Eric Swalwell Went From Flat Denial Of Sexual Assault Allegations To ‘Well, Maybe A Few Times But I’m Sorry’

When President Clinton was accused of having sex with an intern he denied it claiming oral sex wasn’t “sexual relations.”

And when Clinton was asked whether he was having an affair with an intern he famously said “it all depends on what the meaning of the word is is.”

Now a California congressman is playing the same word game with allegations that he is guilty of sexual misconduct, including in at least one case, rape.

U.S. Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell first first came onto the public radar on April 10, when CNN reported that four women were accusing him.

CNN described three of the allegations as sexual misconduct and a fourth as outright rape.

A day later, April 11, Swalwell, who was a leading candidate for California governor, issued a video statement flatly denying all the allegations.

He said they were “flat false” and that “they did not happen, they never happened and I will fight them with everything I have.”

Within a day, on April 12th, he suddenly seemed to acknowledge that something untoward happened, that now he was quitting the gubernatorial race to take the time he needed to fight what he called “mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past.”

And then, just 24 hours later, on April 13, suddenly now he was resigning from Congress, that he planned to “fight the serious allegation against me” and that he would “take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”

So he went within three days from (1.) denying that anything happened to (2.) yeah something happened to (3.)  I’m guilty of something but not of rape.

Perhaps without realizing it, Swalwell transparently made it clear to anyone who compares his statements that he was changing his story from one day to the next to the day after that.

The evolution of his denials from nothing ever happened to something happened but not rape is going to make it difficult for him when he starts preparing what might actually become a legal defense against possible criminal charges.

Swalwell’s rolling denials and parsing of his language from one day to the next sounds like a comedic routine right out of Jackie Mason’s playbook.

Mason, a famous New York City comedian, had a well-known bit when he would talk about men and their sexual hang-ups.

It would go something like “well maybe we had sex but it wasn’t really sex and I don’t know her but maybe she knows me but how could she know me when I don’t know her and I don’t know me so if I don’t know me how could I know her.”

Swalwell’s evolutionary denials sound like Jackie Mason, morphing from not having sex to possibly having sex to well maybe I did have sex but I certainly never raped anyone.

If he had stuck to his guns and, as he did the first day continued to flat out deny every allegation, he might have sounded more credible.

But changing his story day after day after day makes it clear he’s now seemingly admitting he did what he’s being accused of.

By conceding “mistakes in judgment” it sounds like he has told his wife he did have extramarital sex but that it was consensual.

So he may have gotten through the wife problem in some shape, form or manner, at least for the time being.

But his biggest problem now will be keeping prosecutors from charging him with sexual assault or rape, or both.

1.) Saturday April 11 flat denials: “These allegations of sexual assault are false. They are flat false.”

“They did not happen,” he added. “They have never happened and I will fight them with everything I have.”

2.) Sunday April 12 resigns gubernatorial race: “To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past.

“I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made – but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”

3.) Monday April 13 resigns Congress: “I will fight the serious false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”