltmore Baptist) was talking up how unfortunate it was that Maddie was not going to be able to 'serve his country' as an 'officer' because the car wreck stole his precious scholarship and future from him.

I say all that to say, details weren't merely left out. Outright lies were told for months and years after the wreck, and Maddie is still capitalizing on that today with his militaristic image, the molon-labe-emblazoned bulletproof vests, calling himself a 'fighter,' and coming about as close to stealing valor as you can.  that guy, and  his rich family, too, for propping him up like this.

the day I believe a reddit poster who puts neo-confederate and libertarian in the same sentence is the day I eat my shoe

It's in Western North Carolina, so there might be a lot of neo-confederates who claim to be Libertarians.

[Alcibiades]

I’ve visited the Eagle’s Nest, and I do not think that makes me a Nazi apologist. Granted, I did not describe it as an item on my bucket list on social media, but you need to understand it is nothing like Auschwitz; it has been turned into a restaurant.

Perhaps he could have phrased it better, but smiling in front of it is not really disrespectful or inappropriate. There are better things to attack him on. This is a nothingburger.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

[Pollster]

I chalk this up to the stupidity of youth more than I do to neo-Nazi sentiment. If the Eagle's Nest were a notable neo-Nazi destination, Germany would have razed it like they did the prison at Spandau.

Stupidity of youth is still a liability for a 25-year old candidate, imo.

[Continential]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

His opponent actually served in the military and retired as a Colonel.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

His opponent actually served in the military and retired as a Colonel.

Honorably, it seems. A shame he's ending his career in such an inauspicious way by cropping his opponent's posts to make him look bad.

[Continential]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

His opponent actually served in the military and retired as a Colonel.

Honorably, it seems. A shame he's ending his career in such an inauspicious way by cropping his opponent's posts to make him look bad.

Cawthorn is a fraud by lying about himself almost joining the Naval Academy before the accident but he got rejected before the accident.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

His opponent actually served in the military and retired as a Colonel.

Honorably, it seems. A shame he's ending his career in such an inauspicious way by cropping his opponent's posts to make him look bad.

Cawthorn is a fraud by lying about himself almost joining the Naval Academy before the accident but he got rejected before the accident.

This has what to do with his opponent attempting to falsely tar him as a Nazi supporter when he refers to Hitler as "Supreme evil" in the same post?

[Landslide Lyndon]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

His opponent actually served in the military and retired as a Colonel.

Honorably, it seems. A shame he's ending his career in such an inauspicious way by cropping his opponent's posts to make him look bad.

Cawthorn is a fraud by lying about himself almost joining the Naval Academy before the accident but he got rejected before the accident.

This has what to do with his opponent attempting to falsely tar him as a Nazi supporter when he refers to Hitler as "Supreme evil" in the same post?

Your vigorous defense of this guy is noted, especially considering how easy you tar left-wing candidates as fascists.

[Saint Milei]

Lol this is going to backfire so badly on Dems

[Storr]

Lol this is going to backfire so badly on Dems

I can see this backfiring on the Dem running against Cawthorn, but not "Dems" as a whole.

[Gass3268]

https://twitter.com/Jezebel/status/1292878131515326464?s=20

[warandwar]

His phrasing was weird and it's all kind of in bad taste, but he calls him "the ultimate evil" in the text. I'll trust a center-left Jewish voice like Yair Rosenberg when he says there's no real meat here over his opponent's conspiratorial ramblings.

What?