Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) was censured Tuesday by House lawmakers after an ethics panel found he behaved inappropriately with two young female aides.
The 413-2 vote to censure the two-term congressman comes after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be reprimanded for “unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward the female staffers, including commenting on their physical appearance, lavishing them with gifts and inviting them to vacation with him.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Edwards himself were the only lawmakers who voted against the censure, which is the strongest punishment the House can impose against a member short of expulsion.
Immediately after the vote, Edwards was forced to stand in the well of the House while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) read a verbal reprimand against his colleague — completing the embarrassing censure punishment.
Ahead of the scolding, Edwards offered a half-hearted apology as he defended himself against the allegations.
“I want to say something directly and publicly to the two women who have been at the center of all of this: I am sorry,” Edwards said during an 11-minute speech.
“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,” he continued. “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 – people who are 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 also apologized to his family for having to “carry a burden that you did not create and did not deserve.”
Specifically addressing his wife, Edwards said: “I’m deeply sorry that my judgment and my actions put you in a position where you had to endure embarrassment, hurt, public scrutiny, and questions that no wife should ever have to face.”
The congressman, however, was adamant that he did not engage in any wrongdoing.
“Regret is not an admission of sexual harassment,” Edwards said. “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.”
He added, “The committee concluded that I engaged in no sexual activity. The committee concluded that I did not explicitly proposition any staff member. The committee concluded that the allegations in this matter do not implicate quid-pro-quo sexual harassment, and the committee concluded that I did not violate federal sexual harassment law.”
Last week, Edwards detailed his defense in a 22-page letter to colleagues, where he argued his relationship with the staffers was reciprocal – claiming they gave him gifts and invited him out to dinner as well.
He argued that the “enormous record” of emails, texts and communications he provided the ethics panel “told the story of a long-standing relationship with those women that began years before we entered Congress.”
“We worked on campaigns together. We came to Congress together. We traveled together on official business. We exchanged gifts reciprocally. We helped one another professionally and personally. These were not one-sided relationships manufactured after the fact as a defense,” Edwards claimed. “The committee had evidence of that history, and they ignored it.”
Edwards, a 65-year-old married father and grandfather, “went beyond norms of professional behavior by giving both women lavish gifts,” “commenting on the two women’s appearance,” and “inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations,” according to the ethics committee report released earlier this month.
At the time, both aides were in their early 20s.
On one occasion, the lawmaker arranged for a professional singer to attend a birthday party for one of the women and perform Ed Sheeran’s song “Hills of Aberfeldy” — and tell her only it was a gift “from a special someone,” the report stated.
“The Committee received evidence that [the staffer] told a friend this led her to believe that the Congressman did not view her as ‘just a daughter figure’ and that she was ‘scared lowkey.’”
Edwards also paid for the same staffer and a friend to take a trip to New York City, “including tickets to ‘Hamilton,’ after she had gone through a breakup,” the bipartisan committee found.
Other gifts heaped on the women by the congressman included “jewelry totaling over $1,000, designer purses, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and cell phone, KitchenAid mixer, robotic vacuum, vacations, tickets to performances, and one-on-one dinners.”
Edwards also discussed “going to strip clubs in Washington” with one of the women “and other staffers”, sent “personal texts late in the evenings,” and wrote the female staffer for whom he arranged the birthday performance and NYC trip a poem “that he read at her going away party in the congressional office accompanied by a slideshow, during which he cried.”
On the last occasion, the committee recorded that “[s]everal staffers present testified that they felt uncomfortable, and Representative Edwards acknowledged in his own testimony that he could tell the staff felt uncomfortable.”
Edwards has represented North Carolina’s Republican-leaning 11th District since 2023, after unseating controversial right-wing Rep. Madison Cawthorn in a primary the previous year.
The embattled congressman announced earlier this month that he would not seek re-election.
