Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, acknowledged on Tuesday that he had long heard rumors that Representative Eric Swalwell was “flirty” with women, but had allowed his longtime friendship with the California Democrat to cloud his judgment and never said or did anything about it.
The disclosure from Mr. Gallego, who harbors presidential aspirations, came on the same day that Mr. Swalwell resigned from Congress in the face of multiple allegations of sexual assault.
A former member of the House who spent considerable time with Mr. Swalwell and served as chair of his short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, Mr. Gallego said that he had never witnessed him engaging in any such behavior and that Mr. Swalwell had misled and manipulated him into believing the accusations of harassment and assault against him were false.
“I never saw him engage in any of the predatory behavior, harassment, sexual assault,” Mr. Gallego said of Mr. Swalwell, who has denied the allegations.
But his account provided a glimpse into the roots of a culture of secrecy and silence on Capitol Hill that, years after the #MeToo movement, has continued to allow men like Mr. Swalwell to serve and ascend the ranks of power even when there are whispers of misbehavior with women.
Mr. Gallego said he regretted not having confronted Mr. Swalwell about the rumors he had heard.
“Look, we all heard rumors in Washington, D.C., about Eric Swalwell for many years,” Mr. Gallego said to more than a dozen reporters during an emotional news conference. But, he added, “no one ever thought that the accusations were of the nature that came out.”
He also appeared to concede that his attitude was part of a pervasive pattern in Congress and throughout Washington of ignoring or dismissing hints of impropriety as routine, rather than something to be taken seriously and addressed.
“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,” Mr. Gallego said. “We should have figured out how to approach that.”
The accusations facing both Mr. Swalwell and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican who also resigned from the House on Tuesday in the face of sexual misconduct allegations, have shone a harsh spotlight on the failure by Congress to hold its own members accountable when they face charges of wrongdoing. And they have raised inevitable questions about whether other lawmakers have gotten away with similar conduct in a male-dominated institution powered in large part by the work of young aides, including many women.
Mr. Gonzales admitted last month that he had a sexual relationship with a staff member who later took her own life, an affair that was a clear violation of House rule passed in 2018 during the nationwide outcry over sexual harassment. He has yet to address a second accusation that he pursued another campaign aide years before.
As online rumors began circulating about Mr. Swalwell last week, many congressional staff members acknowledged privately that concerns about his behavior had been whispered among them for years. Some journalists who cover Capitol Hill had heard the same talk, but lacked the firsthand accounts and on-the-record detail to report on it. And House leaders in both parties professed ignorance.
Asked on Monday night whether she had any knowledge of Mr. Swalwell’s misconduct, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said: “I had none whatsoever.”
Jackie Speier, a former Democratic congresswoman from California who led an effort in 2018 to overhaul the way Congress addressed sexual harassment and discrimination claims, said that the accusations against both men made it clear that the House had not done enough to change that culture.
“Instead of turning a blind eye Members of the House need to swiftly investigate and take action against this illegal conduct,” Ms. Speier said in a social media post. “Women don’t report because they think they are alone. They blame themselves and the perpetrator is emboldened to continue the illegal conduct.”
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, has said in recent days that many women have come forward with complaints about members of Congress that have not yet been addressed.
“I am not going to act like it is fine,” she said in a social media post last week. “This is NOT okay.”
The fallout stretched across the Capitol. Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, told reporters that he was “certainly open” to changing the way that allegations of sexual harassment were reported and handled.
Mr. Gallego, who spent 10 years in the House before becoming a senator last year, said that the accusations around Mr. Swalwell, whom he initially defended only to reverse course after the accusations against him were published by two news organizations, would force him to re-evaluate rumors he had heard surrounding other elected officials.
Asked whether he had been forced to reconsider whether any of his own previous behavior might have been interpreted as crossing the line, Mr. Gallego said that he now viewed the world “in a different way” and that he would “take personal steps and office steps to make sure that we don’t even get close to a gray line.”
The accusations surrounding Mr. Gonzales had already prompted several lawmakers to push for more transparency around sexual harassment allegations, including an effort to force the House Ethics Committee to make public any such accusations against lawmakers.
The House Oversight Committee also issued a subpoena for records of any taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlements involving lawmakers and congressional aides. (As part of the effort spearheaded by Ms. Speier in 2018, members of Congress are now financially liable for settlements of harassment claims.)
Both Mr. Swalwell and Mr. Gonzales, who had been resisting the move for weeks, formally resigned from Congress shortly after the House returned to session on Tuesday. Their decisions to step aside just a day before colleagues were planning steps to expel them were greeted by many lawmakers with apparent relief that they would be spared from deciding whether to eject their colleagues without so much as an investigation.
“That’s the right thing to do,” Ms. Pelosi said. “Not to subject members to have to take a vote on something like that.”
A chorus of lawmakers had said that the allegations that both men faced left them no option but to vote to remove them both.
But representatives do not take decisions to expel their colleagues lightly. Many have argued that lawmakers are entitled to due process and should not be ousted on the basis of accusations.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House’s Republican and Democratic leaders, have over the last several years deflected questions about members accused of wrongdoing by arguing that no action could be taken without an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
But on Tuesday, both men expressed some relief that Mr. Swalwell and Mr. Gonzales had decided to resign.
“My views have been made known about the terrible allegations that were made and obviously the facts that they both admitted to,” Mr. Johnson said. “And I think it was the appropriate thing.”
Still, both leaders had stopped short of calling on their members to step down. Mr. Johnson suggested that Mr. Gonzales’s decision not to run for re-election was sufficient, likening it to a political “death penalty.” And though Mr. Jeffries and his leadership team called on Mr. Swalwell to end his campaign for California governor, they did not call for his resignation.
Carl Hulse and Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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