In recent years, plenty of politicians have seen their careers collapse in the face of scandals, but it’s hard to think of someone whose downfall came as quickly as Eric Swalwell’s. The California Democrat, who officially resigned as a member of Congress on Tuesday, was the odds-on favorite to be elected governor of the nation’s largest state as recently as Friday.

Just days later, Swalwell has ended his candidacy, gave up his office and was forced to confront possible criminal allegations after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. (While Swalwell has said he is “deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” he has also vowed to “fight the serious, false allegations that have been made.”)

While the legal process moves forward, the political calculus is entirely straightforward: Democratic officials, including House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, considered the allegations against Swalwell, found them credible, abandoned him and showed him the door. Left with little choice and facing a likely expulsion vote he might very well lose, the former congressman exited.

But to hear some prominent Republicans tell it, there was more to the story. The Hill reported:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Tuesday claimed that Democrats keep ‘blackmail files’ for when it suits them, following a push to oust Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from his seat due to allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault.

‘The real story here is how the Democrat [sic] Party controls its members through blackmail. It’s got a blackmail file on all of its politicians, and it uses them to leverage and control them until it’s time to release it,’ Miller said during an appearance on Fox News’s ‘Jesse Waters Primetime.’

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who embraces weird conspiracy theories with such vigor that he’s the Senate’s only 9/11 truther, made similar comments during an appearance on Newsmax.

As the conspiratorial GOP senator sees it, Democratic officials orchestrated the Swalwell scandal as part of a secret plot to narrow the party’s gubernatorial field from 10 candidates to nine.

To the extent that anyone might be tempted to believe such a bananas idea, there is literally no evidence to support it. (Although, while we’re at it, if the party was just trying to narrow the field, why would they take out the guy in the lead? And is having nine candidates really that much better than 10?)

But that prominent Republican officials are comfortable bringing nonsense like this to a national television audience is a timely reminder of the unfortunate fact that baseless conspiracy theories are now the animating force in contemporary Republican politics.

The post As Swalwell exits Congress in disgrace, Republicans concoct weird new conspiracy theory appeared first on MS NOW.

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