Rep. Madison Cawthorn Mocked For Not Knowing Vatican City Is Its Own Country

The first-term lawmaker didn't think a new rule about vaccinations in Vatican City sounded legal, even though Vatican City is an independent state.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) isn’t impressing Twitter users with his understanding of international law.

On Thursday night, the first-term lawmaker criticized a recent rule in Vatican City that says any employee who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine without a valid medical reason could be fired.

As RawStory notes, Cawthorn has no medical degree, law degree, degree in religious studies, or any of a number of other accreditations that you might think would be useful when talking about this kind of thing. However, that didn’t stop him from denouncing Vatican City’s decision.

“This doesn’t sound legal,” he tweeted Thursday. ”One shouldn’t be forced against their will to be vaccinated. The vaccination is there for those who want it, and are in need of it due to medical vulnerabilities.”

But many Twitter users pointed out an issue with Cawthorn’s tweet: Vatican City is, in fact, its own country, with the right to make its own laws that might differ from U.S. law.

HuffPost reached out to Cawthorn’s camp for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

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