House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has denounced North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn for calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug”.
A reporter noted the epithet to Mr McCarthy during a press conference on Friday, adding that Mr Cawthorn also accused the Ukrainian government of spreading disinformation.
“Madison is wrong,” Mr McCarthy said, after confirming that he had spoken to Mr Cawthorn. “If there’s any ‘thug’ in this world it’s [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
“You just watched Putin directing that Russia bomb maternity wards,” Mr McCarthy said. “We watched yesterday, in a theatre, that’s identified in the front and the back from the air that [it’s] housing children – bombed.”
“This is atrocious, this is wrong, this is the aggressor, this is the one that needs to end this war. This is the one that everybody should unite against,” Mr McCarthy said.
“Do you support his re-election?” the reporter asked again, referring to Mr Cawthorn.
“Yes,” the minority leader said.
“Remember that Zelensky is a thug,” Mr Cawthorn told supporters earlier this month, a video obtained by WRAL shows. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”
Karl Rove, who served as President George W Bush’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Mr Cawthorn made the comments during an event in Asheville. Mr Rove said he believed that the comments “didn’t reflect Republican opinion”.
When reached by The Independent on 11 March, Mr Cawthorn’s Communications Director Luke Ball pointed to Twitter statements that “explains what his point was in those remarks”.
“Propaganda is being used to entice America into another war,” Mr Cawthorn tweeted. “I do not want Americans dying because emotions pushed us into a conflict.”
“The actions of Putin and Russia are disgusting. But leaders, including Zelensky, should NOT push misinformation on America,” he added. “I am praying for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Pray also we are not drawn into conflict based on foreign leaders pushing misinformation.”
Mr Cawthorn linked to a Substack post by Pedro Gonzalez, who wrote that “Ukrainian misinformation is pointed largely at the West, with outright propaganda promoted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself. Ukraine’s efforts are designed to bring the United States and NATO into the war. Sometimes it is subtle; other times, it is as unsubtle as a hammer hitting an anvil”.
Mr Cawthorn is running for re-election in his western North Carolina district. One of his opponents, Michele Woodhouse, told WRAL that Mr Cawthorn’s remarks were “boorish”, out of touch, and that Mr Zelensky is a “hero”.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as the White House Director of Strategic Communications under former President Donald Trump, tweeted, “I try not to criticize Madison because he’s my former intern and I think he genuinely doesn’t know how little he knows. But this is disgraceful and not how a sitting lawmaker should speak about a US ally. [Mr Cawthorn] is echoing Russian propaganda”.
Democratic Arizona Representative Ruben Gallego tweeted that it’s “disturbing that he sits in our classified briefings on [the Russia–Ukraine war]. Not sure now that is a good idea”.
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