Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who rallied Trump supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally ahead of the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, says he has no regrets about what he did there.
Shortly before the siege by Trump supporters began, Cawthorn was on stage in front of them, urging them on: “My friends I encourage you, continue to make your voice heard because…do we love Donald Trump? But my friends we're not doing this just for Donald Trump. We are doing this for the Constitution. Our Constitution was violated. … My friends I encourage you go back to your states after today. Hold your your representatives accountable. Make sure that they stood up for election integrity and make your voices heard. My friends I want you to chant with me so loud that the cowards in Washington, D.C., that I serve with can hear you.”
Said Cawthorn to Carlos Watson on OZY: “I don't regret it, actually. Obviously, I think what happened on January 6 was despicable. I thought it was conducted by weak-minded men and women who are unable to check their worst impulses and had very little self-control. Completely condemn it. But when I did go speak at that rally, I was specifically trying to get across to the people that, ‘Hey, I am in Congress, I am going down to the Capitol right now to speak on your behalf.'”
“I wasn't down there saying that there was a fraudulent system within Dominion voting machines, or there were U-Haul trucks being backed up with tons of ballots that were fraudulently marked, because I couldn't personally prove that,” Cawthorn continued.
“I definitely didn't try to feed into that narrative,” added Cawthorn. “But I do believe, specifically in Wisconsin, which was the state that I personally debated upon, there were some constitutional infractions about the way they carried out their elections. So when I went down to the Stop the Steal rally I was saying to the people there, ‘hey, I am going down to Congress to represent you.' I feel like a lot of frustration from Americans comes from when they don't feel like they're being represented in politics so if anything I hope my words brought peace into the hearts of more people than violence.”
