Madison Cawthorn’s ‘cocaine and orgy’ claims point to a bigger issue for Republican Senators

The main news out of the House of Representatives yesterday was Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with Representative Madison Cawthorn, at which the GOP leader dressed down the 26-year-old freshman for claiming that members of the Republican conference did cocaine and invited him to orgies. Emerging from their encounter, McCarthy told reporters like (friend of this reporter) Alayna Treene of Axios: “He’s lost my trust, and is gonna have to earn it back.”

McCarthy’s predicament once again makes it hard for him to create a viable contrast between his caucus and the House Democrats, since it compromises his ability to show a unified front for voters. Instead of talking about inflation or crime, he now has to talk about whether or not members of his caucus are debauched cocaine users and group sex enthusiasts.

On the Senate side, all the Republican grandstanding about Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson appears to have come to nothing. She is almost certain to be confirmed, especially after GOP Senator Susan Collins said she would vote for her. What’s less certain is whether the Senate will come to an agreement on passing additional Covid relief.

President Joe Biden warned on Wednesday that the government won’t be able to provide Covid boosters if Congress doesn’t act. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah has emerged as the main point person for Senate Republicans to come up with an agreement. Romney told reporters on Wednesday that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had presented a proposal to him along with his colleagues Lindsey Graham and Raymond Burr.

“His proposal is different than ours,” said Romney, “so they’re getting closer, but there’s still a gap between them and we’ll see if we can bridge that gap or not.” At the heart of the issue is that Democrats don’t like the idea of offsetting costs for Covid relief by taking money from the American Rescue Plan that Biden signed last year, or indeed from the CARES Act signed by Donald Trump. (Burr, by the way, is not much of a fan of his fellow North Carolinian Madison Cawthorn. “He’s an embarrassment on given days,” said the Senator. “Just depends on a day that ends in ‘y.’”)

On the surface, this all appears to be a study in contrasts between House and Senate Republicans, since the House has always been intensely personality-driven and much more polarized (Cawthorn famously told his fellow Republicans: "I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation"). But slowly but surely, the "adults in the room" in the Senate appear to be leaving.

While Republicans might have confidence that Romney can strike a deal with Schumer, many in the GOP base just don’t like him that much. Republicans in Ohio, meanwhile, are seemingly engaged in a race to the bottom, getting into shouting matches at primary debates as they all vie to be seen as the most uncompromisingly Trump-friendly candidate. These are the people running to replace Republican Rob Portman, who negotiated the bipartisan infrastructure bill with all-important Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Similarly, Burr is retiring this year, and Trump made waves when he endorsed relatively unknown Congressman Ted Budd instead of former Governor Pat McCrory as a replacement. But Budd has struggled to gain momentum all the same. Conversely, while your reporter may be able to have a nuanced discussion with Senator Roy Blunt about Covid relief, Republicans in Missouri are scrambling to head off former Governor Eric Greitens, who has positioned himself as a far-right firebrand. Greitens’ ex-wife has recently filed an affadavit alleging he abused her.

Elsewhere, Trump has inserted himself dramatically into the Alabama Senate race to replace retiring Senator Richard Shelby, who cares mostly about bringing home pork to his home state. Many Senate Republicans may see their House colleagues as an “embarrassment” — but the antics in the lower house might also be omens of things to come.