Rep. Eric Swalwell — the man who somehow survived a literal Chinese espionage honeytrap and kept his seat in Congress — is back in the headlines. This time, more than a dozen women have come forward describing uncomfortable private encounters with the congressman, many of them facilitated through his prolific use of Snapchat. You know, the app where the messages disappear.
Funny how a guy with so much to hide picked the one platform designed to leave no trace.
The reporting, covered by CNN and highlighted by Bongino.com, paints a picture of a congressman who earned the nickname "Snapchat King" of Capitol Hill — and apparently not because he was sharing wholesome updates about legislation. More than twelve women have now described interactions with Swalwell that made them uncomfortable, with his use of the disappearing-message app playing a central role in the pattern.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? This is the same Eric Swalwell who carried on a relationship with Christine Fang — better known as "Fang Fang" — a Chinese intelligence operative who targeted up-and-coming politicians in California. When that story broke, Swalwell wasn't removed from the House Intelligence Committee. He wasn't censured. He wasn't even mildly inconvenienced. Democrats circled the wagons, and Swalwell kept right on going.
And what did he do with that second chance? Apparently, he fired up Snapchat.
The man chose an app specifically built so that messages vanish after they're read. Not email. Not text. Snapchat. The preferred communication tool of teenagers and people who don't want receipts. For a sitting United States congressman — one who sits on committees dealing with national security — the optics alone should be disqualifying.
But optics have never been Swalwell's strong suit. This is the same congressman who appeared to pass gas on live television during a cable news interview and just kept talking. The same guy who ran for president in 2019, garnered roughly zero support, and dropped out before the debates got interesting. The same guy who spent years on cable news accusing Donald Trump of being a Russian asset — while he was literally sleeping with a Chinese spy.
You can't write satire this good. Reality keeps outpacing us.
The Snapchat angle is what really gets you, though. Swalwell didn't just contact these women — he chose the one platform engineered to make the evidence disappear. Too bad for him, the women's stories didn't vanish with the messages. More than a dozen of them. That's not a misunderstanding. That's not a political hit job. That's a pattern.
And where is the outrage from the party that supposedly champions women? Where's the "Believe All Women" crowd? Where are the hashtags and the congressional resolutions and the tearful press conferences? Nowhere. Because it's Eric Swalwell. Because he's got a D next to his name. Because the rules only apply in one direction.
If a Republican congressman had a Chinese spy girlfriend AND more than a dozen women coming forward with uncomfortable stories AND was using disappearing-message apps to contact them, he'd be finished before lunch. CNN would run wall-to-wall coverage for a month. MSNBC would need a second channel just for the panels.
But it's Swalwell, so we get a podcast segment and a shrug.
The messages may disappear on Snapchat, Congressman. But the women remember. And now so does everyone else.
