Madison Cawthorn says Washington is a lot like 'House of Cards,' claims members of DC's elite did cocaine in front of him and invited him to an orgy

• Rep. Madison Cawthorn said he was invited to an orgy by people he "looked up to" in Washington.
• He said the Netflix drama "House of Cards" wasn't too far off the mark in depicting life in DC.

North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn said in an interview this week that he thought sexual perversion was rife in Washington, DC, revealing that he had been invited to an orgy by people he "looked up to" and witnessed prominent figures consuming drugs right in front of him.

Cawthorn made these claims on a Friday episode of the "Warrior Poet Society" podcast, during which he was asked by host John Lovell how closely life in DC mirrored the Netflix political drama "House of Cards." The hit show follows the story of Frank Underwood, a fictional and deeply corrupt House Majority Whip, and his rise to become President at all costs.

Lovell asked Cawthorn about how much of the show's presentation of a "secret life of corruption, and power, and money, and perversion" was representative of the real goings-on in DC.

"I heard a former president that we had in the 90s was asked a question about this. And he gave an answer that I thought was so true. He said that the only thing not accurate in that show — that you could never get a piece of legislation about education passed that quickly," Cawthorn told Lovell, referring to a major plotline in the show's first season.

Cawthorn was also likely referring to an interview that the show's lead actor, Kevin Spacey, did with Gotham magazine in 2015. During that interview, Spacey cited former President Bill Clinton as being the one who made the comparison between life in Washington and the Netflix show.

On Friday, Cawthorn also said that he had also witnessed "sexual perversion" in Washington.

Noting how he is significantly younger than his peers in the Capitol — whose "average age is probably 60 or 70" — Cawthorn said: "I look at a lot of these people, a lot of them that I've looked up to through my life — I've always paid attention to politics — guys, that, then all of a sudden you get invited to, 'Oh hey we're going to have a sexual get together at one of our homes, you should come."

"'What did you just ask me to come to?' And then you realize they're asking you to come to an orgy," Cawthorn added the 26-year-old.

The first-term congressman added that he had also witnessed some prominent figures who were "on the movement to try and remove addiction in our county" doing "a key bump of cocaine" in front of him.

Cawthorn did not name the individuals involved in these incidents, nor did he give further details as to when they took place.

The lawmaker also told Lovell that a lot of people in DC were trading in the "currency of secrets" and that journalists kept nasty stories "on the shelf" to "bully people." He then added that he thought DC was a "pit of vipers."

"Aside from the honor of serving my constituents, working in Washington is like, the worst job in the world," he said.

In December, Cawthorn announced his split from his wife after less than a year of marriage, citing a "hectic and difficult" lifestyle change following his election to Congress. He recently drew criticism from senior members of the party and was called an "outlier" after saying he thought Ukraine's government was "very vile" and 'well known for corruption."