GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Says Madison Cawthorn Was ‘Wrong’ for Calling Ukraine’s President a ‘Thug’

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy scolded fellow Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn on Friday for previously calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug” — a viral comment Cawthorn’s office has subsequently clarified.

“Madison is wrong,” McCarthy told reporters Friday at a news briefing. “If there’s any thug in this world, it’s Putin.”

McCarthy, 57, pointed out reported attacks on civilians inside a theater and at a maternity ward as evidence of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s illegal actions in his country’s war in Ukraine.

Both sites mentioned by McCarthy are in the besieged city of Mariupol, where residents resorted to burying their dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of town.

A pregnant woman, who was photographed being carried out of the maternity ward on a stretcher, and her baby later died. And while 130 survivors have been pulled from the destroyed theater, Ukrainian officials have said more than 1,000 are still missing.

“This is atrocious. This is wrong. This is the aggressor,” McCarthy said. “This is the one that needs to end this war. This is the one that everybody should unite against.”

(The Kremlin has taken umbrage at attacks on Putin’s character, including the “unforgivable” label of “war criminal.”)

McCarthy said Friday he spoke with Cawthorn, 26, about his comments, which the latter made last weekend at an event in North Carolina, according to local TV station WRAL.

Zuma/SplashNews.com Rep. Madison Cawthorn

“Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt, and it is incredibly evil, and it has been pushing woke ideologies,” Cawthorn said.

A spokesman for Cawthorn did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment earlier this week but clarified the freshman lawmaker’s remarks in a statement to The Washington Post.

“The Congressman was expressing his displeasure at how foreign leaders, including Zelensky, had recently used false propaganda to entice America into becoming involved in an overseas conflict,” Luke Ball said. “He supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian President’s efforts to defend their country against Russian aggression, but does not want America drawn into another conflict through emotional manipulation.”

Still, Cawthorn’s remarks have reportedly been picked up by Russian state-run media and used for propaganda purposes.

NBC News Foreign Correspondent Raf Sanchez shared video footage of a Russian-language segment featuring North Carolina’s Cawthorn. “That got played over and over,” he said.

McCarthy isn’t the first Republican to denounce Cawthorn for insulting Zelenskyy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, said the comments didn’t represent their party, calling Cawthorn an outlier “in the largest sense possible” at a news conference on Thursday, according to the Post.

Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, also reminded Cawthorn that Putin was the one who chose to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24 and referred to him as “an actual murderous thug,” the Post reported.

On Twitter, Cawthorn has been adamant in criticizing Russia and Putin (he called their actions “disgusting” a week ago) while also expressing support for Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian people’s resilience in the face of Russian aggression has inspired the world. The commitment they have shown to the preservation of their sovereign nation is extraordinary,” he wrote Wednesday.

Ukrainian Presidency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Volodymyr Zelenskyy

But rather than mentioning Zelenskyy, who’s received much credit from around the globe for his efforts to inspire his people through an invasion, Cawthorn has consistently taken a stand against U.S. military action in the conflict.

(President Biden, who referred to Putin as a “war criminal” this week, has repeatedly said the U.S. will make every attempt to avoid war with Russia.)

“America must, however, not entangle itself in another war or act in a manner that endangers the lives of American soldiers,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet Wednesday. “A war with Russia does not further the interests of America or the national security of the United States.”

The fighting in Ukraine continues some three weeks after Russian forces launched their large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.

Details change by the day, but hundreds of civilians have already been reported dead or wounded, including children, though casualties are said to be vastly underreported.

More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the fighting began, the United Nations says.

“You don’t know where to go, where to run, who you have to call. This is just panic,” Liliya Marynchak, a 45-year-old teacher in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, told PEOPLE of the moment her city was bombed — one of numerous accounts of bombardment by the Russians.

The invasion, ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has drawn condemnation around the world and increasingly severe economic sanctions.

With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.

“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,” he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”

The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE’s complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help.