On Thursday morning, California representative Eric Swalwell mocked Sen. Susan Collins for noting during a radio interview that her office had received some “pretty ugly voicemails [and] threats” in relation to the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
“Boo hoo hoo,” Swalwell wrote, in a since-deleted tweet. “You’re a senator who police will protect. A sexual assault victim can’t sleep in her home tonight because of threats. Where are you sleeping? She’s on her own while you and your Senate GOP colleagues try to rush her through a hearing.”
Swalwell, a 37-year-old Democrat, apologized after he was criticized publicly for the tweet by CNN’s Jake Tapper (among others). But even his walkback is a case study in how politicians popping off based on misinterpretations of incomplete web content is now a feature of the American political system beyond the White House.
It’s necessary to peel back every layer of this silly episode to understand how it grew. Here are the first three:
(1) The Hill partially quoted a snippet of a 15-minute interview that Collins gave to a local radio station on Wednesday. Its story was headlined, “Collins: My office has gotten ‘pretty ugly voicemails, threats’ over Kavanaugh.”
(2) The Hill tweeted the headline with a link to the story.
(3) Swalwell then quote-tweeted the headline and posted his “Boo hoo hoo” message.
Let’s pause for a moment to fill in some information gaps. The Hill’s story framed Collins’s remark as a newsworthy follow-up to “reports earlier this month in which aides for the moderate senator detailed calls and voicemails Collins’ office has been receiving as the battle over Kavanaugh kicked into high gear.” This angle wasn’t apparent from the headline.
What was apparent is that many Twitter users interpreted Collins as complaining in a tone-deaf fashion—the Hill’s tweet racked up a tasty ratio of 2,200 responses against 350 retweets. Many of the people responding presumably didn’t place her comments in context. You have to assume that this is what Swalwell did, too, because here’s what Collins and the host said at various points during the interview:
HOST: “Well, there’s been too much of that going on. You’re familiar with it in your office and this is horrible, what she’s going through.” . . .
COLLINS: “I think [Ford] needs to come forward, and I think we need to provide her with any protection that she may ask for, for herself and her family. I would note that Judge Kavanaugh has received some threats, and goodness knows—and I don’t mean to equate myself with either of them—but my office has received some pretty ugly voicemails, threats, terrible things said to my staff. So this has been a very ugly process, and I think that’s very unfortunate for everybody involved.”
So contra Swalwell, Collins was (a) expressing concern for her staff, not herself; (b) sharing Swalwell’s disgust with the threats against Ford; and (c) went out of her way to say that the threats against her and Judge Kavanaugh are not on the same level, but instead are a smaller part of an ugly political situation. Oh, and (d) that Ford should get protection because of the threats she’s under.
But back to the layers.
(4) Jake Tapper then tweeted that “[m]aybe all such threats are bad and should be taken seriously and not mocked?” Leading to . . .
(5) Swalwell responding:
Yes. No one should make threats. This is a democracy: Be loud and be heard. We don’t use violence. I didn’t mean to suggest that. But I’m pissed how this victim’s safety has been ignored and a rush to confirm has been prioritized. Why not offer the witness security? https://t.co/xzds16EuRx
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) September 20, 2018
Record scratch, pause, replay: Again, here’s what Collins actually said: “I think we need to provide [Ford] with any protection that she may ask for, for herself and her family.”
(6) Tapper then notes this fact. Leading us, finally, to . . .
(7) Swalwell announcing he’s deleted the original tweet and offers a full apology for “minimiz[ing] ugly behavior.”
If you think this story is bad enough already, then please, for the love of the Almighty, don’t read the comments. Because throughout the ordeal, there were tweeters praising Swalwell’s initial message and spreading it: “It wasn’t stupid & didn’t minimize anything- it was honest & got straight to the point, which is that it’s absurd for a sitting Sen. to be basically whining about her treatment while simultaneously brushing aside a possible victim of sexual assault who’s receiving death threats,” wrote one representative replay. Which is, to coin a phrase, simply fake news.
Then there were the people castigating Tapper for trying to set the record straight: “It’s always nice to read the thoughts of middle aged white men on all this,” went one response.
And then there were the gentle souls on the right who kept riding Swalwell even after he offered what was, by political standards, an unusually direct apology: “You got called out by @jaketapper @cnn and you knew that it would be all over the media once they picked it up. This is the playbook of the left. Smear, tarnish, threaten, etc.”
Lather, rinse, repeat. This is how the public square operates these days. Which is always unfortunate, but is particularly so when the matter at hand is a subject deserving judiciousness, reason, and a good-faith commitment to accuracy.
