Social media was, effectively, part of the downfall of Eric Swalwell, leading him to leave not only the California gubernatorial race but also Congress.
It turns out that his use of Snapchat, despite the service’s supposed anonymity and ephemerality, provided some ammunition to accusers who said he sent, as the New York Post put it, “sexual messages and explicit images” to staffers.
In other news, he’s still using Snapchat. To talk to ex-staffers!
Yes, in a month that’s been filled with don’t-you-ever-learn sort of news, the fact that Swalwell — once called “the Snapchat king of Congress” when that was actually a good thing — is still using the app with disappearing messages to privately communicate with people, including people who used to be in his employ.
This comes after he got sacked for inappropriate relationships with people, including those who used to be in his employ.
“Mr. Swalwell is still using Snapchat. As recently as this week, Mr. Swalwell communicated directly with a former intern on the app and asked her why she had taken a screenshot of their chat history, based on images provided to The Times, though the messages were not sexual in nature,” The New York Times reported Friday.
The Swalwell piece was an effective and illuminating dissection about how social media was critical to both Swalwell’s rise and his demise, allowing him to not only contact potential sexual partners privately but allowing people he allegedly abused to connect — notably through Cheyenne Hunt, a progressive activist with Gen-Z for Change who helped break the story.
Most of it is merely straight reporting, the kind of thing The New York Times does well when forced to put its resources behind it as opposed to lazy liberal advocacy hidden behind a thin patina of just-the-facts-ma’am.
It notes that one influencer who initially promoted Swalwell, Arielle “Mrs. Frazzled” Fodor, “received several private messages warning her to stay away from him” as soon as she did.
“She heard rumors of sexual misconduct as she began inquiring among Capitol Hill staffers, political acquaintances and a member of Congress, whom she declined to name.”
After Fodor began posting on social media about him, another accuser reached out to Hunt, which prompted Fodor to connect with her. At the same time, the San Francisco Chronicle was investigating the claims of another Swalwell staffer. When Hunt and Fodor began posting, the outlet said that “the influencers’ posts lent urgency to our efforts.”
CNN was also investigating claims, and in April, dominoes began falling. Swalwell’s team initially called the claims spurious, but then after both the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN reports in early April — along with virtually every Democrat who had cosigned his gubernatorial candidacy pulling their endorsement — we got Swalwell admitting, effectively, to consensual relationships, but not to the abuse claims that the outlets had laid out.
Hear it directly from me. These allegations are flat false. And I will fight them. pic.twitter.com/bQSlCquD1U
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 11, 2026
That was on a Friday. By Monday, not only had Eric decided that he would not fight them in the gubernatorial campaign, he would not be fighting them in Congress, either:
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) April 13,
2026
At this point, at least six women have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct of various sorts, including sexual assault, and there are several law enforcement investigations ongoing, according to The San Francisco Standard.
However, what stands out as truly remarkable is how much trouble Swalwell got himself into on Snapchat, an app he continues to use in ways that are inappropriate, apparently:
In another instance, Ally Sammarco, then 24, was working as a field organizer for the Democratic Party of Virginia in August 2021 when she reached out to Mr. Swalwell on Twitter on a whim. She had talked to Ms. Fodor and CNN before the news reports were published, and gained confidence knowing that other women were ready to go public with their allegations.
Over the course of months in 2021, he asked to move their conversation to Snapchat, where he told her she was attractive and asked her personal questions. Mr. Swalwell also sent photos, including images of him laying in bed with suggestive messages, like “what would you do if I was with you,” Ms. Sammarco told The Times in an interview. She provided early messages she exchanged with Mr. Swalwell, but did not have the Snapchat conversations, which disappeared long ago.
On Snapchat, Ms. Sammarco said he sent her an unsolicited photo of his penis. Multiple other women told The Times that they had received similarly explicit messages.
Ms. Azari said that Mr. Swalwell engaged in consensual activities with Ms. Sammarco, and that he “categorically denies any sexual misconduct or nonconsensual contact.” She said he could not respond to anonymous allegations of other messages without seeing them.
And now that same former congressman is trying to get himself out of the trouble he got himself into by asking a staffer on an app with disappearing messages why she took screenshots of messages on an app with disappearing messages.
To say the least, those on social media were unsurprised by this, including Cheyenne Hunt:
Swalwell is STILL on Snapchat. Specifically, he is using the app to contact and intimidate women he once preyed upon. https://t.co/hG8HP2IBWm
— Cheyenne Hunt (@CheyenneHuntCA) May 2, 2026
🤦🏻♀️ https://t.co/535qXxl5D1
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) May 2, 2026
I know he’s still reaching out to women. They can’t come forward but he is PERSONALLY doing so. That’s some pathology and type of legal support https://t.co/Zy16sGxFjY
— Nomiki – @nomiki.bsky.social (@NomikiKonst) May 2, 2026
And why should they be shocked?
In many ways, the great mystery of the Eric Swalwell saga won’t be why he did it or why he thought he could get away with it, but how he got away with it for so long. An incurious media is part of it. Now, at least, they’re paying attention — and we can see see just how cretinous and incapable of learning from his mistakes this man is, and will apparently remain.
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