In my mind there is no generous interpretation of his words as there is a paragraph which makes his statement worse in my opinion.
In a state where 18 is not old enough to drink, Edwards believes girls at 16 are old enough to get married.
He wants marriage to 16 year olds to be legal; I don’t believe this is a good thing, especially if he also then argued for parental consent for marriages to adult men. It’s a huge red flag to me, personally.