Eric Swalwell Has Some Explaining to Do Over Troubling Meetings and Campaign Spending

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

There were a lot of questions raised about Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) when it came to light that the House Intelligence Committee member had been in a relationship with a Chinese spy.

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Democrats were not at all disturbed by it, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept him on the important committee.

Now there are more concerns being raised, this time about Swalwell’s meetings with a Qatari group that has been linked to Hamas. We previously reported on Swalwell’s shirtless camel ride in Qatar. But now there’s more about a group that he met with during the trip.

From Free Beacon:

Swalwell and four other House members visited the Qatar Foundation headquarters in April during a four-day trip hosted by the US-Qatar Business Council, according to an itinerary of the junket. The delegation met with Qatar’s emir, government leaders, and Qatar Foundation officials to discuss business opportunities for the members’ districts. The trip drew attention after photos surfaced of Swalwell and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D., Ariz.) riding shirtless on camels in Qatar’s desert. Swalwell also visited Qatar Foundation headquarters with two fellow Democrats during a trip to Doha last October[….]

The foundation, which registers with the Justice Department as a foreign agent, has numerous links to terror groups and to clerics who have espoused anti-Semitic views. It opened an academic center in 2009 named after Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure who lives in exile in Doha. Al-Qaradawi said in a 2009 speech that Adolf Hitler “put [Jews] in their place,” according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

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Swalwell also went to the Qatar Foundation’s Education City last year with two other members of Congress. Education City is where the Foundation has satellite campuses in Qatar for American colleges. with which they partner including colleges like Northwestern and Georgetown. That raises another whole question about the connection of the group to those colleges and their influence on students.

While colleges might be ignorant, Swalwell shouldn’t be, so why is he meeting with such a group?

But that’s not the only question that Swalwell is being hit with today.

Fox is reporting that Swalwell spent tens of thousands of campaign dollars on alcohol delivery services, dinners at high-end restaurants, luxury hotels, and limo services, with $20,000 going to a hotel, the Ritz Carlton – Half Moon Bay, where his wife used to be director of sales until 2019. That’s a big conflict of interest right there and a problem.

According to the report, Swalwell spent another $6,000 in campaign cash on other luxury hotels, as well as $7,000 at luxury restaurants and steakhouses in D.C. In addition, Swalwell appears to have sat down for 13 in-person meals at Charlie Palmer Steak, O-Ku Sushi, STK Steakhouse at the Downtown New York City location, and other expensive restaurants.

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Swalwell is an embarrassment because he’s not the sharpest tool in the drawer. But on top of all that, you have truly questionable behavior like what happened with the Chinese spy and the meetings he’s having here with the Qatari group. Then on top of that the questions of what are groups expecting from him in return when they pay for his trips like the U.S.-Qatari Business Council group and the ethical questions of how he is using campaign funds.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t going to raise the questions, but Republicans should.

 

(Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect clarification from Fox News that Swalwell’s wife held her job with the Ritz Carlton – Half Moon Bay until 2019.)

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