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Fellow Democrats urge Swalwell to quit California governor’s race and resign from Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fellow Democrats are abandoning Eric Swalwell’s campaign for California governor in droves after allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted a former staffer, with a growing number urging the congressman both to quit the race and resign his seat in Congress.
Swalwell has denied the allegations, which he has said “are absolutely false.” They surfaced after he became a leading contender in the race for California governor to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Over the weekend, with Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign already teetering, Democrats in Congress began to call for his resignation from the House. Some even said they would support the rare step of expelling him should he refuse to step aside.
Fellow California Reps. Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna and Sam Liccardo said Swalwell should resign, as did Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico and Pramila Jayapal of Washington state.
“This is not a partisan issue,” Jayapal said Sunday. “This cuts across party lines. And it is depravity of the way that women have been treated.”
Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment
It all added to the mounting political pressure on Swalwell, who has already seen his most prominent supporters, including Sen. Adam Schiff and powerful labor unions, pull their endorsements and call for his exit from the race. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., who helped run Swalwell’s campaign, said he was immediately ending his role.
With the House returning to session Tuesday, the question of whether to expel Swalwell could come to a head quickly. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said Saturday that she would be filing a motion to start the process.
Expulsion votes in the House are rare and require a two-thirds majority, but there is recent precedent for taking the step. Republican George Santos of New York in 2023 became just the sixth member in House history to be ousted by colleagues for his conduct.
Huffman, Jayapal and Leger Fernández said they would vote to expel Swalwell from the House, though they said they also support expelling Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who admitted to an affair with a former staff member who later died by suicide.
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, who is running his own campaign for governor, said both Swalwell and Gonzales “need to go home” and that he would vote to expel them both.
Khanna also indicated support for congressional action against both lawmakers.
“So, it depends on if it’s worded in a fair way,” Khanna said. “But this shouldn’t be about politics. Anyone who abuses young girls and staffers should not be in the United States Congress.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday about allegations that Swalwell sexually assaulted a woman in 2019 and 2024. The woman said she did not go to police at the time of the assaults because she was afraid she would not be believed.
The woman worked for Swalwell when the first alleged assault occurred in 2019, while the 2024 assault allegedly occurred at a charity gala, the Chronicle reported. In both cases the woman said she was too intoxicated to consent to sex.
The paper didn’t name the woman, and The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify her account and identity. Her lawyer declined to comment.
The alleged 2024 incident occurred in New York, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Saturday that it was investigating. That office urged anyone with knowledge to contact its special victims division.
After the allegations surfaced, Swalwell said Friday in a video on social media that he would spend the weekend with family and friends and share an update “very soon.” He is not running for reelection for his House seat.
“These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They’re absolutely false. They did not happen, they have never happened, and I will fight them with everything that I have,” the congressman said.
Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker who remains a dominant force in California politics, said the “serious allegations” must be investigated. She said she spoke to Swalwell and suggested that be done “outside of a gubernatorial campaign.”
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and his leadership team also called for an investigation and for Swalwell to end his campaign for governor.
Jayapal and Donalds appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and Khanna was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday.”
Her opponent at the Babson fight night was her Harvard teammate Muskaan Sandhu, 18, a freshman, who had sparred before. No one likes getting hit, Ms. Sandhu said, but she liked learning that she could take a punch.
It made her feel she could do anything. “After the fight, I never felt so capable in my life,” she said.
Modern life — lived on screens or amid the constant distraction of screens — can feel isolating. She sees boxing as a way to engage with people. “You feel really human,” she said. “You feel a connection with the person you’re fighting. Like we’re in this together.”
Mr. Lake said he intended for Harvard’s club to join the National Collegiate Boxing Association, a nonprofit that provides structure and safety rules. The N.C.B.A. represents about 840 athletes, an 18 percent increase from a year ago, said the group’s president, George Chamberlain, who coaches the University of Iowa’s boxing club.
The well-attended fight night at Babson, which also included boxers from Brandeis University, reflected the growing interest.
Before it began, a volunteer passed out waiver documents. Most of the boxers immediately flipped to the end and signed. Mr. Jiang, of Harvard, appeared to be the only one who read it.
He was a mixed martial arts fan who resolved to try a combat sport in college. “I like the technique side of it,” Mr. Jiang said of boxing, “the science behind the sport.”
His fight plan, he explained, was to control the action with his jab and occasionally throw the right hand, to maintain good defense and try to tire out his opponent.
It seemed a solid strategy — though, as the heavyweight Mike Tyson famously noted, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
A Frontier Airlines plane hit a person on the runway of Denver’s international airport during takeoff, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate, authorities said.
The plane, headed to Los Angeles, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff” at about 11.19pm on Friday, the Denver airport’s official X account wrote.
Neither the airport nor the airline has disclosed the person’s condition.
“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot of the plane involved told the control tower at one point, according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot told the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board – and that an “individual was walking across the runway”.
The air traffic controller responded that they were “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot told the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft”.
“We are going to evacuate on the runway,” the pilot added.
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision – and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff”. It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the person.
The plane, an Airbus A321, “was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members”, the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”
Passengers were then evacuated using slides, and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal.
Denver’s airport said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had been notified and that runway 17L – where the incident took place – will remain closed while an investigation is conducted.
Friday’s episode at Denver’s airport came one day after a Delta Airline employee died on Thursday night at Orlando’s international airport when a vehicle struck a jet bridge next to an airplane with passengers onboard, as the local news outlet WESH reported.
Meanwhile, on 3 May, a United Airlines plane arriving in Newark, New Jersey, from Venice, Italy, clipped a delivery truck and a light pole, which in turn struck a Jeep. Only the delivery truck driver was injured, but the plane was damaged extensively and the NTSB classified the case as an accident while also opening an investigation.
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