Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) thinks every member of Congress ought to condemn Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-NC) recent remarks in which he referred, among other things, to busting Jan. 6 insurrectionists out of jail and potential “bloodshed” over “rigged” and “stolen” elections.
First and foremost among those she’d like to hear from is Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the congresswoman said Wednesday.
“I think Rep. Cawthorn is using language that seems intended to incite violence, and I think every member ought to condemn that, and I’d like to see Leader McCarthy very clearly condemn it and explain how dangerous that is,” Cheney told CBS News’ Zak Hudak.
NEW: Rep. Liz Cheney says Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy should condemn and explain the danger of Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s comments. Over the weekend, he said there will be “bloodshed” if elections continue to be “rigged” and said he’s working on plans to get supporters back to DC pic.twitter.com/VoZeI9ddnR
— Zak Hudak (@cbszak) September 1, 2021
McCarthy’s office, so far, has not responded to TPM’s request for comment on the matter.
But Cawthorn’s people are in damage control mode, with a spokesperson telling The Washington Post Tuesday that the congressman was “in no way supporting or advocating for any form of violence.”‘
“In his comments, Congressman Cawthorn is CLEARLY advocating for violence not to occur over election integrity questions,” the spokesperson, Luke Ball, said. “He fears others would erroneously choose that route and strongly states that election integrity issues should be resolved peacefully and never through violence.”
Ball appeared to be referring to part of Cawthorn’s remarks at a gathering of the Macon County Republican Party on Sunday, when he said “if our election systems continue to be rigged, and continue to be stolen, then it’s going to lead to one place, and that’s bloodshed.” He then stated that his audience must “passionately demand that we have election security in all 50 states” and noted that there was “nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American.”
But that was just a portion of Cawthorn’s off-the-wall comments.
Referring to Jan. 6 “political hostages,” he said, “The big problem is, we don’t actually know where all the political prisoners are, and so if we were to actually be able to go and try and bust them out —” before stopping himself and changing topics.
Later, asked by a member of the crowd when he was “going to call us to Washington again?” Cawthorn said he couldn’t talk about it, but that “we have a few plans in motion that I can’t make public right now.”
Holding a shotgun that the Macon County GOP will be raffling off soon, Cawthorn opined that the Second Amendment was not just for hunting or sport.
Rather, he said, “the Second Amendment was written so that we can fight against tyranny.”
