Rep. Madison Cawthorn said he was fulfulling his marital obligations when he went on his honeymoon last April. That still didn't explain how he managed to miss 16.2% of all votes, the highest of any freshman House member by far.

Cawthorn said his missed votes were all for 'Democrat garbage' anyway.

Source: Business Insider

GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn said his "service as a husband" kept him from over a dozen congressional votes in April and described all the missed votes as "Democrat garbage" during an interview on the conservative program "Real America's Voice News."

Data collected by the legislative-analysis firm Quorum and reported on by Axios found that Cawthorn had missed the highest percentage of votes — 16.2% — of any freshman House member during the 117th Congress. The top five freshmen to miss the most votes are all Republicans.

"To that, I really laugh. It shows how the Democrats feel about the nuclear family in America right now. I was doing the only thing that I find more important than my service in Congress, and that's my service as a husband," Cawthorn told host David Brody when asked about Axios' reporting on his missed votes.

Cawthorn said that "they had the votes pile up" the week he was away for his honeymoon after marrying his wife, Cristina Bayardelle, in his home state of North Carolina in early April, which resulted in him missing out on 15 votes.

And the handy chart from Axios.

Madison Cawthorn explains that the reason he has missed the most votes of any new Member of Congress is because he was doing his “service as a husband,” and the bills were all “Democrat garbage” anyway, so he would “rather spend time with my beautiful wife” than vote on them. pic.twitter.com/aREjH5ZAgR

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 21, 2021