UPDATE: Madison Cawthorn shot back on Twitter against the radical Left’s assault on democracy and his free speech, shortly after HUSA’s article was posted:
?BREAKING?
Left-wing activists are trying to stop me from fighting for YOU THE PEOPLE!
I won’t be stopped. Help me fight back! https://t.co/nZKdeQTyCG pic.twitter.com/b1Idx0d18a
— Madison Cawthorn (@CawthornforNC) January 10, 2022
The woke mob won’t stop me. https://t.co/Q1EFbXPDEN
— Madison Cawthorn (@CawthornforNC) January 10, 2022
A group of alt-left political activists has targeted Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., as its first quarry in an effort to disqualify pro-freedom congressional candidates from running for office because of their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol.
Lawyers on Monday filed a candidacy challenge with the N.C. State Board of Elections, arguing Cawthorn can’t run for office because he violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. A section of the amendment states that no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
The filing argues that the events on Jan. 6 “amounted to an insurrection” and because Cawthorn gave an inspirational and patriotic speech as part of the peaceful J6 rally, those actions provide a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped facilitate the insurrection and is thus disqualified.
A spokesman for the Cawthorn campaign likened the challenge to a slap in the face of North Carolina voters and an insult to democracy.
“Over 245,000 patriots from Western North Carolina elected Congressman Cawthorn to serve them in Washington,” said communications director Luke Ball.
“A dozen activists who are comically misinterpreting and twisting the 14th amendment for political gain will not distract him from that service,” Ball said.
The attack on Cawthorn, who was elected in 2020 and last month filed for reelection, appears to be the first salvo in a coordinated attack on democracy “predicted” by alt-left attorney Marc Elias, infamous architect of the Steele Dossier that was used to shamelessly peddle the Russiagate hoax.
In the face of what is widely expected to be a disastrous mid-term election for Democrats, Elias boasted on Twitter that “before the midterm election, we will have a serious discussion about whether individual Republican House members are disqualified by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from serving in Congress,” because anyone who doubted the results of Joe Biden’s 2020 election must be an “insurrectionist.”
“We may even see litigation,” Elias said, and sure enough the legal challenges have started.
The shot fired against Cawthorn is just the first of many to come, said Ron Fein, legal director of the ironically-named Free Speech for People, which is urging state election officials to bar candidates for exercising their freedom of speech.
The free speech in this case, as referenced by the candidacy challenge, is comments Cawthorn made during the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6, when Cawthorn said — wait for it — the “crowd had some fight in it.”
“The Democrats, with all the fraud they have done in this election, the Republicans hiding and not fighting, they are trying to silence your voice,” Cawthorn said. “Make no mistake about it, they do not want you to be heard.”
Which is exactly what could happen, if the likes of Elias, Fein and other democracy-hating leftists have their way.
