A campaign video ad repeated his false claim that the car wreck had derailed his plans to attend the Naval Academy. House at the minimum age of 25 years old. Yet four years after Cawthorn spoke at the chapel, the portrait he sketched of his life provided the framework for his election in November as the youngest member of the U.S. Later, more than 150 former students signed a letter accusing him of being a sexual predator, which Cawthorn has denied. Shortly after the speech, Cawthorn dropped out of the college after a single semester of mostly D’s, he said in the deposition, which was taken as part of a court case regarding insurance. Cawthorn himself said in a lawsuit deposition, first reported by the news outlet AVL Watchdog, that he had been rejected by the Naval Academy before the crash. An accident report obtained by The Washington Post said Cawthorn was “incapacitated,” not that he was declared dead. The friend, Bradley Ledford, who has not previously spoken publicly about the chapel speech, said in an interview that Cawthorn’s account was false and that he pulled Cawthorn from the wreckage. Key parts of Cawthorn’s talk, however, were not true. He said he told doctors that he expected to recover and that he would “be at the Naval Academy by Christmas.” He talked emotionally about the day a car accident left him partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair.Ĭawthorn said a close friend had crashed the car in which he was a passenger and fled the scene, leaving him to die “in a fiery tomb.” Cawthorn was “declared dead,” he said in the 2017 speech at Patrick Henry College. Madison Cawthorn was a 21-year-old freshman at a conservative Christian college when he spoke at chapel, testifying about his relationship with God.

Armed and Outrageous by Madison Johns