Madison Cawthorn offers up shockingly bad explanation for cocaine, orgy remarks

If you thought Madison Cawthorn's (R-N.C.) orgy and cocaine allegations were too outlandish to be true ... it's probably because, well, they were. Womp, womp.
Apparently, when Cawthorn met with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday (as McCarthy had promised his members he'd do), Cawthorn admitted some of the shocking allegations were exaggerated and incorrect. In return, McCarthy told the freshman lawmaker "he's lost my trust" and "laid out everything I find is unbecoming," per Axios. Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was also present at the meeting.
Let's rewind for a quick refresher on what happened —
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During a recent conversation with Jon Lovell of the Warrior Poet Society podcast, Cawthorn was asked whether life in Congress mirrors the political drama House of Cards, to which Cawthorn replied by claiming he had been invited to orgies at the homes of DC insiders and watched leaders in the anti-drug movement do key bumps of cocaine.
Obviously, Cawthorn's fellow Republicans weren't too happy with his claims, and demanded McCarthy speak to the lawmaker to find out who he was referring to.
On Wednesday, all the clarity McCarthy could offer after the sit-down was that Cawthorn "thinks he saw maybe a staffer" doing cocaine "in a parking garage from 100 yards away," per Axios and Politico.
Not a very strong explanation, Cawthorn. To start, how do you know what anyone's doing from 100 yards away? And what about the orgies? Were those in the parking garage too? Please, make it make sense!
The response was seemingly good enough for McCarthy, however, because the leader said he'll wait and see how Cawthorn decides to better himself before taking any official action against him, per Axios.
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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
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