Rep. Madison Cawthorn Tweets Picture of Swastika, Deletes It, Doesn’t Really Explain Why He Did It in the First Place

The current crop of Republican politicians is filled with grifters, racists, predators, and people who are generally fucking weirdos. North Carolina’s Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn (allegedly) checks just about all of those boxes. The congressman recently drew controversy after he tweeted a picture of a swastika in what appears to be a failed attempt at dunking on Black Lives Matter.

According to the Citizen-Times, the 25-year-old Cawthorn tweeted on July 9 “The American flag symbolizes unity, patriotism, independence, pride, and love for our country. BLM continues to expose their radical hatred of this country,” in response to an article where a chapter of Black Lives Matter called the American flag “a ‘symbol of hatred’ only used by racists.” The primary image of the article and the tweet was a 2008 march by members of the National Socialist Movement, or as we call them, Nazis. The image showed a man in a shirt that said “skinhead,” holding the hand of a boy wearing a shirt with a swastika on it.

The tweet quickly received condemnation, with many wondering what point Cawthorn was trying to make. After three days of people going “Yo, the fuck?,” Cawthorn finally decided to delete the tweet. Turns out no matter how old they are, Republicans are just bad at the internet.

Cawthorn’s spokesperson, Micah Bock, sent a statement to the Citizen-Times to kinda, sorta, not really explain the tweet at all.

“Rep. Cawthorn has denounced fascism in all its forms. The American flag has stood for freedom since the founding of our nation, and the BLM movement would do well to remember that during World War 2, the flag waved proudly as American soldiers destroyed Nazism in Europe. To equate the American flag to a symbol for fascism is historically suspect, and factually inaccurate,” the statement read.

I don’t know what the hell that has to do with anything, but sure, b.

Cawthorn, the youngest member of Congress, is no stranger to controversy. Last month, it was revealed that he hired his friend as his top staffer—a position that carries a nice six figure salary. This would be fine and all if his friend had any work experience beyond running a fireworks stand. Oh, and there’s also the multiple allegations of sexual harassment that have been levied against the congressman.

I told ya he (allegedly) checked just about all those boxes.