Congressman Madison Cawthorn has defended a resurfaced video that features him naked and thrusting his pelvis in someone's face.
The North Carolina representative took to Twitter to address the now-viral clip, released by American Muckrackers PAC, which runs the Fire Madison campaign.
The footage is the latest in a series of scandals that surround the young politician ahead of his state's primary election on 17 May.
The president of PAC said that the footage was 'passed to us by a former supporter' of the congressmen.
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The video quickly went viral and Cawthorn took to Twitter to respond.
He wrote: "A new hit against me just dropped. Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny. We were acting foolish, and joking. That’s it.
"I’m NOT backing down. I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won't win. We will."
The congressman's statement was followed up by a video on Twitter, in which he discussed headlines from articles detailing a series of scandals, including the video.
The video is captioned: "I’m ready to keep fighting for you.
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"I wanted you to know the truth, straight from me. Don’t lose hope, don’t listen to the fake news. Don’t let the swamp of Washington dissuade or distract you from sending a warrior back to Washington.
"I’ve only just begun to fight for you."
The tape wasn't the only scandal Madison had to address, as the congressman apologised for speeding and failing to disarm before entering a TSA checkpoint.
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Speaking of his actions, the congressman notes: "This one was an actual mistake. I have been pulled over for speeding. My mentality inside the beltway of Washington D.C. has always been 'all gas no breaks' but I just can't have that same mentality when I'm back here on the I-26 here in town.
"So lesson learned, I'll slow down on the road, but I won't be slowing down on working to fix Congress."
With the congressman going on to say of the TSA headlines: "Obviously, though, I made a mistake. I forgot to disarm before I went through a TSA checkpoint. That's my bad and I have to own that one."
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