Cawthorn’s orgies-and-drugs comment stirs trouble within Freedom Caucus

The ultra-conservative group’s chair says he also wants to speak with the North Carolina Republican about his salacious claims concerning his colleagues.

By OLIVIA BEAVERS @ Politico.com, 03/29/2022 07:32 PM EDT​

Kevin McCarthy isn’t the only senior Republican who wants to have a talk with Rep. Madison Cawthorn about his claim that some of his colleagues invited him to orgies and used cocaine.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who chairs the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus to which Cawthorn belongs, said he plans to speak to the North Carolina Republican one-on-one about the incendiary comment. Perry further indicated that Cawthorn should identify the individuals he alleges engaged in that behavior.

“I think it is important, if you’re going to say something like that, to name some names,” Perry said in a brief interview.

Perry is not alone in that opinion among House Republicans — Cawthorn’s claims caused an internal uproar at Tuesday’s conference meeting. But as aggravated as Cawthorn’s colleagues may be by his salacious tales, they also know that digging more deeply into his stories may cause them more political problems.

And Perry himself could face further questions about Cawthorn’s place in the Freedom Caucus. His remarks are a rare instance of the group’s leader publicly indicating frustration with one of its own.

When asked whether they would reconsider Cawthorn’s membership in the group if he didn’t make clear whom he has evidence of taking part in group sex and drug use, Perry wouldn’t say either way: “We will discuss that when we get to it,” he replied.

The Freedom Caucus is “way ahead of that at this point,” Perry added. “And I haven’t talked to him at all, so I don’t want to predispose the conversation.”

More than one member of the group has raised the idea of kicking Cawthorn out, remarks that are seen as more rattling and venting than an actual likelihood, according to two people familiar with Freedom Caucus dynamics. These people, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity, said Cawthorn’s comments caught many of the group’s members by surprise.

One Freedom Caucus member, also addressing Cawthorn on condition of anonymity, described responses from “across the political spectrum … saying ‘what the hell?’” [....]