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Edwards returns fire after Democrats' complaint over newsletter

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 24, 2024

The U.S. House Communications Standards Commission sanctioned U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards on Wednesday, declaring in a letter to Henderson County’s Democratic Party chair that the panel in a 6-0 decision had “found substantial reason to believe a violation occurred” in Edwards’s newsletters attacking President Biden and his son, Hunter.

The Communications Standards Commission, a bipartisan commission responsible for enforcing laws and rules governing “mass communications” sent out by Congress, in a 6-0 decision “found substantial reason to believe a violation occurred” relative to newsletters that Edwards sent to constituents last year, the county Democratic Party said in a news release.

The commission acted on a complaint Democrats filed March 13 alleging that email newsletters sent out by Edwards in May, June, July and December 2023 violated federal law and rules of the House of Representatives by including personal attacks and disparaging comments about the president and Hunter Biden.

Because such attacks are specifically prohibited, “Edwards should have been well aware of those prohibitions,” party Chair Leslie Carey, who signed the complaint, said in a news release. The commission had dismissed a previous complaint filed by the Henderson County Democratic Party alleging that a mailer Edwards sent in December 2023 attacking Democratic Asheville city officials violated congressional mailing privileges.

“It is our belief that the commission improperly dismissed our first complaint, but we are gratified that they found merit in our recent complaint and sanctioned Chuck Edwards for his egregious violations,” said Carey, one of four Democrats running for the Henderson County School Board.

In a statement released Wednesday night, Edwards fired back at the Democrats and their "hyper-partisan complaint." 
 

“The Democrats are clearly ashamed of their president and his failing agenda, which is why they tried to put a gag order on me, thinking I might stop talking about Joe Biden's disastrous policies," he said in a statement. "I was proud to be a member of the House Oversight Committee during this time, and was proud of the work we did on that committee — and in the full House — investigating President Biden’s and his family’s business dealings. My constituents deserved to know what actions we were taking, and I felt it was important to share those details with them.

“I did not go to Washington to make nice with Joe Biden," Edwards added. "So while I’ll do a better job of crossing my i’s and dotting my ‘t’s, I will not be robbed of my First Amendment rights by this hyper-partisan complaint, nor deterred from communicating with my constituents.”

In the newer case, the commission's chair and ranking member notified Carey that staff "findings were affirmed with a 6-0 vote" of the board, which issued penalties against Edwards's office.

Publicly available information on the House of Representatives website reveals that in 2023 Edwards sent out more mass mailings, email newsletters, alerts, social media posts and robo calls, than any other member of the North Carolina delegation, and ranking No. 3 overall, at 250, only behind Bob Good (R- VA) and Zachary Nunn (R-IA).

“No one is above the law, as Chuck Edwards often says, and of course that includes him,” Carey said. “He should stop attacking the Biden family in these illegal newsletters, and spend more time working on issues that really matter to his constituents.

"He needs to do two things to make this right with the voters of the 11th District: acknowledge his error, and assure his constituents that it will not happen again. That certainly is not too much to ask for this breach of the public trust.”