When North Carolina Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn first came to Capitol Hill in January he quickly sent out a message to the GOP caucus admitting he had no interest in legislation.
“I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation,” he wrote in a January 19 email to House Republicans.
Now he’s trying to turn that messaging into messaging about legislation that he’s passed. Except he hasn’t passed any legislation.
“I am proud to announce that my office is the FIRST Freshman office to have a bill pass the House!” he tweeted, falsely, Wednesday morning.
Social media users were quick to point out that not only is Cawthorn not the first, he hasn’t actually passed any bills he’s sponsored — meaning, he hasn’t passed any bills he or his staff have drafted. Any member of Congress can co-sponsor a bill, and he’s bragging about putting his name on a bill that passed.
As it turns out, the first freshman to have a bill passed is a Democrat, Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia. Cawthorn voted for the bill that made her the first freshman to have a bill passed in this Congress, as Yahoo News reported.
Overall, Rep. Cawthorn has sponsored 10 bills or resolutions, and co-sponsored 110.
Of the 10, none have passed the House.
(One of Cawthorn’s bills, a resolution, is to honor the fall of a Russian city 100 years ago.)
Cawthorn a few hours later amended his claim, but instead of graciously apologizing to the freshman Democrat who was the first to have a bill passed, Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, he handed the honor to the first Republican:
Cawthorn’s lie was quickly retweeted by Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier, who has nearly one million followers. The retweet is still up even though it’s false.
The response to Cawthorn’s latest stunt has not been kind, with some even exposing his poor attendance record.