Madison Cawthorn Sues North Carolina Officials To Stop His Candidacy From Being Revoked

Activist groups are trying to remove Madison Cawthorn from the ballot this year, arguing that his involvement on January 6th is a violation of the 14th Amendment and therefore prevents him from running for office ever again. But Cawthorn isn't going down without a fight, and he has now filed a lawsuit against election officials in the state to stop this from happening - and to prevent himself from having to defend his actions. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Freshman Republican representative Madison Cawthorn is firing back against the activists in the state of North Carolina that are suing to prevent him from being on the ballot this year for his alleged role in helping to incite the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. Now, we have talked about that story, but for anybody who's not familiar with it, you have these groups in North Carolina that have filed a challenge in the state saying that Madison Cawthorn, according to the 14th amendment, is not eligible to run for office because they allege in their complaint, Cawthorn actively invited the insurrection that took place and because of that 14th amendment says you can't run for office ever again. And the way North Carolina law is written, Cawthorn would have the burden of proof put on him that he is in fact fit to run. That's a pretty big burden to overcome in a situation like this.

So that is why Cawthorn this week has filed a lawsuit against state election officials in North Carolina, trying to prevent that other lawsuit, legal complaint, whatever it is, from moving forward. He doesn't want to have to go and explain himself or say that he didn't incite an insurrection. He would rather just sue to make the whole thing go away and to me, that kind of tells us a lot about how he's feeling about his chances of winning that challenge. He argued in the complaint that running for political office is quintessential first amendment activity and afforded great protection and fact it is. But here's the thing, buddy. You can't use one amendment to try to undo another amendment because the 14th amendment clearly says, no member of Congress shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

And of course it goes on blah, blah, blah, barred from holding office. So that's also in an amendment. So your argument that, hey, first amendment says I can run for office. Okay. 14th amendment says you can't. So even if we cancel those two out, you would still have to go in front of that panel that's being convened to hear this other complaint and defend your right to run for office. And if you're gonna try to use this same first amendment freedom right, uh, you're not gonna get very far. You have to prove that you didn't engage in the behavior that they're accusing you of engaging in. And of course it may all hinge on definitions, right? Because it has to be an insurrection or a rebellion. So does the events of January 6th, does that rise to the level of being an actual insurrection?

Was it an actual rebellion or was it a riot? And I know everybody right now has got their opinions on that. You know, don't use this word, use this one instead and hey, that's great. Your opinions are wonderful. I love them. They don't matter in court. What matters is what the court decides. If the court says it was an insurrection, it was an insurrection. If they say it wasn't, then it wasn't. And of course, if they go that route and say, no, it wasn't Cawthorn's free and clear. He can run for office again. If they say it was, then the burden of proof falls onto him to show that his actions at the Stop the Steal rally did not cause the people to riot. Kind of hard to prove, kind of hard to disprove. But again, because of the way North Carolina law is written.