Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) revealed this week that he no longer has "trust" in Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), the young official who outed GOP members for having "sexual get-togethers" and snorting cocaine. But as John Oliver explained Sunday night, Cawthorn is essentially the monster that McCarthy built.
Oliver began by noting that no one uses the term "key bump" when referring to doing cocaine without knowing what it means. "So, you're already telling on yourself there."
He also noted that people doing coke-fueled orgies don't generally refer to them as "sexual get-togethers." Cawthorn appeared to separate the two out, when doing the interview, however. He said that the orgies were one thing and people "leading on trying to remove addiction in our country" are doing cocaine. It's unclear that he meant the two events were linked together at the same time.
Oliver then called out McCarthy's claim that it took this incident to lose his trust, noting that there have been many, many, many things that Cawthorn has done up until this moment that McCarthy found acceptable.
Among the things listed by Oliver are the time Cawthorn suggested people "lightly threaten" members of Congress, suggested Joe Biden's vaccine strategy was about taking your guns and Bibles, and more recently he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "thug" who is "very vile."
Oliver then showed a 2021 clip of Cawthorn telling parents that they should be raising "monsters" because liberals are trying to "demasculate" young men. The host explained that despite the hilarity of Cawthorn's GOP orgy story, he has a long history of lying about things.
First, Cawthorn implied that he was hurt serving in the military, then he claimed that the car crash that left him disabled derailed his plans to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. He'd already been rejected before the accident even happened. Cawthorn has also frequently said that he was training for the Paralympic Games, which was news to the Paralympics and actual Paralympians.
Oliver cited Amanda McGrory, a three-time Paralympian, who said of Cawthorn that his name wasn't in the registry and his claim was "like a kid saying they want to play in the NBA when they're on their fourth-grade basketball team."
There are also the problems with Cawthorn bragging that he doesn't actually care about doing the job he's been sent to Congress to do, saying that he hired mostly communications staffers to his team. He also loves posting Instagram photos and videos of himself like his jaunt to Germany where he talked about his "bucket list" fantasy of visiting Hitler's vacation house while referring to him as "the Führer."
Then there's the matter that dozens of Cawthorn's former classmates accused him of serial sexual harassment while in school.
Oliver also explained that one of the things disability advocates really hate about Cawthorn is that he tries to play up his disability to be seen only as inspirational when they're obviously just regular people. Or as the host explained, everyone from Paralympian Amanda McGrory to "douchey frat-bros lying their way to power."
But the masterpiece of Cawthorn's Instagram was when he appeared "to be punching a tree because it looked weak. It's like if someone told the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree to a dog and then that dog told Madison Cawthorn," said Oliver. "It is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. If when I die I meet God and God says, 'Hey! Did you see that stupid thing?' I'll know exactly what God is talking about."
He closed by asking how Cawthorn ended up being the guy who surprised McCarthy.
"This predatory, conspiratorial, inexplicably hostile to trees guy? Your party is supported and enabled him this whole time. And the tactics he uses are pretty much in line with Republicans' entire MO right now. Or, to put this in terms that Madison Cawthorn would understand: It looks to me like you raised a monster, and now it's your f*cking problem."
See the video below (starting at 31:24):
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver 4/3/22 | HBO Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Apr 3, 2022www.youtube.com
