Swalwell's Attempt to Disparage Border Hearing Witness Backfires When His Own Dark Past Rears Its Head
When it comes to credibility, Eric Swalwell might want to look in the mirror.
In a House subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that was focused on the crisis on the southern border, the California congressman tried to take on the role of attack dog for Democrats by questioning the credibility of a witness who happened to be present in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021.
He got his own credibility questions thrown back in his face.
In an exchange that caused a dust-up during a hearing of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, Swalwell ignored the issue at hand — the very real problem of sexual abuse of children that’s been facilitated by the Biden administration’s abandonment of law on the southern border.
Instead, he grilled a witness about her whereabouts on the day of the Capitol incursion, implying that her support for former President Donald Trump somehow undermined how seriously her testimony should be taken when it comes to rape and murder in border states.
Check it out here: (The first five minutes are Swalwell at his poisonous, partisan worst. What comes after that is how he paid for it.)
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
When Swalwell’s time expired — after a series of meandering, and obviously groping questions — Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls stepped up, apologized to the witness, and noted Swalwell’s “checkered past.”
“I apologize that you had to …,” Nels told Sheena Rodriguez, founder and president of Alliance for a Safe Texas, a group dedicated to secure-border policies.
“You’re here for a hearing on the border. They don’t want to talk about a border. Mr. Swalwell is down there. Obviously, everybody knows he’s made some comments. He’s got a checkered past … alleged affairs, alleged relationship with Yum-Yum.”
Swalwell, obviously furious, tried to cut Nehls off, snarling, “You don’t get to say that s***,” as the hearing disintegrated into crosstalk.
Radically leftist Democrat Pramila Jayapal, the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, called Nehls’ words “a direct slur on a member of this committee that is not acceptable.”
(It’s important to note that Jayapal did not say the words were not true.)
After a brief recess, Nehls agreed to “rephrase” his remarks as “this is the same member who was removed from the Intelligence Committee….”
That, apparently was both acceptable and true, and the hearing continued, but the lesson of the moment should not be lost: As a federal lawmaker, as a representative of his political party — deranged as the current iteration of the Democratic Party might be — Eric Swalwell himself is unacceptable.
As a similar incident last week involving Georgia Republican Rep. Marjory Taylor Greene should have already made clear, Swalwell is simply not the man Democrats want to turn to as their attack dog.
He’s no longer a member of the Intelligence Committee because of his relationship — widely considered to have been sexual — with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy. The woman, known as Fang Fang (not “Yum-Yum”), apparently slept her way through a series of prominent Democratic politicians before leaving the country in 2015, the website Axios reported in 2020.
Considering he built his short-lived presidential campaign in 2020 on an unconstitutional anti-gun platform, Swalwell might fit right in with the modern Democratic Party and its leftist leadership, but his judgment when it comes to matters of national security is deeply suspect.
His willingness to use hearings that should be devoted to the border crisis to attack Republicans — as he did Wednesday and last week, prior to getting mauled by MTG — shows that his partisanship betrays his duty to his country and his constituents (even if most of them are California Democrats).
He is, in short, not to be trusted on anything more than spouting off Democratic talking points to try to derail discussions about the disasters the Joe Biden presidency has visited on the country.
That point was certainly not lost on Twitter users who commented on the scene on Wednesday:
WATCH
Chaos Ensues as @RepTroyNehls Calls Out Rep. Swalwell for alleged affair with Chinese Spy – ‘Yum Yum’
NEHLS: “Mr. Swalwell…everybody knows he’s got a checkered past…relationship with ‘Yum Yum.'”
SWALWELL: “You don’t get to say that s*it.” pic.twitter.com/DBMByJtf7s
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 26, 2023
Way to go Representative Nehls!!! Love it!!! We need these Traitors called out!
— MD1163 (@LilyBaby2021) April 26, 2023
At every committee meeting Swalwell’s involvement with that spy has to be mentioned. He cannot be allowed to escape that.
— Alan Tindell (@tindellalan) April 26, 2023
Every time that dude speaks, it should be mentioned.
— Queen Velvet (@TMIWITW) April 27, 2023
And, naturally, there was some humor, too.
Lol https://t.co/UCwmmB482a pic.twitter.com/n0p12F8BC2
— Amygator *not an actual alligator (@AmyA1A) April 27, 2023
It’s funny, of course, but it’s sad — and infuriating.
Just watching Swalwell’s face during Wednesday’s hearing — callously disregarding to Rodriguez’s statements about what’s happening at the border now to focus on events in Washington, D.C., more than two years ago — it’s clear that his interest is focused entirely on the politics of smearing Republicans, not on the actual problems the lawmakers were there to address.
And he wants to attack the credibility of a witness?
Swalwell needs to look in a mirror. He might see that he’s missing his own.
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