Madison Cawthorn versus The World

It’s a sorry state of affairs when a freshman congressman can’t mention attending Republican orgies without being the victim of a party pile-on, writes John Bowden

A report has suggested that Donald Trump is ‘completely weirded out’ by scandals enveloping Madison Cawthorn (Getty)

The first rule about the (alleged) secret sex parties is apparently: don’t talk about the (alleged) secret sex parties.

That’s the lesson freshman congressman and youngest member of the House Madison Cawthorn is learning ahead of his primary election, less than a week away, as he faces the unrestrained wrath of the North Carolina and national Republican Party establishment over comments he made to a right-wing podcast about supposedly being invited to an orgy by fellow members of Congress.

The backlash the first-term representative of the Asheville and Hendersonville areas of North Carolina is facing is some of the most brutal political warfare the GOP or the nation in general has seen in a while. Major figures in the party, including his state’s two US senators, are openly criticising his character while one, Thom Tillis, has even endorsed a challenger in the crowded race. And seemingly every week new images and videos of the congressman are being leaked to media outlets and an anti-Cawthorn super PAC, FireMadison.com, which have shown the 26-year-old in wild or compromising sexual situations in an obvious attempt to drive a wedge between him and the conservative voters of western North Carolina.