The Eric Swalwell Story Drops

00:00:00
Speaker 1: And we continue at one five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Weggs in Culver City.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: John, you know, in the gas crisis in the seventies, people would use siphoning hoses to steal gas, But that's so old school. In twenty twenty six, as gas crisis, people in Long Beach are drilling holes into gas tanks.

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Not at that same Chevron station that was made famous by the people stealing the gas out of the ground.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: I don't think it was that one. This was a guy's house where someone drilled into his pickup truck to steal the eighty dollars worth of gasoline if.

00:00:35
Speaker 3: To catch its dummy.

00:00:37
Speaker 1: You know who that happened to. Who's that Roland de Walk Carla Marinucci's husband. It happened to him, I think twice too.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: He got drilled.

00:00:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it costs a fortune when you have to have your gas tank replaced. Yeah, it's eighty dollars worth of theft, and the repair bill is in the thousands. Rude eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two to two five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is the publisher of the Flash Report website and you can read him right now on substack where he just has a peace out about the La mayors race, where he analyzes all the polling in that contest and comes to the conclusion that well, it's a rejection of everyone running. You can get him over at substack at so does it matter at substack dot com. John Fleischman, Welcome and thanks so much for stopping by.

00:01:43
Speaker 4: Well, actually, I'm I'm now your official remote correspondence, calling in straight from the California Republican Party state Convention.

00:01:52
Speaker 3: That's right, you are in San Diego.

00:01:56
Speaker 5: I am.

00:01:56
Speaker 4: I'm looking at the USS Carl Vincent Aircraft Carrier look across from Mission Bay and thinking to myself that if you were out here with me, we'd be having a cocktail and asking ourselves are we past the age of the aircraft carrier and are we moving on to the age of the drone airship.

00:02:15
Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you this, we certainly wouldn't be in hasmat suits near the Tiajuana River.

00:02:23
Speaker 5: That is for sure the truth.

00:02:25
Speaker 4: But if we can hold elections based on who's that this hotel, we'd be doing just fine, John, Unfortunately, I don't think I don't think that's the way it works.

00:02:37
Speaker 1: Well, before we get to what's going on in the building you're in right now, let's talk about the big story that's going on right now in the gubernatorial election, which is this sort of damocles that is being held over the head of Eric Swallwell, the congressman from the East Bay, the Democrat who has been pulling the best of all the Demo crats in recent polls. But there are a number of women who are expected to come out and make allegations of sexual harassment. These are people who are staffers who have worked in his office. They are interns who have worked in his office. According to one woman who is an attorney who is the organizer of the women, late last night, the Swalwell campaign sent them threatening cease and distist letters telling them that they do not want them to go public with their stories and if they do, there will be all kinds of consequences. According to these same women, Swalwell has also been doing oppo research on them, I guess as a way to try to threaten them or intimidate them into silence. If what they are expected to say publicly is true, I would imagine that this is going to be a massive problem for Swallwell and his campaign.

00:03:58
Speaker 5: John.

00:03:59
Speaker 4: I know we've been talking talking about this attorney Shay and Hunt. She's the executive director of gen Z for Change, which is a legitimate progressive organization. This is a legitimate operator. This isn't some fringe person, and so, you know, I think that what's going to really happen is if these accusations come out, the first thing that's going to be looked at is who are these women and are they actually in positions where they have credibility? Are they former staff people for former campaign staff?

00:04:30
Speaker 5: Are they you know, maybe former.

00:04:32
Speaker 4: Babysitters that have I don't know, you know, we've read all about that that problem where Swallowell leads Congress with reimbursing the most money from a campaign to his family for uh for a child's care payments.

00:04:45
Speaker 5: But that's a that's a separate story.

00:04:47
Speaker 4: My point is, if it turns out that any of these accusations come from somebody that's that closely associated with swallow he's got big, big problems because he doesn't have time to disprove these alley if they come forward and they're going to be you know, if it's some random person who says, hey, I was at a hotel once and I went into the bathroom and Swawell came in the bathroom and slapped me in the butt.

00:05:11
Speaker 5: You know, I don't think that's going to matter.

00:05:13
Speaker 4: But if somebody comes out and says I work for him and he did this, I think he would very well sink his candidacy because he doesn't have time. There is no due process time. Welcome to politics. And already, you know, the press corps who follows this campaign very closely, they already know that Swawall has a reputation for being a complete jerk. And so I don't think he's going to get any benefit of that from anybody here, and it could severely rock the campaign and looks not forget kind of on a closing important note, which is that he is locked in a kind of a three way battle with Katie Porter and with Tom Steier, and both of those candidates, obviously stire have an unlimited amount of money to be able to share these kinds of revelations with likely voters, and so Swallows I almost don't blame him for trying to threaten, trying to intimidate, because if this comes out the way that it could come out, I.

00:06:14
Speaker 5: Think it sinks as candidacy.

00:06:16
Speaker 4: You'll know when it does, because I think the public employee unions will leave him and go find a new candidate.

00:06:23
Speaker 1: This may be about semantics, and I may be reading something into this that's not there, but I'm curious to get your take on it. So when I go through the allegations that have come from the individual that you referenced and the women who are associated with these accusers, sexual harassment seems to be the word that is used over and over and over again. I want to go over a tweet that was put out by Michael Trehio, who is a Democratic strategist who's worked with Antonio Vierrigosa in the past. He put this out right when Eric Swalwell announced that he would be running for governor. I guess Eric Swalwell can enjoy today. Folks know he slept with many of his interns, well married, sexually harassed others, will engaged, has a ton of weird texts late at night saved on former interns phone. Still he gets he will have to answer for this later on during the campaign. Now, Katie Porter went on CNN yesterday and was asked about this, and she didn't use the word sexual harassment.

00:07:25
Speaker 3: She said sexual assault.

00:07:28
Speaker 1: And then when you look at the cease and desist letter that was sent out by Swallwell's attorneys on his behalf to the women who are expected to come out as accusers, the term sexual assault was used in the language of those letters. I wonder if what could be coming out is something that's even more severe than what we're anticipating based on that Traheo tweet.

00:07:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean trueO is very definitely well connected and as part of the democratic infrastructure, so you know, he would hear these things. I don't even think it needs to be an allegation of something that extreme to think him, because there's just so much there are so many people who believe based on his personality, based on the way he carries himself, based on the fact that I've heard these.

00:08:20
Speaker 5: Stories about him for years.

00:08:22
Speaker 4: I mean just kind of like people talking about You've heard that he's you know, going out, that he's the womaniser guy and all that.

00:08:28
Speaker 5: You know, I've heard those stories. You know.

00:08:32
Speaker 4: The real question is whether or not, these women are going to be brave enough to step forward because you know, when you step into the limelight, it has consequences.

00:08:40
Speaker 5: And you know, I mean, look.

00:08:43
Speaker 4: How long it took Caesar Chavez as a victim to come forward.

00:08:49
Speaker 5: It took her sixty seven years. You know, it's not an easy thing to come forward.

00:08:53
Speaker 4: But if they come forward, and like I said, I think there it's less the specifics of the allegation and more the credibility of the person making the allegation. If these allegations truly come from former interns, former staff people, campaign aids, people that have babysat the children, anywhere in that sphere, he is cooked because you know, for somebody to come forward that has that kind of credibility of access, I don't see how he's able to disprove it in a reasonable period of time.

00:09:27
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the timeline here for a second, because I do not believe in today's day and age, it's like the old days where you had jews with a publisher of the newspaper. You could kill a story and the story would never see a light a day. Between all of the alternative media that exists out there, with social media. With the way that information travels so fast, I think these women at some point will be able to tell their story. What I think Smallwell is doing now is he's trying to delay it as long as he can. Because the ballots go out in early May. So let's say these women don't come forward with the specifics until a week or two into the voting. He's going to go to the Democratic Party and he's going to say, look, here's the deal. The most loyal partisan Democratic voters have already come out and voted for me. They cannot change their vote. If you abandon me right now for someone else, you are handing this office to a Republican and you are ensuring a Democratic lockout on the November ballot. So we're either in this together or we're going to watch the Republicans take over that office together. But it's mutually assured destruction if you abandon me.

00:10:43
Speaker 4: I think you are one hundred percent correct. He's trying to eke out more and more time. He just he wants to get to when those ballots drop, and like you said, he wants to be able to make the case that you know I'm inevitable, right, and that you're going to end. You know, if you you watched, then he's going to start to say, if you take me down, we're going to end up with the two Republicans, right, he'll use But you know, I don't. I think it's coming, although I think so far his tactic has worked because I thought we might have seen some of these stories come out as early as yesterday. But you know, I think it's coming, and I think it's going to happen, and I think when it does, the real question will be whether or not the electorate written large is so jaundice about accusations and whether or not it sticks.

00:11:34
Speaker 5: But I think it does.

00:11:35
Speaker 4: I think in this environment, in this competitive of a race, when these candidates are disclosed, I think, I think, I think it's a perfect storm against Eric Swallow.

00:11:47
Speaker 5: Because all eyes are on.

00:11:48
Speaker 4: The putative front runner, and he's considered to be the front runner because he's got the support from these unions and the union. And here's the ultimate of ironies, John is that the unions of all rally behind him because he's a nothing. He has no money, he's broke, and so they want him because he needs them. But it also means he has no gravitas to defend himself because all he is is somebody who's the bitch of the unions. It's going to be I think it's really going to be something if this opens up, John, and I think you've got a front row seat to share this with your listeners. It's going to be something.

00:12:26
Speaker 3: I'll tell you who else.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: This is a real bad look for if this turns out to be true, and that is this former Speaker the House, Nancy Pelosi, because if this was going on with staffers and with interns, and with campaign workers, and presumably with people who may have worked on committees that he was on, there's no way she didn't know what was being alleged, because if it goes to the Rules Committee, which is what deals with this, or the Ethics Committee, there's no way that that committee chairman doesn't keep the Speaker informed with everything that's coming to their desk. And if she ran interference for him so that he could be a member in good standing and try to help clear the way for him, by the way, to be the Democratic choice for governor, that is an awful look for someone who regards themselves as an advocate for women and girls.

00:13:20
Speaker 5: I agree with that one hundred percent.

00:13:21
Speaker 4: And you could be sure that if these allegations come out, you know, this will go straight to the Ethics Committee immediately because the Speaker will send it there right away and then and then watch the Democrats on the committee try to slow walk it and all that. But I just think the media mailstrom that's going to be created, especially if these girls are willing to go on even one of them is willing to go on camera and talk about what happened, you know, I you know it will royal the race. It will change everything. The only bad news for those people who care about the future of California is that it's not like Swall is the only bad news there out there. You know, if he fades, what do we get sire or Katie Porter rising to the top. You know, it's a it's a cafeteria plan of bad options. But I would tell you that temperamentally ethically follows the worst of the button. So I'm not going to be crying if he goes down. I certainly won't.

00:14:24
Speaker 1: Let's shift gears and talk about the Republicans. Now you're at the California Republican Party convention in San Diego. Both Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, and Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host, both candidates for governor, are trying to get the endorsement of the California Republican Party. What do you think the party is going to do? You think the party is going to not endorse either one of them, They're going to endorse both of them. What do you think is going to happen?

00:14:53
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's kind of interesting because there's multiple dynamics going on here. Clearly, the candidate who I think is the most is Chad Bianco. He is around here, going around with his people, and I think he realizes that it may be too much to recover from if Steve Hilton were to get some party endorsement right after getting the President's endorsement and all of it happening at once, and frankly, Hilton is the winner of the weekend if Bianco can't get an endorsement, because it will mean that Hilton is going into campaign season with that key endorsement of President Trump, which matters to Republican voters, and Bianco will not have a party endorsement, which I don't even think is as strong as a Trump endorsement, but at least it would be something. But to answer your question, I would bet that neither of these candidates gets to the sixty percent threshold. But you know, strange things have happened when you're at these conventions and you've been to them, John and I try to portray this for your listeners. Imagine just the ultimate and retail politics. You've got signs everywhere. You've got volunteers every year, You've got people that are hard chargers everywhere. You've got commotion in the hallways, people shoving each other. You've got this, you know, the media cameras everywhere. And what happens is a rumor comes from one end of the convention and starts to circulate to the other end and back and forth and what's true and what's not true, And suddenly an announcement comes out that this group or this organization is decided to back a candidate, and the momentum moves for an hour until another group does. So, you know, it's a lot of fun retail politics, but at the end of the day, it's a really high bar, especially when there is a group of people at this convention who definitely have staked out the position that they helped the party stays out because they're still hoping that there's a chance, beyond chances, that two Republicans will advance to the general election.

00:16:45
Speaker 5: I don't think that's likely, but there's always hope.

00:16:47
Speaker 1: Right to my eye, the California Republican Party should endorse both of them as a way to say either one of them are fine, but we're going to create a distinction between these two and the Leo Zakis of the world. We don't care who you vote for, as long as it's one of these For one of these two, what would you think the strongest?

00:17:11
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it.

00:17:16
Speaker 4: I don't think Leo Zaki is involved with the chicken business anymore.

00:17:18
Speaker 5: I think Zaki Farms went.

00:17:20
Speaker 4: Under, but I think that's a great idea. I'll well have to see if that, if that somehow starts to happen in the middle of this convention.

00:17:28
Speaker 5: Right now, I don't.

00:17:29
Speaker 4: Think they're I don't think that either of these candidates, I think, intends on trying to help the other one get an endorsement, even if even if it's for the two of them. Right now, they're both convinced they think they can get it all for themselves, and so we'll just see how it goes.

00:17:46
Speaker 1: Last question before you go, are any of the statewide constitutional offices within reach for the Republican candidate or is there a feeling in that hall that any of those offices are within reach? And I say that because, for sample, the insurance industry in the state of California has melted down under Ricardo Laura's leadership at the California Department of Insurance. There is no argument that you can make that the Democratic Party has done a good job in that office, either with Ricardo Lara or even before that with Dave Jones. And then we had a poll that came out showing that Rob Bonta, the Attorney generals at forty percent, which is pretty a mnemic for any incumbent running for reelection. Are there any of those offices that they think that they can play in.

00:18:36
Speaker 4: Well, the first thing I'll tell you is you're here at a California Republican Party convention.

00:18:40
Speaker 5: Full of activists.

00:18:42
Speaker 4: So if you were to ask everybody here, they think they're all in play, right, this is you know, these are folks that don't want to be reminded that there's two and a half million more Democrats than Republicans in California. My position is, I think that if there's positions in play, the two that are the most likely are the ones you just mentioned. The Attorney General's office because Monta has been so awful on crime and justice issues, and and and then would be the opposite of the insurance Commissioner. Unfortunately, Laura is not running again because he hit term moments. That guy's a train record. He's been like vacations to like forty countries while he while he's supposedly been working to keep our insurance rates below how's that going? But you know, it's it's going to be you know, it'll be interesting to see what happens. You already know the playbook for the fall. All they're going to do is run an anti Trump campaign and try not to talk about the issues. But I do think that the attorney general race, the insurance commissioner race. And then also, you know, if voter ID does qualify for the ballot, and I think it's going to I think that's going to put a spotlight on the Secretary of State's office as well, because this is the secretary of State. He'll be running for re election. While campaigning specifically against the passage of what I think will be a very popular about measure to simply require the you show a government ID to vote. By the way, up here at the convention, you had the show at ID to vote.

00:20:06
Speaker 1: All right, there you go, John Fleischmann. You can get him online and Sodoesitmatter dot com and follow him on Exit Flash Report.

00:20:13
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for stopping by.

00:20:15
Speaker 5: You got it, Thanks John and Randy.

00:20:17
Speaker 3: We have some breaking news to report.

00:20:20
Speaker 2: It dropped everybody, and the first place to report this is the San Francisco Chronicle. I read you now the headline, former staffer says Representative Eric Swaalwell, candidate for California governor, sexually assaulted her.

00:20:42
Speaker 1: Earlier today, we were parsing the words that were used by Katie Porter in the CNN interview that we played for you on yesterday's program, and the words that were used in the lawyer from the lawyer representing Eric Swallwell going to the victim, and the words sexual assault were used in both of them. So far on social media, sexual harassment was the only word that I had seen that jumped out at us as being something that was odd and it looks like it caught our eye for a reason.

00:21:19
Speaker 2: This is just breaking and somehow I got past the paywall. So we're going to now read you this bombshell story. But you can also read it for yourself. It's on the Chronicle SF Chronicle dot com. This is couruse that comes from reporting from Alexi Kosef and Sophia Bullag of the Chronicle. A woman who worked for nearly two years for Representative Eric Swallwell, a leading candidate for California governor, said she had several sexual encounters with him while he was her boss, and alleged twice he sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: Oh my.

00:22:03
Speaker 2: Swalwell did not respond to any of the former staffers' specific allegations made in a series of interviews with The Chronicle and provided a statement quote, these allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the front runner for governor. For nearly twenty years, I have served the public as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women. He does like to say he's a protector. That's a tell. I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary, bring legal action. My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.

00:22:37
Speaker 1: Mind you, He was supposed to be in Palm Desert for a live event and then canceled, claiming he was sick.

00:22:44
Speaker 2: Late Thursday, an attorney for Swalwell sent a cease and assist letter to the woman saying she had made false statements, accusing mister Swalwell of sexual assault and non consensual sexual encounter, and threatening to sue her if she did not return allegations. The woman said Swalwell began pursuing her within weeks after she was hired at age twenty one to work in the Democrat's district office in Castro Valley in twenty nineteen, Swalwell messaged her on Snapchat, sending images of his genitals and seeking nude pictures of her in return. WHOA, oh my goodness, we're all reading this together people for the first time, she said. Swalwell, who is married and seventeen years her senior, tried to kiss her in the car when she drove him home from a donor meeting one night. Driving him to another event. Weeks later, she said, if there's any kids in the car, you might want to turn this down, she said. Swalwell pulled out his penis in the car and asked her to perform a certain act on him. She said she did so in a parking lot.

00:24:13
Speaker 3: The timeless art of seduction.

00:24:16
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, I gotta be careful here. I'm going to try to be as explicit as I can, but we are still governed by the FCC. Again, you can read this for yourself. It's on the chronicle and it's going all over social media right now. Just use euphemisms. I am good at that. We do do that from time to.

00:24:36
Speaker 3: Time, doing the most with this end. We could play charades through the radio.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: In September twenty nineteen, the woman said Swalwell invited her out for drinks and she became so severely intoxicated that she does not remember the rest of the night.

00:24:57
Speaker 3: Oh.

00:24:58
Speaker 2: She said, she w up naked in Swalwell's hotel bed and can feel the effect of having previously had intercourse. She said. Swalwell distanced himself from her afterward, and the relationship faded. Five years later, the woman said she attended in April twenty twenty four charity gala where Swalwell was honored. The woman, who no longer worked for Swalwell said they met for drinks afterward, during which she became so inebriated that she only remembers snippets of the night, including pushing Swalwell away and telling him no while he allegedly forced himself on her.

00:25:45
Speaker 3: This would be for the third time.

00:25:47
Speaker 2: Is this Eric Swalwell or Bill Cosby?

00:25:50
Speaker 3: I think he was the bartender the woman.

00:25:54
Speaker 2: I mean either, I mean, we don't know who this woman is, but either she's admitting that, you know, she was getting way too far into drinking with Swalwell, or maybe he was slipping her a mickey. I don't know.

00:26:06
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:26:07
Speaker 1: Well, hey, I live in Rancho Mirage. Maybe she's going to become my neighbor soon. I could hit a golf ball and hit the Betty Ford Center.

00:26:15
Speaker 2: The woman texted a friend three days later saying she was sexually assaulted by Swalwell. She wrote in a series of messages reviewed by the Chronicle that she had blocked out, but quote woke up during it and even told him to stop at one point. Okay, this is very important because Swalwell's whole line of defense is Hey, this is all coming out of nowhere right before the election. But if she has timestamp text messages from twenty twenty four where she told a friend that this happened, that's big.

00:26:47
Speaker 3: Well.

00:26:47
Speaker 1: Keep in mind he was not even expected to be a candidate for this office. The only reason he's running is because Kamala took a pass and Padilla took a pass and the Democratic establishment needed someone with high name ID. Quote this happened one other time when I was working with them, but I convinced myself that I was an equal party, even though it was the same pattern. I blacked out and had he had sex with me. Referring to the twenty nineteen incident, The Chronicle spoke with the friend and the woman's then boyfriend, whom she said she told about the alleged twenty twenty four assault when she got home the next day. Both described her as still disoriented that morning, and her then boyfriend said he encouraged her to report Swallwell to the police. The woman said she did not go to the authorities because she was afraid they would not believe her. Medical record show she obtained pregnancy and STD tests a week after the incident.

00:27:54
Speaker 3: So there's a paper trail.

00:27:57
Speaker 2: The Chronicle shared a detailed summary of the woman's account with Swalwell's campaign on Thursday. Swalwell's attorney, Elias Dabier, wrote in the cease and desist letter that the woman has exhibited the conduct of a loyal and supportive colleague, not a victim, and that the credibility of your accusations is fatally undermined by your voluntary and cooperative relationship with mister Swalwell over the course of many years following the period in question. Okay, that's a defense, you might say. The letter mentioned the woman's use of Swalwell as a professional reference in her recent outreach to the Swalwell campaign about social media posts alleging his misconduct. An attorney representing the woman, Gerald Singleton, responded to Dabier on Friday, writing that her statements are one hundred percent factually accurate and she will not be with drawing them. In recent weeks, political influencers and other social media accounts have alleged sexual misconduct by Swalwell. The online posts have not included any specific evidence, but gained enough attention that Swalwell issued a public denial saying he never behaved inappropriately toward nor slept with female staffers during his seven terms in Congress.

00:29:23
Speaker 3: No, it is.

00:29:23
Speaker 2: False, Wallwell told reporters after a town hall in Sacramento on Tuesday, characterizing the post on social media as political attacks. Less than a month before people began voting in the primary election in which the top two candidates YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA YadA. On Thursday, Swalwell canceled a previously scheduled event in Palm Desert. Local news outlet KESQ reported that the event was canceled due to illness.

00:29:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was sick to his stomach, knowing what was coming in the chronicle.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: The Chronicle is not identifying the woman this story in compliance with its policy against naming the alleged victims of sexual assault. Reporters looking into the broader allegations against Swalwell reached her while contacting dozens of his former staffers, so a whole bunch of people knew this story was out there. The woman said she largely kept quiet about Swalwell's behavior for years out of fear that she would suffer personal and professional consequences. He was the foundation of my career. I had nothing to fall back on or anyone to vouch for my skills outside of my colleagues in that office and Eric himself. She told the Chronicle, I knew if I came forward, it would define me and undermine my credibility. The woman began speaking with the Chronicle reporter last month as she considered whether to make these allegations public. When rumors about Swalwell's conduct began circulating online. The woman said she was confused, used because she had only told a small circle of family and close friends about what happened to her.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Well, here's why she was confused, because all of us have heard stories about Swalwell and this wasn't even the story I was referring to.

00:31:17
Speaker 2: Oh, that story is going to come out too, isn't it.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: I'm sure, But there's got to be a million of them. I mean, people who behave like this. It's pathological. You don't can't turn it off.

00:31:29
Speaker 2: She said she was petrified that Swalwell had told people about their encounters and that her name had appeared in an opposition research file compiled by a rival campaign. Which campaign we talking about, Katie?

00:31:46
Speaker 3: I think we all know.

00:31:49
Speaker 2: She said. She called the Swalwell campaign in late March to find out whether her name had surfaced among rumored victims. A staffer on the campaign, she said, asked her to vouch for Swallwell, yikes, so they've known about this for quite some time that this was coming.

00:32:09
Speaker 1: This shows you how reckless they are. It really does. Why would you run for high office if you were him and you knew that you did this and probably things similar to this with other people. Why would you elevate yourself to a position where you know what's going to come out and you know the party is going to be over Well.

00:32:31
Speaker 2: It sure does lend credence to the whole idea that this is business as usual for Congress people.

00:32:38
Speaker 1: Well, and it just goes to show you that they all knew about it. These people talk, and I know, you don't have to tell every single person you know, but you tell one or two people in the business and it spreads like wildfire. They all knew. Whenever you talk to people about this story. Before the story was going to break, everyone was aware of it. Everyone one, particularly on the Democratic side of the aisle because they talk to each other. Republican staffers only hear it tangentially, the Democratic staffers. They all go to happy hour together, they all go to dinner together, they vacation together. They're more in tune with what's going on in democratic offices than Republicans are. And if Katie Porter was a member of Congress, I guarantee you she was aware of all of this.

00:33:30
Speaker 2: Now, if Swalwell's holding on to any OPO that he was waiting to release against the others, it's time for the salvos.

00:33:37
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, just let it all out, all.

00:33:40
Speaker 2: Right, Let's get back to the story from the San Francisco Chronicle, this bombshell article. I am in shock about what I'm reading here, she said. The staffer, this is the staffer of Swalwell's campaign, asked her whether Swalwell had ever been inappropriate with her, and then, when she hesitated to answer, said quote, actually, I they don't want to know. When the campaign staffer told her that Swalwell was not afraid of the rumors because he had not done anything inappropriate, the woman said she felt determined to speak out. He was so confident that I would stay silent, that he wasn't scared.

00:34:23
Speaker 3: Quote.

00:34:24
Speaker 2: I have no skin in this game of who becomes governor, but I feel people have a right to know whether the person who leads a state that is a safe haven for so many women actually treats women with dignity and will protect their rights.

00:34:38
Speaker 3: Quote.

00:34:39
Speaker 2: No one protected me from him, and so I have to protect other young women like me who aspire to work in this field, and he could prey upon. Recent polling shows Swalwell neck and neck with Katie Porter and Tom Steyer. Hey, Katie, you got a shout out in this story.

00:34:56
Speaker 5: You can smart right.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: The other top Democrats in the race, and the two Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. Swalwell has won endorsements from Oh, this is going to be embarrassing, twenty four other members of Congress, including Senator Adam Schiff Senator Ruben Diego of Arizona. Four team members of the state legislature publicly support him, and he hosted Powerful labor unions including the SEIU California and the California Teachers Association have also backed his candidacy.

00:35:31
Speaker 1: And keep in mind, when the allegations first surfaced the CTA Well, Senator Ruben Diego from Arizona defended him and attacked the accusers. He wants to be president and then the California Teachers Association came out and said, we don't care. We're moving forward with our ADMI.

00:35:49
Speaker 2: Oh boy. Swalwell's popularity comes in part from his prominent role in the impeachment investigation against Donald Trump one point zero. He is a frequent harsh critic of Trump on broadcast news problems programs, and has framed much of his gubernatorial campaign around the idea that he will stand up to Trump and protect California's policies against federal interference. In his twenty twenty one book Endgame Colin Inside the Impeachments of Donald Trump, he wrote a book about that. Ugh Swallwell described complaining to his wife about having to meet with Trump because of his alleged mistreatment of women. Quote He's a pig, he recounted, telling her he bragged about grabbing women by the well, we all know what he's awful. Okay that to tell right there that he put that line in the book we have it is true in politics, for as long as I can remember, your public crusades reveal your private misdeeds.

00:36:47
Speaker 3: One hundred percent of the time.

00:36:50
Speaker 2: If you are all in against going after gay people, we should check your browser history Well oh trans too. The former staffer began working for Swalwell during his short lived presidential campaign in twenty nineteen. Following her college graduation. She was hired into his district office in Castro Valley that July, after he dropped out of the race. She said, Swalwell, who was thirty eight at the time, began messaging her on Snapchat, a popular app among teams and college students that allows users to send disappearing photos and videos that can't be saved or archived that men like Swalwell use for well sending pictures.

00:37:33
Speaker 3: Of you know what, little Swalwell.

00:37:37
Speaker 2: Let's stop there for now because we've got to take a break. But there's much much more in this incredible story from the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the alleged sexual assault of one victim from gubernatorial candidate Congressman Eric Swalwell.

00:37:54
Speaker 1: And we should say at this point it's all alleged. None of this has been proven in court. These are allegations that are simply being reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. If you went a weigh in on what you just heard and whether or not this impacts you think where the governor's race is going to go. I can't imagine that it's not impacting it. Give us a call at eight hundred two two two five two two two. What eight hundred two two two five two two two. We'll try to work in some of your reaction to what we're learning in real time. Eight hundred two two two five two two two. Randy, we have more breaking news on top of our breaking news.

00:38:33
Speaker 2: It is coming by the second here. This is a huge news day. According to Politico, multiple people have abruptly resigned from Eric Swalwell's gubernatorial campaign, including his members of senior leadership, including Courtney Pew, who was a strategic advisor who served as Swalwell's top liaison to organize labor groups. Apparently everyone's jumping ship. Also, Tony Thurman is the first candidate that I've seen that is calling on not only Swalwell to drop out of the race, but to resign from Congress.

00:39:07
Speaker 1: Looks like Steve Hilton is now also calling on Eric Swalwell to drop out of the race. Oh boy, all right, We've got a lot more coming, don't you go anywhere. It's the John Phillips Show on this Jimmy Buffet Friday,