Multiple women accuse GOP’s Madison Cawthorn of sexual harassment

Multiple women are accusing North Carolina representative Madison Cawthorn of sexual harassment, amid wider scrutiny that the 25-year-old Republican may have exaggerated parts of his backstory before becoming the youngest member of Congress.

Former classmates made the allegations to CNN and the Washington Post, saying the hard-right congressman would offer to take them on “fun drives” while he was a student at Virginia’s Patrick Henry College, where he would proposition them.

“His MO was to take vulnerable women out on these rides with him in the car, and to make advances,” his former classmate Caitlin Coulter told CNN.

She says the North Carolina congressman asked her about her purity ring and sexual experiences. She became uncomfortable and shut down the conversation, allegedly sending Mr Cawthorn into a road rage.

“He got really upset. And he whipped the car around and started going back to campus at 70-80 miles an hour on these one-lane roads,” she continued. “And it was – it was really scary.”

Katrina Krulikas, who knew the congressman through a home-school network, told the Post that when she was 17, Mr Cawthorn drove her into a deserted part of town and tried to kiss her without consent.

“I definitely would classify it as sexual assault because he knew I said no,” she said.

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Leah Petree, another classmate, told the Post Mr Cawthorn would badger her about going on a “fun drive,” where she says the then-student “insinuated some sexual activity” would take place. Later, after rejecting his offer, Mr Cawthorn allegedly screamed at Ms Petree when she tried to get him to stop asking another female student questions about sex.

“He got really angry and looked at me and screamed at me with a lot of anger,” Ms Petree told the Post.

The North Carolina Republican reportedly called her “ ‘just a little, blond, slutty American girl.”

After the incident, a man reportedly confronted Mr Cawthorn about calling Ms Petree a slut, and the representative texted her to complain. When she said she didn’t know who it was who approached him, Mr Cawthorn reportedly responded with a veiled threat: “I have some old friends who would love to meet him.”

The allegations, some of which were previously reported, inspired more than 150 students who knew Mr Cawthorn to put out a letter in October denouncing his candidacy for Congress because of his “gross misconduct towards our female peers.”

Mr Cawthorn’s office directed The Independent to statements he made in September regarding the allegations.

“I have never done anything sexually inappropriate in my life,” Mr Cawthorn said at the time. “If I have a daughter, I want her to grow up in a world where people know to explicitly ask before touching her. If I had a son, I want him to be able to grow up in a world where he would not be called a sexual predator for trying to kiss someone,” he added.

The renewed focus on the allegations come after the Post on Saturday published an investigation suggesting Mr Cawthorn exaggerated details on the campaign trail about being left for dead in a car crash that paralysed him, and being accepted into the US Naval Academy and other elite schools.

“These questions were repeatedly asked and answered during the course of the campaign,” his office said in a statement to The Independent. “The voters of Western North Carolina responded to these allegations by giving Madison Cawthorn a 12-point victory over his opponent.”