Memo to Deutch: Punish this congressman
When first heard from, Madison Cawthorn, the new congressman from the North Carolina mountains, was firing up the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, intending to overturn President Joe Biden’s election.
He spoke provocatively. But he did not explicitly suggest the ensuing violence in the halls of Congress, and he claimed to deplore it. That baptism of irresponsibility in the national spotlight seems to have taught the 26-year-old only how much more he might get away with.
These are excerpts of what he said at a Republican gathering in his district Aug. 29:
“The things that we are wanting to fight for, it doesn’t matter if our votes don’t count. Because, you know, if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it’s going to lead to one place — and it’s bloodshed.”
Mark that word: Bloodshed.
“I will tell you, as much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there is nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American. And the way that we can have recourse against that is if we all passionately demand that we have election security in all 50 states,” he said.
Cawthorn’s spokesman tried to spin those remarks, saying that the congressman was warning against violence, rather than advocating it.
Don’t believe it. In the context that his audience was primed to hear, a representative of the government of the United States was calling for violence if the next election results are unsatisfying to him, former President Donald Trump, and their followers.
The House must discipline Cawthorn because his own party won’t. The spineless minority leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, has brushed off House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s appeal to his undetectable sense of responsibility.
Only two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, have denounced Cawthorn’s incendiary remarks.
Even if it has to be done with only Democratic votes, the House must make it clear that it is intolerable for any of its members to endorse political violence in any context.
Cawthorn’s expulsion would be in order, just as 14 senators and three House members were expelled for supporting the Confederacy during the Civil War. Nothing less than censure would suffice.
The House Ethics Committee, chaired by Palm Beach County’s own Rep. Ted Deutch, ought to see to that, but Deutch hasn’t said whether it will or answered our inquiry. The ethics panel typically holds its cards close until it’s sure how strong they are, but there hardly seems to be any need for further fact-finding. Cawthorn’s own words, in a video recorded and briefly posted by his local Republicans, convict him of reckless disregard for the nation’s welfare.
Leaving aside his crocodile tears over shooting his fellow Americans, Cawthorn was still echoing and reinforcing the venomous stolen election lie which was — and remains — Trump’s pretext for subverting the Constitution.
Cawthorn endorsed that lie and the insurrection when he voted, along with most other House Republicans, to reject Biden’s decisive electoral votes. Like many of them, he has continued to propagate the fiction of a stolen election. But his Aug. 29 reference to “bloodshed” went beyond what has been attributed to his Republican colleagues.
Contrary to his lies on Aug. 29, our election systems are not “rigged,” and no elections have been “stolen.” There are already deep layers of election security in the laws and procedures of all 50 states. No credible evidence surfaced in any of the more than 60 desperation lawsuits that judges threw out of court. Some of the lawyers who filed them face legal troubles of their own.
In reality, there exist no integrity issues other than the Republicans’ concerted efforts to undermine the nation’s faith in our elections and make voting more difficult for minorities and others they expect to vote against them.
The behavior of this rookie congressman from North Carolina disgraces his party and endangers the nation.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters @sun-sentinel.com.