The House voted 413 to 2 on Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., after a House Ethics Committee investigation found he engaged in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.” Only Edwards and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., voted against the resolution.
The bipartisan Ethics Committee, chaired by Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., released its report last month. Guest said the investigation found no evidence Edwards engaged in sexual activity or explicitly propositioned the staffers, but concluded his “conduct toward two young female staffers was inappropriate and violated rules prohibiting sexual harassment” and created a hostile work environment.
“The committee found that Representative 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,” Guest said on the House floor.
The report described lavish gifts, trips, a poem read to one of the staffers, Edwards going to a staffer’s home to perform chores, late-night personal texts, and a trip to a casino. Edwards ended his re-election bid two days after the report’s release.
Before the vote, Edwards told Fox News Digital, “They’ll make their argument, and I’ll make mine,” arguing the Ethics Committee had abandoned “its own rules” in handling his case. On the floor, he apologized to the two staffers, his wife and his family, but disputed the committee’s findings, accusing the panel of cherry-picking context to fit a narrative.
“Generosity is not sexual harassment. Caring deeply about the people with whom you’ve worked for years is not sexual harassment,” Edwards said. “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 ends.”
He said his expressed regret was
