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{"id":26975,"date":"2026-09-01T22:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-formally-shames-chuck-edwards-for-sexual-harassing-women-on-staff\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:17:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:17:39","slug":"house-formally-shames-chuck-edwards-for-sexual-harassing-women-on-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-formally-shames-chuck-edwards-for-sexual-harassing-women-on-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"House formally shames Chuck Edwards for sexual harassing women on staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The House moved Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for sexually harassing young female staffers in his office.<\/p>\n<p>The 413-2 vote was an overwhelming rebuke to the North Carolina Republican, who chose last month to forgo reelection following the release of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/03\/chuck-edwards-censure-sexual-harassment-01022753\" target=\"_blank\">damning House Ethics Committee report<\/a> detailing his pattern of misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>It also comes as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/17\/house-ethics-committee-sexual-misconduct-01038952\" target=\"_blank\">Congress is grappling<\/a> with how to protect aides from members\u2019 bad behavior amid a rash of harassment and assault allegations against lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n<p>In Edwards\u2019 case, the Ethics Committee found the lawmaker participated in \u201cpersistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers\u201d and made comments on the appearance of his aides, including on one staffer\u2019s weight.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, Edwards gave the female aides purses, guns, shoes and flowers. Edwards skipped House votes one night to decorate a Christmas tree with a staffer and went drinking and gambling with her. The lawmaker recited a poem at her departure celebration and cried during it, making the staff uncomfortable, the committee said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither individual felt free to reject Rep. Edwards&#8217; attention without fear of professional consequences,\u201d said Rep. Mark Desaulnier of California, the top Democrat on the Ethics panel, during floor debate on the censure measure.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards has denied wrongdoing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/27\/chuck-edwards-censure-letter-01052829\" target=\"_blank\">appealing to his colleagues<\/a> last week in a lengthy letter to vote against the censure resolution. He argued \u201can affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition. A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct. Poetry is not sexual misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He offered a similar defense in a floor speech Tuesday before the censure vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am imperfect,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Edwards did apologize to the staffers described in the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to say something directly and publicly to the two women who have been at the center of all of this: I am sorry. I\u2019m sorry that my actions, my judgement or the way that I expressed a friendship ever put either of you in an uncomfortable position,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n<p>For many in the House Republican Conference, however, the report told them all they needed to know to inform their vote. Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, for instance, said in advance of consideration of the censure resolution that he planned to support the measure because he \u201cread the ethics report.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Only Edwards and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) ultimately voted &#8220;no.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Edwards\u2019 letter seeking sympathy from fellow lawmakers also did not have the desired effect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly the man \u2026 did not understand the gravity of his actions, showed no remorse, and really exemplified why the work that we&#8217;re doing on sexual misconduct reform is so critical,\u201d said Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) in an interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>She and Rep. Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (D-N.M.) are working on bipartisan legislation to overhaul the congressional ethics process \u2014 including instituting new rules for how members are allowed to interact with congressional aides and establishing a more consistent rubric for how members should be punished for specific offenses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe training has to be improved,\u201d Cammack said. \u201cI think Chuck Edwards proves that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Censure is the most severe punishment the Ethics Committee can recommend short of expulsion, and amounts to a public shaming on the House floor with no further threat of disciplinary action.<\/p>\n<p>It used to be a rare occurrence in the House, with a long gap between the early 1980s \u2014 when late-Reps. Daniel Crane and Gerry Studds were censured for sexual misconduct with a House page \u2014 and 2010, when late-Rep. Charlie Rangel was censured for inaccurate financial reports and federal tax returns, among other actions.<\/p>\n<p>Censure resolutions have, more recently, become more frequent fixtures of House activity, though not typically as a result of House Ethics Committee investigations.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2021\/11\/17\/gosar-censured-stripped-from-committees-over-threatening-video\/\" target=\"_blank\">sought to censure<\/a> Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) for posting a manipulated social media video of him appearing to kill a likeness of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and attack then-President Joe Biden. The vote was 223-207 with two Republicans supporting the measure \u2014 former Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.<\/p>\n<p>A series of Republican-led censure measures were then brought in 2023 against three Democrats. Then-Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who is now a member of the Senate, was censured for \u201cmisleading the American public.\u201d Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan was censured for allegations that she \u201cpromot[ed] false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel\u201d \u2014 an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/11\/07\/rashida-tlaib-censure-passes-00125996\" target=\"_blank\">issue that prompted 22 Democrats<\/a> to join GOP lawmakers in support.<\/p>\n<p>Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York was subject to censure for pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building during a vote his party wanted to delay. Bowman pleaded <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/Politics\/rep-jamaal-bowman-charged-count-falsely-pulling-fire\/story?id=104298623\" target=\"_blank\">guilty to a misdemeanor<\/a> offense and paid a fine.<\/p>\n<p>The most recent censure vote was in 2025, when Republicans sought to punish Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) for protesting in the middle of President Donald Trump\u2019s joint address to Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House moved Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for sexually harassing young female staffers in his office. The 413-2 vote was an overwhelming rebuke to the North Carolina Republican, who chose last month to forgo reelection following the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report detailing his pattern of misconduct. It also comes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}