WEBVTT - UPDATE: California Democrat Now Accused Of Sexual Assault and Harassment 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:07.200 Hey, folks, it is Thursday, August twentieth, and he says 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:12.280 he broke no rules and broke no laws, even though 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:17.119 he admitted to making mistakes in his marriage. But this 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:23.079 congressman now is being accused of sexual assault, which yes, 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.439 is against the rules and against the law. And with that, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:28.280 welcome to this episode of amy and TJ. 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:28.640 Rope. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:30.840 Does this feel like this escalated quickly? 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.400 It absolutely has escalated, And I do believe it feels 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:40.080 like it escalated based off of Jimmy Gomez's own statement, 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:43.519 because he made it very clear in his initial statement. 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.960 It will remind everybody what he said. But this all 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.640 was bubbling up this week, and he responded by yes, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.560 saying he made mistakes outside of his marriage, but he 0:00:55.000 --> 0:01:00.920 insisted that any incidents where those mistakes occurred were consensual 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.520 and not in violation of House ethics rules. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.880 As his statement, he was very particular about putting that 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.000 in there. We were talking somewhere earlier, Robes, and I said, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.720 anytime you have to defend yourself and you have to 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.400 say my contact with that woman was consensual, you're probably 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:21.280 in trouble. And so Robes. Initially this was Robes thought 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.000 to be and at least the way he addressed it 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.039 was at was as something is okay, I stepped out. 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.400 I did something wrong and I shouldn't have done. I 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:35.000 was disloyal to my wife bad enough. But Roges, we're 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.839 talking about criminal behavior. Is the accusation now. 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:42.000 Right, because we all believed this stemmed from a tabloid 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:47.880 report back in April that showed Gomez kissing a staffer, 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.680 not one of his staff members, but a House congressional 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.560 staff member. And in the laws, there is a bit 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.880 of a loophole. Yes, a congressman or a congressman cannot 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.640 have any sort of relationship ship with a member of 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.520 his or her own staff. But it doesn't say anything 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.280 about having a relationship. 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.200 With another congressman or woman's staff. That's a weird loophole. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:12.960 They're working to close that loophole. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:13.760 That's nuts. 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.840 Obviously, that's something that needs to be done, but it's 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.480 not currently in place. But honestly, I believed you believed. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.640 It kind of seemed like, yeah, he got messy, he 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.519 had an affair with someone who works on Capitol Hill. 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:28.560 His wife found out. 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.200 Now we're all finding out, and he's claiming, go ahead, investigate. 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.240 I welcome this because the only mistake I made, the 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.200 only person I wronged was my wife. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:42.000 He seemed to his defense, seemed to be the technicality. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.000 It seemed to be the loophole. And okay, that's a 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.160 tough one. That's a tough defense, Robes. 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:48.360 But now it gets tougher. 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.040 But okay, but that one was Robes. We are now 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.760 this is something else, completely different, Robes. This is now 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:01.320 put him in that camp of unwanted and potential And 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.720 so we don't know yet, Robes. What we're talking about. 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.720 Sexual assault has a range that can read to that 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:10.960 can go from unwanted touching of. 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:12.440 Someone to rape. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.920 Absolutely that it runs the gamut, and it's a very 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.880 wide margin. And it does appear that this woman's attorneys 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:26.119 and this woman were angered by Gomez's statement, and they 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:31.959 are now directly refuting his assertion that any incident was consensual. 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.160 And we think we're talking about the same woman because look, 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:41.400 CNN is reporting that the House Ethics Committee, in doing 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.680 and conducting this investigation, have learned of other allegations of 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:47.800 sexual misconduct against Gomez that it's now looking into as well. 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.080 So we don't know if these are all from the 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:55.360 same woman or if these are separate allegations from different women, 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.840 it looks like it could be any of the above. 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.880 At this point, Oh, here we go again. Are these 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.600 and that's very important. Are these separate incidents dealing with 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.120 the same woman or not? Are you talking about potentially 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:13.000 multiple women ropes? Here we go again. Possibly Romees. It's 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:17.839 different sexual harassment, wrong comments, comment about a woman's appearance, 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:22.200 things like that around the office, sexual harassment, Obviously that's inappropriate. 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.760 But Rome, when you're talking about crime assault. 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:27.400 That's completely different. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.160 And in terms of whether or not there is more 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.000 than one woman who is making what claims like this, 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.680 the accusers attorney's statement kind of makes it seem like 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.239 she's not the only one. So it begins with, we 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.920 represent one of the women who was interviewed by the 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:51.200 House Committee on Ethics about her experience of sexual harassment 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.440 and assault by Representative Jimmy Gomez. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.680 Okay, that doesn't mean that they all are making an accusation, correct, 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.320 but he phrased it intentionally that way. 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.800 It made it seem like there is more than one woman, 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:07.480 and there could be. 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:09.080 There could be, but we don't know. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.039 The statement goes on to say, contrary to Representative Gomez's 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.480 assertion in his statement his actions were not consensual in 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.039 nature with respect to our client, We fully expect that 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.040 the House Committee on Ethics will come to the same 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:27.200 conclusion in its investigation. And this is where they really 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.480 come out swinging. This is just the latest example of 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.279 brazen sexual misconduct by a member of Congress. Congress must 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.400 act to reign in its members who seem to believe 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.159 that praying on young women working on Capitol Hill is 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.560 one of the perks of their job. We will continue 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.080 to work with our client and with the House Committee 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.000 on Ethics to ensure there is accountability for Representative Gomez 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.799 and a safe path for any other survivors to come 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.440 forward and share their experiences. 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.800 I don't know. Look, it's there's a he said, and 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.680 she said, and he said, and she's said, and they 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.520 could be multiple. We don't know what do you do 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.840 at this point. We have seen this. I can recall 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:21.000 the particular case Robes, but where something and a guy 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:25.080 being accused. Something he said in his reaction publicly caused 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.719 the other side to go, oh, are you kidding me? Yes, 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:29.760 And it felt like it. 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.880 Was Swallowell was that this is a very common theme 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:38.320 in an effort to defend themselves. Oftentimes you'll hear an 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:44.359 accused man cop to something but still place the shared 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.520 responsibility for what happened on the woman. And that is 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.919 when you will just bring the ire of those women 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.040 to the to the forefront, because they're like, no, we 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.400 will not accept you misleading or misrepresenting what happened. Now 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.839 we're going to speak out. Look, I would most women 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.359 do not enjoy this process, do not want to be named, 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.080 do not want to be in the center and in 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.000 the middle of this, to have their name dragged through 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.960 the mud, to have their private sexual experiences examined and 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.760 used against them. This is not a comfortable position to 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.400 be in as a woman. So sometimes it does take 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.840 getting really pissed off before you actually are willing to 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.440 put yourself into the line of fire to call someone 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:29.080 like this out. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.000 And you, I mean, just imagine, we don't know what happened. 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.720 He is innocent man, he hasn't been convicted of anything 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.360 at this point, but probably just imagine how she might 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:41.560 have felt if her experience is what it is now 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.040 presumed to be right, something non consensual, something that she 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.400 was assaulted. We don't know how far that went. Imagine 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.640 if that was her experience, and to have a guy 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:56.640 come out say publicly, nationally this big headlines that he 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.720 had a consensual experience with somebody, that is, I mean, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.360 that impugnes her reputation, right, He is suggesting that she 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:07.840 is willing to do this with a married man, a 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.280 powerful man, and so Rose yeah, yeah. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.840 And a consensual experience and a mistake. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:19.080 He only referred to it as mistakes outside my marriage. 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.280 That was as close as he came to acknowledging that 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:28.200 he did anything wrong, that it was solely a personal, 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.360 private mistake that he made. And if that was not 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.240 her experience, and if she remembers it very differently, well 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.400 she is certainly speaking out now. And to think that 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.320 it appears the committee, the Ethics Committee, has already heard 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.040 from this woman. They've taken her statements down, and if 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.480 CNN's sources are correct, they're saying some of what she 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.480 said led to other inquiries. And now this is a 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.400 much bigger situation than it began. 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.480 Well, we only heard, right, didn't They only announce on 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.880 Monday that they were doing an investigation, And here we 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.120 are on Thursday. This woman has already been interviewed. 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.080 They're moving quickly. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:07.160 They're busy these days. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.200 They Oh my goodness, they certainly are. So when we 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:11.560 come back, we're going to talk about just how swiftly 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.920 things have moved and what Democrats are saying about Gomez, 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.240 both men and women who are actually speaking out before 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:24.119 we even get any of the results of the committee's investigation. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.400 Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. There is a 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.600 growing cry of folks saying that they want the House 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.880 Ethics Committee to come out with their conclusions as quickly 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:49.800 as possible about these recent and latest sexual assault allegations 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:54.000 against Congressmen Gomez, coming from an unnamed woman. Her attorneys 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.320 have been speaking out and they've made it very clear 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.480 this was not consensual according to their client, and they 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:03.520 did discribe I bit a sexual harassment and assault. And 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.600 with that, we're now hearing from female lawmakers on both 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.800 sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans calling for them 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.720 the committee to speed up its investigation ahead of the midterms. 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:14.440 They want to know. 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.280 What's up before we get closer to this vote and 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.559 the ever important balance of power. I mean, this is 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.640 all timing out in the worst of ways for some 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:31.480 of these lawmakers because, yeah, their reelection campaign doesn't just 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.679 matter to them personally, it matters to their party collectively. 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.360 The district is in the LA area, right, usually a 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.640 solidly Democratic district. What happens, I don't know what the 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.960 rules might be if he has to come off with 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.360 the ballot. I think at this point Roe, they reach 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.360 a point where the name has to stay on. What 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:54.000 would their options be? I do not know. But Jromes, 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:54.920 what do you do with this? 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:55.240 Gi? 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:56.600 What do you do with this? 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.920 Yeah? The Democratic Women's Caucus actually called on the committee 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:05.240 to release the status of their investigation before the sixty 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.960 day blackout period ahead of election day. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.600 That's what they're asking for specifically. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.040 And we also heard from the top three Democratic lawmakers 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:19.400 in the House about these latest escalated or at least 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.720 escalating allegations, Hakeem Jeffries, Catherine Clark, Pete Aguilar. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.319 This was their joint statement. 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:30.400 The allegations of misconduct are serious and disturbing. We encourage 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.440 the committee to conduct a thorough and swift investigation. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.240 Everyone keeps using the word swift. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.080 They want to figure this out as soon as possible 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.240 so they can figure out what they're gonna do leading 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.520 into the midterms. And when we say leading into the midrms, 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:48.320 I mean it's we're talking what now now, like that 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.800 sixty day mark is coming up. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.760 This is incredible, This is happening and keeps happening. Bro, 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.200 how many races have been We're still waiting to see 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.079 what happens with Max Miller, what he might have and 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.000 the other one we're talking about, right, did you remember 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.839 that long twenty minute stream or whatever he had in 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.280 the video he put out and his wife or ex 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.160 wife and the attorney put out some like are you 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:13.320 kidding and responded to it. They are almost triggering their 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.600 alleged victims by putting out these statements that caused them 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:22.000 to now retaliate and say stuff to women robes who 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.840 seem to have no desire actually to be caught up 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.440 in some public back and forth. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.800 And yet here we go, Right, we saw what happened 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.560 in Maine. But then you've got Tony Gonzalez, You've got 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.320 Chuck Edwards, Max Miller, who stayed in the race, as 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.520 you mentioned, of course Eric Swalwell running for governor. This 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.440 has just been like month after month after month of 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.880 scandal after scandal after scandal and to remind you, I 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:52.800 do have Gomez's original statement where he he basically just 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.800 says I didn't do anything wrong other than to what 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.600 I did to my marriage. But he just said I 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.240 made personal mistakes outside my marriage. Although my actions were 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.840 consensual in nature and haven't violated the law or house 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.360 ethics rules, that doesn't diminish the impact that these mistakes 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.520 have made on those I care about the most. I 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.480 take full responsibility and have committed myself to working through 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.560 the pain privately with my wife and family. So he 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.120 is only admitting to personal mistakes with his family. He 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.920 is not admitting to doing anything illegal criminal to another woman, 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.440 and certainly he's not admitting to doing anything that would 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.480 jeopardize his position in the house. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:39.439 Why do we do rugues? 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:39.959 Again? 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.640 The innocent until proven guilty we always have to repeat, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.680 We always have to say that. But where this goes, 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.480 don't know who this woman is, don't know if there's 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.160 someone else, but we have to be don't and we 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:54.959 have to try to in these moments where always be 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.199 fair to everybody, be fair or also and just respectful 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.120 as the best we can hope for in these matters. 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.160 But this is just another one and hopefully they get 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.079 it work out. This Ethics Committee, which is. 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.400 Busy, as you mentioned, the recess right now, Yes, untild 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:12.480 and that's the thing. 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:16.720 They're on recess I believe until almost mid September. And 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.400 so now you've got all of these folks asking for 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.280 them to hurry up and get this over with and 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:24.800 be quick and swift about their investigation, but not really 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.000 sure when that's actually going to begin. And look, the 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.280 attorney's also made a point to say that their client 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.200 showed real courage in telling the committee about her experience. 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:36.360 I mean, this woman sat in front of the House 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:40.560 Ethics Committee on Capitol Hill and she was sworn in 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:45.960 and she testified to sexual assault allegations against Congressman Gomez. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.200 That's as serious as it gets. And just wonder if 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.400 this now would go to another level. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:52.200 I don't know what. 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.960 The rules are, but this was fairly recent and if 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.840 she is claiming that this was a non consensual assault, 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.040 this would be a matter that police, I would imagine, 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:02.880 would get involved with. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.000 We've seen this happen in Eric Swalwell's case. 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.040 First the allegations are made, they're dealt with politically, and 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.840 then the police open up their own investigation and it 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:12.720 seems like that might be the next step here. 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.080 Wow, we have another member of Congress under possible investigation 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.040 for sexual assault. Criminal investigation. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:21.760 We shall see. We will, of course, keep our eye 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.440 on this developing story. We always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone. 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.160 I made me roback alongside TJ. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:28.360 Holmes. We'll talk soon.