Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, April fourteenth, and on the day that Congress came back from recess, not one but two members of the House of Representatives said they would be resigning. These two guys just happy to be accused of behaving pretty badly. One of them is even possibly facing a criminal charge. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Well.
These things sure developed quickly, Robes. Oh yeah, there's a shutdown, by the way, but so much of the focus of them finally coming back has to do with two members that they were trying to get out of there.
Yeah. I can't even think of the last time I've remembered in this big of a headline having at least even one member of Congress resigning, But to have two in the same day, and two who have been embattled, I guess would be perhaps the best way.
To put it.
Of course, we're talking about California Congressman Eric Swallwell and Exis Congressman Tony Gonzalez. Both of their names have let's just say, been in the headlines lately.
You know, they've been making headlines on their own before this latest headline about resignation. Of course, we'll get into what the politics of this means, and we'll get into some of the details of Robes, their announcements, what was in there, and in particular what was not coming up in just a moment. But yes, both of these men, which one you want to start with Gonzales a swallow.
Let's let's swall well, because I would say he has been the bigger, yes, the most recent and the bigger headline of them all.
So here we go from last Thursday to Monday. What happened to this guy is that he went from a front runner for the Democratic to be governor of California. He went from a Democratic front runner in that race to here we are on Monday. Robes, he is out of that race. He is going to be out of Congress and facing a criminal investigation. We have seen some
falls from Grace before. This was an absolute nosedive, the likes of which Robes of all the ones we've seen, you can go through Diddy and Weinstein and stuff we've seen that happened over time. Robes, this was immediate like we've quite never seen. And so I guess we shouldn't be surprised that yesterday we got the announcement that he was going to be leaving Congress.
It didn't seem like there was any other option. Yes, to your point, this was swift and severe to go from Thursday to Monday, that short of a period of time, to go from having one job, possibly having one of the biggest jobs in politics, governor of California, to literally having nothing and perhaps having your own freedom hanging in the balance with criminal investigation into rape charges. I mean,
these are serious allegations. And it happened just before six pm yesterday we finally got the official word from Eric Swalwell that he in fact was leaving Congress.
And let's put this together now, since since Friday, this would be his third statement.
And they've changed in significant ways, just a little.
The first one was the video defending himself. The next one was saying I am getting out of the race for governor of California. And this is his third one now saying he's leaving Congress.
Yeah, he went from defiant to apologetic to really really apologetic.
I mean, that's kind of what the through line has been.
But this was his official announcement on X I am deeply sorry to my family, staff and constituents. For mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. I will fight the serious false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make. I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process within days of an allegation being made
is wrong. But it's also wrong for my constituents to have me just from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress. We don't know when he's going to step down, but he did say in that statement. He went on to say that he's going to work with his staff to ensure that his staff can serve the needs of the good people of the fourteenth Congressional District.
You know, I think he's right on that point about expulsion. To do so, to kick them out without due process is probably that that's a fair thing he said. Why he felt the need to say it, I don't know, but he said it. He's right, and he said it.
I love that.
He said right after that it's also wrong for me to stick around and when I'm distracted, So he's probably right on both counts. But Robes, an effort was potentially underway. They had launched an investigation in the House and the Ethics Committee of him. There's a criminal investigation going on of him. He's going to be fighting all of this stuff. There's no way he can continue to serve. So, like
you said, Robes, the writing was on the wall. What is not so clear is when he is going to give up this seat.
That's right.
There is actually a little bit of a process that has to take place.
Crazy the clock is taken.
Yes, he has to submit a letter to the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, and then the House Clerk will read aloud his letter of resignation on the floor when chamber is in session. Look, the Chamber is officially in session today. So could it happen as early as today. Some folks say possibly, but it's unclear on his timing. But that all has to formally take place before his resignation is accepted.
Oh, but then they are on a clock.
In California, there are specific rules and dates of when you can have a special election to fill the seat, and if you don't have that by a certain time, it moves down to the election and all these things have to happen, and Gavin Newsom's going to be involved in this mess now. So the thing is, I don't know who you've read, Robes. It might be expecting his
resignation anytime soon. But I bet there are people now playing a little chicken with the numbers in that we can't have him resign before Tony gunn Zales resigns because that's gonna mess with the numbers between Democrats and Republicans. Rodes, there is some behind. I know what's supposed to be paramount here.
Number one.
Top of everybody's mind should be the survivors, the criminal investigation, making sure that part is taken care of. But man, there is some politics and going in to these resignations.
Politics Trump's any sort of victims' rights. We've seen that happen time and time again, from Jeffrey Epstein to you name it. But yes, Governor Newsom is actually the one who will decide whether or not there will be a special election to replace soul Well and whether or not that would happen if it happens at all before the midterm elections. So yes, he's he's got to be coordinating with. I don't even know who to try and figure this mess out.
They're all figuring out because right robes, he can't fill a seat or do anything if a seat isn't open, so he can't start his process yet. But you bet of lose Swallow's campaign or swallowll the governor's office and Hakeem Jeffrey's.
Office, they're all working it out the conversation, Yes, because look, even though so we know that on Monday, the House Ethics Committee officially said it was launching this probe into Swallwell, obviously that ends when he resigns, because you can only
investigate a sitting member of Congress. But we point out he's still facing that criminal investigation that's going on in Manhattan based on his former staffers allegations that she was raped by him in a Manhattan hotel room in twenty twenty four.
He's got this DHS probe.
Against him where they're looking into his nanny's legal status. She's a Brazilian national. And then we have other women now coming forward. The Manhattan DA's office actually put out an ask hey, if anyone else has had any issues with this guy, come tell us about it. There's even a press conference today in California with another woman who's coming forward who says she has allegations of serious sexual misconduct by Swallwell.
So I haven't how many details have they given. I haven't looked into that one. Have they said much yet?
They have not.
They're actually holding it.
Look Lisa Bloom, who is Gloria Alred's daughter, and this is the mother daughter team who has for decades now been the face of a lot of female victims when it comes to sexual assault, So she knows this drill. So yeah, she's piqued interest, but hasn't given I say, Lisa Bloom hasn't given much details, just that this other woman has serious sexual misconduct allegations that have not yet
been made public. And so nine thirty am Pacific time in Beverly Hills, we're going to hear from this other woman who claims to have some serious allegations.
So it's far from over for Swalwell.
And look, he had no choice but to resign, it seems, with everything that's swirling around him.
Yes, this was the way to go. I mean, it's just I mean, don't get this is an allegation. It's a very serious allegation. But I guess that there was a one off allegation. It's one thing, but there's this drum beat of you can't have a number of women come forward suggesting the same type of Now you've been labeled. It's a pattern, it's a thing, and it's not just he's cheating on his wife. This is not the kind
of stuff we're talking about. We're talking about some unwanted behavior, criminal behavior.
You can't survive.
That you cannot.
And someone else who could not survive his scandal Congressman Tony Gonzalez, although his timeline took much much longer than swal Wells won.
We come back.
We will tell you about Congressman Gonzalez's decision to resign and what may happen next for him. Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TG where we have not one, but two congressmen resigning from their positions, and it just so happens one is a Republican and one is a Democrat, and so well, isn't that convenient for folks who were concerned about a potential imbalance in Congress if only one party lost a seat versus the other. With margins as tight as they are, it.
Keeps them from having to set off an expulsion race. Right, you kick out one of ours, We're going to try to kick out one of yours. Both of them have decided now they are going to leave Congress. The win is a big deal. The win you were about to talk about Tony Gonzalez, now withes Tony Gonzalez. Remember he didn't even want to get out of his primary race. Yeah, he stayed in there when these accusations were coming up.
He denied, denied, denied for quite some time that he even had any kind of relationship with this staffer. And just to get you caught up with Tony Gonzalez, his situation is very dark. So he eventually admitted to having an affair with a female staffer of his who was married. Her husband had been speaking out quite a bit, was even threatening to reveal more text messages if Representative Gonzalez didn't finally admit to this affair. But unfortunately this had
a really dark, horrific ending. She ended up dying by suicide. And the way she died by suicide, she set herself on fire. This was a huge story, and to have it come back to a member of Congress who she was having an affair with I mean, this is just awful and it's surprising he survived as long as he did.
Yeah, he stayed in that primary. And like you said, I deny. He finally admitted. Did he admit right before? Right after he went before? It was right before he went before voters.
Yeah.
I can see him sitting in that desk and he did this interview and she came out and said, yes, he behaved appropriately and was hoping the voters were going to forgive him.
They did not.
Now he has stuck around though robes. That was last When did that happen?
Oh, she died over a year. It was last fall.
So this has been talked about at least for a little while, but he hasn't given any indication even after he lost the race that he was going to be leaving Congress.
No, he dropped his bid for reelection last month, and again it took him quite some time. He dragged his feet on that. He was really trying to stay in. But we finally heard from him on x yesterday. This is what he put out as his official statement. There is a season for everything, and God has a plan for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to
serve the great people of Texas. So by that announcement, he is claiming that that would mean today, according to this statement, he would be filing his retirement.
What does that mean, Sweetness, I don't know.
I guess this would be the moment where he would give that letter of resignation.
Yeah, my dad filed his retirement months ago, and he's going to be on the job until June. So what I'm saying is I thought that was interesting language. He's not resigning from Congress. He is filing for retirement. Now what does that mean, Robes, I actually do not know. I haven't seen anybody break down, but he used a very different set of words than Swallowell did resigning retiring. There's got to be a reason for that distinction.
The coordination too, It's hard to imagine that this hasn't all been at least attempted to be pre negotiated, because this could and has the potential for being an incredible mass just in terms of each party wanting to have or retain the same amount of votes for the same position of power. This is a tough tough spot in
terms of the timing though it was interesting. It ended up being because we had heard from Representative Anna Paulina Luna from Florida, who said she was gonna put or at least introduce a resolution to expel both Gonzales and Swollwell. She was joined by Democrat Teresa Fernandez. That would have potentially triggered an expulsion vote as early as Wednesday. So these guys, it seems like they might have wanted to
get ahead of any of that. That would never look good, and certainly we heard Twilwell talk about his opinion about those potential votes, because that does create a slippery slope.
They don't like.
This because a lot of them, you could argue, in this era of social media robes any little thing. If you accidentally cut a old lady off in traffic, they could post that video and all of a sudden, you are an elderly hater who does not deserve to represent the people of the Great State of Blank and they try to get you out. It's that type of thing. They don't want to be tiptoeing around this. We can expel Wait a minute, we can get expelled for having an affair whoa.
Well, that would be interesting wouldn't it.
WHOA.
Yeah, so that's why this might not have but they are. There are some that are threatening Robes. Some members of Congress are giving them a deadline that you're going to have to this needs to say effective immediately.
We need to know or we're moving.
Forward with the expelsion expulsion vote.
That ain't that ain't bad?
Well, I agree, and there should be some clarity and maybe they will find some. You know, I have faith in our lawmakers and in Congress to come to a decision and make an announcement and have it be clear and defective immediately and enforceable and all those things that we expect from our leaders are elected leaders.
You know, the shutdowns of what sixty days.
Now, we're not even talking about.
Not even the basic function of government is not happening. We have been in a shutdown for sixty days now, and we are at war, and we are kicking people out of Congress and we are doing everything else. Yeah, we want to hop on and give you all this update because it's an extraordinary one to get these two on the same day. But the story does not end. Robes with their announcements. Still some questions about when they
might actually leave Congress. We always appreciate you spending some time with us, so my dear Amy Robot.
I'm TJ.
Holmes.
We will talk to y'll soon