MAGA Rep. Accused of Sexual Harassment Abruptly Ends Midterm Campaign

The House Ethics Committee had recommended Representative Chuck Edwards be censured for his behavior toward female staffers.

North Carolina Representative Chuck Edwards has called it quits on his reelection race.

“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my reelection campaign,” Edwards wrote on X early Wednesday morning. “I will complete my current term.”

The congressman’s sudden exit came after the House Ethics Committee recommended that he be censured for “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.”

In a 25-page report published Monday, the committee listed out numerous occasions on which the married Republican had seemingly violated House rules relating to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces, revealing in detail how he made the women in his employ feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

The list included “intimate” and expensive dinners, casino dates, strip club visits, expensive gifts, massages, and an insistence on personally handling the women’s yardwork or Christmas tree decorating—which Edwards skipped House votes to make time for.

Edwards even wrote and performed poetry for one of his female staffers, hired a singer to perform Ed Sheeran’s “Hills of Aberfeldy” at one of their birthday parties, planned full-day excursions with them, and wrote personal notes expressing his “effusive affection.”

The committee report also noted that many messages were missing from Edwards’s phone, including a photograph that depicted 30 different types of ice cream that he had delivered to one of his staffers’ houses, and her subsequent response that “this seems a bit excessive.”

The report found no evidence that Edwards had engaged in sexual activity or “explicitly propositioned” the women, but found plentiful evidence that he had repeatedly made his staff feel scared and uncomfortable with his behavior.

Yet Edwards’s exit from the race comes months after the legal deadline to do so (the deadline to withdraw was back in December). As a result, his name will most likely remain on the ballot come November, and any votes he receives will still be counted toward him, as explained by the state Board of Elections.

Judges Rip Trump Apart 75 Times for Violating First Amendment

Trump’s second term has been marked by judge after judge ruling against him on free speech.

Despite campaigning to bring back free speech, President Trump has been a serial violator of the First Amendment to the Constitution, according to a new report. 

A Reuters investigation found 75 rulings from federal judges that Trump infringed on constitutional freedoms such as religion, freedom, and the press. Many had to do with the Trump administration’s attacks on pro-Palestine advocacy, and the rulings came from judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents. In September, for example, a Reagan-appointed federal judge found that the administration illegally revoked visas and deported foreign faculty and students over their stance on Palestine and Israel.

“The President’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech,” U.S. District Judge William Young wrote in his ruling.

Other judicial rebukes had to do with Trump’s attacks on law firms, his termination of grants........

© New Republic