WASHINGTON — Rep. Chuck Edwards apologized Tuesday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to the two young women on his staff he’s accused of sexually harassing, and to his family, including his wife, Teresa.

But he continued to deny the allegations as the House prepared to consider later Tuesday whether he should be the chamber’s 29th member to face censure.

An ethics investigation found evidence that Edwards, 65, a Republican from Flat Rock, sexually harassed two young female staffers and created a hostile work environment.

“Regret is not an admission of guilt,” Edwards added, as his censure was debated on the House floor. “I am imperfect. I 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.”

Republican House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest introduced the committee’s report on Edwards’ actions, first published Aug. 3, during the House’s August recess, and asked that the House sanction and censure Edwards.

To censure a House member requires a floor vote by his colleagues. And then the lawmaker is brought to the front-center of the House to hear the allegations against him.

The allegations against Edwards

Guest stressed Tuesday afternoon during debate on whether to censure Edwards that they found no evidence that Edwards engaged in sexual activity with his employees.

“Mr. Speaker, the allegations in this matter do not imply implicate quid pro quo sexual harassment, but rather that Edwards’ conduct and behavior create a hostile work environment,” Guest said.

He added that Edwards engaged in persistent, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct with two young female staffers.

Edwards has said, in a rebuttal to the ethics committee’s findings, that he had one of the women stay overnight at his house when he couldn’t afford a hotel for her during one of his campaigns.

Edwards has said, in a rebuttal to the ethics committee’s findings, that he had one of the women stay overnight at his house when he couldn’t afford a hotel for her during one of his campaigns.

The women told the committee he also traveled to New York and Las Vegas with one of them.

The Las Vegas trip was notable because he almost missed a vote to reopen the federal government. Records also showed he used campaign money to fund the trip.

Text messages collected by the ethics committee and publicly released show that Edwards also missed House votes to decorate one of his employee’s Christmas trees.

He bought them guns, designer bags, shoes, flowers, laptops, cellphones, a KitchenAid mixer, a robotic vacuum, one-on-one dinners, tickets to Hamilton and 30 different flavors of ice cream sent at one time after a staffer’s breakup.

He also sent someone to serenade a staffer at her birthday party, wrote a poem for one of the women when she left his office and read it in front of the entire staff, and created a puzzle for one of them that when put together invited her to a concert.

Edwards said none of this was wrong.

“An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition,” he wrote in his rebuttal.

“A gift is not sexual misconduct.”

“A compliment is not sexual misconduct.”

“Poetry is not sexual misconduct.”

“Socializing with a colleague is not sexual misconduct.”

“Caring deeply about someone with whom you have worked and come to know for years is not sexual misconduct,” Edwards concluded in his letter as he asked his colleagues to think twice about censuring him.

He added that he also gave a gun to a male employee and various gifts to other male and female employees.

Guest said during Tuesday’s debate, “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.”

Edwards and the 11th district

Edwards is the third in a trilogy of lawmakers from southwestern North Carolina to bring bad publicity to the district.

It began with former Rep. Mark Meadows, a Republican from Cashiers, who resigned from office early to serve as President Donald Trump’s chief of staff and then found himself criminally charged for his actions in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

He was succeeded by former Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from Hendersonville. Cawthorn was elected at 25 and his first and only term was mired in scandals involving suggestive photographs and video, accusing his colleagues of taking cocaine and having orgies, and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a thug,” among many other things.

Edwards defeated Cawthorn in the Republican primary when Cawthorn ran for reelection.

Edwards quickly gained the trust of House leaders, who placed him on the appropriations committee and the budget committees.

After the ethics committee released its report, Edwards chose to end his reelection campaign for a third term in office.

The Democratic nominee for the seat, Jamie Ager, a third-generation farmer with a political pedigree, now faces off against state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, who the local Republican Party chose to replace Edwards on the ballot.

But since Edwards didn’t resign from office, he was still eligible for censure.

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