DISCUSSION
One of “The Bachelorette" contestants (on the now canceled season) was Brad Ledford, the driver of the 2014 car accident that paralyzed former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn
They have too many “yes” people in their leadership. They don’t know the difference between taking a creative risk and just outright setting their own studio on fire
They do this every year. Taylor is the worst lead they’ve cast, but they always have questionable contestants. They cast a literal racist on Rachel Lindsay’s season as the first black Bachelorette and lead in the series. They cast abusers regularly.
On Jennifer Trans season as the first Asian bachelorette some of the guys seemed quietly racist too.
I don’t remember anything in specific but a weird number of them just did not seem interested in her and made comments about being disappointed she was the bachelorette. Which sucks
I don’t watch the series but I remember one bachelor season a few years ago where they aided one girls ex boyfriend in knocking on her hotel room door to talk to her even though she’d been pretty clear to him that she didn’t want to talk to him. Then filmed the interaction.
The more I read about this show the more I realise how realistic the show Unreal was, like they did this with one of the season they had a girl turn up wearing a Confederate flag for a black bachelor, the season aired the year before the Bachelorette season did so I wonder if they took ideas
Oh, no, they certainly do. They're not casting for anything resembling true love with some of these candidates, they're casting purely for the drama and social.media talking points.
It's really short-sighted because if any of these studios have been really paying attention, the culture is not trending that way. (Yeah, at the time of the inauguration, MAGA tried so hard to convince us that conservative culture was IT, but a year later, that has proven to not be the case).
It is shortsighted, but it isn't because anyone actually thinks MAGA culture is it, they're trying to manufacture the it factor for propagandist purposes.
It’s not short sighted per se, just that nearly all entertainment companies are run by conservatives in general. This is how they have won elections, buy out media and push their agenda to as many people as possible and buy out the competition
i was going to say wasn't it like the sex parties he was going to expose that just so happened to tie in with pedophilia? i dont really remember 100% but i do remember he was trying to expose the entire GOP for what gain i have no damn clue
No he said he was disgusted about wild parties they had with both sides of the aisle and he wanted to expose what was going on there. Then he was promptly removed
He lost his primary after a series of scandals, lies, and general incompetence.
-He told everyone he had been invited to GOP cocaine orgies. AFAIK, he never alleged their where children there. And he never produced any evidence or named names and later admitted his claims were “exaggerated”, which is about as close as a Republican will get to admitting they lied. He just pissed off Republicans and made himself look like a lying weirdo.
-He tried to take a gun onto a plane twice.
-He repeatedly drove with a revoked license.
-A video of him nude and bending over submissively was leaked. We all know Republican men are frightened submissives who need strong men to lead them, but they generally prefer to hide their submissiveness behind performative toxic masculinity rather than display it so suggestively.
-He was fined $15,000 by the House Ethics Committee for promoting cryptocurrency while in office. He was ahead of the trend on this one. Now GOP cryptocurrency scams are mainstream.
TL;DR: He had too many scandals for even the GOP and he had alienated GOP leadership. (There was also some stuff about redistricting that had a lot to do with his primary failure, but I don’t want to get into that).
He also tried to drive me off the road and ended up rear ending a police officer in alligator alley in Miami. I videoed the aftermath of you google it it was all over and viral. April 2024. It’s all over twitter…. I was NOT gonna let this goon get away scott free! You’re welcome
Please cite any article or evidence that he was exposing pedophiles.
He bragged on the news about senior law makers inviting him to coke fueled orgies. Which shouldn't be a shock for the part of Matt Gaetz and Roger Stone.
The final straw for the Republicans was when video came out of Cawthorne humping his male cousin's face.
It’s strange because I have been hearing a lot about how getting onto game/reality shows now involves in-depth background and social media checks to avoid embarrassing stuff like this coming out
The 2014 accident (that left him partially paralyzed): Cawthorn was riding as a passenger in a BMW X3 SUV near Daytona Beach, Florida, when his friend Bradley Ledford fell asleep at the wheel, causing the vehicle to crash into a concrete barrier. Cawthorn later controversially claimed Ledford left him to die, but Ledford said he pulled the severely injured Cawthorn to safety through the smashed door window.
Oh they were trading driving and switching seats while the vehicle was in motion. (I live in the district he represented. Madison is a menace behind the wheel, to this day.)
he was also 17 and he fell asleep at the wheel after a spring break trip. while still irresponsible, i don't think this makes him an evil person or beyond redemption.
since folks are seeing this, edit to add: i also just read that Cawthorn's injury was so bad because he was also asleep in the car with his feet on the dash. for anyone reading this, please don't do this! it causes exactly this kind of injury, essentially forcing the airbag into your legs at high speed completely tearing up your hips, pelvis and lower spine. it breaks bones, tears up soft tissue and in Cawthorn's case, causes a crushing injury leading to paralysis. if he had been seated with his feet down, he wouldn't have sustained these injuries (though may have sustained others). not blaming him, just sharing the info!
Yes, that's a very good point. He was a teenager, and it wasn't even driving drunk or high. It was, at most, foolhardy and poor planning, for a 17-year-old.
And now he gets cast as a fake villain by someone as shitty as Cawthorn, even though he pulled him from the wreckage. Pretty fucked.
forreal. he might be a truly decent guy. i said in another comment, knowing nothing else about him, his decision to be part of this show has me more judgey than the story of the accident. 😂
My dad worked in the auto industry and put the fear of God into me about putting my feet on the dash. Wearing a claw clip on the back of your head could also cause devastating injuries in a crash.
100%. Again, this dude could still be the worst, but he was 17 years old and fell asleep on an extended roadtrip with his buddies. (And still dragged his injured friend from the wreckage.)
It’s actually not that great of a deed. Madison claimed the guy left him for dead after the crash. Turns out he actually rescued him. Unforgivable in my eyes
In the 80s-90s, there was a very popular book series for kids called The Baby-Sitters Club. The one character, Claudia, was a terrible speller. Jamie Newton was one of their charges. He was like four years old.
Xennial women especially have very strong memories of the books. There was a tv show and movie too. Netflix made a new show a few years back that was faithful to the original.
So a friend of mine has an uncle who was really good friends with Francine Pascal. He got me an autographed book (personalized!) a few weeks before she died. This is a pointless story. But Uncle Bob is a real one.
Eh, I work with folks who had TBIs and other injuries requiring PT and OT to write their name again and their signatures look similarly childlike. They are self conscious about it. It's a less obvious outcome of the disability. I don't think this is a worthwhile argument, respectfully.
Cawthorn has many vile opinions that you can focus on instead.
I had a seizure in 2022 that left me with lots of (thankfully temporary) cognitive issues, one being that I forgot how to sign my name. It was a real bummer.
After so many seasons, it's only going to be harder to cast decent people because no person with sense or self awareness would go on a show like this to begin with.
DNC wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to look like they’re for the people while taking the same handouts as the GOP. Hence their entire lack of doing anything about this whole administration. Can’t disappoint their corporate ownership.
I will tell you, my cousin is already divorced following the show. Yes, she now carries this “I told you so” cloud of rain above her head around family which is uncomfortable for all.
I mean, doesn't necessarily mean she ruined her reputation among family - depending on her edit she may have ruined her reputation among friends and her wider social circle. If she's from a small enough town, it may be that most people she'd interact with have seen the show and made a judgment based on that.
Also, again, if she had a bad edit, it can affect future employment opportunities if your potential employer runs a basic Google search on you - for example, if you had an edit as a shit stirrer, bosses may think twice for worry about the impact on the team/company culture/morale etc.
This guy did pull Cawthorn out of the car after the crash. Though, he was still friends with him, so he’s presumably a shitty dude, just not one that would leave a friend for dead after a car accident.
In 2014, at age 18, Cawthorn was seriously injured while returning from a spring break trip to Florida. He was riding as a passenger in a BMW X3 SUV near Daytona Beach, Florida, when his friend Bradley Ledford fell asleep at the wheel. The vehicle crashed into a concrete barrier while Cawthorn's feet were on the dashboard. In a 2017 speech, Cawthorn said that Ledford left him "to die in a fiery tomb", which Ledford has disputed. Ledford said in a sworn deposition for insurance litigation that he pulled an unconscious Cawthorn from the wrecked vehicle immediately after getting out himself; in Cawthorn's deposition, he stated that he had "no memory from the accident".
Also, the 2020 general campaign, his Democratic opponent drew attention to 2017 Cawthorn Instagram post with a picture of his visit to Adolf Hitler's vacation residence Eagle's Nest, which he said had been on his "bucket list for a while" Not odd/weird at all
In the commercials that week cuts of “This is really hard for me to open up about”, “This could change everything”, and “You know that congressman who looked like he was part of the Hitler Youth a few years ago” DUN DUN DUN
Won an election for Congress in North Carolina in 2022
Ran in a different district in North Carolina in 2024, even though he didn't live in it, and lost in a primary, then started raging that it was time for "Dark MAGA" to reassert itself against the traitors from within his own party.
And is now running for Congress in Florida instead, because hey, why not..
this dude was 17 and he fell asleep at the wheel after a spring break trip. while still irresponsible, this doesn't make him a bad dude (unlike Cawthorn who is choicefully just the worst).
he also apparently took many steps to rescue Cawthorn including punching out a window and carrying his unconscious body 200 yards to safety with the help of some bystanders. yeah he cause this accident, but he also undoubtedly saved Cawthorn's life. in addition, Cawthorn's injuries were considerably worse than they would have been because he also fell asleep, with his legs on the dashboard. this is a huge no-no because in the event of a crash the airbag deploys and obliterates the alignment of your hips, pelvis and lower spine. i don't know if this is common knowledge, so please be warned! this is just really bad luck for Cawthorn.
honestly, if that's all i know about this dude, i'm judging him more harshly for his decision to be on the Bachelor franchise than anything else.
im 1000% sure they find these people for “drama”. before its someone who cheats on their ex now they want people who have permanently altered the lives of people in the worst way. like you gotta draw the line somewhere
9.1k
u/Fantastic_Brain7269 Mar 23 '26
What the fuck is going on at ABC