Politico publishes photos showing GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn at party wearing lingerie

Politico published photos Friday night showing North Carolina GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn wearing lingerie while surrounded by women and drinking alcohol.

The two photos show Cawthorn and multiple women at a party. The freshman lawmaker appears to be wearing women's clothing, including a bra. In one of the photos, he appears to drink a glass of alcohol.

Politico did not provide context as to when or where the photos were taken.

The 26-year-old lawmaker said after the photos were published that they are vacation pictures taken before he was elected to Congress in 2020. 

"I guess the left thinks goofy vacation photos during a game on a cruise (taken waaay before I ran for Congress) is going to somehow hurt me?," he tweeted. "They’re running out of things to throw at me... Share your most embarrassing vacay pics in the replies."

Cawthorn, in late March, claimed to have been invited to orgies while in Washington and to have witnessed fellow congressional leaders doing cocaine.

"I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to through my life, I've always paid attention to politics. Then all of the sudden you get invited to: 'Well hey we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come,'" he said on the "Warrior Poet Society" podcast.

"You watch them do, you know, a key bump of cocaine right in front of you and it’s like, 'Wow, this is wild,' " he also said.

The conservative firebrand's comments earned sharp rebuke from Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who stated that Cawthorn had "lost my trust" over the allegations, which he later admitted were exaggerated.

Politico in the publishing of the photos highlighted Cawthorn's staunch conservative positions and record of Christian statements.

“I subscribe to Judeo-Christian beliefs,” Cawthorn said in a September 2020 podcast. “I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I think if you think about my political ideology, where it really stems from, you know, my ethics and my morals and what I think is right and wrong, you look to ancient Jerusalem, you got ancient Judeo-Christian values. So right and wrong."