During the summer, Republican Representative Madison Cawthorn spent $5,000 on food and drinks at an upscale hotel in North Carolina. Cawthorn says the money is for “food and drink planning,” but his voters aren’t happy about that. The 26-year-old agent is said to have spent $2,950 on August 9 while staying at Skylaranna, a luxury motel in Cawthorn’s hometown of Hendersonville. North Carolina residents are outraged. That’s the big revelation from a Washington Examiner report that got hold of the North Carolina rep’s expense reports and looked at how much money was spent with funds from the Cawthorn Members Representative Grant, which should only be used for official and representative work. The Examiner report is even more shocking because Cawthorn charged taxpayers in his county more than $2,000 for “food and drink” from places like Chick-fil-A, Chicken Bojangle, Joey’s NY Bagels and lots of other “food and drink” weeks. Some of the people Cawthorn represented were surprised to learn that the total cost of “food and beverage planning” was just under $5,000. This led many of them to question what happened that week in August and whether the expenses were truly professional and paid for by the taxpayer, as Cawthorn claims. Cawthorn also took the time to write a tweet complaining about Democrats and how they “love to waste” “our hard earned tax dollars.” This is just another shocking twist in the story. Tweeted as he was said to be relaxing at a luxury North Carolina resort: “Democratic politicians love to waste your hard-earned tax dollars and get your business closed.” An expense report from early August was recently reviewed by a reporter. A Cawthorn spokesman released a statement saying the money was used for a “retreat in the county”. It happened in those days. Cawthorn spokesman Luke Ball said the cost is for district and DC employees who have joined the retreat together. “Nearly every office on Capitol Hill has a retreat and dedicated money to one.” Just weeks ago, Cawthorn had to backtrack on claims he made that he was once invited to a party at a fellow MP’s home. This is just the latest in a long line of problems for him. There is a lot of sexual abuse going on in Washington. There are so many people that I have admired in my life, people in their 60s and 70s in Washington. Then, all of a sudden, you get an invitation to a “sexual encounter” at one of their homes. What did you just ask me to come for? Claimed last month. So “then you realize they’re asking you to come to an organization.” He added that after backlash from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of Congress, he had to decline.
