What A Day - #MeToo Hits Congress, Again

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Two members of Congress stepped down over allegations of sexual misconduct from former staffers on Tuesday —Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales and California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. (Swalwell is also accused of sexual assault, and other women have come forward. He has denied the allegations.) Over and over, we see powerful people in politics — typically men — use their power to take advantage of others in dangerous and abusive ways. So, why does this keep happening? And what about Congress might be making it more difficult for survivors to come forward? To find out, we spoke to Moira Donegan. She’s a columnist covering gender and politics at The Guardian.And in headlines, a new report says the global economic outlook is not looking great, American conservatives take a blow on the international stage, and President Trump responds to a Federal Emergency Management Agency official who claims that he teleported to a Waffle House.Show Notes: Check out Moira's work – theguardian.com/profile/moira-donegan Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Wednesday, April 15th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is What a Day? The show that has more questions for President Donald Trump about his fascinating theory regarding diet soda. I learned about this theory from the head of Medicare and Medicaid, Dr. Mehmed Oz, here speaking on Donald Trump Jr's podcast, triggered. Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass. It's poured on grass, so therefore it must kill cancer cells inside the body. So he'll try it. Please.

Question. Does diet soda kill grass? And if it did, wouldn't that imply that diet soda is very, very bad for you? On today's show, a new report says the global economic outlook is not looking great. And President Trump responds to a federal emergency management agency official who claims that he teleported to a waffle house. No surprise, he says he doesn't know anything about it or the official. But let's start with Congress. and its ongoing epidemic of sexual misconduct.

Two members of Congress stepped down on Tuesday, Texas Republican Representative Tony Gonzalez and California Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell. Here is a clerk of the House of Representatives reading their resignation statements. And close is my resignation letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, effective April 14, 2026 at 1159 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. It has been my privilege to serve the residents

of Texas' 23rd Congressional District. Signed sincerely, Tony Gonzalez, member of Congress. I plan to resign my seat in Congress effective at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on April 14th, 2026. I will work with my staff in the coming days to ensure they are able and my absence to serve the needs of the good people of the 14th congressional district. Signed sincerely, Eric Swalwell. Gonzalez and Swalwell differ in almost every single way.

Gonzalez was endorsed for reelection by Trump. Swalwell was one of the loudest voices opposing Trump. Gonzalez dropped out of his re-election campaign weeks ago, while Swalwell was one of the top candidates in the California gubernatorial primary until this past weekend. But they share one horrible commonality. Both men have been accused of sexual misconduct. Gonzalez and Swalwell were accused of sexual misconduct by former staffers.

Swalwell is also accused of sexual assault, and other women have come forward. He is denied the allegations. I've been writing about politics for more than a decade now, and that means I've been covering sexual misconduct in politics for more than a decade. Sexual assault by politician seems almost endemic to me. Over and over, we see powerful people in politics, typically men, use their power to take advantage of others in dangerous and abusive ways. And, as we know, it goes all the way to the top. The president of the United States himself was found liable for

sexual abuse in 2023. So, why does this keep happening? And what about Congress might be making it more difficult for survivors to come forward? To find out, I spoke to Moira Donigan. She's a columnist covering gender and politics at The Guardian. Moira, welcome to Wadda. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here. We are almost 10 years removed from Me Too, and up until now, it's felt like not much permanently changed. We've seen kind of a backlash, then a backlash to the backlash. It's been weird. But this week, we saw two representatives, Tony Gonzalez of Texas and Eric Swalwell of California,

resign over allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment that have been circling for weeks. What do you think changed? You know, I think there is a sense that Me Too is a reflection of exasperation, right? these like sort of politicized moments of sexual violence return when people are outraged by impunity, right? And there's been a lot of sort of simmering attention to the issue of sexual violence, particularly among elites, in the wake of the Epstein scandal. And as people, you know, confront both the extent of complicity in Epstein's alleged crimes and the sort of pervasive impunity, I think there has been sort of a wearing down to. of patience. And what you saw when these allegations about Swalwell came out, really just over the past few days, is a sort of confrontation with the reality of the pervasiveness of this issue and a lack of

patience. And I think this is interesting that it redounded also to Tony Gonzalez, whose alleged misconduct has been public in the popular media for much longer, but who had managed to hold on to his seat in Congress until just this week. Swalwell and Gonzalez are not the only politicians in Congress with allegations against them. Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he will be, quote, looking into the House investigation of Republican Representative Corey Mills, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, a bunch of other things. But here's my question for you. What do you think it says that serious accusations of sexual misconduct are treated like tit-for-tat political fodder?

Like, well, you get rid of one of yours, we might get rid of one of ours. Yeah, you know, it's very conspicuous that Swalwell's resignation seems to have been what prompted the Republicans to finally cut Tony Gonzalez loose. You know, and I think there is something a bit dispiriting about this kind of mutual weaponization of sexual abuse by each side of the political rivalry, right? It seems as if it's less opposed to on principle than deployed as a tool against one's political enemies in a kind of cynical or even opportunistic manner. And I think what the challenge will be for feminists and for those of us who are, you know, committed to a principled opposition to rape and violence will be to try and make this into a principle that can be applied even when it's not particularly politically convenient or that will be applied that people tend to apply both to their own side. to their opponents. What a day spoke with two Democratic House Aids, one current and one former, about the allegations against Swalwell and Gonzalez.

And they indicated there could be more members accused of misconduct, which does not surprise me at all. You and I have been writing about and talking about this issue for a long time. I remember I wrote a piece about the Judgment Fund, which helps to fund sexual harassment lawsuits in Congress. That was in 2017. That was a story about former Michigan Representative John Conyers. That was, in political terms, that was 10,000 years ago.

And this keeps happening. This is not new. If you go back to the 1970s, 1980s, Congress was in some ways worse and grosser. But what do you think it says about the culture of Congress and U.S. politics as a whole that this kind of toxic power dynamic is still so prevalent? Like the stories from Swalwell's accusers sound so familiar and that familiarity horrifies me, Moira. It genuinely horrifies me. You know, Jade, I wish it was just the culture of Congress. I wish there was something perverse about this one institution uniquely

that made these abuses happen there and nowhere else. But I think what really happens is that these kinds of abuses happen everywhere where there is unchecked power, everywhere where there are, you know, men with a lot of people relying on them who have. of women who are proximate and vulnerable, right? I think this is something that, you know, we saw in Me Too that this happens in the media, that it happens in Hollywood. We see that it happens in tech, that it happens in fast food. You know, this is a sort of broad, culture-wide pathology of, you know,

abuse of power of eroticized domination and of exploitation, largely of women by men. And, you know, I think that it is interesting that, these abuses are so bipartisan and that they are sort of pushing on fractures that are emerging within partisan coalitions, right? So the Swalwell allegations and his subsequent resignation have really disrupted the California governor's race, where there is an open, bipartisan primary in which the two leading contenders will advance the general election in the fall. Swalwell looked to be until, you know, just this weekend as if he would be the frontrunner in that election. And now it's anybody's race.

You know, Katie Porter has a much better chance. Tom Sire has a much better chance on the Republican side. You see the Epstein allegations roiling the MAGA coalition, not just because of Trump's populist and anti-elite messaging that is, you know, somewhat undermined by his connections to Jeffrey. Epstein, but also because of an interestingly politicized right-wing grievance against sexual exploitation from the likes of Nancy Mace, who has been very vocal on this issue. And her attempt to add some public disclosure and transparency to these congressional funds for distributing sexual harassment settlements, that got shot down just last month in a really broadly bipartisan vote, right? So there's forces both in Congress and sort of across our

culture that are both sort of pushing against this pervasive impunity for sexual violence and also sort of arraying to protect entrenched interests. It's not always who you would expect that is lining up on each side of this issue. Politics is the added element of people who are working within it, believing, hoping, maybe, that they are contributing to something that will make the country better. Do you think that that contributes to that culture where it's not just a member of Congress, it's a member of Congress who maybe is working on an issue you care a lot about? And does that change how people think about these allegations or think about how this can happen when it's not just, oh, this person is super famous and super powerful?

It's also, this person could make sure everyone gets health care or could ensure reproductive rights access in my state. They are also, apparently, a sexual predator. Yeah, I think this is something that really influences both the way that broad audiences interpret these allegations and also the way that victims interpret their own set of responsibilities in either coming forward or in deciding not to report and disclose, right? You saw, you know, just very recently the case of Delores Huerta, the leader of the farm workers movement, who recounted her own. raped by Cesar Chavez and said that she did not want to come forward at the time because she thought it would endanger the cause to which she had devoted her life, right? I think this is a pervasive feature of sexual abuse in sort of mission-oriented workplaces.

And in the case of somebody like Eric Swolewell, I think this also impacts the way that, you know, party insiders and voters and those who are really invested in the Democratic. Party or in the struggle against Trumpism are understanding this. You know, there really is something that we lose when somebody like Eric Swalwell, who was, for all his faults, you know, a talented anti-Trump surrogate on cable news, right? A very ambitious, public-facing, active guy who was useful in some ways to the anti-Trump political movement in the U.S. But I think it would be incomplete to talk about that loss without also considering the loss of these women who are degraded or humiliated or hurt or abused or otherwise not allowed to thrive in their own talents because of these kinds of abuses that they encounter in their fields.

Somehow at the same time, Harvey Weinstein is back in court this week. He's being retried for a rape case in New York City for the third time. So I have to ask, there have been a lot of criticisms of me too, and some of those I think have been pretty not-harmes. helpful. The idea of it going too far, going after the wrong people, whatever. But it does say something to me that we're in a moment in which Harvey Weinstein, this is the third time people have been trying to get justice for what he allegedly did. And it's been nearly 10 years. What do you think that says about what Me Too could not get done? Yeah, you know, Me Too was in many ways like sort of a speech movement, right? It was about making speakable realities and experiences that had been excluded from official reality, right,

from the official public reckoning of what people did and what our histories contain. What they could not do was undo a millennia of patriarchal conditioning around sexual violence. What they could not do is rewrite these institutional habits that give a lot of deference to sexual abusers in particular and to wealthy sexual abusers especially. You know, what they could not do is erase the ability of the likes of Harvey Weinstein or, you know, Bill Cosby, whose conviction was also overturned, to purchase their way out of accountability, right? There's much broader structures of corruption, of institutional complicity, and of, you know,

societal misogyny that have entrenched these outcomes. And to get rid of those, I think is a much, much bigger project. Moira, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. Thank you for having me, Jane. It was a pleasure. That was my conversation with Moira Donigan, columnist for The Guardian. This is a show that thinks sexual misconduct is bad, no matter who's doing it. I know. Wild! If you agree, make sure you subscribe.

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Remember to head to Zabetics.com and use the code Wad at checkout for 15% off. Here is what else we're following today. Joining me is Crooked's Washington correspondent, Matt Berg, to talk about the big stories. Hey, Matt. Hey, Jane. Matt. The world's economic outlook is looking grim, thanks to Trump's war in Iran.

Here's Kevin Hassett, one of his top economic advisors telling Americans on CNBC Tuesday that, hey, it could be worse. While it's very frustrating to go with the pump and see what the price of gasoline looks like, that the benefit for oil producers and workers in those industries is significant enough that the GDP effect in the U.S. is much smaller than anything that you would see, if you look at, say, an Asian economy or even in the U.K., where because of their, you know, Green New Deal type policies, they've more or less stopped producing oil. Two things. Is he saying, well, oil companies are doing well? So it's fine. Also, apparently it's bad to rely on green energy when the world is going through an oil crisis.

We're learning new things all the time, Matt. But the bottom line is Donald Trump's war with Iran is hurting countries around the world. And yes, that includes the United States. Right. The global economy could even slide into recession if the war continues. According to a report released by the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, And the report also says that the global economic outlook was actually looking steady before Trump bombed Iran. Which is wild, given the tariffs and everything else. Yet now, even the best-case scenario looks grim. The IMF predicts that global growth could fall to 3.1% this year, down from 3.4% in 2025. And Hasse is not the only Trump official who is downplaying the toll that the war is taking on the U.S. economy. speaking at an event hosted by semaphore on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said,

quote, the conflict will end, prices will come down, and then headline inflation will come down. Matt, you know, I have this rule. Whatever Scott Bessent says, I assume the exact opposite. But you know what's making me feel better? Chodenfroita, through MAGA International mourning the loss of Victor Orban's authoritarian rule in Hungary. The American far right has long admired. Orban's strongman rule in Hungary, as he crushed the free press and villainized immigrants and LGBT people, while the economy suffered and the birth rate, a major MAGA obsession declined, despite

massive state investment in the issue. Here's Hungary's then foreign minister telling Tucker Carlson in 2022 why Hungary was so great for conservatives. We are conducting a patriotic, Christian-based policy. The target of ours is to a reach to fulfill the national interest. We are conservative. And in the meantime, we are successful. Apparently not. And Vice President J.D. Vance even traveled to Hungary last week to boost Orban's odds. But he failed miserably. In Maga may have had a much bigger stake in this than we even knew before Vance's trip. In speech on Monday, Hungary's newly elected leader, Peter Majjar said that Hungary will no longer fund the Hungarian branch

of the Conservative Political Action Conference. Better known as CPAC, but, you know, most people these days might know it just as the crazy right-wing conference where Elon Musk swung a chainsaw over his head last year. To be clear, Majar said Orban's government gave the money, but CPAC told Politico

that it has never received funding from the Hungarian state. Quote, any decisions on the use of government money in Hungary will have zero impact on our organization, as it has never received any of these funds. But CPAC definitely did take their to Budapest for several years, highlighting such stars as one of former Brazilian president

Jair Bolsonaro's sons and Maryland Republican Congressman Andy Harris and a far-right Hungarian journalist who was super racist. It's not the first time the right has fallen in love with a right-wing government, Matt, but Hungary? The country with major ties to China and Russia? Really? But, Matt, now the relationship makes more sense, because it looks like the draw it wasn't just ideology, it was also money. Yeah. Hungary's politics are pretty intense, and America's are too, but America's these days are just downright strange. Take for example the case of Greg Phillips. He's the federal emergency management agency official in charge of disaster response. He's also apparently

totally delusional. You might be familiar with him after CNN uncovered a podcast from last year, in which he said that he teleported to Waffle House in Georgia dozens of miles away. Here's a clip from that podcast. It was scary in a way. I mean, you know, you don't really know, okay, is this evil? Is this good? What is this? What do I do with this?

How do I deal with it? I was on the phone. Oh, my God, what's happening? CNN got Trump on the phone to talk about that on Thursday, and he did not seem sold on the possibilities of teleportation. That's an amazing sentence. he did not. Quote, was he kidding? Trump asked CNN when told about Phillips claim. He added, quote, it just sounds a little strange, but I know nothing about teleporting or him, but I'll find out

about it right now. One of my favorite Trump things is that if you do something he doesn't like, he will completely Mariah carry you. He doesn't know him. He has no idea who he is. Who is this guy anyway? And hilariously, the New York Times did the legwork and went to the Waffle House, where this man claimed to have teleported to. And no employees or regulars at that location, remember anyone teleporting there. Though, stumbling into Waffle House after a long night does feel a lot like teleportation.

That is objectively true. But Phillips has said some even weirder things on podcasts, according to CNN. Do you want to hear them, Jane? I don't, but I do. So go ahead. Yeah, well, here we go. He claimed that God sat on his bed,

and diagnosed him with cancer. He said that he's on earth to do God's work, but that he's, quote, actually dead. And he said that his deceased girlfriend lifted his car off the road to help him avoid a car crash. How sweet, I guess. Well, I sure hope that when a natural disaster hits, this guy can find a way to teleport to my house. Or actually, I would really prefer someone more qualified than him. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me.

And that's the news. Before we go, if your timeline turned into a dusty live stream of influencers in the desert this weekend, you're not alone. On this week's Keep It, Louis Vertel is joined by guest co-host Ivy Wolk to break down all the chaos, from Coachella to the long-away to return of euphoria. Plus, actor Paul Walter Hauser stops by to talk about his latest projects, career curveballs, and everything in between. new episodes of Keep It Drop every Wednesday. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, celebrate winners, not losers, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're underrating, a not just about Virginia Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger, finally ending tax exemptions for organizations that celebrate and honor the Confederacy, like me. What today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston. And maybe you should have thought about the tax implications of fomenting a rebellion against the union to support the institution of slavery.

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