As protesters supporting President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, newly elected North Carolina Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn told a conservative radio program The Charlie Kirk Show that the “democratic machine” had put “agitators” among the crowd to make Trump and his followers look bad.
“I believe these were agitators strategically placed within 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 and make it seems like it’s a violent outrage, when the battle was really being fought by people like me and other great patriots who are standing up against the system and standing up against this tyranny that we see in our country, “said Cawthorn on the program.
Cawthorn also said he was carrying several guns that day in the US House chambers. His observations went unnoticed until Sunday, when The Asheville Watchdog first reported them. His claims were also contested by the FBI.
Arrangements Committee for the 2020 Republican National Committee / Getty
The claim that Antifa – that is, anti-fascist protesters – and Democratic-sponsored instigators were involved in the riots was echoed by Representative Matt Gaetz, Alabama Republican Representative Mo Brooks, pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood and various supporters Trump on social media.
However, on January 8, assistant FBI director Steven D’Antuono said the federal law enforcement agency found “no indication” to support such allegations.
Trump, Cawfield and several other Republicans in Congress also echoed Trump’s widely refuted claim that widespread electoral fraud caused his defeat in the elections for President-elect Joe Biden.
At the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, Trump falsely claimed that he won the election “by an overwhelming victory”. Trump then encouraged his followers to march to the Capitol.
“We will never give in, it doesn’t. You don’t give in when theft is involved,” Trump told his supporters at the rally. “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore.” He has since called his comments “entirely appropriate”.
In December, Cawthorn told a conference of young Republicans to “lightly threaten” members of Congress who would not contest Biden’s electoral victory.
“Say, ‘If you don’t support electoral integrity, I will go after you. Madison Cawthorn is coming for you. Everyone is coming for you,'” said Cawthorn, according to Asheville Watchdog.
In a January 4 Facebook post, Cawthorn wrote: “The future of this Republic depends on the actions of a few lonely people … It’s time to fight.”
Five people died in the rebellion, including an insurrectionist shot in the neck as she tried to enter the Chamber of Deputies and a Capitol police officer. Trump supporters stole computer equipment, potentially a violation of national security.
Cawthorn was one of the first of 147 Republicans in Congress to say publicly that he would challenge Biden’s victory. In a December 31 video on Twitter, he said he had “a list of thousands, yes thousands, of recent cases of electoral fraud that led to criminal convictions and even the annulment of election results in our country.”
A week later, he said Smoky Mountain News, “I can’t prove fraud personally and I haven’t really seen an overwhelming amount of evidence for that.”
Attorney General William Barr, head of the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the federal agency responsible for maintaining electoral security, said there was no evidence that the election was stolen.
More than 60 lawsuits making such allegations, filed by the Trump campaign and Republican officials, have also been dismissed or removed from court for lack of evidence.
Newsweek contacted Cawthorn’s office for comment.