Women say Madison Cawthorn harassed them in college

BuzzFeed News spoke with more than three dozen people, including more than two dozen former students, their friends, and their relatives, who described or corroborated instances of sexual harassment and misconduct on campus, in Cawthorn’s car, and at his house near campus. Four women told BuzzFeed News that Cawthorn, now a rising Republican star, was aggressive, misogynistic, or predatory toward them. Their allegations include calling them derogatory names in public in front of their peers, including calling one woman “slutty,” asking them inappropriate questions about their sex lives, grabbing their thighs, forcing them to sit in his lap, and kissing and touching them without their consent. One of these women now works as an intern for another Republican member of Congress and passes Cawthorn in the corridors of the Capitol. According to more than a dozen people — including three women who had firsthand experience and seven people who heard about these incidents from them at the time — Cawthorn often used his car as a way to entrap and harass his women classmates, taking them on what he could call “fun drives” off campus. Two said he would drive recklessly and ask them about their virginity and sexual experiences while they were locked in the moving vehicle…

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Two RAs told BuzzFeed News that soon after Cawthorn arrived at PHC, they began to warn the women students in their dorms to try to avoid him and to say no if he ever asked them to go for a ride with him in his Challenger.

“I got info from other RAs to warn the female student body not to go on joy rides with him because bad things happened on those joy rides,” said Giovanna Lastra, one of the former RAs who warned her students. “Our school was filled with girls from a Christian background, and there was a high level of naivety.”

A third RA, Philip Bunn, confirmed to BuzzFeed News that he heard “from female RAs that they were telling girls to avoid [Cawthorn].”

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