Cawthorn has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing since the allegations first emerged, and his office pointed to CNN a September 2020 legislature statement in which he said, “I have never done anything sexually inappropriate in my life.”
The women who allege misconduct against the congressman are former colleagues at Patrick Henry College in Virginia. Cawthorn attended a private Christian school for a short time in 2016 before dropping out of school, and it was around this time that women say he approached them unwantedly.
“His MO was to take vulnerable women to ride with him in the car and make advances,” Caitlin Coulter, a former classmate from Cawthorn, told CNN in an interview.
Coulter said she was taken for what Cawthorn called a “fun ride”, where she asked about her purity ring and her sexual experiences. She says she felt something was wrong and ended the conversation.
“He was really upset. And he turned the car around and started driving back to campus at 70-80 miles an hour on these single lane roads,” she said. “And it was – it was really scary.”
CNN spoke with two other women who went to school with Cawthorn, both of whom mentioned their invitations on “fun” trips and said that refusing him would result in more unwanted attention.
“There were a lot of sexual innuendo,” said Leah Petree, another former student at the school. “It was very uncomfortable to go to and from class. He would shout, ‘Are you ready to go on that fun ride today?'”
“That nagging continued. That attention was not what I wanted,” she said.
In response to the latest allegations, Cawthorn’s office released a statement on Monday, saying: “Voters in western North Carolina responded to these allegations by giving Madison Cawthorn a 12-point victory over his opponent. Mr Cawthorn now is busy doing the work he was elected to do, including helping our economy to recover from the pandemic, creating jobs and opportunities, making healthcare more accessible, protecting our natural environment and defending Second Amendment life and rights. “
In addition to the claims of Patrick Henry’s former students, at least two women also claimed that Cawthorn had kissed or forcibly touched them years ago, allegations he previously denied. He told CNN last year that he regretted the actions he took and apologized to anyone who “made him feel uncomfortable”.
“Looking back, I wish I had changed my actions. If I made someone feel uncomfortable in a situation, that is never my goal,” he said.
But the allegations of Cawthorn’s college days were widely known among alumni – so much so that, in October, more than 150 alumni signed a letter criticizing the then candidate for his behavior during his time at school, which they wrote ” was marked by serious misconduct towards our female colleagues. “
“During his brief term in college, Cawthorn established a reputation for predatory behavior. His modus operandi was to invite unsuspecting women to ‘joyous walks’ in his white Dodge Challenger. Cawthorn took young women to isolated areas, locked the doors and continued to make progress unwanted sex, “said the letter, noting that the women at school were warned not to be alone with Cawthorn.
Alumni urged voters in the 11th Congressional District of North Carolina “to seriously re-evaluate Madison Cawthorn’s candidacy in light of who he really is” and called on them to “reject him at the polls”.
Cawthorn’s biography has also undergone more scrutiny since the Post’s report. In a 2017 speech, Cawthorn described a car accident in 2014, in which, he claimed, that a friend, Bradley Ledford, left him to die. But Ledford, who was driving the car, told the Post as part of its investigation that Cawthorn’s account of the accident was not true.
“That statement he made was false,” Ledford told the Post. “That’s not what happened. I got him out of the car the second I managed to get out of the car.”
Cawthorn’s parents undermined his story in his own account, and Cawthorn later testified that he does not remember the accident.
Cawthorn had also stated on his campaign website that he was nominated for the prestigious United States Naval Academy, but his plans were hampered by the accident. In a 2017 testimony obtained by CNN, however, Cawthorn admitted that he had been rejected from the academy before the accident.