#MeToo Hits Congress, Again

It's Wednesday, April 15th.

I'm Jane Kostin, and this is what a day.

I'm sure 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. Memadas.

You're speaking on Donald Trump Jr's podcast, Triggered.

If that 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 who tried 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'd teleport into a waffle house.

And as a surprise, he says he doesn't know anything about it or the official.

But let's start with Congress, and it's ongoing epidemic of sexual misconduct.

Two members of Congress step 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.

In close as my resignation letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, effective April 14th,

2026 at 11.59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

It has been my privilege to serve the residents of Texas's 23rd Congressional District,

Science and Serially, Tony Gonzalez, member of Congress.

I plan to resign my seat and 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, Science and Serially,

Eric Swalwell.

Gonzalez and Swalwell differ in almost every single way.

Gonzalez was endorsed for re-election 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 politicians 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 What Today.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's great to be here.

We are almost ten years removed from me too.

And up until now, it's felt like not much permanently changed.

We've seen kind of a backlash, and then a backlash to the backlash.

It's been weird.

But this week, we saw two representatives, Tony Gonzalez of Texas and Eric Swahwell 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 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 of

patients.

And what you saw when these allegations about Swahwell 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 patients.

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.

Swahwell 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 Cory 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 Swahwell'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 disperiding 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 and to their

opponents.

What did I spoke with two Democratic House aides, one current and one former about the allegations

against Swahwell 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.

I was in 2017.

That was a story about former Michigan representative John Conniers.

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 and 1980s, Congress was in some ways worse and grosser.

But what do you think it says about the culture of Congress?

And you as politics as a whole that this kind of toxic power dynamic is still so prevalent?

Like the stories from Swahwell's accusers sound so familiar.

And that familiarity horrifies me, Moria.

It genuinely horrifies me.

You know, Jay, 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 men with a lot of people relying on them

who have women who are proximate and vulnerable.

I think this is something that 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.

This is a broad culture wide pathology of abusive power of a broadest-size domination

and of exploitation, largely of women by men.

And 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 Swahwell 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.

Swahwell looked to be until just as we can as if he would be the front runner 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 their Republican side.

You see the Epstein allegations, oiling the Maga coalition, not just because of Trump's

populist and anti-alete messaging that is 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 Mays, 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 has 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 of 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 and either coming

forward or deciding not to report and disclose.

You saw just very recently the case of Dolores Huerta, the leader of the farm workers movement

who recounted her own rape 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.

I think this is a pervasive feature of sexual abuse in sort of mission-oriented workplaces.

And in the case of somebody like Eric Swalwell, I think this also impacts the way that party

insiders and voters and those who are really invested in the Democratic Party or in the

struggle against Trumpism are understanding this.

There really is something that we lose when somebody like Eric Swalwell, who was for

all his faults, a talented anti-Trump surrogate on cable news, a very ambitious public facing,

an active guy who was useful in some ways to the anti-Trump political movement in the US.

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 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, 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.

What they could not do is erase the ability of the likes of Harvey Weinstein or 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 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!

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Here is what else we're following today.

Joining me is Crooked's Washington correspondent Matt Verk to talk about the big stories.

Hey, Matt.

Hey, Jay.

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 CNBC2 to say

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, the benefit for oil producers and workers in those industries is significantly

enough that the GDP affects in the US is much smaller than anything that you would see if

you look at, say, an Asian economy or even in the UK where because of their green new

deal type policies, they more or less stop 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.

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.

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 has is not the only Trump official who is downplaying the toll that the war is taking

on the US economy.

Speaking at an event hosted by semiforon 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 Besson says, I assume the exact opposite.

But you know what's making me feel better.

Chadenfereda.

Through mega international, mourning the loss of Victor Orbán's authoritarian rule and

hungry.

The American far right has long admired Orbán's strongman rule and hungry as he crushed

the free press and villainized immigrants and LGBT people while the economy suffered

in the birth rate.

A major mega obsession declined despite massive state investment in the issue.

Here's Hungry'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 reach the 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 the hungry last week to boost Orbán's odds.

But he failed miserably.

And mega may have had a much bigger stake in this than we even knew before Vance's trip.

In speech on Monday, Hungry's newly elected leader Peter Majar said that Hungary will no

longer fund the Hungarian branch of the conservative political action conference.

Better not a 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, Mazar said Orbán'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 and Hungary will have zero impact on

our organization as it has never received any of these funds.

But CPAC definitely did take their tour 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 is 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 wasn't just

ideology.

It was also money.

Yeah.

Hungry's politics are pretty intense in America's R2, but America's these days are just

downright strange.

Take for example, in the case of Greg Phillips, he's the federal emergency manager.

He's been 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?

You know, 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.

And no, 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 Carey 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 like work 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.

All right.

Yeah, well, here we go.

He claimed that God sat on his bed and died, no, son, 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 livestream of influencers in the

desert this weekend, you're not alone.

On this week's Keep It, Lewis Fertel is joined by guest co-host Ivy Wolk to break down

all the chaos from Coachella to the long way 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.

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like me, what today is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at crickett.com slash subscribe.

I'm Jane Kostin.

And maybe you should have thought about the tax implications of fomenting a rebellion

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