Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., took to social media to accuse the "establishment" of launching a "coordinated drip campaign" against him.
Cawthorn, who's running for reelection in November, said statistics showed that incumbent congressional candidates are most susceptible to being defeated in their first reelection campaign.
"That's why you're starting to see this coordinated attack amongst a lot of the freshmen members of Congress who are hardcore conservatives who are up for reelection,” Cawthorn said during a brief video posted on his Instagram account. "They're going to drop an attack article every one or two days just to try and kill us with a death by 1,000 cuts, and that is really their main strategy."
Cawthorn's video was joined by a statement that read: "There is a coordinated movement to attack the freshman conservative congressman in their re-elections (most difficult election) who challenge the regime and the Uni-party.
"Rino senators and establishment pawns want us to go back to the days before Trump. They want to go back to the days of not being on offense, not fighting for the next generation, not trying to dismantle the federal government's overreach, we will never go back. That is why the establishment is trying to crush me and others, they attack what they fear. Onward!"
The New York Times reported that Cawthorn was detained briefly by the police on Tuesday after trying to bring a loaded gun through airport security in Charlotte, N.C., in his carry-on bag, the second time in a little more than a year that the congressman has been stopped from flying with a firearm.
Cawthorn also harshly criticized an ad released by one of a number of his Republican primary challengers, state Sen. Chuck Edwards, who slammed the congressman for his use of Instagram.
Cawthorn said he was "proud of my constituents who are seeing through kind of this this political shenanigans, and I'm very confident that we're going to be able to win our reelection."
Politico last week released photos showing Cawthorn wearing lingerie in what appeared to be a party setting. The congressman said the photos were part of another attack from the left, and that the pictures were taken during a game on a cruise before he was elected to Congress.
Not all of Cawthorn's recent critics have been election opponents.
Late last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said that he had "lost confidence" in Cawthorn after comments alleging lawmakers took part in orgies and drug use.
Cawthorn had claimed on a podcast that colleagues had invited him to sexual get-togethers and that he watched at least one fellow lawmaker consume cocaine, claiming that the same member was involved in anti-addiction efforts.
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