The NC GOP should stand for freedom and Censure Cawthorn and Meadows

At this moment the North Carolina Republican Party is uniquely positioned to make a strong and emphatic statement showing it stands with those who yearn for democracy, liberty and the rule of law.

It can do it as it marks 13 months since it condemned U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, one of the state’s strongest and loyal GOP voices, for standing for democracy, liberty and the rule of law when he voted to rightly hold former President Donald Trump for responsible for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and riot at the Capitol.

The state party’s central committee needs to convene and vote to censure U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn and former U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows for their statements and actions that are out of step with the majority of Republicans, North Carolinians and Americans. North Carolina’s Republicans don’t consider the president of Ukraine a “thug” and they stand with him and the people of his nation as they fight for their liberty. North Carolina stands with those who obey motor vehicle laws, election laws and don’t falsify voter registration residence.

There should be NO toleration of the recent remarks from Cawthorn that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a “thug.” He doubled down and labeled the government now desperately trying to defend itself from unprovoked Russian aggression as “corrupt” and “incredibly evil and has been pushing ‘woke’ ideologies.”

What according to Cawthorn, would that make Russian President Vladimir Putin – the true prince of darkness here? 

Do North Carolina Republicans stand with Zelenskyy or Putin?

 North Carolina’s two U.S. senators quickly moved to distance themselves from Cawthorn’s words of aid and comfort to those who now march to destroy freedom and peace.

“Putin's deranged propaganda revolves around convincing the world that President Zelenskyy is a ‘thug’ and the Ukrainian government is ‘evil.’ Thankfully, the vast majority of Americans and nearly every single member of Congress are united in support of Ukraine's fight for freedom,” Tillis said in a statement posted on Twitter.

“President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have reminded us that democracy does not come without a cost. It has to be protected,” Burr said last week during a meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This democracy, the independence of Ukraine, demands that democracies around the world respond with everything needed to preserve Ukraine’s independence and democracies that are threatened. Likewise leaders like Putin don’t want their people to have the freedoms that we cherish and we strive to protect.”

Claims of, and concerns about, illegal election actions and fraud have been a constant refrain from the state’s Republican establishment. It is not without some significant irony that the most egregious examples in this state seem to have sprung from Republicans themselves. The Ninth Congressional District 2018 election had to be scrapped because of the illegal acts on behalf of a GOP candidate. Now, there are serious allegations that former 13th District Rep. Mark Meadows (who later became President Trump’s chief of staff) claimed as a voter registration residence – a mobile home in the western part of the state – he’s never lived in.

It is time for North Carolina’s Republicans to take official action to condemn these acts and clearly state that Cawthorn and Meadows fail to comport with the ideals of North Carolina’s Republican Party.

North Carolinians, regardless of political affiliation, stand firmly on the side of those who risk their lives in the fight for democracy and freedom. The state’s Republican Party leaders must say so without any equivocation.