Now, if you were just a random person pursuing Twitter, you’d think that headline indicates that Cawthorn illegally funneled money to his cousin, including taxpayer funds, right? I don’t think I’m being unfair by saying that’s exactly what that headline is meant to insinuate. Saying Cawthorn “gave” the money to his cousin carries a clear implication. But what’s the real story?
If you actually read the article, which most won’t (as evidenced by the replies), here’s what it says.
Let me boil all those extra words down into a concise statement: Madison Cawthorn legally hired his second cousin to be a staffer and paid him a relatively small amount of money over several years to do the job.
That’s the “scandal” here. It’s astonishing that something like this even made it to print, but worse is that this “news” outlet chose to lead with a headline that made it seem as if Cawthorn had been doing something nefarious.
Meanwhile, if news organizations are looking for actual scandals involving campaign funds being paid to family members, they should start with Ilhan Omar and Maxine Waters. The former has funneled over a million dollars to the “consulting” company of her now-husband (and payments were made while they were having an affair). The latter has paid her daughter over a million dollars with campaign funds.
