Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., just found out the hard way that his party will stop at nothing in its bid to acquire and maintain power — even if it means taking out one of their own to do it.
For those catching up on this weekend’s news, Fang Fang’s former fella was hit with allegations of sexual misconduct from several women. As The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported, “the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday dropped the bombshell report in which a former staffer accused the congressman of sexual assault. CNN followed with more details and more women stepping forward. Swalwell is accused of sending some women ‘unsolicited explicit messages or nude photos,’ Anthony Weiner style.”
Swalwell’s prospects for remaining in California’s Democrat gubernatorial primary seemed slim by the time Sunday rolled around. The congressman lost all 21 of his endorsements from fellow Democrat members of Congress, with key figures of his campaign staff also abandoning ship.
By Sunday evening, the Golden State Democrat announced he was calling it quits.
“I am suspending my campaign for Governor. To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell wrote on X. “I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”
One can’t help but notice the cruel irony in Swalwell’s downfall.
The Democrat congressman spent years peddling the Russia collusion hoax that baselessly accused Donald Trump of conspiring with Moscow to steal the 2016 election. He also acted as a Democrat attack dog during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination by repeatedly pushing the narrative that the then-judge’s accusers and their outlandish claims must be believed no matter what. (See his tweets with the hashtags “BelieveWomen” and “BelieveSurvivors”).
Now that he’s facing allegations of his own, Swalwell wants the presumption of being innocent until proven guilty — a standard he and his party were never willing to grant Trump or Kavanaugh.
But perhaps the bigger point in all of this is that Swalwell found out in real time that one’s standing among the Democrat Party “elite” is never absolute. That’s especially true when it comes to the party’s obsession with power and their willingness to do anything for it.
By all indications, Democrats’ quick and uniform demand that Swalwell end his gubernatorial candidacy — but noticeably, not resign from Congress — had everything to do with the power dynamics of California politics.
Unlike most states, California uses a top two primary system in which the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the general election. Recent polling has indicated that while Swalwell led among the other Democrat candidates, he and his lefty competitors were splitting their party’s vote and teeing up a potential Republican versus Republican gubernatorial race this fall.
With Swalwell no longer in the race, that possibility seemingly becomes less likely to happen.
It’s hard to imagine that Democrats and their media allies weren’t aware or hadn’t heard of the allegations against Swalwell before now. The party is very particular about what kinds of dirt it drops about politicians and when. Which further goes to show how sinister the left is when it comes to wielding smear campaigns against those who jeopardize their power.
Unfortunately for Swalwell, he drew the short straw in the competition to see who will continue to spearhead California’s descent into ruin. And now, he’s paying the price for it.
