If everyone in DC knew about this, why didn’t they say anything until now? Kevin McArthy knew this and did nothing when he was speaker.
It's been a pretty open secret in D.C. for years that Eric Swalwell is a serial womanizer.
It's crossed my mind that every woman in D.C. may have no more than 3 degrees of separation: being hit on by him, knowing a woman who's been hit on by him, or knowing someone who knows a woman who's been hit on by him. I heard my firsthand "Swalwell hit on me" anecdote back in 2019; I have heard about half a dozen since.
Some of you will respond that simply hitting on a woman is not harassment.
In many cases, that's true. In many cases, it's not -- such as when she's his employee or there's some other kind of inappropriate power imbalance: an intern or staffer at a conference, an intern or staffer on the Hill, an intern or staffer in just about every work context that's obvious.
Regardless, the sheer scale of Swalwell hitting on women in D.C., inappropriately or not, is pretty staggering.
I don't know which number an elected official has to reach before it's cause for concern, but I do estimate that Swalwell may have surpassed that number by a few hundred (if not by a few thousand).
I'm not kidding.
This is all to say that Swalwell was pretty widely known as a serial womanizer years ago, and if you're using a bit of common sense here, you can make a reasonable distinction between a grown man who's an inelegant horndog but still acting ethically and a grown man who treats women like disposable collectibles and leverages his position of power to "collect" them.
Swalwell is the latter.
I do believe the women who came forward this week, and so should you. And I believe they're particularly courageous in coming forward while knowing they would be slandered for their timing.
"They're doing this when Swalwell is running for Governor of California? Curious timing!"
No, dumbass, it's not curious at all. They don't want to see a man who sexually harassed and/or raped them to be the next Governor of California.
They deserve our praise.