Right Wing Trains Its Eyes on Ruben Gallego in Wake of Swalwell’s Resignation

In the wake of Congressman Eric Swalwell’s resignation from the House due to accusations of sexual assault and harassment, many on the right are trying to tie Senator Ruben Gallego — a potential 2028 presidential candidate and longtime friend of Mr. Swalwell’s — to the disgraced former lawmaker. Mr. Gallego has never been accused of any form of sexual harassment or misconduct, nor has he faced any complaints about his behavior toward his staff since coming to Capitol Hill more than a decade ago. He says he was blindsided by the accusations against his longtime friend. “There’s a lot of rumors going around about me, about my family, and, you know, unfortunately this is not the first time. I had to deal with the same B.S. in 2024 and 2023 when [Republicans] ran millions and millions of dollars [in ads] of smears against me,” Mr. Gallego told reporters during a lengthy press event in his office on Tuesday. Messrs. Gallego and Swalwell both were elected to the House in the latter half of the Obama administration, and developed a close bond during their tenure. When Mr. Swalwell announced he would run for president in 2019, Mr. Gallego was named as his campaign co-chairman, which surprised many people. In an interview with Fox 10 Phoenix in 2019, Mr. Gallego said he and Mr. Swalwell were the “best of friends” who had babysat each other’s children. “I know his heart. He also wants somebody, I think, in his camp that’s gonna look out for him and also keep him honest,” Mr. Gallego said at the time. That friendship seemingly vanished overnight, however. Once it was alleged that Mr. Swalwell had sexually assaulted a staffer on two occasions, Mr. Gallego made clear that he could no longer stand beside his longtime friend. Less than two hours after the report came out, Mr. Gallego called on Mr. Swalwell to suspend his campaign for governor of California. Just 48 hours later, he said Mr. Swalwell should be expelled from the House. As Mr. Swalwell crashed and burned, many conservatives tried to tie Mr. Gallego not just to his former friend, but to the crimes Mr. Swalwell had allegedly committed. The chief political strategist for President Trump’s 2024 campaign, Chris LaCivita, claimed on X that there is an “oppo file” on Mr. Gallego that would soon be released. Without offering any specifics, Mr. Gallego’s opponent in the 2024 Arizona Senate campaign, Kari Lake, said the senator had spent “years … harassing women” and that the “truth” would soon come out. By Wednesday, conservatives’ unspecified allegations against Mr. Gallego had made their way to the White House briefing room. In the “new media seat” at the White House on Wednesday was Jack Posobiec, an ally of Steve Bannon and editor at Human Events who famously helped spread the “Pizzagate” conspiracy. One of his questions to the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was about Mr. Gallego and how he had been a proponent of releasing the Epstein files. “I think it’s … quite plausible, as you point out, Jack, that there were many other Democrats in this town, on Capitol Hill, who knew about [Mr. Swalwell’s] perhaps illegal behavior,” Ms. Leavitt said. Every Democrat in the House who has been asked if they knew about Mr. Swalwell’s alleged misconduct has said they were blindsided by the Chronicle’s reporting. “Why were they silent for so long? I think those are questions that must be raised of these sitting representatives, including Mr. Gallego, and I hope that the … journalists on Capitol Hill will do their jobs to ask Democrats in power how they knew about such despicable behavior from one of their elected representatives for so long, but never said or did anything about it,” Ms. Leavitt said. Mr. Gallego has long been criticized by his opponents for divorcing his pregnant wife in 2017, though records reviewed by the Arizona Republic show that there were no allegations of abuse or infidelity in the marriage. Mr. Gallego and his ex-wife, Kate Gallego, who is currently serving as the mayor of Phoenix, have maintained a good relationship, and she supported him in his 2024 run for the Senate. During his event with reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Gallego seemed to grow emotional, saying he had been lied to by his friend. When a whisper campaign began online from anonymous left-leaning accounts, Mr. Gallego said, he asked Mr. Swalwell about rumors that he had behaved inappropriately toward women. Mr. Gallego said he believed his friend when he said that the rumors were untrue. “My family and his family were as close as it gets,” Mr. Gallego told reporters. “This man led a double life. He lied to us. He lied to his family. He lied to his constituents.”“I was manipulated, I was lied to, and everyone else was, too,” he said.

Right Wing Trains Its Eyes on Ruben Gallego in Wake of Swalwell’s Resignation

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