By The New York Post Editorial Board
Rep. Eric Swalwell finally quit Congress on Monday amid accusations of rape and sexual abuses, but the larger scandal is how long he got away with it.
Fellow Democrats kept mum for years, though his sleazy behavior toward women has reportedly been long known; nor did the left-leaning media in California or Washington investigate the rumors — even after he notoriously fell for a Chinese “honeypot” agent.
Dems plainly only turned on Swalwell in a bid to thin the field in California’s gubernatorial race, where two Republicans now lead the nonpartisan “jungle” primary and so might lock out the donkeys in the November runoff.
Swalwell denied the allegations but suspended his campaign Sunday and left Congress a day later, yet the accusations involve events that go back years.
And if his slimy conduct was an open secret, why didn’t Dems — champions of the #MeToo movement — step up sooner?
They said bupkis as Swalwell ran for Congress seven times.
They let him play a key role in the Trump impeachment probes.
They went radio silent when he got caught as the target of a Chinese-spy honeypot.
Nor did they voice any qualms even when he ran for president in 2019.
Back then, of course, he was a reliable, Trump-hating partisan Democrat.
Then eight Democrats wound up in a scrum of a gov’s race — not only opening the door for a Republican-vs.-Republican general election, but also embarrassing the state’s diversity-obsessed elites because the top candidates were all … white.
USC-KABC debate actually got canceled at the last minute because no minority candidate made the minimum-polling cutoff: the horror!
Swalwell was the top Dem, with 12% support, per an Evitarus poll this month — but it turned out the insiders knew exactly how to force him out; now they can hope one of the remaining Democrats can get traction to make the runoff.
Then again, another top Dem, ex-Rep. Katie Porter, has her own personal issues: Her ex-husband claimed she’d physically abused him, though she denied it, and multiple videos show her bullying her staff.
But the party and its pet media will likely keep ignoring all that, just as they ignored Swalwell’s flaws all these years; he likely could’ve stayed in the House another decade if he’d stayed out of the gov’s race.
No, overlooking a candidate’s personal failings isn’t a Democrats-only thing — but candidates on the left sure have better luck keeping such dirt under wraps.
For all their #MeToo histrionics, Dems and their media allies put their hunger for power far above any concerns for the rights of real women.
Eric Swalwell rape allegations are only the tip of this Democrat-media scandal https://t.co/mnycB7EZpD pic.twitter.com/u8btuF6DYc
— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) April 13, 2026
