Embattled Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn has been busted trying to take a loaded handgun onto a plane at Charlotte Douglas International Airport according to several sources cited by local media. The controversial lawmaker faces a criminal probe plus a civil penalty of between $10,000 and £13,910 after the handgun was discovered by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents on Tuesday.
The TSA confirmed that a 9mm handgun had been found by security agents at Checkpoint D on Tuesday but the agency refused to release any further details including the name of the perpetrator,
Sources connected with the airport, however, claim the freshman Congressman was the owner of the gun. A photo of a loaded Staccato C2 handgun and which is believed to be owned by Cawthorn was obtained by WSOC-TV 9.
Civil penalties for attempting to take a loaded gun through a TSA airport checkpoint normally range between $3,000 and $10,000 but Cawthorn was previously busted for trying to take a 9mm handgun onto a plane in February 2021.
Classed as a repeat offender, Cawthorn faces a minimum fine of $10,000 plus a criminal referral. It was unclear on Tuesday whether the young and controversial lawmaker faced criminal charges.
The normally vocal North Carolina Congressman hasn’t yet commented on the incident.
At just 26 years old, Cawthorn shot to fame when he was elected to represent North Carolina’s 11th district in 2021. He is the youngest member of Congress since Jed Johnson Jr and the first to have been born in the 1990s.
Cawthorn, who was paralysed from the waist down following a car accident in Florida in 2014, regards himself as a conservative Christian. In recent weeks he has angered his elder GOP colleagues by suggesting Republican lawmakers had invited him to sex orgies.
Whte trash gonna be white trash.