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The resignation of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) came as little surprise. The reports in both CNN and The San Francisco Chronicle alleging sexual misconduct and even sexual assault led to Democrats immediately calling for him to drop out of the California governor’s race. And he already faced an Ethics Committee investigation.
What was more surprising was that Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) finally resigned hours later, after months of media reports, mostly in The San Antonio Express-News about him engaging in an affair with a married staffer who later committed suicide.
Up until then, House Republican leadership, under Speaker Mike Johnson, had only encouraged Gonzales not to seek re-election, a move he announced but which still did not go far enough.
It’s pretty clear what happened here: Swalwell’s resignation finally gave Republicans political and numerical cover to finally do the right thing.
Republicans have only a two-seat majority, meaning they can only afford to lose one vote. So they kept Gonzales around despite his heavy and sordid baggage. Democrats’ showing Swalwell the door meant they would pay no price for losing him.
And it looks like the House will do the same thing again now, as Democrats seem willing to offer up Rep. Sheila Cherfilus of Florida – whom the Ethics Committee found had committed 25 fraud violations – in exchange for Republicans kicking out Florida Rep. Rep. Cory Mills, who also faces an investigation related to campaign finance violations and domestic violence.
This is the exact kind of backroom tit-for-tat dealing that fuels the public’s disdain of Washington: It shows that each side cares more about protecting their own political ends than doing what’s right.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, who has spoken about being sexually assaulted in her youth, put it succinctly on the House steps on Monday.
“That’s not OK, because that is on this whole idea that we can find and determine expulsions and guilt based on political horse trading,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent.
“I want to be clear: What happened today with Tony Gonzalez was disgusting because those allegations and that case and that reporting has been hanging out there for months,” the Squad member said.
“You have to ask yourself, what changed today, that he gets to resign today, as opposed to last week, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and the difference was that they were waiting on some political horse trade of a number.”
There are too many rancid layers to all of this: Washington clearly protects its own members, particularly those whom the party deems as valuable voices. Swalwell had cut an imposing figure on the Democratic side, serving as one of the managers for Donald Trump’s second impeachment. He was groomed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Had multiple women not begun raising their voices on social media and then eventually speaking to the press, he easily could have become a frontrunner and then governor of California. Either Democratic leadership turned away or they were too ignorant about Swalwell’s issues, even as a whisper network grew around him.
The same goes for Gonzales. As a U.S. Navy veteran and a Hispanic, Gonzales had proven to be a potent voice for Republicans as they made significant gains with Hispanics. He frequently led visits to the U.S.-Mexico border in his sprawling district.
This speaks not only to the rank opportunism and fear of losing power; it shows a lack of initiative by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who came to Congress the same year as Swalwell and is also a Pelosi protege.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Swalwell’s best friend in Congress, now faces multiple questions about what he knew, though he vehemently denied any knowledge or participation in a press conference in his office on Tuesday.
It took the voices of female members of Congress–particularly, Democratic Women’s Caucus Chairwoman Teresa Leger Fernández and Republican Rep. Anna Paulina of Florida–to lead the charge to take out the trash.
“Two Latinas, I would point out,” Leger Fernández told The Independent. She said her leadership was helpful in her push to kick out Swalwell.
“What we had was we had Republicans refusing to move against against Gonzales,” she said. “But we needed the votes, and that’s what both Anna Paulina and I could do is we knew we could deliver the votes for the expulsion, because we needed two thirds votes.”
Still, that is a stinging indictment that accountability comes if neither side experiences political pain or consequences for ignorance or looking away.
Luna–a pro-Trump conservative who nonetheless works with Democrats on legislation to ban members of Congress from trading stocks to ending nonconsensual deepfake AI porn–sounded even more adamant.
“Both sides on leadership didn’t want to call on them to resign,” she told The Independent as she walked into Johnson’s office while pushing her son’s stroller. “I felt like I was willing to metaphorically shoot the hostage.”
Luna pointed out that constitutionally, Congress has the right to set its own rules. But that lack of oversight and external protocol allows for fertile ground for creeps of all political stripes.
“It was their bosses doing it,” she said, adding that she had received correspondence from Swalwell’s staff. “I’m not going to vote to protect people. I shouldn’t be expected to vote to protect people and I’ve made my position very clear.”
But the fact remains that the onus still falls on women, be they victims of harassment or female members of Congress forcing leadership to do the right thing.
The unfortunate truth is another lecherous and predatory man will come to Washington. But what matters is whether there are safeguards or ways to ensure he is held accountability. As long as it becomes a scorekeeping game, staffers and victims of every stripe suffers.
