“Strange to hear so much laughter and share such a good time with my brother, where only 79 years ago he had a very bad laugh and shared good times with his countrymen,” the title states.
When Cawthorn won his primary, he said the president called him shortly after his victory to congratulate him. A staunch conservative who supports Trump, Cawthorn was partially paralyzed in a car accident in 2014. He is a motivational speaker and submitted to start a real estate business for real estate last year. By-elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rating the 11th District as Solid Republican.
If elected in November, Cawthorn would become the youngest member of Congress – a title currently held by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the progressive startup who took office when she was 29 years old. Cawthorn is even referred to by some as “The AOC of the Right.”
In an interview with CNN, Davis just briefly stopped calling Cawthorn a white nationalist, saying, “I think collectively if you put all the pieces together, it paints a pretty clear picture of someone who is at least comfortable in that environment.”
And Cawthorn pushed back against the claims of his Democratic opponent, accusing Davis in a statement to CNN of promoting “conspiracy theories” and of “bigotry.”
“My Democratic opponent pushes conspiracy theories to hide his radical agenda,” Cawthorn said in the statement, adding, “His belief that conservatives in his district are guilty of white supremacists until proven innocent is dangerous to our democracy. His suggestion that I “, a man in a wheelchair, would carry a regime that would have destroyed me, is insulting to any thinking person in western North Carolina. He does not really believe any of these things, which makes his bigotry even more debilitating.”
Davis also claims that the Instagram post is just one of many “dog whistles” he believes Cawthorn is sending.
“The name of his company – SPQR – which is a symbol associated with white nationalists. He often conducts interviews for the Betsy Ross flag, which is again used by white nationalists (to) symbolize the good old days. when white men ruled the country, “Davis said, saying those things” paint a pretty clear picture of someone who has something to explain to do. “
In his statement to CNN, Cawthorn said, “My Democratic opponent pushes conspiracy theories to hide his radical agenda and support policies such as the Green New Deal, government-sponsored health care and the release of terrorists. Demagogues always have something to hide. In his case, it “His policies are too liberal and too radical for western North Carolina.”
He added, “I do not hide symbols. He hides policies.”
SPQR is an abbreviation for Senatus Populusque Romanus, a Latin phrase that translates to the Senate and the Roman people.
The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of the American flag, which has 13 stars in a circle for the original 13 states.
Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Extremism, said in an interview with CNN that he has seen some cases where the Betsy Ross flag and the term SPQR have been used by white supremacists, but said that in most cases their use by humans is innocent and in no way associated with extremism.
The Betsy Ross flag is typically used as “a traditional patriotic flag,” Pitcavage said, and SPQR is “a pretty innocent term that is in principle short for the Roman Republic as the Roman Republic and Empire.”
He warned that it would be risky to assume that any association with both means that a person is an extremist.
Pitcavage also highlighted the fact that Cawthorn’s Instagram post that came under control uses the term “highest evil” in describing the site. “He made it clear in that same message that he had no sympathy with the Nazis. That I did not see that there was much merit to that accusation,” Pitcavage said.
Adding to the attention Cawthorn has been facing over the post of social media, there are now new questions about his educational claims.
Asked if he was informed by the Naval Academy that he did not come in, Cawthorn replied that he was. When asked if that was before the accident, he replied, “it was.”
In the interview with WLOS News 13, Cawthorn claimed that he was not misleading.
“I never said I was nominated or accepted for the academy, I knew I was only nominated at that point,” he said, adding, “I had fully expected that I would be accepted and nominated, but at that point I had not received it. That I have been very careful never to mischaracterize who I am as a person. “
CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Ryan Prior contributed to this report.
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