Democratic Congressmember Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas resigned Tuesday. Both of them faced potential expulsion votes after they were accused of sexual misconduct involving former staffers.

Swalwell’s resignation came just days after CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle reported multiple allegations against him, including twice raping a former staffer. Swalwell denied the allegations. He dropped out of the California gubernatorial race on Sunday. Gonzales had been facing calls to resign since February, when the San Antonio Express-News revealed he had an affair with a staffer who later took her own life, and also sent explicit text messages to another staffer.

“Congress itself shouldn’t see these resignations as the end of the story here,” says Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women’s Law Center. “They actually should see it as the beginning of investigating not only what happened with these two individuals, but they need to understand whether or not they have a problem that is more of a pattern.”

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

A warning to our viewers and listeners: This story contains references to rape and sexual abuse.

We turn now to Capitol Hill, where Democratic Congressmember Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas both resigned Congress on Tuesday. Each had faced potential expulsion votes after being accused of sexual misconduct involving former staffers.

On Tuesday, New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this moment should mark a, quote, “important resetting point” in Congress, saying, “Abuse of power should never be accepted, and above all, in public office,” unquote.

Congressmember Swalwell’s resignation came just days after CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle reported multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him. In one case, a former staffer said Swalwell raped her twice, leaving her bruised and bleeding. She told CNN the misconduct began when she was a 21-year-old staffer.

FORMER STAFFER: It was in 2019. I was, again, driving him to an event. This was my job.

PAMELA BROWN: And you were 21 years old.

FORMER STAFFER: And I was 21 years old. We see some sort of parking lot, and he says to pull over. He pulls out his penis and instructs me to give him oral sex. And I started to. Again, I felt incredibly uncomfortable, and I stopped. And I said to him, “This feels really uncomfortable, and anyone could see us right now.” And he said to me, “You’re right. It’s probably not good for a congressman to be caught with his pants down.”

AMY GOODMAN: The staffer went on to describe another time waking up naked in his hotel room and a third incident in 2024, when he raped her years after she had stopped working for him. Eric Swalwell has denied the allegations.

On Sunday, he dropped out of the California gubernatorial race. Swalwell’s resignation from Congress came on the same day a California woman named Lonna Drewes came forward and said Swalwell raped her in 2018 after he promised to help her make business connections.

LONNA DREWES: He invited me to two public events. I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend. On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink. I only had one glass of wine. We were supposed to go to a political event, and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated, and I couldn’t move my arms or my body. He raped me, and he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died.

AMY GOODMAN: Republican Congressmember Tony Gonzales’s resignation from Congress yesterday comes two months after the San Antonio Express-News revealed he had an affair with a staffer who later took her own life. The paper also revealed Gonzales had previously sent explicit text messages to another staffer.

We’re joined now by Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.

Welcome back to Democracy Now! Your response to what has taken place?

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: Well, as of today, these two members are no longer a part of Congress, but that certainly shouldn’t be the end of the story of accountability here. It shouldn’t be the end of the examination that Congress should be undertaking into why it is they keep having these very serious types of allegations of abuses of power. And it also should focus and refocus the mind on the fact that Congress is there not just to handle itself, but they should be looking at the way in which sexual harassment and violence is pervasive in many institutions across this country. A reset, as Representative Ocasio-Cortez said, is exactly right.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what needs to happen right now and whether or not — well, it’s very clear that Eric Swalwell, the congressmember who was one of the top candidates for the Democratic governor’s primary in California, will be criminally charged from New York, the Manhattan DA investigating him, to California — and if Congress should still bring charges or sanction or censure these men, even after they’ve left.

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: So, for sure, as individuals, I think we’re going to see a lot more investigating. And the survivors who have come forward to share their experience, they deserve far more than that. So, you may see both criminal and civil investigations happening, and each of them will be responding to that.

But Congress itself shouldn’t see these resignations as the end of the story here. They actually should see it as the beginning of investigating not only what happened with these two individuals, but they need to understand whether or not they have a problem that is more of a pattern. If you were talking about any other employment setting and you saw two very powerful individuals with very serious allegations, you would wonder if you had a pattern. And so, Congress, I think, has a problem of it only investigating itself. They probably need some sort of outside, independent and transparent look into what exactly is happening, whether staffers and interns and other people who engage regularly with Congress are experiencing harassment and violence, and whether or not their systems of reporting are working at all.

AMY GOODMAN: And then there are another two congressmembers, both from Florida, calls in Congress for Republican Cory Mills and Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick — Mills is facing a House Ethics investigation into domestic violence and campaign finance violations.

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: So, here’s the thing. When I think about both Gonzales and some of these other allegations, they’ve been — they’ve been out there for a long time. And it should not be that you have to wait for some sort of bipartisan infraction for Congress to do something about it, to either threaten expulsion, to take a very serious vote. When you have the level of information that the Ethics Committee has had, it seems like they should have been moving forward anyway.

You know, when you talk about why this is happening, part of what is going on is you have a sense of entitlement and a sense that there won’t be consequences, no matter the conduct. And that comes from the highest levels. The tone that is being set right now about having no consequence, whether you’re talking about the president for his own actions or other Cabinet members, there needs to be a giant reset.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, the Epstein files, Fatima Goss Graves. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi failed to appear on Tuesday to testify under oath before the House Oversight Committee regarding her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, 3 million pages still not released.

FATIMA GOSS GRAVES: You know, what a clear violation of a law that was very explicit around what the Department of Justice should be doing right now. And I think that is not the end of the story for Pam Bondi. It isn’t enough for her to resign and just wander away as if she has nothing to do. Congress was very clear. They were demanding that she testify, and they should hold her into contempt for not returning and doing what she should do.

This is an example where the survivors, against all odds, have continued to come forward and demand serious accountability. They’re doing it even though the president has said he doesn’t want it. They’re doing it even though the Department of Justice has obstructed them along the way. I suspect we will see real accountability here. No one is above the law.

AMY GOODMAN: And this latest news from CNN: Trump has been mentioned over 1,000 times in the Epstein files. Fatima Goss Graves, I want to thank you so much for being with us, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. Of course, we will continue to follow these issues

Coming up, The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land, a new book jointly written by a Palestinian peace activist and an Israeli peace activist. Maoz Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas October 7th. Aziz Abu Sarah’s brother died after being tortured in Israeli prison. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: New York City Palestinian Youth Choir.