There is a lot to dislike about Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) after he helped spread Donald Trump’s big lie that led to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, but now we have another reason, too. A former close friend of the North Carolina Republican told The Washington Post the lawmaker lied about a car wreck that partially paralyzed him.
According to the report, Cawthorn was “a 21-year-old freshman at a conservative Christian college when he spoke at the chapel, testifying about his relationship with God.” He spoke of the car accident that left him partially paralyzed, which resulted in him having to use a wheelchair. In Cawthorn’s version of events, a close friend had crashed the car in which he was a passenger and fled the scene. He said his friend left him to die “in a fiery tomb.” In the speech, Cawthorn said that he was “declared dead” and said that he told doctors that he expected to recover and that he would “be at the Naval Academy by Christmas.” How brave.
But the friend’s version of events is completely different. Bradley Ledford told the outlet in his first public comments about the crash that he actually pulled Cawthorn from the wreckage. Further, the outlet obtained the accident report, which said that Cawthorn was “incapacitated,” not that he was declared dead.
“That statement he made was false,” Ledford told the Post. “It hurt very badly that he would say something as false as that. That is not at all what happened. I pulled him out of the car the second that I was able to get out of the car.”
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He’s a really sketchy guy.
“Shortly after the speech, Cawthorn dropped out of the college after a single semester of mostly D’s, he said in the deposition, which was taken as part of a court case regarding insurance,” the report states. “Later, more than 150 former students signed a letter accusing him of being a sexual predator, which Cawthorn has denied.”
Cawthorn, now 25, has told lies about the election. Donald Trump was soundly defeated by now-President Joe Biden in both the electoral and popular vote. The big fat lie of widespread voter fraud that doesn’t exist led to the insurrection in which five people died, including a police officer. And in late January, Cawthorn said, “Yes, I think I would say the election was not fraudulent.” But it’s kind of late for that now.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
