Transcript of A Week of Scandal, Reckoning and Resignations in Congress New

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. After serious allegations, including sexual misconduct claims, Congress was on the cusp of doing something that has never happened in U.S. history: forcibly remove 4 of its members. But then, Then, in about an hour of one another, two of those members resigned. Today, congressional reporter Michael Gold explains what unfolded on Capitol Hill this week and what it tells us about how willing Congress is to hold itself accountable. It's Friday, April 17th. Michael Gold, welcome to The Daily.

Thanks for having me.

It has been, as you know, a very chaotic week on Capitol Hill because, among other things, it is extremely uncommon for us to see two members of Congress step down within, what, an hour or two of each other? And we're going to get to the specific allegations that led to the resignations in a little bit. But I just want to start by hearing from you about how you're thinking about what we saw unfold this week.

LATIF] I've been thinking a lot about what's happening on the Hill this week. And for me, this is a story about the way that Congress chooses or doesn't choose to police itself.

00:01:33

Hmm.

00:01:33

I think what we're seeing this week is extraordinary—two members of the House resigning within an hour of each other after a lot of pressure. But it took us a while to get to this point. And I think the way that it happened really says a lot about kind of the intersection between our politics and the way we expect our politicians to behave once they're in office.

It took us a while to get here. What do you mean by that, Michael?

Yeah, so I'm going to answer your question with another question. Please. Do you remember George Santos?

George Santos, the former Republican congressman who was kicked out of Congress, is now on Cameo for hire for birthdays and other sort of greetings. That George Santos? Yes, I remember him in large part because of your reporting, I believe, Michael. So what does that what does that have to do with the situation we're in now? So let me take you back to 2023.

George Santos arrives in Congress facing a cloud of questions, most of them sparked by my colleague Grace Ashford and I, who reported that he had lied about his background, where his campaign money came from. He claimed to be this big Wall Street guy, and no one seemed to really know where the money was or what had happened to it. And so when he arrived, there were a lot of members of Congress who said, this man lied his way into office, and we don't think he should be in the House. And Kevin McCarthy, who was the speaker at the time, said, "We can't kick somebody out of the House based on newspaper articles. We don't have enough here. There are investigations we can take. And if you all really wanna figure out what's going on with George Santos, let's do an ethics committee investigation." So they do. And traditionally, ethics committee investigations move very slowly. It's kind of known by lawmakers that when something gets kicked over to the House Ethics Committee, it's gonna take a while for it to be resolved. And it's kind of a way for everyone to get some cover and say, "Well, we're investigating this." this, but we need to give this investigation time to play out and there needs to be some due process and then we'll deal with the issue.

But in Santos's case, it took less than a year for the Ethics Committee to come back and release this report that found substantial evidence of campaign finance fraud, of violating House ethics rules. There are a lot of damning details about him spending the money on things like Botox and an OnlyFans subscription. And basically a bunch of Republicans and Democrats come together and say, enough is enough. We're gonna vote to expel him. A vote takes a two-thirds majority of the House. They clear that bar easily, and George Santos is removed from office.

Basically, they kicked him out.

Yeah, it was a big deal. They kicked him out. Before Santos, only 5 people in the history of the House had been expelled. 3 of them were kicked out because they fought for the Confederacy against the United States, which was basically seen as an act of treason. And 2 of them had been convicted of felony charges, and their trials had gone through the whole process, and they had been convicted.

In other words, George Santos basically teaches us that the House can move quickly if it wants to. It can speed up this otherwise kind of slow process that an ethics committee investigation takes, and it can get the justification that it needs in order to vote to expel a member.

That's right. When the House is pressed and when it feels like there's urgency, Santos's expulsion shows it will find a way to get rid of people who it thinks should not be in its midst. Mm-hmm. And this was kind of a sign that the House was capable of policing itself when it saw Ms. Conduct that it thought was so beyond the pale that it had violated the oath that lawmakers took, that it had violated the public trust that members are supposed to have with the American people. They said, "Enough is enough. We need to kick this guy out. We don't want him here." And this was something they had really been reluctant to do because representatives see themselves as being elected by their constituents. They answer to their constituents. And the general sense was that it was up to lawmakers and their constituents to decide whether they wanted to stay in their seat. And in Santos's case, his colleagues basically took the decision out of everyone's hands and said, we're getting him out of here. We want somebody who we think is more suited to the office.

Right. One way of reading this and reading the sort of the hesitancy that you're describing is that Congress is basically undoing what voters said they wanted. They vote somebody in and you, Congress, are saying, nope, we have decided to kick him out.

Right. And the House's decision to eventually remove him from office really set the stage for what we saw this week with Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez.

Right. These are the two congressmen who resigned this week. What do you mean by that, though? What is the connective tissue between these two events?

So I think we should start with Tony Gonzalez. He's a Republican from Texas whose district runs along the US border with Mexico. And in February of this year, a news article comes out accusing him of having a coercive sexual relationship with one of his aides who had killed herself by setting herself on fire.

Yeah. God, I remember that. It was a horrific story. Yeah.

And there were text messages that were pretty damning that show that he was repeatedly texting her, pushing her for photos, pushing her for a relationship that she sort of reluctantly agreed to. You know, a lot of women on the Hill who read those messages sort of recognized this pattern where men ask repeatedly for things and women are so worn down that they feel obligated. And in this case, this man was her boss. So there was a sense that this was just very coercive. And frankly, the dramatic way in which she died Her lighting herself on fire, I think, really horrified everybody. It was just— the kind of details of this story were really gruesome and disgusted a lot of people here.

Obviously, Michael, a lot of companies and institutions have rules prohibiting romantic relationships between managers or other folks in power and subordinates. Was this affair technically allowed, or was there any kind of rule prohibiting it?

So in 2018, the House passed a rule that forbid its members expressly from having affairs with their own staff, and González violated that rule, and he admits to violating that rule. He comes out and says, you know, very, very direct, Pags. I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment and there was a lack of faith. I made a lapse in judgment. I'm going to end my reelection campaign. You know, I've lost the trust in my voters, so I can't run for office again. I look forward to the Ethics Committee starting an investigation. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to provide all the facts And all the details. And Speaker Mike Johnson says, okay, well, he's ending his reelection campaign. That's the equivalent of the political death penalty. This is done. We don't have to worry about this anymore. Mm-hmm. But that strikes a lot of lawmakers as the incorrect way to handle the situation, because if you admit to violating a rule that the House passed to hold itself accountable, a lot of lawmakers argue that you shouldn't get to pick the punishment, that the House should be the ones deciding what happens to you, and your decision to end your reelection campaign is enough, because at this point there are months left in Congress, you're still in your seat, and you broke a rule.

And so what do these members want to see done instead of what Gonzalez has proposed? Calls for Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez's resignation are intensifying, including from members of his own party. I think he needs to go.

I just— that's the line.

Given what I've seen so far, he should resign.

Well, a number of Republicans and Democrats are arguing that he should be expelled for this misconduct.

He exploited his younger staffers. I don't think that he brings dishonor to the House of Representatives.

But Speaker Johnson says, if you all want to pursue discipline, the way to handle this is the way we always handle this. Let's send this issue to the Ethics Committee. They can investigate it. We'll see what they say and we'll go from there.

Basically, the speaker is arguing, despite the pressure, angry calls for more severe action, look, there is a process that needs to be followed, which on the one hand, that is true. It makes complete sense because it allows for members to have due process. But on the other hand, he's already admitted to breaking the rules. And as you said earlier, going through a full investigative process is traditionally pretty slow. That's right.

That's what he's saying publicly. But I think a lot of people who cover the Hill and a lot of the members of Congress themselves look at this and think there's something else going on here. And that's politics. Because at this point, Speaker Mike Johnson is looking at a very narrow majority in the House. If he wants to pass through major legislation, he can really only afford to lose 1 or 2 votes. And losing González would make it even harder for him to push through major agenda items. [SPANISH] And so there are a lot of questions about whether this is a question of due process and is this about thorough investigation or is this about politics? That's an open question, and that's where things remain. Until the news about Eric Swalwell breaks.

We'll be right back. So, Michael, to the extent that people know about Eric Swalwell, what they might know is that he's a Democrat. He's often on TV taking on the Trump administration. But tell us a little bit more about him, like his rise in politics and these accusations against him.

So Eric Swalwell is a Democrat from Northern California, from around San Francisco Bay Area.

With over 80% of precincts reporting, I am proud to say that new energy and ideas are coming to Washington, D.C.

And he comes to Congress in 2013. It's very exciting.

This morning we got the keys to the office.

Ends up on the House Intelligence Committee, which is a pretty plum assignment for a lot of lawmakers. Briefly runs for president in 2020, which starts to elevate his profile. But he really becomes a major figure in the party the following year in 2021, when he serves as an impeachment manager during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

But we have a case to make, and whether it's tonight or it's in two weeks, the evidence won't change. The president incited our citizens to attack our Capitol. And once that happened—

And from there, he becomes kind of a fixture on MSNBC.

Donald Trump is a broken man who has broken all of his promises, and we're all starting to pay for it. And we're going to be a broken country pretty soon.

He becomes kind of the face and kind of a golden boy of Democratic politics. Our next guest is a popular member of the House. He does battle daily with the forces of MAGA. Please welcome Congressman Eric Swalwell. He's very, very prominent. And—

I came here tonight, Jimmy, to tell you and your audience that I'm running to be the next governor of California.

00:11:59

He decides to run for governor of California this year. And partially because of his media profile, because he's been on TV so much, because he's become one of the leading anti-Trump figures in the party. New polling shows East Bay Representative Eric Swalwell gaining a lead in the governor's race. He very quickly becomes a frontrunner in this race. Mm-hmm. And the primary in that election's in June. And it looks like Swalwell is gonna be one of the top contenders until— New tonight, CNN with exclusive reporting about Congressman Eric Swalwell. These accusations of sexual misconduct break this month.

And explain those accusations.

I kept figuring out ways to blame myself. I shouldn't have reached out to him at all. I should have left. I should have done this. Well, Eric shouldn't have raped me.

So in articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and on CNN, Swalwell is accused of sexually assaulting a former aide.

I went to the bathroom, and I don't remember anything after that. You don't remember anything? I remember the next day. I can see flashes of that evening, of him on top of me, me pushing him off. Him grabbing me. It was a lot more aggressive. It was aggressive. Did you say no? Yes, I said no. I said—

I— and he is accused of sexual harassment and misconduct against other women who say that he used his position to pursue sexual relationships with them, send them nude photos, and generally behaved inappropriately.

A lot has been said about me today through anonymous allegations, and I thought it was important that you see and hear from me directly. These allegations of sexual assault are flat false.

They are absolutely false. And Swalwell denies all these accusations. He denies them right after the articles come out last Friday. They did not happen.

They have never happened. And I will fight them with everything that I have.

He insists that he plans to fight them. But these articles, when they came out, were shocking. I mean, they're really shocking for a lot of people, Republicans and Democrats alike. And almost immediately, he starts to lose support. A number of Democrats, basically all of them who had endorsed his campaign for governor, withdraw their endorsements, and many of them are calling for him to drop out. And the House knows that they're gonna have to deal with these accusations when they return to session. And that also puts the spotlight back on Tony González. Right. And I think it's worth mentioning that in the time since that first accusation, that González has admitted to, he also faces a new accusation that he engaged in similar sexual misconduct with a former campaign aide. And González has not addressed that allegation.

So at this point in time, we now have two members of Congress facing very serious allegations of sexual misconduct.

We do. And I think it's worth pointing out that one of them, Eric Swalwell, is a Democrat, and one of them, Tony González, is a Republican. Hmm. And so over the weekend, Representative Ana Paulina Luna, who is a Republican from Florida, kind of a MAGA acolyte, very much in that mold, and Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez, who's a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, start talking. And these women say that these allegations are serious and they would like to expel both of these men from Congress. And they know that that's a more practical approach because essentially You can take out one Democrat, take out one Republican, and the numbers pretty much remain the same politically. Mm-hmm.

So just to be clear, these accusations are very serious. They are being taken very seriously. But there is also a political calculation that is influencing what is happening in Congress in this moment.

That's right. And these allegations against Swalwell and Gonzalez sort of set off a chain reaction. And so now people are looking at misconduct allegations against two other members of Congress, one Democrat and one Republican.

And tell us about them.

00:15:59

So the Republican is Cory Mills from Florida. And Mills is facing a number of accusations that he might have violated campaign finance rules, that he threatened to release revenge porn of an ex of his. There are some questions about assault allegations. There are a whole host of behavioral issues that are being explored with Cory Mills. And the Democrat is Sheila Sheffalys McCormick. She's from Florida. And she was accused by federal prosecutors of embezzling money from FEMA and putting that money into her campaign. And the House Ethics Committee has also been investigating her, and they've been investigating her for 2 years, and earlier this year released a report that found substantial evidence that she had committed crimes.

We should just point out here that there's obviously a huge gulf between these types of accusations you've just described. We've got 3 men with a host of sexual misconduct allegations against them. We've got a woman with embezzlement allegations against her, but all 4 of them in this moment are basically being lumped in together. And I just want to add, both Mills and McCormick have also denied any wrongdoing.

Yeah, there's a sense in which the accusations against Swalwell and Gonzalez have really drawn attention to misconduct in the House. And at the same time, there are these two other members who are facing very serious misconduct allegations. And now you have two Democrats and two Republicans, all of whom are kind of bound up in this push by members of the House to demonstrate to their constituents that they take accusations seriously and they are very concerned about the conduct of their colleagues. [Speaker:LULU] So what happens? [Speaker:LULU] So that brings us to Monday. It's clear by Monday that Democrats will move to expel Tony González, Republicans will move to expel Swalwell, and everyone is expecting that if those votes go through, Republicans will try to expel Sheila Sheffele-McCormick and Democrats will try to expel Cori Mills. [Speaker:LATIF] Hmm. [Speaker:LULU] And that the House would be taking these extraordinary actions potentially getting rid of 4 members before all of them have had their thorough investigations. [Speaker:LULU] And that would be unprecedented, right?

4 people at once expelled?

00:18:02

Yeah, think about it. It was 6 over 200-some years, and then to have 4 at once would have been absolutely incredible. [Speaker:LULU] Wow. [Speaker:JAD] But that decision ends up being taken out of members' hands because Eric Swalwell, after ending his campaign for governor, is still facing significant pressure. And he announces on Monday that he's going to resign from Congress. In his resignation letter, Swalwell writing, I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. I will fight these serious false allegations made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make. And then about an hour later, Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez also announcing on social media he plans to resign. Tony Gonzalez announces that he'll be doing the same.

Michael, does it strike you as sort of unlikely that the two of them would suddenly and sort of coincidentally have both decided to resign at roughly the same time? Like, what do we know about how they both came to that decision in that moment? That's a great question.

I think we're still reporting on this, but there was a sense that Swalwell's position was increasingly untenable, that so many Democrats had abandoned him. And then a number of Democratic women said explicitly, "I will vote to oust Eric Swalwell, and I will also vote to oust Tony Gonzalez." And you had a number of Republican women saying the same. "Both of these men have committed serious accusations of misconduct that I find credible, and I'm going to get rid of them both." But there's a sense that members don't want to have to take votes like this. Even when they feel like it's a cut-and-dry situation, they don't want to vote to expel any of their colleagues without due process. Because they don't know if someday they'll be accused of something in a newspaper article that they might have to defend themselves about.

Since Swalwell resigned, there was another woman who came forward in a press conference on Tuesday with accusations against him. And I wonder whether there was a possibility that Swalwell will face any criminal consequences relating to any of these accusations from any of these women.

Yeah, so the press conference, uh, that you're talking about was happening as Swalwell was filing his resignation letter.

My name is Lana Lana Drewes. In 2018, while I was living and working as a model in Beverly Hills, and I also owned a fashion software company, I had contact with Eric Swalwell on 3 separate occasions after meeting him socially.

And, uh, this woman, Lana Drewes, came forward publicly. On the third occasion, "I believe he drugged my drink." And said that Swalwell drugged and sexually assaulted her.

"He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness, and I thought I died." And this was difficult to hear.

I think it continued to shock many people.

And I stand with the other women who have come forward, and I will be making a report to law enforcement shortly with my attorneys.

Her lawyer said that they would be sharing that evidence with law enforcement, so it's very possible that he will face a criminal investigation in that case. And we should note that he denied these allegations as well through his lawyer. That's right. And we also know that the Manhattan District Attorney is investigating one of the accusations that he raped a woman in 2024 in a hotel room in New York. And if there are more accusers, it's entirely possible that we'll see more criminal investigations come forward.

00:21:43

The resignations of these two men, Tony Gonzalez, Eric Swalwell, it's hard not to see those resignations as effectively shielding Congress from having to decide what to do with them, right? Like, they basically got to choose in some form or fashion their own fate rather than having Congress punish them, take some kind of action about them. I know that we can't predict what might have happened. But based on all of your experience reporting on the Hill, Michael, I wonder, do you think that Congress would have actually voted to expel these members had push come to shove?

I generally hesitate to make absolute predictions when it comes to Congress, and the vote to expel a member is a high bar. It's a two-thirds majority, which is not easy to clear. It took three tries for them to expel George Santos. At the same time, I think the nature of the accusations against Swalwell and the fact that Gonzalez admitted to misconduct would have made it really easy for a lot of members to vote them out. And there was a sense that there was an eye for an eye here, that it wasn't as hard of a choice when you knew that you could take out a Republican and a Democrat at the same time and the balance of power wouldn't shift.

So the upshot of that is what, Michael, that accountability is only possible when it's politically palatable?

I think that's a question that members of Congress are really going to have to answer for themselves this week. And they're still living in the fallout that these two resignations have created. Because when you look at Tony Gonzalez, the accusation didn't change. His admission of violating this rule didn't change. But what changed is there was finally a Democrat that they could pair him with and take both of them out. And Congress is gonna continue confronting this issue because Sheila Sheffilis McCormick, the Democrat from Florida, she has an ethics hearing next week. And it's entirely possible that the Ethics Committee will recommend that Congress expel her, and there will be a vote on the House floor. That would put Democrats down a vote. And they're gonna have to decide what to do about that. And all the while, Cory Mills is still being investigated by the committee. And a lot of Democrats would like to see action taken against him too. So I think this brings us back to where we started, which is what do you do when a member of Congress is accused of misconduct? Do you leave it to the voters to decide their fate?

Put it in their hands because they're the ones who elect their representatives? Or do you say enough is enough? Do you take matters into your own hands, decide to expel them and punish them for their actions, and take that will away from the American people?

Michael Gold, thank you so much.

Thanks, Rachel.

¡Gracias! We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today: Israel agreed to a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would pause attacks targeting Hezbollah, but that Israeli troops would not withdraw. The truce, which began at 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, could remove a major hurdle to broader talks to end the U.S.-Iran war. And the Trump administration has selected Dr. Erika Schwartz, a physician and vaccine supporter who served as a deputy surgeon general during President Trump's first term, to become the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Schwartz's views on vaccines are much more conventional than those of her boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who faced tough questioning from Democrats during a congressional budget hearing on Thursday. [SPANISH] Today's episode was produced by Caitlin O'Keefe Anna Foley, Eric Krupke, and Rachelle Bonja. It was edited by Rachel Quester and Liz O'Balen, and contains music by Alicia Weetube and Marian Lozano. Our theme music is by Wonderly. The episode was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. That's it for The Daily. I'm Rachel Abrams. See you on Sunday.