Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) warned officials in North Carolina that they could face "dangerous" consequences if he is removed from the ballot for his role in inciting a failed insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Cawthorn's opponents have pushed for the congressman to be disqualified by the NC Board of Elections based on an "insurrection" clause that was added to the U.S. Constitution following the Civil War."
States have long enforced age and residency requirements, without question and with very few if any legal challenges," the Board of Elections wrote in a court filing. "The State has the same authority to police which candidates should or should not be disqualified per Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment."
Cawthorn appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast on Wednesday and vowed to fight.
"This is only going to lead to one place if you want to try and take the right of the people away to be able to vote for their elected official," he told Bannon. "This is going down a very dangerous path."
The NC lawmaker predicted "Donald Trump will never be able to be president again" if NC officials successfully remove him from the ballot.
He also said that he had no regrets about his role on Jan. 6.
"They are specifically arguing that I engaged in insurrection or incited some kind of violence here on Jan. 6," Cawthorn explained. "Now as you know, I was very proud to go speak at the Stop the Steal rally. I was very proud to debate on behalf of Wisconsin and try and block the electors in that state. And apparently that -- even though it's a constitutionally protected right for me to do that as a congressman from North Carolina -- they're saying that that disqualifies me."
Cawthorn initially advised his staffers not to take the threat seriously.
"But unfortunately, we're going to have to fight it, which is ridiculous," he said. "We'll probably go to the North Carolina Supreme Court and if they shockingly rule against us and they are actually just these liberal activists like we suspect they are then we're probably going to have to take this case all the way to the United States Supreme Court and it's going to be one hell of a ride."
