Candidates seeking to replace former Congressman Mark Meadows in Western North Carolina have spent plenty of time attacking each other. It’s gone to a new level now however after controversial tweets resurfaced earlier this month.
More than a year ago, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Moe Davis paraphrased former First Lady Michelle Obama’s catchphrase, “When they go low, we go high,” by issuing a scathing tweet directed at North Carolina’s Republican establishment.
“So that, it was disturbing to me,” said Republican Madison Cawthorn, Davis’ opponent.
He’s talking about Davis’ tweet, which reads “Screw they go low, we go high bullsh*t. When @NCGOP extremists go low, we stomp their scrawny pasty necks with our heels and once you hear the sound of a crisp snap you grind your heel hard and twist it slowly side to side for good measure. He needs to know who whupped his ass.”
Davis said he was referring to Republican voter fraud in the 2018 Ninth Congressional District election, as well as a surprise vote to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto in the North Carolina General Assembly. He also said the tweet was metaphorical.
“My intention in the tweet was to say, look, this ‘We go high’ crap is not cutting it,” Davis said. “When we're playing against a North Carolina GOP that's made clear that they'll lie, cheat and steal to retain power. Not just being metaphorical on that, I mean, they have a record of lying, cheating and stealing, and so my point was, Democrats have to fight back.”
Davis has emphasized his point using the metaphor of a knife fight, saying that Republicans have been showing up with a machete while Democrats have been showing up with a quinoa salad.
Davis’ aggressive tone comes under a president who has bragged about sexual assault, mused about shooting migrants below the waist to “slow them down” and exhorted rallygoers in 2016 to “knock the hell” out of protestors, even promising to pay their legal fees. Cawthorn says it’s all wrong.
“I'm not afraid to call somebody out when I believe they’re wrong and I believe that kind of rhetoric is wrong from someone who's been in a position of leadership,” he saidl. “But you know, there is a point where it's gone a little bit too far. Some of the tweets, like the ones you just outlined, I believe that's a point where the president has gone too far.”
Early voting in North Carolina begins Oct. 15, and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
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