# Cawthorned
Cawthorned is a political slang verb describing when a party leaks damaging personal scandals to the press to sink one of its own troublesome members. The term comes from former North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn, whose 2022 primary loss followed a wave of leaked lingerie photos and lurid videos after he accused colleagues of hosting cocaine-fueled orgies.
## Overview
Cawthorned is political slang for what happens when senior members of a party quietly feed damaging personal scandals about one of their own to reporters in order to end that person's career[3]. The tactic is usually aimed at a radical or troublesome member who has annoyed the more moderate wing, and the leaks tend to arrive in a coordinated burst rather than as a single story[3].
The verb is named after former North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn, whose short congressional career collapsed in 2022 under a pile of leaked photos, videos and ethics complaints after he publicly accused fellow Republicans of hosting orgies and using cocaine[4]. Users online later applied the term to Matt Gaetz in October 2023 when a similar wave of embarrassing stories hit the press days after Gaetz forced out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy[4].
## How It Spread
The term jumped from political Twitter into wider slang on June 14th, 2022, when Redditor Deviknyte asked r/OutOfTheLoop why people wanted to "Cawthorn" Boebert, a thread that pulled in over 650 points across the next year[5].
Cawthorned exploded in October 2023 once Matt Gaetz led the successful motion to remove Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker, angering more than 200 House Republicans[4]. On October 4th, 2023, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin told CNN that Gaetz had bragged to colleagues about crushing ED pills and chasing them with energy drinks so he could "go all night," and had shown off videos of women he had slept with[4]. The clip was widely shared by accounts like @Acyn on October 5th, 2023[6].
The next day Twitter user @theliamnissan argued Gaetz was getting Cawthorned, racking up more than 600 retweets and 2,800 likes in under a day[7]. Commentator Keith Boykin piled on the same day, accusing Republicans of "Cawthorning" Gaetz only once his behavior became politically inconvenient[8]. Urban Dictionary picked up the moderate-party-purges-radical definition around the same time, which cemented the word's meaning outside political circles[3].
## How to Use
Cawthorned is typically used as a passive verb aimed at a politician who is suddenly buried under embarrassing leaks from inside their own party. A common convention is to post a fresh scandal headline with a caption like "he's getting Cawthorned" or "time to Cawthorn him," often with a screenshot of the offending politician. The term is almost always applied to figures on the far right of the Republican Party, mirroring the original Cawthorn and Gaetz cases[3].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Cawthorned?
Cawthorned is political slang for when a party leaks damaging personal stories about one of its own members to the press in order to end that person's career[3].
### Where did Cawthorned come from?
It was coined by the American Muckrakers PAC in a May 18th, 2022 tweet after Madison Cawthorn lost his North Carolina primary following a string of leaked scandals[2].
### What does Cawthorned mean?
It means being politically destroyed by leaks from your own side, usually after a moderate faction decides a radical member has become too much of a liability[3].
### How do you use Cawthorned?
It is used as a passive verb about a politician drowning in insider leaks, as in @theliamnissan's viral October 5th, 2023 tweet suggesting Matt Gaetz was getting Cawthorned[7].
### Is Cawthorned still popular?
It saw its biggest spike during the Gaetz backlash in October 2023 and is still occasionally used in political Twitter posts whenever a Republican figure faces a sudden wave of intra-party leaks[8].
## References
1. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/madison-cawthorn-ethics-investigation-american-muckrakers/]()
2. [https://twitter.com/fecktheseppls/status/1527000000000000000]()
3. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cawthorned]()
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cawthorned]()
5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/vc0000/why_do_people_want_to_cawthorn_boebert/]()
6. [https://x.com/Acyn/status/1709724651033595914]()
7. [https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/1709900000000000000]()
8. [https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1709900000000000001]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/cawthorned
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