The House Ethics Committee has recommended censuring Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina after determining he sexually harassed two female staffers in their 20s through a pattern of conduct that the committee’s 25-page report describes in detail, including giving one staffer a blue handgun engraved with her name, giving another a pink handgun engraved with her name, taking a staffer to Las Vegas and presenting her with a custom puzzle that, when assembled, revealed an image of Adam Sandler alongside a handwritten note inviting her to attend one of Sandler’s comedy shows, and reading a poem to a staffer at her going-away party after she had rejected his invitation to dinner. Edwards is 65. He has been married since 1980.
The committee’s release states: “At the completion of its investigation, the Committee concluded there was substantial reason to believe Representative Edwards violated House Rules related to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces.” The committee intends to bring a privileged resolution for a full House censure vote. Edwards’s defense is that “he neither engaged in sexual activity with nor explicitly propositioned any of his staff members,” and that he “knows well what constitutes sexual harassment” and believed that “by avoiding inappropriate physical touch, explicitly sexual comments, and occasionally telling the staffers that they were free to put up boundaries with him, he had immunized himself from such a charge.” The committee’s 25-page report responded to this reasoning by noting: “That is not the case.”
The staffer who received the blue handgun “only awkwardly accepted the gift for fear of reprisal against her employment but later legally disposed of it because she did not want it in her possession,” per her lawyer’s statement to Axios. The Adam Sandler puzzle was presented on a Las Vegas trip that was part of a broader pattern of gifts and attentions that the staffer who received it eventually complained about. The poem at the going-away party followed a rejected dinner invitation from Edwards. All of this is in a 25-page report that the committee intends to submit to the full House of Representatives for a vote on censure.
Democratic Women’s Caucus leaders called censure “no real consequences” and are demanding resignation instead. Edwards is running for re-election in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, which is described as one of the most competitive House races this fall. He faces Democratic challenger Jamie Ager, a fourth-generation farmer who has outraised him since the investigation began.
The poem existed. The engraved guns existed. The Adam Sandler puzzle existed. The committee found substantial reason to believe all of it constituted sexual harassment.
When a congressman’s defense is that he never touched anyone inappropriately and the evidence includes engraved handguns, a Las Vegas trip, and a poem, what exactly was the conduct?
Sources
Raw Story: ‘Substantial’ evidence of harassment uncovered against MAGA lawmaker facing censure
HuffPost: House Ethics Recommends Sanctioning Chuck Edwards
