US House votes nearly unanimously to censure NC’s Chuck Edwards as he looks on

Rep. Chuck Edwards apologized Tuesday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to the two young women on his staff he’s accused of sexually harassing, and to his family, including his wife, Teresa.

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But he continued to deny the allegations as he became the 29th member of the U.S. House to be censured.

The House voted 413-2 to censure Edwards.

On the House floor, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, said censuring Edwards makes clear: “professional boundaries must be respected. When congressional employees say that conduct is unwelcome, they will be heard, and that conduct will not be allowed to continue. There must be zero tolerance for sexual harassment and misconduct in the halls of Congress, but zero tolerance does not mean zero due process.”

An investigation by the ethics committee found evidence that Edwards, 65, a Republican from Flat Rock, sexually harassed two young female staffers and created a hostile work environment.

In keeping with DeSaulnier’s call for due process, Edwards was given his chance to meet with the committee, review its report before it became public, send a “Dear Colleague letter” to House members and speak before the full House prior to the vote Tuesday.

“I am imperfect,” Edwards said. “I have made mistakes, but I do not believe I committed sexual harassment, and the factual findings of this investigation do not justify branding me as though I did.”

Republican House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest introduced the committee’s report on Edwards’ actions, first published Aug. 3, during the House’s August recess, and asked that the House sanction and censure Edwards.

To censure a House member requires a floor vote by his colleagues. And then the lawmaker is brought to the front-center of the House to hear the allegations against him.

The allegations against Edwards

Guest stressed Tuesday afternoon during debate on whether to censure Edwards that they found no evidence that Edwards engaged in sexual activity with his employees, adding that shows the lengths the committee went to disprove any misstatements about the allegations against the congressman.

“Mr. Speaker, the allegations in this matter do not imply implicate quid pro quo sexual harassment, but rather that Edwards’ conduct and behavior create a hostile work environment,” Guest said.

He added that Edwards engaged in persistent, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct with two young female staffers.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat from New Mexico, was more blunt in her assessment.

“Chuck Edwards’ behavior over the past two years is disgusting and horrible,” Leger Fernández said. “The sexual harassment of two young women on his staff and his abhorrent abuse of power is outlandish and disturbing. He not only threatened the careers and safety of his staff with his behavior, but he broke the promise he made to Americans to act with dignity and integrity.”

Details about Edwards’ actions have trickled out over the past three months, with the most detailed pieces being in the ethics report.

Edwards has said, in a rebuttal to the ethics committee’s findings, that he had one of the women stay overnight at his house when he couldn’t afford a hotel for her during one of his campaigns.

The women told the committee he also traveled to New York and Las Vegas with one of them.

The Las Vegas trip was notable because he almost missed a vote to reopen the federal government. Records also showed he used campaign money to fund the trip.

Text messages collected by the ethics committee and publicly released show that Edwards also missed House votes to decorate one of his employee’s Christmas trees.

Leger Fernández was incredulous about the tree.

“Despite the women making it clear they were uncomfortable, he even skipped votes,” she said before repeating it louder. “He skipped votes to decorate one of the staffer’s Christmas trees.”

He bought the women guns, designer bags, shoes, flowers, laptops, cellphones, a KitchenAid mixer, a robotic vacuum, one-on-one dinners, tickets to “Hamilton” and 30 different flavors of ice cream sent at one time after a staffer’s breakup.

The “Hamilton” tickets jumped out to Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Democrat on the ethics committee. He said his 38th anniversary is Thursday and his wife really wants to see “Hamilton,” but when he saw the cost he told her they need to wait until it comes off Broadway. He said Edwards put up the money for his employee.

“Those are the types of gifts that kind of jump out at you,” Ivey said. “You know, this isn’t like a birthday card. This isn’t congratulations on your wedding or that new baby that was born. These are gifts that people, members, should not be giving to staffers.”

Ivey said this isn’t good mentorship, as Edwards characterized his behavior, but something that could harm and follow the women for the rest of their careers. And he added Edwards knew his behavior was over the line.

Edwards also sent someone to serenade a staffer at her birthday party, wrote a poem for one of the women when she left his office and read it in front of the entire staff, and created a puzzle for one of them that when put together invited her to a concert.

“They are part of a sustained, unprofessional, and inappropriate conduct by Rep. Edwards toward two young women he employed,” DeSaulnier said. “Neither individual felt free to reject Rep. Edwards’ attention without fear of professional consequences. Despite attempts to communicate their discomfort, his behavior continued, and both ultimately left their congressional employment.”

Edwards stood alone on the House floor as he defended his actions Tuesday before the vote. And he directed his comments to his two former employees.

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“I’m sorry that my actions, my judgment, or the way that I expressed a friendship ever put either of you in an uncomfortable position,” Edwards said. “My intentions were only grounded in what I understood our friendship to be, and in genuine admiration and respect that I had for each of you, not only as professionals but as people who were willing to share so much of your stories and your backgrounds with me.

“I recognize now that my understanding of those relationships may not have always matched yours,” Edwards said.

He acknowledged that they didn’t ask for their names, private lives, friendships and employment to be subject to public speculation.

Guest said during his own comments that Edwards acknowledged to the committee that he knew his behavior had let to negative rumors about the two women but continued anyway.

Edwards also addressed his wife and family.

“You are the people that I love most in this world, and yet you’re the ones who have had to carry a burden that you did not create and did not deserve,” he said.

But he added his regrets were not an admission of sexual harassment.

“I can acknowledge poor judgment, regret the discomfort that some of my actions may have caused, and apologize to those who were hurt by this episode, while still disputing a conclusion that the evidence just simply does not support,” Edwards said.

And Edwards shifted blame back to the women, saying they maintained a relationship with him and initiated plans to spend time with him after they left his office.

DeSaulnier, in his own speech, said that one of the women told the committee she didn’t feel she could resist Edwards because she didn’t think it benefitted her to have a member of Congress against her.

“This statement gets to the heart of the matter: the power imbalance between members of Congress and their staff,” DeSaulnier said. “Rep. Edwards may not have made physical advances or explicit propositions, but sexual harassment does not require either. His conduct was inappropriate, unwelcome, and most importantly, created a hostile work environment. As a result, the House of Representatives lost two staffers, and for that, I believe he should be censured.”

Edwards said in his speech he wasn’t asking the chamber to approve of his every interaction, compliment or gift he gave the women.

“Looking back, I don’t approve of all of them either,” Edwards said. “I’m asking you to distinguish between conduct that you might personally have handled differently and conduct that warrants the solemn judgment of censure by the United States House of Representatives.”

He then reiterated the messaging he gave to last week in a letter to fellow lawmakers.

“Caring deeply about the people with whom you’ve worked for years is not sexual harassment, and conduct that is otherwise permissible does not automatically become misconduct simply because enough individual moments are assembled together and viewed through the darkest possible lens,” Edwards said. “Possibility is not proof, inference is not evidence, and selective context is not totality.”

In his letter to colleagues, he wrote that he also gave a gun to a male employee and various gifts to other male and female employees.

Guest said during Tuesday’s debate, “The committee found that Rep. Edwards was at a minimum blind to the reality, and at worst, dismissive of the impact his conduct had on the career and well-being of the women on his staff.”

Leger Fernández added that Edwards shows no remorse, and refuses to understand sexual harassment or abuse of power.

“If we don’t take action today,” she said, “there is no opportunity for these women to receive justice.”

Edwards and the 11th district

Edwards is the third in a trilogy of lawmakers from southwestern North Carolina to bring bad publicity to the district.

It began with former Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from Cashiers, who resigned from office early to serve as President Donald Trump’s chief of staff and then found himself criminally charged for his actions in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

He was succeeded by former Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from Hendersonville. Cawthorn was elected at 25 and his first and only term was mired in scandals involving suggestive photographs and video, accusing his colleagues of taking cocaine and having orgies, and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a thug,” among many other things.

Edwards defeated Cawthorn in the Republican primary when Cawthorn ran for reelection.

Edwards quickly gained the trust of House leaders, who placed him on the appropriations committee and the budget committees.

After the ethics committee released its report, Edwards chose to end his reelection campaign for a third term in office.

The Democratic nominee for the seat, Jamie Ager, a third-generation farmer with a political pedigree, now faces off against state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, who the local Republican Party chose to replace Edwards on the ballot.

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But since Edwards didn’t resign from office, he was still eligible for censure.