Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh tweeted that Mr Cawthorn “is not alone in supporting Putin. Hell, the leader of the GOP supports Putin. The anti-democracy, pro-authoritarian wing of the GOP is not fringe. Not fringe at all. It’s alive and well and growing”.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as the White House Director of Strategic Communications under former President Donald Trump, tweeted, “I try not to criticize Madison because he’s my former intern and I think he genuinely doesn’t know how little he knows. But this is disgraceful and not how a sitting lawmaker should speak about a US ally. [Mr Cawthorn] is echoing Russian propaganda”.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, tweeted that it was “yet another ‘dim-witted’ statement from the delinquents that run the GOP aka the Party of Putin. Zelensky is fighting for freedom and the lives of his people and this guy is driving around with a revoked license and beating up dead trees”.

I just watched the dead tree video. If you want more proof about how unhinged this guy is...

Christ this guy!