This is a bit convoluted, but when you consider the characters involved, it all starts to make a dingy sort of sense. Madison Cawthorn has a buddy. He goes by the name of Robby Starbuck, although that is not his real name, and he’s a music video producer, which of course makes him a perfect fit for a seat in the House of Representatives, coming from Tennessee’s 5th congressional district. This is the same guy that Cawthorn brought on the floor of the House, which is a no no.
Cawthorn endorsed Starbuck and so did a lot of other Republicans, to wit,
RAND PAUL, CANDACE OWENS, CHARLIE KIRK, CONGRESSMAN MADISON CAWTHORN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP RIC GRENELL, TURNING POINT ACTION, LEXIT, PRESIDENT TRUMP’S LAWYER JENNA ELLIS, CONGRESSMAN RALPH NORMAN, NYC MAYOR RUDY GUILIANI, CONGRESSMAN KEN BUCK, REPUBLICANS FOR NATIONAL RENEWAL, AZ GOP CHAIR KELLI WARD, WILLIAMSON COUNTY SHERIFF DUSTY RHOADES AND MANY MORE!
as his website proudly proclaims. This is a who’s who of the right wing. But you see whose endorsement is conspicuous by its absence? It begins with a tee and glows in orange? Righto. There is no endorsement by Donald Trump. And that’s because Trump is endorsing Starbuck’s opponent.
Yes, we got trouble. Right here in MAGA city.
Ortagus boasts credentials in the private sector, time as a national security contributor at Fox News, is a senior adviser for the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and in February 2021 joined Adam Boehler in starting Rubicon Founders, a healthcare investment firm.
Ortagus made headlines last November when she confronted Rep. Adam Schiff about his promotion of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s now-discredited dossier on ABC’s The View.
Obviously, Trump is going to love her with those bona fides.
The congressional seat has been held for 32 years by Democrat Jim Cooper. He’s not running for reelection. This is a disaster in the making. Tennessee Lookout:
A day after the Tennessee House voted to split Davidson County into three districts, veteran Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper announced he will not seek another term.
In a Twitter post, Cooper said he won’t run again after 32 years in office, blaming Republicans’ plan to ignore his requests and break up Nashville. He thanked Nashville voters for making him the third longest-serving member of Congress, with periods serving the old 4th Congressional District, mainly a rural area that covered his former Shelbyville home, and the 5th District, which has been based in Nashville for years.
“Despite my strength at the polls, I could not stop the General Assembly from dismembering Nashville. No one tried harder to keep our city whole,” Cooper said in the tweet. “I explored every possible way, including lawsuits, to stop the gerrymandering and to win one of the three new congressional districts that now divide Nashville. There’s no way, at least for me in this election cycle, but there may be a path for other worthy candidates.”
You can see where this is going. So of course the vultures are circling.
Trump didn’t go along with Cawthorn’s choice. That rankles Cawthorn and now the dynamic appears to be Trump v. Cawthorn, and that is ludicrous in the extreme.
So is this the direction things are going, MAGA without Trump? Who knows? Your guess is as good as anybody’s.
The battle lines are well drawn at this point: Go along with the Trump-endorsed candidate, or go along with the Cawthorn-endorsed candidate. The fact that there is that choice means that Cawthorn is openly splitting with Trump.
Cawthorn is counting on gerrymandering to get him over the finish line with no problem. And a Republican may get over the finish line in the redistricted 5th congressional district in Tennessee as well.
We thought the Tea Party was bad. They were rational and cogent compared to the MAGAs. Now we’re looking at a schism in MAGA world.
Who woulda thought Trump would endorse the more qualified candidate? I’m loving this Republican civil war, even if the MSM isn’t covering it. I’m firmly convinced the more moronic MAGAts they nominate, the easier path we have to maintaining and increasing our House majority.
I wish I could share your confidence and enthusiasm, but I just can’t. Not when our entire electoral system has already been so effed up; all the pieces are in place for the fascists to take over. We can’t give up, and we need to solidify our message and keep fighting for voting rights while we still have a slight chance to save our democracy. Thinking we’ve got it in the bag is what got us to this point.
Everyone in the democratic party, not counting the 2 traitors, should be screaming the main messaging over & over just as much as Trump DID DAILY WITH LIES. Do prosecuter/cheerleader. Point out these traitors & criminals in the gop, & GO AFTER THEM PUBLICLY OVER & OVER. The other is compare Biden’s ACCOMPLISHMENTS over & over vs the fascist damage the pimp did. LOUDLY. DAILY.
I agree with you 1000%! Dems never mention the garbage that the Republicans do and say. I think every time they speak, they should say something along the lines of “_______ ________ has said (whatever), and we need to make clear that this is not the truth.” Every day. No MSM is telling people all the lies being told every single day.
Oh, I am not confident, not w/ all their skulduggery regarding voting. I just think they may be overconfident and screw themselves over. We still need our base, presidential level, to show up and vote up and down the ballot – every race.
As an actual TN resident, I can tell that this is doomed to be part of the GOP’s last stand. Unlike some folks here (you know who you are), I have a clear enough head to know this class of morons are fighting a losing battle. It’s just that the complicit parts of the country will be battlegrounds for Republicans against both the coming zeitgeist and each other.
IIRC, parts of that dossier have been verified, but Steele never said it was 100% good info.
I wonder how much Maddie’s endorsement will be worth if NC decides he is not eligible to be on the ballot because of aiding and abetting the insurrection.
The surprise, or news, here is Cawthorn has a buddy. Who knew?
Wonder what childish response is tweeted by former guy this time? I’ll make book it will involve Cawthorn’s wheelchair.
More like a fellow partner in crime. Kind of like someone who’s the second or third biggest drug lord in a city teaming up with a money launderer who wants to expand. Neither fully trust each other but by forming an alliance the drug dealer can take over as the city’s kingpin and the money launderer that was doing small-time business winds up getting a whole lot richer. However, as I said they are allies of convenience and won’t ever let their guard down lest the other decide to make a power play to take them out and reap ALL the money and power from their joint venture.