Eric Swalwell's campaign for Governor of California has fallen apart after accusations of sexual assault.

 

Congressman Eric Swalwell. New York Post/AP.

Congressman Eric Swalwell's campaign for Governor of California has fallen apart after accusations of sexual assault. New York Post. An anonymous staffer said that Swalwell had sexually assaulted her on two occasions, one in 2019 and another in 2024. In both cases she said she had gotten blackout drunk and woke up the next day with little doubt she had been raped. Swalwell has denied the accusations and even threatened defamation suits, but it still has led to an exodus of staffers and endorsements for the front runner in the California Governor's race. 

My Comment:

I am on record as saying that Swalwell is one of the most disgusting people in politics today and is one of my most hated political enemies. I will never forgive him for threatening to nuke American Citizens just because they didn't want to go along with his assault weapons confiscation scheme. He's been one of the most prominent advocates of gun control in his party and if I was confident that these allegations were true I'd be celebrating the end of his political career. 

But I have serious reservations to the point where I feel I have to defend Swalwell a bit. He absolutely might be guilty but at this point? We should wait for actual proof. Right now there is no way to confirm or deny the accusations against him as we don't even know who the person is that brought them. He hasn't been charged or convicted of any crime and the presumption of innocence should absolutely apply. A man's career should not be ruined because of an anonymous accusation of sexual assault. It has to be on the record with a name attached to it for any real investigation to occur.

Swalwell also denies he has ever had sex with a staffer, consensual or otherwise. Right now it can't be proven that he has done anything at all. The accusations against him are serious and worth investigating but nothing has been done to prove the allegations one way or another. And they appear to be a classic case of "he said, she said" which might just be unprovable either way. Plus, Swalwell doesn't have a history of this kind of thing, as far as I am aware. 

Regardless, the timing of this is extraordinarily suspicious, which is why I am so reluctant to believe the accusations against a man I otherwise hate. Had these accusations come off cycle when there was no huge election I might give them more credibility (Not much more, the accusation being anonymous is a huge red flag). This wasn't done when the incidents occurred, they were done at an absolutely critical time in the California governor's race. 

Some context is necessary here. California has, the frankly ridiculous, open primary system where the top two candidates, regardless of party, advance to the general election. This year two Republicans, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco were leading in the polls because the Democratic field was far to large. The Democrats needed to get one of the major Democratic candidates to drop out in order to make sure the nightmare scenario for them, two GOP candidates on the ballot in November, didn't occur. 

Taking down Swalwell was the best way to do this. With him either dropping out of the race or damaged to the point of irrelevance, the nightmare scenario will not occur as presumably the voters that were going for Swalwell will go to Tom Steyer or Katie Porter instead. Indeed, it's possible that it will be both of those candidates now instead of Hilton and Bianco. 

This doesn't necessarily mean that these accusations are a fabrication. Indeed, it's possible they are legit and it's just the timing that is suspicious. But I have to think that given these circumstances Swalwell should at least get some benefit of the doubt. He still deserves to lose the Governor's race, after all, lost in all this was the absolute fact that he was for a time compromised by a Chinese Spy. But I can't help but think that this was a plot against him.