Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Polk, other counties write letter to House Speaker Pelosi

POLK COUNTY—Polk and other area counties have sent letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for the N.C. Rep. Madison Cawthorn to be expelled from the United States House of Representatives. 

Cawthorn was elected in 2020 representing the state’s 11th Congressional District that includes Polk County.  

Polk County Democratic Party Chair Andy Millard sent a letter to Pelosi saying Polk County Democrats believe that Cawthorn breached his oath of office by encouraging and inciting the riotous mob that overran and looted the Capitol building, disrupted the lawful business of Congress and endangered Pelosi’s life and the lives of her colleagues.

“The Polk County Democratic Party urges you to initiate an investigation into Mr. Cawthorn’s actions and, if sufficient grounds are found, to expel him as a member of the United States House of Representatives,” Millard told Pelosi. 

The Democratic Parties of Buncombe, Henderson, Macon and Jackson counties sent a similar letter to Pelosi regarding Cawthorn. The other counties requested action to address the “seditious behavior of our newly elected Congressman Madison Cawthorn, on or before the insurrection of January 6, 2021.” 

The democratic parties of the listed counties said Cawthorn’s Twitter feed leading up to Jan. 6 was filled with strong, violent language encouraging his supporters to go to the Capitol to demonstrate their patriotism and show ‘what their spines are made of.’

In a speech to the crowd at the rally, Cawthorn incited the crowd again using violent language and calling his colleagues ‘cowards,’ Buncombe, Henderson, Macon and Jackson county democratic parties said. 

The letter also listed a Tweet from Cawthorn encouraging rioters to enter the U.S. Capitol and to join him in his fight. 

“Since January 6, in spite of the above, he has repeatedly denied any culpability in the resulting mob action of illegally breaching the security of the Capitol Building, of illegally taking over the U.S. Senate and House or Representatives chambers, of the disruption of Congress’s carrying out its official Constitutional duties, of destruction of federal property, and of inciting mob action resulting in the deaths of five people,” stated the letter from Buncombe, Henderson, Macon and Jackson county Democratic Parties. 

The counties said Cawthorn needs to be held accountable for his seditious behavior and for the consequences resulting from said behavior and the voters deserve the truth from our elected officials. 

The multiple county democratic parties asked if a 2/3rds vote necessary for expulsion cannot be secured, that the House of Representatives formally censure Cawthorn on behalf of his constituents in the 11th Congressional District.