'He’s very upfront and cool': Madison Cawthorn supporters unfazed despite scandal after scandal

A few more scandals were revealed this week involving Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) but some of his constituents are still supporting him. He's "cool," said one voter in an interview with Insider.

This week, Cawthorn is coming under fire after it was discovered he was paying a close friend $131,278 in taxpayer dollars while also paying him $73,237 in direct payments and payments from a company he owns.

Jordan Libowitz, director of communications for watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, explained that it looked like Cawthorn was trying to keep the top aide, chief of staff Blake Harp, under the radar by paying him a few hundred dollars under what is classified as a senior staffer.

"The rule is actually making above that rate for ‘more than 90 days,’ which it appears that he did in the fourth quarter — which was 92 days," explained Libowitz. It isn't about an annual income from outside, it's per 90 days, so the overage was tagged.

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Prior to that scandal, Cawthron was exposed, in more ways than one, in a sex tape where he appears to put his penis in the face of a friend. Cawthorn claimed that the tape involved blackmail, but the group that posted it said that an individual who was once close to Cawthorn handed it over.

Another video posted about a week prior showed Cawthorn's scheduler allegedly joking around by putting his hand in the congressman's crotch.

That scandal comes after Cawthorn was detained by the TSA for carrying a gun through security.

Before that, there was a leaked set of photos showing Cawthorn with a group of young women while wearing a black lace bra, large silver hoop earrings, and sucking on his necklace between his teeth.

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“Your left-wing movement is forcing children to endure radical expressions of sexuality...,” Cawthorn said of Democrats in a statement last month.

Prior to that, Cawthorn appeared on a video podcast telling someone that he was invited to an orgy by a Republican colleague and that he witnessed GOP officials snorting cocaine while claiming to be fighting the drug war.

"It's all nonsense," said Madison supporter David Gorasan of the growing list of scandals. "I met him one time, he's a great guy, and I like his way of thinking … He's very upfront and cool and overall a very nice person."

Another fan agreed.

"He's young, and sometimes he may speak when you probably shouldn't, but I'm all for him," a business owner too afraid to be named told Insider.

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"He's dangerous," said Philip, a longtime resident of Cawthorn's hometown of Hendersonville, North Carolina, who declined to give his last name. "He has got to get out of here … He has lost a lot of respect in this community."

The congressman responded to the scandals by attacking those for publishing them saying they were digging up dirt from at least two years ago. Cawthorn tweeted last week, "I can understand the establishment attacking those beliefs, but just digging stuff up from my early 20s to smear me is pathetic." He is 26 years old.

That came after he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "a thug" and said the Ukrainian government is "incredibly corrupt" as they're fighting Russians.

"I think everyone has pretty much jumped ship," retired sheriff George Erwin told the local NPR station. He lost faith in Cawthorn after the congressman spoke at Donald Trump's Jan. 6 rally.

But others are defending his antics. "As long as he gets the job done that I agree with or with what's good for us in North Carolina," Paul Heyer said. "I don't have a problem with him stirring the pot. The pot needs to be stirred a little bit. Sometimes the pot needs to be emptied."