FOIAzona

On April 14, 2026, U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) participated in one of the most uncomfortable press gaggles I’ve ever seen.

Scrutiny of Gallego has exploded in recent days because of his decade-long relationship with U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), whose sexual improprieties have been the subject of constant media headlines since Friday. Gallego has praised Swalwell as “my best friend,” and the latter has praised the former as “my best friend in the world.”

The two men are extremely intimate and were “roommates” for years, according to congressional correspondence. Naturally, questions have been raised about what Gallego knew and why he never reported Swalwell’s behavior.

On Monday, a reporter confronted Gallego on Capitol Hill. That exchange lasted 45 seconds. You can watch it here.

On Tuesday, though, suspicions about Gallego had grown tenfold and he was forced to participate in a formal press gaggle. He spent the next 35 minutes with his shoulders hunched over, a sweaty face, a shaky voice, crossed arms, and fidgety hands nervously grasping at random parts of his body. You can watch the full video here.

Gallego made verifiable falsehoods during this presser. So, with ethics and criminal investigations into Swalwell now in full swing—which likely will result Gallego having to turn over his correspondence with his best friend—I decided to create a searchable transcript of both the 45-second and 35-minute events below.

Enjoy.

Transcript: Ruben Gallego Reporter Confrontation (45 Seconds) (April 13, 2026)

Ruben Gallego:

The man led a double life and for many—more than 20 congressmen, people have served with him for a long time, we had no clue. And, look, unlike whatever’s happening with Jeffrey Epstein—because, like, we knew we all asked for accountability (inaudible) led a double life and tricked many of us into (inaudible).

Transcript: Ruben Gallego Press Gaggle (35 Minutes) (April 14, 2026)

Ruben Gallego:
Thank you everyone for being here. I called this today because there’s just a lot of rumors going around about me, about my family, and, you know, unfortunately this is not the first time. I did deal with the same BS in 2024 and 2023 when they ran millions and millions of dollars of smears against me, lied about me, lied about my family, and it’s the same damn people again: Kari Lake, Chris LaCivita, a bunch of political operatives. What they couldn’t do in 2024 they’re trying to do again in 2026. So, I want to make a couple things very clear. Number-one, Eric Swalwell lied to all of us. He lied to the most powerful people in this country and they trusted him. They trusted with the most sensitive spots in our government, whether it was on judiciary committee, intel committee, impeaching Donald Trump, and that clouded my judgment. My friendship with him, our family’s friendship together with him, clouded my judgment and I was wrong. I deeply, deeply regret that. The women that came forward are courageous and they still deserve justice. But to be clear again: I also had no knowledge of predatory behavior, sexual assault, or harassment, and unfortunately right now the same people that were attacking me in 2024 are using this horrible situation—this horrible situation that’s been thrown upon these women, thrown upon Eric Swalwell’s family—and using this as an excuse to quickly attack me, lie about me, and lie about my family, and I will not take that lightly. So, with that, I’ll gladly take any questions because we’re here and I’m not going to let the same (inaudible). We’re not going to rush out, so don’t worry.

Reporter:
Swalwell has called you his “best friend.” You have never asked him about any of the rumors that have been swirling around Democratic politics of his inappropriate behavior?

Ruben Gallego:
I did. Look, we knew each other differently for everybody else. My family and his family were as close as it gets. Our kids were in baseball camp together. You know, we had dinner together as a family. It was entirely different than I think what people understand. But when there was rumors going around a couple weeks ago—not of the full extent or whatever in the San Francisco Chronicle—I did ask him and he lied to me. He knew that I just came off a very, very hard campaign for two years where they lied about me and my family for two years. He manipulated me to have the same sentiment that I was having back in the day and used as an opportunity to move me to defend him.

Reporter:
How did you not know about the allegations, though, considering you chaired his presidential campaign. Wouldn’t some of this have come up? Some of those allegations predated when he ran for office.

Ruben Gallego:
Again, this man led a double life. He lied to us. He lied to his family. He lied to his constituents. Some most powerful people in this country—you know, even before he ran, he was trusted with some positions that normally we would never think someone like this could do if they’re leading that double life. And, again, I was manipulated, I was lied to, and everyone else was, too.

Reporter:
Senator, would you release any text messages you had with Eric Swalwell to prove your innocence here?

Ruben Gallego:
Anybody, anybody that asks or anybody, any legal, you know, proceedings that need it will get whatever they want without a doubt. (crosstalk) Yeah. Any legal proceedings. The ethics interviews or if there’s subpoenas or anything else, legal proceedings, anything else, if he gets sued, we’ll release everything.

Reporter:
Help us understand when you called him in light of these allegations coming forward and then, when they did grow more serious into sexual assault, did you call him again and ask your friend: “Did you lie to me?”

Ruben Gallego:
No. I called him a few minutes after I read that article and I told him: “Drop out.” The San Francisco Chronicle article. “Drop out.”

Reporter:
And you didn’t speak to him then when CNN put out reporting that was much more serious?

Ruben Gallego:
I don’t remember the timeline, but as soon as I read about the San Francisco Chronicle article, like, like a minute afterward after I got off stage, I called him and said, “It’s time to drop out.”

Reporter:
(crosstalk) “Is this true? Is this not true?”

Ruben Gallego:
I told him to drop out. He denied everything. I told him: “You have to drop out.” We’ll start taking back.

Reporter:
There was a video online that surfaced up Eric Swalwell making out with a woman sitting next to someone. Was that you sitting next to him?

Ruben Gallego:
This is an example of the lies. No. I was not sitting next to him. I was not in the room. I was nowhere. I don’t even know where it happened. This is exactly I’m talking about. Chris LaCivita and a bunch of other right wing political operatives are pushing this narrative that somehow was in that room with Eric Swalwell, and that is an absolute lie.

Reporter:
Congressman, you have future political ambitions. How can people trust you to run for higher office if you didn’t know that your best friend was engaging in even inappropriate behavior?

Ruben Gallego:
I messed up. I’m human. I trusted this man. I trusted him to watch my children. I would watch his children. He knew that I had just gone through the most bruising campaign where I was accused of being a mule for the cartel, where my kids were subjected to TV commercials about what an awful human being I was. He knew how to prey on that and I was a loyal friend to someone that just was not loyal to me.

Reporter:
Have you spoken to the congressman since he announced his resignation?

Ruben Gallego:
No. Have you conveyed your feelings toward him?

Reporter:
Since I told him to drop out, I have not spoken to him and I’m not (crosstalk).

Reporter:
Just to be clear: In your statement, because yesterday in your statement you said that the women who have come forward deserve to be believed, do you believe them? Or do you believe Eric Swalwell when he says these allegations are false?

Ruben Gallego:
Oh, I believe the women 100 percent and they deserve justice.

Reporter:
You said you never saw these allegations.

Ruben Gallego:
No. I had no knowledge.

Reporter:
You had no knowledge of it. So, did you ever—what about any sort of position that he may put himself in? Any compromising position? He was he drinking excessively? Was he around?

Ruben Gallego:
We—well, yeah. Let me (crosstalk).

Reporter:
Did you see any of that?

Ruben Gallego:
I didn’t see any of that. But, look, we all heard rumors in Washington, D.C., about Eric Swalwell for many years, and my family, again, was with him all the time, with his wife, with his kids, and we saw a different side of Eric that I never saw and, when I asked him about some of these rumors that were starting on the Internet, you know, a few weeks back, he also denied it and said the same thing, like, “The same thing they tried to do to you in 2024 is what they’re trying to do to me.”

Reporter:
Do you understand why people might be incredulous about that given the fact that you guys were roommates for a time?

Ruben Gallego:
We were never roommates. That’s a lie.

Reporter:
You chaired his presidential. You were close to him. You were best friends. Do you understand why people just might have questions?

Ruben Gallego:
Yeah, absolutely. And this is why we’re having this press conference right now.

Reporter:
Senator, are you worried? Are you having to explain to donors and to candidates that you have endorsed the stuff that you’re explaining to us now? Are you worried that that you could be a political liability for people who (inaudible).

Ruben Gallego:
Look, at this point, all I care about is, number-one, stopping the lies that are happening about me and about my family. Everyone else can make their political calculations. The fact is: This has been awful. It’s been an awful situation for the victims. It’s been an awful situation, again, for Eric’s family. It’s been an awful situation for my family. We’ve been betrayed. We were lied to, lied to repeatedly, and manipulated for many years.

Reporter:
You said you were hearing these rumors for years. Did you push for any investigations or were you only taking Eric Swalwell’s word?

Ruben Gallego:
Look, again, we had a familial relationship. Our families were friends together. I, again, you know, had heard rumors. There’s rumors about people all the time here, and when you see people in power and in senior to you that are putting them in these very sensitive positions—intel committee, judiciary committee, they trusted him to go after President Trump, they exposed him, you know, to all this scrutiny—and eventually, you know, especially when you have, again, your kids hanging out with his kids, your families are friends, you just don’t believe.

Reporter:
But what were the rumors that you heard?

Ruben Gallego:
That he was just very—it was flirty. It was flirty.

Reporter:
And that was when? About what year was that?

Ruben Gallego:
I mean, that was—we’ve heard that. We’ve heard that throughout.

Reporter:
In the beginning, you said when you first heard these rumors a few weeks ago that’s when you called him. Then you said you’ve heard these rumor for years. So, which one is it, Senator?

Ruben Gallego:
So, I heard rumors of him being flirty.

Reporter:
And that wasn’t an issue enough for you to not trust him to watch your kids or be close with him?

Ruben Gallego:
Because, you know, you hear this and then when you’re close to somebody and you know his wife, you see this, you see that relationship, you know that, like, it maybe just isn’t true.

Reporter:
Had you asked him about it prior to these few weeks?

Ruben Gallego:
I asked him about it a few weeks ago when it started coming up online.

Reporter:
Why wouldn’t you ask him about it if you’re running his campaign, sir? (crosstalk)

Ruben Gallego:
Yes, look, look, Speaker Pelosi has known Eric even longer than me, and again she would never, ever put someone like Eric in a sensitive position like intel committee, which—she prides herself being a former member of the intel committee. She would never put him on the impeachment trial and potentially get the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in trouble. She would never do that. She, like many of us, were lied to, were manipulated, and, you know, we’re all dealing with the fallout of that. (crosstalk)

Ruben Gallego:
I’ve got to, like, vet, like friends closer now. This is, like—again, I let this man into my family. I trusted this man through some of the hardest things I ever had to deal with. I trusted him with my family and it hurts and it hurts the fact that he hurt a lot of people and it pisses me off that now we all have to deal with all of his BS, his family, the poor victims that are still going to have to seek justice, and of course this is just—this is enough. This is a horrible situation. (crosstalk)

Ruben Gallego:
I’m sorry that we, you know, we didn’t listen closer. And I will—I want to make sure you get justice. I know he resigned. I know he, you know, obviously quit the race, but that doesn’t bring closure to them and we want, I want, to bring them justice and we’ll be here to be helpful.

Reporter:
When you first heard these rumors, should you have acted when you first heard these rumors several years ago?

Ruben Gallego:
The rumors are heard were that he was just a flirty, social guy. That’s it. And, when he was married and when we were together as families, I fell on the fallback that this is not the man that I’m hearing about. This is not the—you know, when you’re out with a man, when he is, you know, taking his kids to baseball games, when you see them together, you know, you start creating in your head, like, “That’s not the person.” And you’ll—again, I was lied to and, you know, it clouded my judgment. Our friendship clouded our judgment. Every time we went out to dinner, every time our families were together, you know, we, you know, we would literally pick our kids up from schools, from practice together. Like, this is not something that just happens overnight.

Reporter:
For people who are outside of Washington, seeing the online discourse, hearing the coverage that says, “Well, people heard rumors. Even what you’re saying, people heard rumors, but we didn’t know how bad it was. We didn’t know —” I mean, what do you tell them as someone who’s been a member of Congress for so long, we know that there are other people that are spoken about this way. What role do you take as someone who’s heard rumors now? Do you think differently about former colleagues that you’ve heard this about?

Ruben Gallego:
Yeah, I mean, like, look, I think there’s—we have to be honest with ourselves. Like, I think a lot of people in D.C. treat these kinds of rumors as just like part of the course of playing, you know, here or something like that. And no one, you know, ever thought that the accusations were of the nature that came out of the San Francisco Chronicle article or even of harassment, but the other rumors were just as serious and we should have, we should have, you know, figured out how to approach that, but the other stuff we just didn’t know.

Reporter:
Congress rewrote the Congressional Accountability Act in 2018 in response to the Me Too movement. How is this man able to get away with this for so long and get so far in Democratic politics, even, you know, in the midst of the Me Too movement?

Ruben Gallego:
Well, it means that we have to go back and make that better because clearly, there’s holes in this, or, number two, that we haven’t created an environment through the legislation to make women, especially staffers, feel like they could come and talk to somebody and not have any repercussions. And how did we get this far? It’s because every time there was an opportunity, I think, for him to be exposed it wasn’t and it just kind of kept on going. So, 2018 happens and then he’s also on the—he’s then quickly after that on the impeachment committee, you know, he’s on the district committee, he’s on the intel committee. Right? You have friends that have known him forever. You have, you know, you know, we had 20 members of Congress that supported him for governor. At some point, because there was no break and because there was all these ways that kept on saying, “Well, if he did something, why would he be on this committee? Why wouldn’t—why wouldn’t someone have brought it up?” And I think that’s what fed into this. But, well, you’re, you know, the legislation that happened after Me Too definitely has to go and be enforced because clearly it didn’t work.

Reporter:
You’re saying that yourself and others didn’t believe the rumors. Then why was Swalwell’s downfall so swift? Why did you call him a minute after? It seems like you would maybe, you know, suspected that there might be some truth here.

Ruben Gallego:
As soon as I read the article and that, number one, first of all, that she was a staffer. That was done. Right? So, even before, like, you know, everything else, but the fact that she was working for him, that right there is a reason you need to drop out. Before even anything else because that was inappropriate. It was harassment. He had power over her. He had power over her career and her decision-making, so even if I didn’t believe anything else that was true. We knew it was true, and that’s why I told him he had to get out. And then you go further and you talk and you see, you know, medical records and multiple people, so that was pretty cut and dry to me. (crosstalk)

Reporter:
I’m wondering what steps you have taken or will be taken in your own office to make sure that staff feels more comfortable coming to each other. Because we know part of the problem here that there are 530-some offices, people all talk, and everyone is worried that if they bring an allegation like this to the forefront, you’re not going to be able to get the next job.

Ruben Gallego:
Yeah. So, I’ve been thinking about—you know, first of all, we’re going to try to get our staff together, kind of figure out what that is, but I do think there needs to be some level of independent, whether it’s here in the senate or in the house, there needs to be some other independent organization that is not employed by anybody in our office that gives these staff—and it’s not just women, staff—protection, whistleblower protection, as well as the ability to be able to go outside the kind of internal HR circles. And I think we just had to keep on looking at ways to keep improving this as well as—I think every office has to actually sit down with their staff and try to establish an attitude of, like, if you feel anything, if you feel threatened, if you feel harassed, like, here is who you should talk to and here are the avenues to do that. But I do think you know it is clear after 2018, after Me Too, after this, we need to have some level of accountability that is independent from these offices or else I do think it will continue to happen.

Reporter:
Just to clarify, you’ve never witnessed Swalwell (inaudible)?

Ruben Gallego:
I have not.

Reporter:
And, second, do you feel like D.C. and Congress (inaudible)? Does that foster an (inaudible) environment for such misconduct?

Ruben Gallego:
So, he’s not—his family lives here, so I can’t speak about that, but I do think that there’s an environment here that needs to improve, and that is, you know, about members of Congress hanging out with their staff, you know, and I think that creates a problem and I think that that is an environment that does kind of create this situation. Again, it’s not the staff’s fault. It’s not these women’s faults. It is his fault. It is the fault of people like him who have power and abuse it for what whatever they want to call their benefit. (crosstalk)

Reporter:

Have you had any discussions with Leader Schumer or anyone else in Senate Democratic leadership in the recent days about the situation, or do you plan to?

Ruben Gallego:
I’ve spoken to senate members on the floor and just started talking to them about what I saw and then going forward about what has been happening more than anything else, and then going forward I will be talking to Schumer and seeing if we would come up with any ideas kind of like what I said of like some level of independence to give, you know, staffers and people affected an opportunity to go talk to somebody, because some of these, you know, some of these people also could be, you know, people that used to work for him or something of that nature.

Reporter:
You mentioned lies and rumors when you first came out to talk to us. Have you ever engaged in any inappropriate sexual misconduct or behavior toward your staff, other staff, other women outside of your marriage?

Ruben Gallego:
No.

Reporter:
I want to get back to your time on Eric Swalwell’s campaign and furthermore his run for governor. As you know, every campaign does opposition research, so even if you heard these rumors why didn’t they raise any red flags?

Ruben Gallego:
So, first, as I said before, I knew Eric totally different from everybody else. It’s just the truth. Right? Like, when you break bread with somebody, when you, you know, are with somebody every day, when you go through some of the hardest moments of your life and trust somebody with that, you don’t think about this other, like, process of vetting. Right? And that’s what happened. That’s exactly what happened. And then when he starts running for governor and then stuff starts, you know, percolating, you know, he knew exactly what to say to me. He was like, “This is the same thing that they were doing to you.” And he knew I came off a horrible race where I had to answer to my family, I had to answer accusations to best friends, to my kids, and he fed into that. He fed into it and I fell for it. Like everyone else, I fell for the lies. I regret it, but that’s what happened.

Reporter:
Looking back at it, when you first heard these rumors about flirtatious behavior, should you have done something differently?

Ruben Gallego:
I think I should have talked to him about it. I think I should have told him, you know, “This is what I’m hearing out there and I think, you know, you should know about it and, if you’re doing it, stop.” You know, I fell into the trap, again, because I think I was too inside the family bubble that I just didn’t think it was that and certainly to not think of—I never would have imagined it was to the point what we saw right now. Even, you know, like, we’re talking about harassment of staff. I never would imagine that, and I never heard actual accusations of harassment of staff or predatory behavior toward staff. It’s just, you know, again, when you’re when you’re in with a family, you’ve known each other, you’ve gone through some horrible situations together, you let your guard down. I let him in. I let him in. I let him into my circle. I trusted in my family with him and I deeply regret it.

Reporter:
When you heard the rumors, was it people coming to you in hopes that you would talk to Swalwell about it?

Ruben Gallego:
No. No. No. It was just, just like, it’s just like, sorry, it’s, like, Washington, D.C. There’s just rumors all the time. They’re just floating all the time. It wasn’t anybody saying like, “Hey. I need you to go talk to this person because I know you guys are friends.” And then also that is, you know, I think that when it rises to that, that is—some, some certain things, certainly some that I would do and other people would do too. But it was never that.

Reporter:
Senator, you were considering running for president in 2028. Does this at all influence your decision whether to run?

Ruben Gallego:
Our full consideration is, first of all, what the hell just happened? Number one, stopping these lies. And the reason I want to stop the lies is because my family just got off two years, two years of tens of millions of dollars of them lying about me, lying about my kids, lying about my wife, and seeing it, again, start by the same people, the same people, the same political operatives using this horrible situation that, you know, victimized these women, made—you know, I don’t know what’s going on with his family, but it’s definitely a horrible situation for the family. They’re using that as a cover to attack me right now because they can’t do it—they couldn’t take back 2024 because they ran a horrible race, but now this is what they want to do. They just want to hurt me as much as him. President, anything else like that, I don’t care. We’re going to wait. That’s not even a thing right now. The most important thing is I want to protect my family. I want to protect my family’s reputation. And this is why we’re talking about right now.

Reporter:
Senator, you’ve gone on trips, on vacations, officially, unofficially, you’ve gone out presumably with the congressman. You’ve never even witnessed him, I don’t know, engaging in an affair?

Ruben Gallego:
No.

Reporter:
Never?

Ruben Gallego:
No.

Reporter:
How do you explain some of the photos online? I know you addressed one, but there is another one (inaudible). How do you address some of those compromising photos?

Ruben Gallego:
We were on a beach.

Reporter:
We were on a beach. I think you were in the desert and on some camels.

Ruben Gallego:
It was a beach and a camel. But it’s a beach.

Reporter:
Were there instances of you guys drinking heavily, going out, partying? Did you do any of that with him?

Ruben Gallego:
Look, we socialized, we went out, but we never—I never saw him engage in any of the predatory behavior, harassment, sexual assault, or even, like, anything that I would say would rise to the occasion that I would be able to, you know, not talk to his wife the next day and be able to look her in the eye, so, again, I trusted this man. I trust this man and it’s my fault.

Reporter:
(inaudible)

Ruben Gallego:
Not outside the norm of just, you know, talking. He was—you know, he was always talkative guy. He was always, you know, social and certainly he was with men and women, but not to the point where I would say, like, “Okay, that’s crossing a line.”

Reporter:
Have you talked to his wife? You guys are (crosstalk).

Ruben Gallego:
No. No. I have not. My wife did try reaching out. Yes.

Reporter:
How does your wife feel about all of this?

Ruben Gallego:
I mean, she’s re-traumatized for a couple of reasons. Number-one, we’re living through 2024 again. Number-two, you know, our family feels betrayed. We weren’t—you know, we had—our families were close and we let him in to his family and she feels betrayed. She feels betrayed. She feels hurt. She feels hurt, you know, for his family, for the victims, and, you know, still, you know, we hope that that his family is good, but, yeah, I mean, it’s just awful.

Reporter:
(inaudible) that you haven’t mistreated any female staffers along what lines of (inaudible).

Ruben Gallego:
Yes. I’ve never mistreated any female staffers.

Reporter:
Senator, you said that he lied to you, he betrayed you. What’s next for this friendship?

Ruben Gallego:
There is no friendship. No, absolutely not. When someone—it’s not even remotely close. Like, if his family—if he’s willing to lie his family and he’s willing to betray, you know, his family, his family, his friends, his constituents, there’s no friendship. There’s no friendship.

Reporter:
Has this forced you to reconsider rumors you may have heard about other people in Washington, and separately has it forced you to reconsider any behavior that you might have engaged with that might have been meant by you as social but that could have been (inaudible).

Ruben Gallego:
Yes to all that. I definitely look at, you know, the world in a different way now. I certainly am going to make sure that I’m going to take, you know, personal steps and office steps to make sure that we don’t even get close to a gray line because first of all that’s not who I am. That’s not my character. You know, my family knows who I am. They know my values, and I’m not going to allow that to happen, and I do think you know that Washington, D.C., has to have a bigger conversation about how to continue to change the culture because clearly it did not change it after Me Too. Okay, we’ll take a couple more.

Reporter:
(inaudible)

Ruben Gallego:
So, she was—my wife was not able to talk to her. She talked to a friend that answered for her and just the word that was described was that she was devastated.

Reporter:
What was your conversation like with Swalwell? The last one that you had, what did he say to you?

Ruben Gallego:
I was very frank. I said, “You need to get out. Get out now.” And he said—he’s like, “It’s not true.” And I said, “It doesn’t matter. Get out. Go back to your family. Take care of your family.” Because, without talking to my wife but just knowing, again, how, again, how close we were, knowing his wife, I knew that there were—there was just—it was just—I mean, like, any, I think, any other spouse, if you heard this news, you would be devastated.

Reporter:
When you say, “Get out,” you mean get out of the race or get out of Congress?

Ruben Gallego:
I meant just get out in general, which just, look, this is not a like a very formal conversation. It was someone who was—you know, I was trying to be as clear and direct as possible and so it was: “Get out of this. Get out the governor’s race. Get out of Congress.” It was—and it was just, like, entirely get out.

Reporter:
Senator, why wait for the subpoena or to be forced legally to release those text messages? Why don’t just do it now, especially since if you called for transparency surrounding Epstein?

Ruben Gallego:
Look, we have—we have a lot of communications, people, I know for a fact, 100 percent, you know, and that we have nothing to hide. We have nothing to hide. I’m being completely transparent and honest with you about what I knew, when I knew it. We’re here to be open. We’re here to answer questions. And, you know, if we are told, we will comply with anybody else. But, you know, there’s nothing here to hide and just exposing more and more is only going to ask more and more and carry the lies even further.

Reporter:
Do you expect more allegations against Swalwell to come out? Another woman came out this morning. These are very intense allegations, it seems like perhaps, you know, date rape drugs were used. Did you have any insight into any of the did you expect any more?

Ruben Gallego:
I just don’t know anymore. Again, this is a person that I knew was totally different from what I’m seeing right now. I think for many of us in Washington, D.C., we never would have imagined something like this. We never imagined how far back anything of this nature or especially the seriousness of it, so I can’t actually tell you anymore because the person I knew is not this person. The person that I knew is totally different and clearly this man has been leading a double life, so it’s entirely possible. It just is, and I just don’t know that person and I can’t predict what else is going to come out.

Reporter:
What’s confusing is that there’s so many allegations more could come out. This is a lot of time that this man spent doing all this other stuff. The fact that people who were close to him didn’t know the extent of it. So, you know, I hear your explanation that you don’t know anything, but it’s just really hard that there was no insight considering how extensive a lot of these allegations are.

Ruben Gallego:
He became very good at being a predator, and he clearly preyed on these women in different positions and he became extremely proficient at lying to us, lying to his family, lying to his community. You know, the nature of his job allowed him to travel and we just did not fully understand what’s—we just don’t—there’s just no way we could have seen any of this. It just—again, like, he lied for so long, led a double life. He was able to manipulate, was able to convince the most powerful people—people have known him for even longer than me—that there was none of this was going on, that the rumors weren’t true, and after a while, you know, you a lot of people just fell into complacency because the rumors never became true and because he, again, he was went after Donald Trump on the impeachment trial. We, you did, you know, our dumb political brains think like, “Well, that was that would have spurred something to come out.” It didn’t.

Reporter:
To that point, were there other members that you have heard rumors about that you might now think about talking to or acting on?

Ruben Gallego:
I think most of the rumors are people that are now gone, but now if I hear rumors going forward, especially if it’s, well, if it’s anything of a legal nature, whether it’s harassment or that, I’m just going to, you know, go to the right authority. But if, you know, going forward, if I, if I hear of anything of that same nature in terms of flirtatiousness, I will have to bring it up. (crosstalk)

Reporter:
What specifically are you talking about in terms of rumors? I mean, you don’t think the names unless you want to say who these people were.

Ruben Gallego:
Past rumors of, yeah, past members being flirtatious and acting inappropriate one way or the other.

Reporter:
Senator, you posted on X coming to Swalwell’s defense, essentially downplaying all of the rumors, do you regret doing that?

Ruben Gallego:
One hundred percent I regret that.

Reporter:
Why did you send that tweet?

Ruben Gallego:
Again, Eric knew exactly what he was doing. He manipulated me. He, you know, started telling me about this, you know, these, you know, influencers that are doing this new type of attack and I believed it and he reminded me of how it was very similar to the things that happened to me in 2024 and honestly that was triggering. It was triggering for my family, it was triggering for me, and I fell for it, and because I didn’t—you know, there was not enough specifics, I just fell and when he asked me to defend him, I acted like a loyal friend, unlike how he acted toward me, and I did it and I regret it. I regret it. I was absolutely wrong. I should have waited. You know, I should have waited just wait to see what happened and just told them, “Hey, listen, you know, like, I need to have more information.” But I did it.

Reporter:
When this was first surfacing in terms of most recently, did you think that any of this was being pushed by any of Swalwell’s Democratic opponents?

Ruben Gallego:
Yes.

Reporter:
And then secondly I know you feel betrayed and are still processing all of this, but what do you say to people who feel and they’re listening to your explanation you’re playing victim here.

Ruben Gallego:
I’m not a victim. The victim are the women that he victimized, he sexually assaulted. To some degree the victims are his family and, you know, I think also his constituents that he lied to. I’m not a victim here. I am, however, being targeted by a lot of right-wing operatives using this horrible situation and, while I’m not going to, you know, you know, call myself a victim, I’m also not going to let them lie about me, lie about my family. These lies are actually extending not just to me, by the way, and that’s why we’re doing this, and I will not let them do that, not again like they did for two years during the 2024 election.

Reporter:
Are there any other members that you believe should step down at this time?

Ruben Gallego:
No. (laughs) No. Not off the top of my head, I’m sorry. Okay. Anyone else?

Gallego Aide:
Anyone else? Last call.

Ruben Gallego:
Let’s not use “last call.” (laughs)

Reporter:
Are you worried about due process? Are you worried about due process having not happened yet?

Ruben Gallego:
Look, to be clear: Eric made this decision to drop out himself. He could have taken the option of due process, going through the ethics committee, all that. What I worry about is: What do the victims get? Do they get closure? Do they get justice? Because they’re not it’s clear going to get through the ethics committee now. He made the decision and, you know, he’s living with that, that he quit. He had the option of due process. He decided not to take it. Okay.

###