Swalwell quits the House; Gonzales quits the House
Swelwell saves House members the trouble of having to expel him from the House or defend him; he quits:
Swalwell announced his resignation in a statement posted to his X account, while still denying some of the allegations made against him in recent days.
“I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past. I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make,” Swalwell said in the statement.
Which is which?
Gonzales – a Republican – also resigned:
… Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who has been dogged by allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide …
Gonzales, who admitted to the affair and said he would not run for reelection, announced in post to X on Monday he would file his retirement from office when the House returns on Tuesday.
“There is a season for everything and God has a plan for us all,” Gonzales said. “When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office.
A recent accuser of Swalwell says this:
[In 2018 Swalwell] invited me to two public events. I knew he was married and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend.
On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink. I only had one glass of wine. We were supposed to go to a political event, and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room.
When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated, and I couldn’t move my arms or my body.
He raped me. And he choked me.
And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died.
I did not consent to any sexual activity.
Although I did not undergo a rape kit at the time, I disclosed the assaut to the people closest to me. I also recorded these events in my handwritten calendar.
The assault and its impact were later documented during my therapy sessions at a sexual assault center.
Although she has only come out recently with the public accusations that are from 2018, if there is earlier (especially if close to that time) documentation of her discussing this with a therapist, that would tend to corroborate her story. But her story itself, although chilling, has a vulnerability common to many such stories: because she was drinking, and says she was incapacitated, was it from a drug Swalwell gave her or from her own drinking – the amount of which she’s underestimating? And far more importantly, in her diminished capacity can her memory be trusted?
At any rate, it was plenty enough, added to the other stories (supposedly including lewd emails a la Anthony Weiner), to get Swalwell to resign. In this case, there may indeed be truth behind the accusations.
The entire Congress has a slush fund of several hundred million dollars devoted to paying off victim claims for its members.
Back in the 1990s-2000s, the office for it was located in Louisville, Colorado (a small town in a corner of Boulder County). I remember outrage about this on the local talk stations like 710 KNUS. The story has never gone beyond marginal mention in the national news.
Meanwhile, Committees in Congress sit on evidence against its members. But Florida Rep. Paulina Luna has pushed a bill for full disclosure of records.
After the Epstein saga, this should get spicy.
@ Neo > “Although she has only come out recently with the public accusations that are from 2018, ”
Which is 8 years ago.
(What happened to #MeToo: “if it saves another woman…”?)
But Trump had to be jailed for something much less consequential, that probably never happened, from how many decades ago?
We keep hearing, from both or all sides, that our government leaders must be of irreproachable virtue IF talking about the other party.
With all due respect to her feelings, she played for the Democrat team by not lodging a criminal complaint against Swalwell at the time.
And she is still playing for that team.
/rant off
AesopFan, I had similar feelings about many of the women involved in the Harvey Weinstein mess. Some of them were really underage victims, but many of them were adults in search of advancement in the industry. It was the price they paid. Same for the adult women who played with Jeffrey Epstein.
On Congress critters, I think the Florida Democrat with a fraud charge or conviction will be removed by vote shortly.
From an accuser: When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated, and I couldn’t move my arms or my body. He raped me. And he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died.
This seems extremely dangerous. For sex ?!!? That’s really, really crazy.
One hopes that these scum are anomalies, all while it would seem to be unlikely.
AppleBetty, on that woman’s rape story: After this appalling attack she didn’t file a police report. Politics, or fear of consequences, overwhelmed common sense and civic duty. The creep was left free to perhaps do this to some other woman.
I hope the Republicants have this dual resignation deal (assuming there was a deal) under control, and Swalwell can’t renege after Gonzales resigns. I suppose whoever replaces Swalwell will be another principle-less Party man (or woman). But it will be nice to flush the Swalwell creep, if he resigns as promised.
— Kate
Or, a possibility that we should keep in mind, the real story might be more complicated or not as bad as it’s being portrayed.
Yes, HC68. We have only this woman’s belated statements. However, Swalwell’s withdrawal from the gubernatorial race and resignation from Congress indicate that at least some of the stories are true, or have evidence to support them.
I cannot imagine being drugged and brutally assaulted and NOT going to the police.
Apparently there were receipts from the montrose hotel billed to the campaign
He is a slithy tove
Now we didnt have someone quite as deranged as tony gonzalez but we had david rivera who was quite dodgy
In his finances his personal relations et al (most recently he tried to lobby for the venezuelan govt
Eric Swalwell should have been forced to quit after his affair with that Chinese agent Christine Fang (Fang Fang) was revealed.
I had a knee-jerk reply to BrooklynBoy (who speaks for me on the Fang Fang situation), that being the maxim we see often on the internet:
That tells you all you need to know about the Democrat Party.
Then I wondered: Is there any analog among Republicans where a Congressman or woman was revealed to have similar blackmail exposure, and yet was retained in a sensitive National Security committee assignment (never mind getting not run out of the Congress).
PS Diane Feinstein had a Chinese chauffeur for decades, IIRC, and no one in the Democrat Party even censured her when that was revealed.
PPS Kind of makes you think about those charges the naive young Representative Madison Cawthorn made.
He had a lot of problems (Wikipedia is biased of course, but the basic facts are there), but this claim has a lot more credibility lately: “In a March 2022 interview, Cawthorn talked about “the sexual perversion that goes on in Washington” and said he had been invited to an orgy by an unnamed lawmaker. He also claimed that prominent Washington figures had used cocaine in front of him.”
Kate on April 15, 2026 at 8:02 am:
“I cannot imagine being drugged and brutally assaulted and NOT going to the police.”
That is also the question many men are asking when these stories become public.
The public attitude has become much more understanding of a viewpoint that “she was not asking for it — or at least for That!” etc. Then again, some of the statistics seem to end up being unbelievably high (as in 20% on college campuses, etc.).
And also; do these women not have fathers, uncles, husbands/boy friends, brothers, nephews, male cousins and friends that could help rearrange the mind and body of the guy who assaulted her?
R2L
The perps in this case or these cases are not the run-of-the-mill criminals. They’re elected officials. What pressure could be brought, or perhaps merely predicted, is immense.
Who killed Seth Richards? Anybody know? Anybody bother to look? Do the fibbies still have his computer? This could be a simply unsolved murder. But it is Out There and maybe a casual mention…..