{"id":32395,"date":"2026-08-08T12:01:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32395"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:01:30","slug":"not-driven-by-due-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32395","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Not driven by due process&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/02\/edwardschuck_020123gn_w.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Rep. Chuck Edwards\u2019s (R-N.C.) spokesman Paul Shumaker slammed the House Ethics Committee panel that cited him for inappropriate behavior following Edwards dropping his reelection bid for North Carolina\u2019s 11th Congressional District.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kellymccullen\/status\/2085763970166591948?s=20\">an appearance<\/a> on PBS\u2019s \u201cState Lines,\u201d Shumaker called out his issues with the House Ethics report that resulted in Edwards\u2019s drop from the election.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, there was never a forward complaint lodged against Congressman Edwards. It was taken off. The committee chose to do the work based upon anonymous news sources and news stories that had been generated,\u201d Shumaker said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Chuck-Edwards-Ethics-Committee-report.pdf\">report on Edwards<\/a>, released Monday, recommended he be formally censured by the full House because he had violated \u201cthe spirit\u201d of the chamber\u2019s rules against sexual harassment and unwanted advances. <\/p>\n<p>The Ethics Committee continued in the report that Edwards\u2019s behavior with \u201ctwo young staffers, repeatedly over a sustained period, was beyond inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shumaker disagreed with this assessment and stated the committee gave \u201cless than an adequate amount of time\u201d to Edwards\u2019s legal team to respond to the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards\u2019s attorney did <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Appendix-B-1.pdf\">formally respond<\/a> over the weekend to the report, saying the recommendation for censure was based on \u201cvague standards requiring credible behavior and adherence to the spirit of the Rules of the House\u201d rather than rules violating sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe committee had already been in the field, polling on this issue and looking for other alternatives. So, you have a process that\u2019s driven totally by politics, not driven by due process,\u201d\u00a0Shumaker added.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Shumaker confirmed that Republican leadership had asked Edwards to step down by Tuesday following the allegations. Edwards announced early Wednesday on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepChuckEdwards\/status\/2084905422482178109?s=20\">social platform X<\/a> he would drop his reelection bid but would complete his current term in the House.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter much prayer and reflection, I\u2019ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>North Carolina Republicans have not announced his replacement that will appear on ballots in the general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Chuck Edwards\u2019s (R-N.C.) spokesman Paul Shumaker slammed the House Ethics Committee panel that cited him for inappropriate behavior following Edwards dropping his reelection bid for North Carolina\u2019s 11th Congressional District.\u00a0 In an appearance on PBS\u2019s \u201cState Lines,\u201d Shumaker called out his issues with the House Ethics report that resulted in Edwards\u2019s drop from the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/02\/edwardschuck_020123gn_w.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}