Michael Tracey@mtracey
One of the four women whom CNN characterizes as alleging "sexual misconduct" by Eric Swalwell was essentially an adult woman whom Swalwell asked on a date, she agreed, they meet up, drink alcoholic beverages, end up having sex, and then she starts to feel bad about it because he's married.
Although the anonymous adult woman says she felt "emotionally vulnerable" after the hookup, she continued to send him "friendly messages," and told him he would make an "amazing governor."
That's it. If you want to expose and moralistically opine on the private sexual activity of adults, that's your prerogative I guess, but lumping it under the umbrella of "sexual misconduct" is preposterous. There's nothing non-consensual even alleged here. The woman only "came forward" when she started hearing rumors on social media about Swalwell's other flings.
Sure, it looks like the guy was cheating on his wife. If you want to bombastically scold him for that, go ahead I guess, but it's also trivially common behavior (see also: the current governor of California, the current president of the United States). To vaguely categorize it as somehow constituting RAPE (or even "misconduct") is an assault on the English language, common sense, and public rationality. Did no one learn ANYTHING from the embarrassing excesses of "MeToo"?
Below is the entire CNN excerpt chronicling the anonymous woman's story. (This adult woman DID NOT work for Swalwell in any capacity.) Feel free to explain how it's anything other than what I've described above, despite the obvious selectivity in how CNN assembled their ridiculous reportage. Surely there must've been plenty of additional details strategically omitted in service of the narrative CNN decided to concoct, in collusion with the Dem activists and "influencers" who ginned up this whole fiasco.
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CNN, April 10, 2026
‘All you did was harm me’
Another woman, who had an interest in Democratic politics, said she began messaging with Swalwell online in 2025 after responding to one of his Instagram stories, joking that she might run for office herself. A couple of days later, she said, Swalwell followed her and encouraged her to get involved in politics. He later sent her his phone number.
The woman and Swalwell began texting over several weeks, including late at night, discussing politics and their previous work experience as bartenders, screenshots of messages she shared with CNN show. She said she was shocked that a congressman was paying her attention. “I kind of almost felt like I was getting catfished,” she said.
In spring 2025, Swalwell said he happened to be coming to her city and asked to meet. He asked for her suggestions for a hotel and places to go, the messages show.
Swalwell and the woman met for dinner and drinks at a steakhouse. She said she told her mother about the meeting with Swalwell in advance, and her mother confirmed that in an interview with CNN. Swalwell asked her about her work history in what seemed almost like a job interview, she recalled.
Partway through their conversation, Swalwell told her that he had to do a CNN interview, and went back to his hotel room. As he was waiting for his live TV hit, Swalwell texted her a photo asking her how he looked, according to a screenshot she provided to CNN. That photo matched Swalwell’s appearance in the interview, and Swalwell also told the CNN anchor that he was visiting the city where the woman lived, according to CNN’s recording.
Afterward, Swalwell took the woman to another bar, where they sat in a back booth, she said. “He was sitting against me, and so I kind of moved away from him, and every time that I would move away from him, he would get closer to me,” she remembered. He touched her leg and ordered a drink for her.
The woman said she tried to turn the conversation to her partner and Swalwell’s wife and children, but Swalwell continued to touch her. She began to get more intoxicated and felt “really fuzzy,” even accidentally walking into the men’s bathroom in the bar, she said.
After she returned to the booth, Swalwell kissed her, she said. “I was shocked that he would do that right in the middle of a public bar,” she said. She said she told him it was wrong, but didn’t want to burn a bridge with a prominent congressman, so she stayed at the bar even as she was getting more intoxicated.
The woman said she then ended up in Swalwell’s hotel room without any memory of how she got there. She said that her memory of what happened in Swalwell’s hotel room is “a blur.” She ended up leaving the hotel at 5:41 a.m., according to a screenshot of an Uber receipt she provided to CNN.
The next day, she said, Swalwell sent her disappearing iPhone voice messages saying that he wanted to ensure that his wife didn’t find out about what happened, she said.
She felt emotionally vulnerable and distraught in the following weeks, she said, telling her mother about a month after the fact about what had happened, and later telling two close friends. All three confirmed to CNN in interviews that she had shared her story with them. One friend said that she told them about her experience with Swalwell in December 2025, while the other said she could not remember when specifically she was told.
She said she told Swalwell that she felt “really disgusted and ashamed” about what happened, but he continued contacting her, including offering to use his position to help her renew her passport or saying he could write her a letter of recommendation for her law school applications.
A few days before he announced his gubernatorial bid in November, he texted her, asking how she was, according to screenshots she provided to CNN. The following month, she sent him a long message telling him that “all you did was harm me,” and asking him not to contact her again.
“I won’t bother you again!” Swalwell responded. “Sorry.”
The woman said she continued to stay in touch with Swalwell after that, however, exchanging some friendly messages with him, in what she likened to Stockholm syndrome.
In the cease-and-desist letter to the woman, Swalwell’s lawyer argued that some of these text messages, including one in which she said “you would be an amazing governor,” raised doubt about her account.
The woman told CNN she decided to speak out about what happened to her after hearing rumors about other women accusing Swalwell of misconduct, and realizing she wasn’t alone.
“I suffered a lot in silence. … I had no desire to ever come after him or ever come out saying something,” she said. But she concluded that Swalwell “used my vulnerabilities and the fact that I looked up to him to be able to get something from it,” she added.
