The political and ethical storm surrounding Sen.
Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is intensifying, and the timing could not be worse for Democrats desperate to hold their grip on a key Senate seat in a closely divided nation.
According to Breitbart, Gallego now faces a sexual misconduct allegation and a probe into possible campaign finance violations, developments that broke just before former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News to raise even more troubling questions about Gallegos long-standing relationship with disgraced Democrat Eric Swalwell. McCarthy told host Jesse Watters, Gallego was [the] chairman of Swalwells presidential campaign. They went everywhere together, adding, And normally when you go on foreign tripsits Republicans and Democratsyour spouse is with you. They went on a lot of trips just the two of them, in a lot of places. I think people need to look at that.
These revelations land atop an already serious credibility crisis for Gallego, who insists he knew nothing about Swalwells alleged criminal misconduct with women or the extramarital conduct Swalwell appears to have effectively acknowledged. For a man who served as chairman of Swalwells presidential campaign and was widely described as his political confidant, Gallegos claim of total ignorance strains belief.
In Washington, it is now widely conceded that Swalwells personal behavior was an open secret, whispered about across party lines and in media circles that otherwise claim to be guardians of accountability. Democrats, Republicans, and the corporate press alike have admitted they had at least heard rumors that Swalwell was, at best, a serial philanderer and, at worst, entangled in far more serious misconduct.
Yet Gallego has chosen to present himself as the lone man in Washington who somehow missed all of it, a performance critics liken to a Sergeant Schultz impersonation. Rather than acknowledging the obvious that he had heard the same rumors as everyone else but chose to look the other way Gallego insists he never heard a word, as though Swalwell were some kind of Ward Cleaver figure in his presence.
That posture leaves Gallego perched precariously on what one might fairly describe as a very thin branch. It is one thing to defend a friends privacy; it is quite another to claim total ignorance when the rest of the political class shrugs and admits the rumors were common knowledge.
From a conservative perspective, the problem is not merely Gallegos personal judgment but the double standard that now seems inevitable. The senators best political asset may be that he is a Democrat whose continued presence in office does not currently threaten his partys hold on power, unlike Swalwell, whose ambitions in California risked opening the door to a Republican governor.
As commentators noted when the Swalwell scandal erupted, the media and Democrat establishment were happy to protect him so long as he was a useful Trump-smearer, only turning on him when his political trajectory endangered their control of the California governorship. Gallego, by contrast, occupies a Senate seat in a purple state that Democrats are determined to keep, making it highly unlikely that legacy media or party leaders will pursue these allegations to the point of jeopardizing that seat in President Trumps second term.
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