Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina posted on X at 3:32 a.m. Wednesday that “after much prayer and reflection,” he was withdrawing from his reelection campaign. The prayer and reflection followed a 25-page House Ethics Committee report confirming he had, among other things, texted a female staffer the day before Christmas: “skip votes and help you decorate your tree once you get home tomorrow,” and done exactly that, skipping House votes to decorate the Christmas tree of a woman in her 20s who worked in his office while he was 65 and married since 1980.
The ethics report, released Monday, confirmed Edwards had also had approximately 30 types of ice cream delivered to the staffer’s home. She texted him: “Thank you, but this seems a bit excessive.” He replied: “You looked like you needed a lot of cheering up! My heart was breaking seeing you like that.” The report also confirmed Edwards showed up to her home to do yard work, had his congressional driver pick her up and drop her off, flew her to Las Vegas and paid for two rooms at the Bellagio, gave her jewelry totaling over $1,000, designer purses, guns, shoes, a KitchenAid mixer, a robotic vacuum, spa treatments, and tickets to Broadway shows, and withheld more than 400 texts from investigators — texts that, when the committee recovered them, revealed it was Edwards initiating contact, not the other way around.
His defense was that he had never touched anyone inappropriately. “In his interview with the Committee, the Congressman repeatedly asserted that he knows well what constitutes ‘sexual harassment,'” the report noted. “He seemed to believe 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. That is not the case.”
Republican leaders had been privately pushing him to quit. Speaker Mike Johnson, when asked Tuesday whether Edwards should drop out, said: “He’s got to make a big decision, and I hope he does the right thing for him and his family.” Hours later, Edwards posted at 3:32 a.m.
His Democratic challenger had outraised him by 9-to-1 in the last quarter. The seat had just shifted from “lean Republican” to “toss-up.” He served out his prayer and reflection between midnight and 3:32 a.m.
When a congressman skips votes to decorate a staffer’s Christmas tree and drops out at 3:32 a.m. after “much prayer and reflection,” what exactly is being reflected on?
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