Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, April fourteenth, and on the
Speaker 1: day that Congress came back from recess, not one but
Speaker 1: two members of the House of Representatives said they would
Speaker 1: be resigning. These two guys just happy to be accused
Speaker 1: of behaving pretty badly. One of them is even possibly
Speaker 1: facing a criminal charge. And with that, welcome to this
Speaker 1: episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: These things sure developed quickly, Robes. Oh yeah, there's a shutdown,
Speaker 1: by the way, but so much of the focus of
Speaker 1: them finally coming back has to do with two members
Speaker 1: that they were trying to get out of there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I can't even think of the last time I've
Speaker 3: remembered in this big of a headline having at least
Speaker 3: even one member of Congress resigning, But to have two
Speaker 3: in the same day, and two who have been embattled,
Speaker 3: I guess would be perhaps the best way.
Speaker 4: To put it.
Speaker 3: Of course, we're talking about California Congressman Eric Swallwell and
Speaker 3: Exis Congressman Tony Gonzalez. Both of their names have let's
Speaker 3: just say, been in the headlines lately.
Speaker 1: You know, they've been making headlines on their own before
Speaker 1: this latest headline about resignation. Of course, we'll get into
Speaker 1: what the politics of this means, and we'll get into
Speaker 1: some of the details of Robes, their announcements, what was
Speaker 1: in there, and in particular what was not coming up
Speaker 1: in just a moment. But yes, both of these men,
Speaker 1: which one you want to start with Gonzales a swallow.
Speaker 3: Let's let's swall well, because I would say he has
Speaker 3: been the bigger, yes, the most recent and the bigger
Speaker 3: headline of them all.
Speaker 1: So here we go from last Thursday to Monday. What
Speaker 1: happened to this guy is that he went from a
Speaker 1: front runner for the Democratic to be governor of California.
Speaker 1: He went from a Democratic front runner in that race
Speaker 1: to here we are on Monday. Robes, he is out
Speaker 1: of that race. He is going to be out of
Speaker 1: Congress and facing a criminal investigation. We have seen some
Speaker 1: falls from Grace before. This was an absolute nosedive, the
Speaker 1: likes of which Robes of all the ones we've seen,
Speaker 1: you can go through Diddy and Weinstein and stuff we've
Speaker 1: seen that happened over time. Robes, this was immediate like
Speaker 1: we've quite never seen. And so I guess we shouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised that yesterday we got the announcement that he
Speaker 1: was going to be leaving Congress.
Speaker 3: It didn't seem like there was any other option. Yes,
Speaker 3: to your point, this was swift and severe to go
Speaker 3: from Thursday to Monday, that short of a period of time,
Speaker 3: to go from having one job, possibly having one of
Speaker 3: the biggest jobs in politics, governor of California, to literally
Speaker 3: having nothing and perhaps having your own freedom hanging in
Speaker 3: the balance with criminal investigation into rape charges. I mean,
Speaker 3: these are serious allegations. And it happened just before six
Speaker 3: pm yesterday we finally got the official word from Eric
Speaker 3: Swalwell that he in fact was leaving Congress.
Speaker 1: And let's put this together now, since since Friday, this
Speaker 1: would be his third statement.
Speaker 4: And they've changed in significant ways, just a little.
Speaker 1: The first one was the video defending himself. The next
Speaker 1: one was saying I am getting out of the race
Speaker 1: for governor of California. And this is his third one
Speaker 1: now saying he's leaving Congress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he went from defiant to apologetic to really really apologetic.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's kind of what the through line has been.
Speaker 3: But this was his official announcement on X I am
Speaker 3: deeply sorry to my family, staff and constituents. For mistakes
Speaker 3: in judgment I've made in my past. I will fight
Speaker 3: the serious false allegation made against me. However, I must
Speaker 3: take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.
Speaker 3: I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion
Speaker 3: vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress
Speaker 3: without due process within days of an allegation being made
Speaker 3: is wrong. But it's also wrong for my constituents to
Speaker 3: have me just from my duties. Therefore, I plan to
Speaker 3: resign my seat in Congress. We don't know when he's
Speaker 3: going to step down, but he did say in that statement.
Speaker 3: He went on to say that he's going to work
Speaker 3: with his staff to ensure that his staff can serve
Speaker 3: the needs of the good people of the fourteenth Congressional District.
Speaker 1: You know, I think he's right on that point about expulsion.
Speaker 1: To do so, to kick them out without due process
Speaker 1: is probably that that's a fair thing he said. Why
Speaker 1: he felt the need to say it, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but he said it. He's right, and he said it.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: He said right after that it's also wrong for me
Speaker 1: to stick around and when I'm distracted, So he's probably
Speaker 1: right on both counts. But Robes, an effort was potentially underway.
Speaker 1: They had launched an investigation in the House and the
Speaker 1: Ethics Committee of him. There's a criminal investigation going on
Speaker 1: of him. He's going to be fighting all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: There's no way he can continue to serve. So, like
Speaker 1: you said, Robes, the writing was on the wall. What
Speaker 1: is not so clear is when he is going to
Speaker 1: give up this seat.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 3: There is actually a little bit of a process that
Speaker 3: has to take place.
Speaker 2: Crazy the clock is taken.
Speaker 3: Yes, he has to submit a letter to the House Speaker,
Speaker 3: Mike Johnson, and then the House Clerk will read aloud
Speaker 3: his letter of resignation on the floor when chamber is
Speaker 3: in session. Look, the Chamber is officially in session today.
Speaker 3: So could it happen as early as today. Some folks
Speaker 3: say possibly, but it's unclear on his timing. But that
Speaker 3: all has to formally take place before his resignation is accepted.
Speaker 2: Oh, but then they are on a clock.
Speaker 1: In California, there are specific rules and dates of when
Speaker 1: you can have a special election to fill the seat,
Speaker 1: and if you don't have that by a certain time,
Speaker 1: it moves down to the election and all these things
Speaker 1: have to happen, and Gavin Newsom's going to be involved
Speaker 1: in this mess now. So the thing is, I don't
Speaker 1: know who you've read, Robes. It might be expecting his
Speaker 1: resignation anytime soon. But I bet there are people now
Speaker 1: playing a little chicken with the numbers in that we
Speaker 1: can't have him resign before Tony gunn Zales resigns because
Speaker 1: that's gonna mess with the numbers between Democrats and Republicans. Rodes,
Speaker 1: there is some behind. I know what's supposed to be
Speaker 1: paramount here.
Speaker 2: Number one.
Speaker 1: Top of everybody's mind should be the survivors, the criminal investigation,
Speaker 1: making sure that part is taken care of. But man,
Speaker 1: there is some politics and going in to these resignations.
Speaker 3: Politics Trump's any sort of victims' rights. We've seen that
Speaker 3: happen time and time again, from Jeffrey Epstein to you
Speaker 3: name it. But yes, Governor Newsom is actually the one
Speaker 3: who will decide whether or not there will be a
Speaker 3: special election to replace soul Well and whether or not
Speaker 3: that would happen if it happens at all before the
Speaker 3: midterm elections. So yes, he's he's got to be coordinating with.
Speaker 3: I don't even know who to try and figure this
Speaker 3: mess out.
Speaker 1: They're all figuring out because right robes, he can't fill
Speaker 1: a seat or do anything if a seat isn't open,
Speaker 1: so he can't start his process yet. But you bet
Speaker 1: of lose Swallow's campaign or swallowll the governor's office and
Speaker 1: Hakeem Jeffrey's.
Speaker 3: Office, they're all working it out the conversation, Yes, because look,
Speaker 3: even though so we know that on Monday, the House
Speaker 3: Ethics Committee officially said it was launching this probe into Swallwell,
Speaker 3: obviously that ends when he resigns, because you can only
Speaker 3: investigate a sitting member of Congress. But we point out
Speaker 3: he's still facing that criminal investigation that's going on in
Speaker 3: Manhattan based on his former staffers allegations that she was
Speaker 3: raped by him in a Manhattan hotel room in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four.
Speaker 4: He's got this DHS probe.
Speaker 3: Against him where they're looking into his nanny's legal status.
Speaker 3: She's a Brazilian national. And then we have other women
Speaker 3: now coming forward. The Manhattan DA's office actually put out
Speaker 3: an ask hey, if anyone else has had any issues
Speaker 3: with this guy, come tell us about it. There's even
Speaker 3: a press conference today in California with another woman who's
Speaker 3: coming forward who says she has allegations of serious sexual
Speaker 3: misconduct by Swallwell.
Speaker 1: So I haven't how many details have they given. I
Speaker 1: haven't looked into that one. Have they said much yet?
Speaker 3: They have not.
Speaker 4: They're actually holding it.
Speaker 3: Look Lisa Bloom, who is Gloria Alred's daughter, and this
Speaker 3: is the mother daughter team who has for decades now
Speaker 3: been the face of a lot of female victims when
Speaker 3: it comes to sexual assault, So she knows this drill.
Speaker 3: So yeah, she's piqued interest, but hasn't given I say,
Speaker 3: Lisa Bloom hasn't given much details, just that this other
Speaker 3: woman has serious sexual misconduct allegations that have not yet
Speaker 3: been made public. And so nine thirty am Pacific time
Speaker 3: in Beverly Hills, we're going to hear from this other
Speaker 3: woman who claims to have some serious allegations.
Speaker 4: So it's far from over for Swalwell.
Speaker 3: And look, he had no choice but to resign, it seems,
Speaker 3: with everything that's swirling around him.
Speaker 1: Yes, this was the way to go. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just I mean, don't get this is an allegation. It's
Speaker 1: a very serious allegation. But I guess that there was
Speaker 1: a one off allegation. It's one thing, but there's this
Speaker 1: drum beat of you can't have a number of women
Speaker 1: come forward suggesting the same type of Now you've been labeled.
Speaker 1: It's a pattern, it's a thing, and it's not just
Speaker 1: he's cheating on his wife. This is not the kind
Speaker 1: of stuff we're talking about. We're talking about some unwanted behavior,
Speaker 1: criminal behavior.
Speaker 2: You can't survive.
Speaker 4: That you cannot.
Speaker 3: And someone else who could not survive his scandal Congressman
Speaker 3: Tony Gonzalez, although his timeline took much much longer than
Speaker 3: swal Wells won.
Speaker 4: We come back.
Speaker 3: We will tell you about Congressman Gonzalez's decision to resign
Speaker 3: and what may happen next for him. Welcome back, everyone
Speaker 3: to this episode of Amy and TG where we have
Speaker 3: not one, but two congressmen resigning from their positions, and
Speaker 3: it just so happens one is a Republican and one
Speaker 3: is a Democrat, and so well, isn't that convenient for
Speaker 3: folks who were concerned about a potential imbalance in Congress
Speaker 3: if only one party lost a seat versus the other.
Speaker 3: With margins as tight as they are, it.
Speaker 1: Keeps them from having to set off an expulsion race. Right,
Speaker 1: you kick out one of ours, We're going to try
Speaker 1: to kick out one of yours. Both of them have
Speaker 1: decided now they are going to leave Congress. The win
Speaker 1: is a big deal. The win you were about to
Speaker 1: talk about Tony Gonzalez, now withes Tony Gonzalez. Remember he
Speaker 1: didn't even want to get out of his primary race. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he stayed in there when these accusations were coming up.
Speaker 3: He denied, denied, denied for quite some time that he
Speaker 3: even had any kind of relationship with this staffer. And
Speaker 3: just to get you caught up with Tony Gonzalez, his
Speaker 3: situation is very dark. So he eventually admitted to having
Speaker 3: an affair with a female staffer of his who was married.
Speaker 3: Her husband had been speaking out quite a bit, was
Speaker 3: even threatening to reveal more text messages if Representative Gonzalez
Speaker 3: didn't finally admit to this affair. But unfortunately this had
Speaker 3: a really dark, horrific ending. She ended up dying by suicide.
Speaker 3: And the way she died by suicide, she set herself
Speaker 3: on fire. This was a huge story, and to have
Speaker 3: it come back to a member of Congress who she
Speaker 3: was having an affair with I mean, this is just
Speaker 3: awful and it's surprising he survived as long as he did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he stayed in that primary. And like you said,
Speaker 1: I deny. He finally admitted. Did he admit right before?
Speaker 1: Right after he went before? It was right before he
Speaker 1: went before voters.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can see him sitting in that desk and he
Speaker 1: did this interview and she came out and said, yes,
Speaker 1: he behaved appropriately and was hoping the voters were going
Speaker 1: to forgive him.
Speaker 2: They did not.
Speaker 1: Now he has stuck around though robes. That was last
Speaker 1: When did that happen?
Speaker 4: Oh, she died over a year. It was last fall.
Speaker 1: So this has been talked about at least for a
Speaker 1: little while, but he hasn't given any indication even after
Speaker 1: he lost the race that he was going to be
Speaker 1: leaving Congress.
Speaker 3: No, he dropped his bid for reelection last month, and
Speaker 3: again it took him quite some time. He dragged his
Speaker 3: feet on that. He was really trying to stay in.
Speaker 3: But we finally heard from him on x yesterday. This
Speaker 3: is what he put out as his official statement. There
Speaker 3: is a season for everything, and God has a plan
Speaker 3: for us all. When Congress returns tomorrow, I will file
Speaker 3: my retirement from office. It has been my privilege to
Speaker 3: serve the great people of Texas. So by that announcement,
Speaker 3: he is claiming that that would mean today, according to
Speaker 3: this statement, he would be filing his retirement.
Speaker 2: What does that mean, Sweetness, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I guess this would be the moment where he would
Speaker 3: give that letter of resignation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my dad filed his retirement months ago, and he's
Speaker 1: going to be on the job until June. So what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is I thought that was interesting language. He's
Speaker 1: not resigning from Congress. He is filing for retirement. Now
Speaker 1: what does that mean, Robes, I actually do not know.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anybody break down, but he used a
Speaker 1: very different set of words than Swallowell did resigning retiring.
Speaker 1: There's got to be a reason for that distinction.
Speaker 3: The coordination too, It's hard to imagine that this hasn't
Speaker 3: all been at least attempted to be pre negotiated, because
Speaker 3: this could and has the potential for being an incredible
Speaker 3: mass just in terms of each party wanting to have
Speaker 3: or retain the same amount of votes for the same
Speaker 3: position of power. This is a tough tough spot in
Speaker 3: terms of the timing though it was interesting. It ended
Speaker 3: up being because we had heard from Representative Anna Paulina
Speaker 3: Luna from Florida, who said she was gonna put or
Speaker 3: at least introduce a resolution to expel both Gonzales and Swollwell.
Speaker 3: She was joined by Democrat Teresa Fernandez. That would have
Speaker 3: potentially triggered an expulsion vote as early as Wednesday. So
Speaker 3: these guys, it seems like they might have wanted to
Speaker 3: get ahead of any of that. That would never look good,
Speaker 3: and certainly we heard Twilwell talk about his opinion about
Speaker 3: those potential votes, because that does create a slippery slope.
Speaker 2: They don't like.
Speaker 1: This because a lot of them, you could argue, in
Speaker 1: this era of social media robes any little thing. If
Speaker 1: you accidentally cut a old lady off in traffic, they
Speaker 1: could post that video and all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: are an elderly hater who does not deserve to represent
Speaker 1: the people of the Great State of Blank and they
Speaker 1: try to get you out. It's that type of thing.
Speaker 1: They don't want to be tiptoeing around this. We can
Speaker 1: expel Wait a minute, we can get expelled for having
Speaker 1: an affair whoa.
Speaker 4: Well, that would be interesting wouldn't it.
Speaker 2: WHOA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's why this might not have but they are.
Speaker 1: There are some that are threatening Robes. Some members of
Speaker 1: Congress are giving them a deadline that you're going to
Speaker 1: have to this needs to say effective immediately.
Speaker 2: We need to know or we're moving.
Speaker 1: Forward with the expelsion expulsion vote.
Speaker 2: That ain't that ain't bad?
Speaker 3: Well, I agree, and there should be some clarity and
Speaker 3: maybe they will find some. You know, I have faith
Speaker 3: in our lawmakers and in Congress to come to a
Speaker 3: decision and make an announcement and have it be clear
Speaker 3: and defective immediately and enforceable and all those things that
Speaker 3: we expect from our leaders are elected leaders.
Speaker 2: You know, the shutdowns of what sixty days.
Speaker 4: Now, we're not even talking about.
Speaker 1: Not even the basic function of government is not happening.
Speaker 1: We have been in a shutdown for sixty days now,
Speaker 1: and we are at war, and we are kicking people
Speaker 1: out of Congress and we are doing everything else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to hop on and give you all this
Speaker 1: update because it's an extraordinary one to get these two
Speaker 1: on the same day. But the story does not end.
Speaker 1: Robes with their announcements. Still some questions about when they
Speaker 1: might actually leave Congress. We always appreciate you spending some
Speaker 1: time with us, so my dear Amy Robot.
Speaker 2: I'm TJ.
Speaker 1: Holmes.
Speaker 2: We will talk to y'll soon