Gov’t

Attack by Madison Cawthorn’s schoolmates goes viral

By Tom Fiedler | October 21, 2020

A scathing public letter signed by more than 150 of Madison Cawthorn’s former schoolmates at Patrick Henry College alleges that the Republican candidate engaged in “sexually predatory behavior,” vandalism and lying as a student and is unfit for congress or as a representative of the conservative Christian school. The letter, in the form of an online petition, was posted over the weekend by alumni who said they knew Cawthorn during the 2016-2017 academic year. He dropped out before the end of his second semester and didn’t return.

Within hours of the letter’s release October 17, the number of Patrick Henry College alumni signers exploded, from 10 to 150 by midweek. Many of the signers also recounted on social media their personal experiences with Cawthorn during that period, including several who alleged that they were victims of his sexual misconduct or had learned of it from other alleged victims at the time. Cawthorn did not respond to a request to comment about the letter’s specific allegations. “[B]ased on our knowledge of Cawthorn’s character and our experience with him as a classmate at PHC, we have determined that we must speak out and resolutely oppose his bid to represent the people of North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District,” the letter stated.

Cawthorn video hits Davis’ record as Guantanamo prosecutor

By Tom Fiedler | September 22, 2020

In the western North Carolina congressional campaign already notable for its bare-knuckled ferocity, GOP candidate Madison Cawthorn’s latest attack video against Democrat Morris (Moe) Davis stands out: TERRORIST DEFENDER, the video proclaims in bold text and shock-inducing graphics.

“Moe Davis’ record shows he’s no patriot,” reads the text.

“His actions against America make him unfit to serve,” it continues. Then this: “Moe Davis has sided with foreign enemies over our own country numerous times.” Cawthorn’s accusations brand Davis a traitor, the worst accusation that could be leveled at any veteran military officer. Davis, 62, is a retired Air Force colonel and decorated military lawyer whose 25 years of service culminated as the chief prosecutor of alleged al-Qaeda combatants imprisoned at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo, Cuba.

The 25-year-old Republican candidate making the accusation, is a self-described investor and college dropout who styles himself as the potential conservative counterpoint to Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a favorite of progressives and a target of the right. He has been warmly embraced by President Trump and former Congressman Mark Meadows, and was given a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. Cawthorn’s attack is directed at Davis’ strength as a high-profile and outspoken military veteran and, with ample backing from conservative political action committee funding, is likely to be a featured piece in the brutal campaign’s final weeks.

But the attack has a fundamental flaw: it runs contrary to the facts.

The AVL Watchdog’s review of the Cawthorn video’s broadside allegation that Davis defended terrorists is false legally and literally. On other details the video distorts the reality of Davis’ actions with out-of-context claims, emotional appeals unrelated to Davis, and unproven or rebutted allegations against the captives whom Davis purportedly aided.

Tweet Storm: Candidate Attacks with Expletives, Vulgarity

By Sally Kestin and Peter H. Lewis | September 12, 2020

Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic images and expletives, reflecting the verbatim language used by the candidate. Moe Davis has urged Democrats to stomp on the necks of certain Republicans, called Donald Trump the “dumbest f*cking president in history” and described GOP senators currying favor with the president in vulgar, graphic terms.

Just before Christmas, he tweeted that Trump had turned evangelicals into “a klan of un-Christlike hypocrites who betray everything Jesus stood for.” Earlier, he wrote, “you can’t be for @realDonaldTrump and for Jesus.”

The retired Air Force colonel and Democrat running for the 11th district congressional seat is a prolific social media poster. His Twitter account, @ColMorrisDavis, has more than 161,000 followers and nearly 92,000 tweets, many of them strongly defending democratic principles and positions. But they also include expletive-laced, sometimes violent and deeply personal attacks on his political opponents, and denigrating comments about their supporters. Above a video ad praising Trump last November by GOP Senate hopeful Jeff Sessions, Davis tweeted that the “giant slurping sound” coming from Alabama was Sessions “down on his knees” performing a remote sex act on the president.

Debate Fact-Checker: Zingers, Jabs and Lies

By Sally Kestin and Peter H. Lewis | September 8, 2020

In their first public face-off, the candidates vying for the increasingly competitive 11th district congressional seat, Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis, touted their differences on just about all issues and hurled accusations, with each calling the other “fast and loose” with the facts. Who was telling the truth? AVL Watchdog fact-checked some of the claims made at the Sept. 4-5 debates at Western Carolina University and rated them as true, false or misleading. TOPIC: Welfare

THE CLAIM: In the first debate (at 1:17:08), Davis accused Cawthorn of wanting “to end welfare to balance the budget because it encourages single women, particularly minority women to have more babies so they get bigger checks.”

FACT-CHECK: We find this claim to be TRUE.

From Military Prosecutor to Congressional Candidate

By Tom Fiedler | September 4, 2020

Updated

For Air Force Colonel Morris Davis, a career military lawyer, the assignment he won in 2005 could solidify his opportunity to become a general. The North Carolina native – and now the Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district — was named chief prosecutor of the alleged al Qaeda terrorists imprisoned at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba where they were subject to military justice.

Davis embraced the challenge, likening his assignment to the prosecutors who brought Nazi war criminals to trial at Nuremberg after World War II. The tall, physically imposing officer quickly earned a reputation as an aggressive, by-the-book prosecutor inclined in frequent press conferences to trash-talk opposing lawyers and to mock the prisoners, most of whom had been captured in the months after the 9/11 attacks on Afghanistan’s battlefields or in CIA operations. “Initially I thought he was overly aggressive,” said Miami lawyer Neal Sonnett, who was assigned by the American Bar Association to monitor the military tribunals to assure appropriate legal treatment for the prisoners. “We didn’t get off on good footing,” Sonnett said in an interview.

He objected to Davis publicly comparing the prisoners to vampires whom he would “drag into the sunlight where they would melt.” When a defense lawyer sought sympathy for a Canadian-born prisoner who, at age 15 had run away to go to Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist training camp, Davis retorted: “He didn’t go to that camp to learn knots and eat smores.”

In Sonnett’s view, by ridiculing the defense lawyer and playing to the news media, “I thought [Davis] had crossed a line.”

Still, Davis charged ahead.