On Thursday, we brought you the story of the explosive claims made by GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13) about Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is disgraced former Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell's (CA-14) bestie - or at least was, until the sexual harassment and assault allegations broke last week.
Since then, Gallego, who used to be roommates with Swalwell, has gone from trying to run interference for him to then appearing to take the accusations against the failed 2020 presidential candidate seriously to the extent that he supported the idea of investigating and expelling Swalwell from Congress before he ended up resigning.
And because of their well-documented bromance, Gallego, who infamously left his first wife when she was nine months pregnant, has also denied having any knowledge of the allegations against Swalwell, claiming he hid the alleged wrongdoing so well that he was essentially living a "double life."
READ MORE: Sen. Ruben Gallego Suddenly Seems Panicky for Some Reason
Here We Go: Luna Goes to Thune About Gallego, and It May Be Time for Swalwell's Bestie to Lawyer Up
Speculation has run high on whether Gallego knows more than he is letting on. Even worse for Gallego have been rumors that a woman soon would be stepping forth with her own claim about sexual harassment against Gallego. But what Luna said in explaining why she's been in contact with Sen. Majority Leader John Thune's (R-SD) office went much further than that. She indicated that the allegations against Gallego possibly had to do with "trafficking" and stated that the specific allegation was "sexual in nature."
Gallego has now, through a spokesperson, responded to Luna's claims, and it was a response that Gallego maybe should have rethought:
A spokesman for Gallego pushed back on the claims, calling them baseless.
"These are right-wing conspiracy theories being parroted by a fringe far-right member of Congress," the spokesman told 12News. "Senator Gallego has not received notification or been contacted by the ethics committee."
The reason I say he maybe should have rethought that response was that it was almost identical to the statement Swalwell's team put out after the news initially broke of the sexual harassment allegations. They, too, blamed it in part on "conspiracy theorists" on the right:
“This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race."
And yet a few days later, Swalwell was apologizing to his wife for the "mistakes" he had made and for not being a "saint," which to some observers seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment of at least some of the alleged wrongdoings (he has flat out denied the sexual assault claims):
The aspiring California governor proceeded to admit to “mistakes in judgment” and apologized “deeply” to his wife for putting her in this position — a statement that raises more questions than it does answers.
“I do not suggest to you in any way that I’m perfect or that I’m a saint. I have certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past," he said. "But those mistakes are between me and my wife, and to her I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”
As I've said before, maybe it's something. Maybe it's nothing. But if I were Gallego, I would not have used the same response Eric Swalwell gave just days before he was apologizing to his wife for making "mistakes" and not being a "saint."
In any event, since we are still in the "just asking questions" phase of all of this, we'll stay tuned to see what, if anything, develops.
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