Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images
- A 25-year-old Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina attacked a journalist over his work for Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
- Madison Cawthorn, who would be the youngest member of Congress if elected, went after journalist Tom Fiedler, who has covered Cawthorn’s campaign for a nonprofit website.
- “He quit his academia job in Boston to work for non-white males, like Cory Booker, who aims to ruin white males running for office,” an archived version of the website says in a section on the journalist.
- “The syntax of our language was unclear and unfairly implied I was criticizing Cory Booker,” Cawthorn said in a statement. The line was edited to describe Fiedler as being “an unapologetic defender of left-wing identity politics.”
- Cawthorn’s past statements on race and his desire to visit Adolf Hitler’s Eagle Nest have drawn scrutiny.
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Madison Cawthorn, a 25-year-old Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina, has admitted to being behind a website that attacked a journalist for “aim[ing] to ruin white males running for office.”
In an archived version of the page, Cawthorn went after journalist Tom Fiedler, who has been covering the campaign for a nonprofit website.
“Tom Fieldler [sic.] who works with Moe Davis’ advocates, is working to tear down Madison Cawthorn,” the archived version reads. “He quit his academia job in Boston to work for non-white males, like Cory Booker, who aims to ruin white males running for office.”
Sen. Booker of New Jersey has never said anything about ruining white men running for office.
Fiedler volunteered for Booker’s 2020 presidential campaign before returning to reporting. He was previously dean of the Boston University College of Communications.
The text was later edited to say Fiedler had "become a political operative and is an unapologetic defender of left-wing identity politics."
"The syntax of our language was unclear and unfairly implied I was criticizing Cory Booker," Cawthorn said in a statement to The New York Times. The website was first reported on by The Bulwark.
"Revelations about Madison Cawthorn's blatantly racist comment come days after over 150 former classmates at Patrick Henry College — more than half the entire student body during his time there — signed a letter and posted it online calling Mr. Cawthorn a 'sexual predator' who lied and vandalized property while attending the college for a little over a semester in 2016-17," Cawthorn's opponent, Moe Davis, said in a statement.
Cawthorn has drawn scrutiny for his comments on race in the past, particularly over an Instagram post on his "bucket list" desire to visit Adolf Hitler's nest. In the same post, he referred to Hitler as "Fuherer."
As Cawthorn has made headlines for such comments, the race for White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' former seat has grown more competitive than expected.