Good morning and welcome to Wednesday, April 15. It’s tax day, of course. It’s also Jackie Robinson Day, Titanic Remembrance Day, World Art Day, National Glazed Ham Day, and National Laundry Day. And it’s also ASL Day, to recall the importance of American Sign Language.
Projecting 75 degrees around here today. I actually brought the A/C online. Sign of the times, I guess.
1493: Christopher Columbus is received by Spanish monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II in Barcelona upon his return from the New World.
1729: Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St Matthew Passion” premieres at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
1738: “Serse,” an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, premieres at the King’s Theatre in Haymarket, London.
1783: The Continental Congress ratifies the preliminary articles of peace, ending the seven-year-long war with Great Britain.
1850: City of San Francisco incorporated.
1861: President Abraham Lincoln mobilizes a federal army of 75,000 volunteers at the start of the American Civil War.
1874: First Impressionist art exhibition opens in Paris, featuring Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot.
1877: The world’s first home telephone is installed in Somerville, Mass., at the house of Charles Williams Jr.
1892: General Electric Company formed by merger of Thomas Edison’s General Electric Company with Thomson-Houston Electric Company, arranged by J. P. Morgan and incorporated in N.Y.
1923: The first sound-on-film public show at the Rialto Theater in New York City.
1924: Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1945: 34th U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is buried on the grounds of his Hyde Park, N.Y., home.
1955: Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Des Plaines, Ill.
1967: Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra’s duet single “Somethin’ Stupid” begins a four-week run at #1.
Birthdays today include: Wilbur Wright of the Aviator team the Wright Brothers; Charlie Chaplin, silent film star; Milton Cross, radio announcer (Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, 1931-75); Barry Nelson, American actor, first actor to play James Bond; Peter Ustinov, actor and broadcaster; Henry Mancini, film and TV composer and conductor; Herbie Mann, American jazz flutist; Perry Botkin, Jr., American arranger, composer (“Nadia’s Theme”); Robert Stigwood, Australian-British music entrepreneur (RSO Records); Bobby Vinton, American pop singer (“Blue Velvet”; “My Melody Of Love”);Dusty Springfield, British pop vocalist (“I Only Want To Be With You,” “Son of a Preacher Man”); “Lonesome Dave” Peverett, British rock singer and musician (Foghat – “Slow Ride”; Savoy Brown, 1967-70); Gerry Rafferty, Scottish guitarist and vocalist (Stealers Wheel “Stuck In The Middle With You,” solo “Baker Street”); Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Basketball Hall of Fame center; and Bill Belichick, football coach with the most Super Bowl wins.
If it’s your birthday today, have a happy one!
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Wikipedia defines:
A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrongdoing, error, incompetence, or other embarrassing information. Research has distinguished personal cover-ups (covering up one’s own misdeeds) from relational cover-ups (covering up someone else’s misdeeds)
The expression is usually applied to people in positions of authority who abuse power to avoid or silence criticism or to deflect guilt of wrongdoing. Perpetrators of a cover-up (initiators or their allies) may be responsible for a misdeed, a breach of trust or duty, or a crime.
Now, as most of my readers know, I usually resist using Wikipedia for about anything at all, but this does seem a fair enough definition. So let’s go with it for the sake of discussion.
Since former Congressman Eric Swalwell resigned — by golly, it feels good to say that — many on the left have settled into a now-familiar refrain, one that wouldn’t sound out of place in Orwell’s Animal Farm, sung with sheep voices, to the tune of Four legs good, two legs baaaaad:
It’s not about red team versus blue team; it’s about believing the victims.
Thing is, that claim doesn’t withstand much scrutiny.
The real test of character, which is the real issue here, wasn’t after the story broke — it was before. WAY before. Like, long before the charges against the overly sanctimonious Swalwell went public, before the resignation from Congress, before the quiet exit from the California governor’s race. We’re talking about years before, not days. During all those years, Democrats knew and didn’t expose it. They didn’t even stay neutral. Instead, they helped bury it. That’s where character is measured — not in the slogans shouted repeatedly after the fact, but in the actions taken when it actually mattered.
By that standard, this wasn’t a stumble: It was a full earth-shaking collapse. Frankly, the louder the rhetoric gets now, the more it sounds like damage control: an attempt to rewrite the past, contain the fallout, and dodge the very accountability Democrats have always claimed to champion. This is not just about Swalwell himself, but those around him, and it shows us a trend I’ve been on about in column after column, for many years.
I’ve already noted, a few days back, when this first began to surface, that these events weren’t recent, but they stretch back years. If the accounts of the alleged victims are to be believed, and if one considers the actions of Chinese intelligence in that caustic mix, this was something of an open secret in Washington. As I said last Sunday:
Remember Fang Fang, the Chinese spy he was sleeping with? I’ll bet his wife does.
The Chinese don’t tend to operate on folks they know are untouchable. They knew Swalwell would take the bait, which explains Fang Fang. If the Chinese knew of his habits, it’s a lock-sure bet that the Democrats did as well. This has been going on for years, and it’s pretty obvious that the Dems have been sweeping this stuff under their prayer rugs for a long time. There’s a paper trail here that needs exposing. Swalwell was on the front of the mob demanding the release of the Epstein files. I’m all for fairness, so I’m going to get a step ahead of the game here: Release the Swalwell Files!
That last sentence is no joke. I’m among many who want these questions answered, because I am convinced there are a fair number of people involved in a willful cover-up, covering their own backsides as well as that of the Democrat party as a whole.
Our Matt Margolis has been all over this thing. As he’s pointed out, despite withdrawing from the gubernatorial race and resigning from Congress, Swalwell continues to deny the accusations. It’s not over for him, however.
Despite his dropping out of the gubernatorial race and resigning from Congress, Swalwell insists that the accusations against him are false. Swalwell might think resigning will take some heat off of him, but Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has made it clear she isn’t done with him — not even close.
Luna appeared on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime Monday night and warned that more damaging material about Swalwell would be coming within 24 hours, and she made clear that what she already knows is bad enough on its own.
At the same time, as Matt also noted, Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona has been mentioned in connection with these broader allegations. As you might expect, claims involving Gallego are disputed, and the situation remains fluid.
Still, given Gallego’s past political and personal association with Swalwell — including running in his 2020 presidential campaign — questions are rising about who knew what and when. Gallego’s personal history has also drawn attention in this context, adding another layer to an already developing story. Matt even has a vid of Swalwell with one of his victims — or was it a (cough, cough) professional — where it appears Gallego might be in the room. Well, either way, allegedly, an underage female took the video. As I said, there is much to investigate.
The Democrats, as of yesterday, are still trying to dance around all of this. Consider Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics:
I agree with Bevan. Pelosi has zero credibility here. During her time as Speaker, she ran her side of the isle with an iron hand, and House Dems did nothing without her approval. There’s no way she did not know. I’m convinced she was far from alone in this, and many in Congress on both sides echo this opinion. So, too, Matt Vespa over at Town Hall:
It’s simply not believable. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed she had no idea that former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was a reported master creep who allegedly engaged in highly inappropriate behavior with women, including rape. One former staffer said she was attacked by the former congressman twice—once in 2019, when she worked for him, and again at a 2024 charity event in New York City, which is how the Manhattan District Attorney’s office got involved in this circus.
Well, now, isn’t that convenient? The very people who gave us months of anti-Trump lawfare have taken the reins of a case against a Democrat. Keep a close eye on this one, where the Manhattan office is involved. Not that I think anything earth-shaking will come out of that situation. Indeed, exactly the opposite. I’m sure Jay Clayton, who has been running the show in Manhattan since last August, is a vast improvement over their previous leadership. Certainly, the president thought so when he appointed Clayton to the position. And if I recall correctly, Clayton was the one who personally signed the indictment against Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and a number of his henchmen. Still, this is deep-blue New York City, and even from Clayton’s position, you can’t purge the place totally.
Related: Swalwell… Why Now? Release the Swalwell Files!
It’s good we’ve got Swalwell looking at serious jail time now, but I suggest it’s also time to investigate and prosecute all the Democrats who knew about him and said nothing. There’s a paper trail and a video trail as well, and it needs exposing.
One of the features of Watergate was learning that the cover-up is almost invariably worse than the crime itself, and in my opinion, this is one such time. I say again, with tongue only half in cheek: Release the Swalwell files.
Thought of the day: I survived Monday and Tuesday, so Wednesday can’t scare me… much.
Take care. I’ll see you tomorrow.
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