Western NC Congressman Edwards sanctioned by House commission for attacks on Biden

The Republican U.S. House member for Western North Carolina, Chuck Edwards, has violated rules on official congressional office mass communications by attacking Democratic President Joe Biden in emailed newsletters to constituents.

That is according to a 6-0 vote by the bipartisan Communications Standards Commission, which regulates the content of such official communications. Those must relate to the legislative process, congressional functions or other non-political business, according to House rules.

The vote was announced in an April 24 letter by the committee's GOP chair and its Democratic ranking member who said, "the commission found substantial reason to believe a violation occurred" and that it had issued penalties.

A March 31 complaint to the commission by Leslie Carey, the Democratic chair of Edwards' home county of Henderson, pointed to a statement in a newsletter saying the Biden family was using "a web of companies" to pull in money from "foreign sources" that were seeking to buy influence. The statement was a violation because it was a political attack, Carey's complaint said, and because it was untrue, as it came from a failed attempt to impeach Biden that relied, in part, on a witness, Alexander Smirnov, who was later indicted for lying to the FBI.

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

Edwards pushed back but also acknowledged he would change his communications to constituents of the 11th District, which includes Buncombe County.

“I did not go to Washington to make nice with Joe Biden, 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," he said in a statement after the vote.

Edwards is a member of the Oversight Committee, whose membership includes far-right firebrands, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who headed the impeachment effort. Despite that effort falling apart, he said he was "proud of the work we did on that committee" and characterized his newsletter statements as describing to constituents the actions the committee was taking.

"I felt it was important to share those details with them," he said.

His Democratic opponent in the Nov. 5 election, N.C. House Rep. Caleb Rudow of Asheville, quickly pointed to the violation in an April 24 fundraising message.

"Instead of focusing on serving constituents in WNC, my opponent disregarded well-known prohibitions and abused the power of his office to score political points," said Rudow.

The commission issued a "no-cost" penalty that, according to commission rules, would be a written warning and mandatory training for a first violation. That was because the violation did not involve the use of U.S. mail, the cost of which is covered by taxpayers under congressional "franking" privileges.

"There was no financial penalty as nothing was mailed at taxpayer expense," Edwards' spokesperson Maria Kim said.

But Bruce MacDonald, the attorney who wrote the complaint, said in that document there was "taxpayer expense."

Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper said that it was true that no public money was spent on postage, but "taxpayer money paid the salaries of the people who wrote and sent the email."

The complaint was the second made by Carey. The first, sent Feb. 26, alleged that Edwards unlawfully targeted Democratic city officials of Asheville, but it was dismissed by the commission.

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Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Western NC congressman sanctioned for Biden attacks: House commission