Far-Right Rep. falsely claims 'Democratic machine' paid insurrectionists – after urging them to threaten lawmakers

U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn claims "the Democratic machine" paid the Capitol insurrections who attempted a coup on January 6 to overt urn the election, after having told Trump supporters to "lightly threaten" lawmakers. The North Carolina freshman Republican made his false claim in the middle of the insurrection, when he took the time to call in to the radio show of a top Trump ally, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

“I believe that this was agitators strategically placed inside of this group — you can call them antifa, you can call them people paid by the Democratic machine — but to make the Trump campaign, the Trump movement, look bad," said Congressman Cawthorn, a far right grenade thrower who has already aligned himself with the QAnon crop of incoming House Republicans. "And to make this look like it was a violent outrage, when really the battle was being fought by people like myself and other great patriots who are standing up against the establishment and standing up against this tyranny that we see in our country."

Barely weeks before the insurrection Cawthorn told supporters they could "lightly threaten" lawmakers.

His remarks went unnoticed until Sunday, when The Asheville Watchdog first reported them.

"Only hours earlier," the Watchdog reported, "speaking at the Jan. 6 'March to Save America' protest in Washington, D.C., Cawthorn shouted, 'Wow, this crowd has some fight in it!' He called the protesters 'lions,' and repeatedly called his Congressional colleagues 'cowards' who were hiding in their offices."

“It's on," he told his followers on Twitter.

Here's a portion of Cawthorn's speech that day:

Here's Cawthorn talking to TPUSA's Charlie Kirk (segment begins 4:09:16):