Madison Cawthorn brings gun to airport

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) drew a misdemeanor citation from the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Department on Tuesday morning. He brought a loaded gun to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and tried to get it through the checkpoint.

About Madison Cawthorn and his gun

A Transportation Security Administration inspection team found a loaded Staccato 9 mm handgun in a bag at a security checkpoint. Mr. Cawthorn admitted he owned the bag, and the gun. Police cited him for “possession of a dangerous weapon on city property,” a misdemeanor. The TSA confiscated the gun and provided a photograph of it to the press. CNBC, The Guardian, WFLX-TV, and HollyMovies carried the story. All except The Guardian ran with the photograph. TSA carefully avoiding giving Madison Cawthorn’s name.

Madison Cawthorn has done this sort of thing once before. In February 2021, he tried to pass an unloaded Glock 9mm gun through security at the Asheville (N.C.) Regional Airport. That, his office later said, was a mistake. The congressman’s office hasn’t said anything about the latest incident.

Media reports also say that Madison Cawthorn has racked up speeding tickets in many States. He also has a citation for driving without a valid license.

The Washington cesspool

But his most recent claim to fame (other than the report of high jinks on a Caribbean cruise ship)

was his allegation that official Washington is a serious party town. He described veteran Members of Congress arranging sex orgies (and in at least one case inviting Mr. Cawthorn to one). He also described Members snorting a white powdery substance in front of him and saying it was cocaine. CNAV covered that, and that Madison Cawthorn, after first claiming someone exaggerated his claims, refused to take them back.

The only thing Madison Cawthorn didn’t talk about was the Caucus Dues system. In that system, Members pay their entire annual salaries to their respective campaign committees, according to the John Birch Society. That requires them to toady to lobbyists, hat in hand.

Caucus Dues are a problem in State legislatures, too. And again: one Virginia State Senator, Amanda F. Chase of District 11, refuses to pay. A spokesperson for Senator Chase confirmed to CNAV that annual Caucus Dues in the Senate of Virginia amount to $10,000. A Virginia Senator makes $18,000 for one regular session. The General Assembly of Virginia, unlike Congress, is a part-time legislature.

Madison Cawthorn might be careless, but…

So what do we have? The worst thing you can say about Madison Cawthorn is that he’s careless. He’s also one of the youngest Members of Congress, barely old enough to be in Congress. Too bad he hasn’t gotten that he has to mind his P’s and Q’s more than anyone else. After he blew the lid off the Washington cesspool, of course the Big Boys are gunning for him. They’re even trying to get him on insider trading of a new crypto coin.

Now CNAV doesn’t think carrying a loaded gun around says much for his common sense. First, aboard any aircraft, the captain’s word is law. So no one but the captain or someone he trusts has any business packing heat on the plane. Second, you never load a gun unless you are walking into danger or intend to damage or destroy a target. Loading that gun was his worst error to date. We’ve seen the trouble Alec Baldwin got into when someone handed him a gun and told him it wasn’t loaded. It was, and someone’s dead.

And as for the Asheville incident, he should have carried the gun in the bag he was going to check into the hold.

But if that’s the worst anyone’s got on him, that’s chicken feed. Many congressmen and Senators have done a lot worse – and we don’t even need Madison Cawthorn to tell us that. Let the people in District 14 remember that in the upcoming primary.

About that primary

Yes, Madison Cawthorn will run for Congress from District 14. A primary challenger thought he could knock Cawthorn off by citing his speaking at the January 6 rally. He relied on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Insurrection Clause. But Judge Richard Myers of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina said no. Why? Because the Amnesty Act of 1872 removes the Insurrection Disability in all but a select few cases. Madison Cawthorn’s case is not one of them. Furthermore, that Act passed the House with an overwhelming voice vote and passed the Senate 38-2. That’s the key: that same Fourteenth Amendment section says that Congress can remove the disability with two-thirds votes. Which Congress did – for all time.

This could also explain all the controversy swirling around Madison Cawthorn. They couldn’t get him on “insurrection.” Very likely no one can get Marjorie Taylor Greene on that ground, either, for the same reason. So they resort to spreading stories about whoopee and high jinks on a cruise ship – and trying to bring a gun onto an airliner. Again, that was a careless act. But maybe the people in that district should vote for him anyway. With enemies like these, pulling stunts like this, he must be doing something right.