The “sexual assault allegations are flat false,” he said in a video statement published on Friday. “They are absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have.”

The embattled lawmaker and leading gubernatorial candidate appeared to confess to extramarital impropriety, while rejecting any claim of non-consensual activity: “I’ve certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past, but those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position,” he added.

A campaign spokesperson also lashed out, ripping the accusations as a “false, outrageous rumor” that was being “spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists” to derail Swalwell’s status in the race for governor. 

Many Democrats have publicly denounced Swalwell, demanding that he immediately drop his bid for higher office, given the severity of the charges. Precious few, however, have also insisted that he resign his congressional seat.

It seems the “seriousness of the allegations” standard rises to the level of “you must stop running for governor,” but not “you must get out of Congress,” each of which happens to align with the perceived political interests of Swalwell’s political party. The balance-of-power margin is razor-thin in the House of Representatives, after all.  

If Swalwell’s protestations of innocence regarding sexual assault and disqualifying misconduct are true (as opposed to infidelity and impropriety, the distinction he appears to be drawing), he had better hope the public does not hold him to what might be described as the “Eric Swalwell Rules” on such matters.

In 2018, when his party was attempting to bring down Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, the opportunistic and preening California representative and would-be presidential aspirant loudly adopted the party line. “100% #BelieveSurvivors,” he tweeted.

Referring to accusers as “survivors” bakes in the assumption that they are telling the truth and have survived what they’ve alleged. For many, that’s a fair assumption; for others, it’s not. The notion that “all women,” or all “survivors,” must always be believed was, and still is, dangerously absurd. Serious accusations should be taken seriously, investigated, and tested by evidence. But ‘Me Too’ sloganeering and dogmas were eagerly embraced by Swalwell et al.  

Incidentally, it’s very much worth noting that none of the allegations against Kavanaugh were substantively corroborated, let alone confirmed. Most were not even credible, as several were affirmatively discredited, including the appalling “gang rape” smear that prompted the Senate Democratic leader and every Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat to call on Kavanaugh to withdraw. 

It was a disgraceful circus. The lone, arguably plausible claim against the now-justice came from a woman whose “star witness” ultimately disavowed the witch hunt, stating that the accuser’s team had bullied her to lie on their behalf.

None of this mattered to the ideologically-motivated mob (which included one of said accuser’s own lawyers, as ultimately admitted). To this braying, bad-faith pack, appeals to reason, fairness, and evidence were attacked as a de facto rape apology. It was a grotesque and radicalizing spectacle that thankfully failed.

It also backfired politically, contributing to Republicans gaining Senate seats in the subsequent election cycle, despite an unfavorable electoral climate that otherwise yielded a blue wave. Those upper chamber gains ultimately furnished the GOP with the requisite votes to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett two years later, following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

As the hysterical anti-Kavanaugh tornado was churning, Swalwell was gearing up for an ill-fated White House run. As was politically required at the time, the knee-jerk partisan declared in a televised interview, “for Brett Kavanaugh’s sake, if he is innocent, I hope tomorrow he opens his statement and says, ‘You know what? Bring in all the victims, all of them to be questioned.’ That will clear his name if he is indeed innocent.”

By contrast, Swalwell’s attorney fired off a cease and desist letter on Friday, including a defamation lawsuit threat, against his client’s principal accuser (or his “survivor,” as Swalwell would have labeled her, under different circumstances). George Washington University Constitutional Law professor Jonathan Turley pointed out on social media that the troubled left-wing congressman is currently reduced to hoping voters and other observers “will apply a different standard than the one he applied to Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation … when Kavanaugh was asserting his innocence, Swalwell was leading the mob.”

Karma, one might argue, has at last caught up with the young Democrat.

Interestingly, California journalist Steven Tavares has belatedly authored a public epitaph for Swalwell’s career, signaling that the congressman’s era of “news” media protection has indeed come to an end:

“I’ve covered Eric Swawell [sic] since he was a member of the Dublin City Council. Shortly after being elected to Congress in 2013, his behavior towards women was known by all levels of our local government and the Alameda County Democratic Party,” Tavares wrote, prompting many to ask why such ostensibly widely known conduct was never addressed or reported over more than a decade. 

Some observers noted that the Alameda County Democratic Party, the leaders of which are now said to have all been keenly aware of Swalwell’s proclivities, endorsed him for governor. Funny, that.

Setting aside the apparent, delicious comeuppance at play, those who wish to maintain consistency and integrity on matters related to sexual accusations must afford Swalwell (and the women making claims against him) the same considerations and criteria that Swalwell and his political allies have aggressively rejected in service of their political agenda. His brazen, myopic hackery doesn’t change how such things ought to be properly approached.

THE REAL REASON FERTILITY IS FALLING

As this man is being discarded by his erstwhile allies, perhaps he’ll be forced to meditate on how his rabid partisanship and hypocrisy helped set the stage for this self-inflicted and likely career-ending dilemma. He survived a previous brush with (deserved, frankly) political death because he was still seen as viable and useful within his own tribe’s coalition. Both his viability and usefulness now seem to have expired, and now he’s mired in a predicament entirely of his own making.

An inclination toward acute schadenfreude is undoubtedly tempting here, and is at least somewhat permissible. But the facts and evidence, which seem rather grim for Swalwell, still matter most.