Eric Swalwell Visits Fox News to Trash Trump — But Sidesteps Biden Questions

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) made the media rounds on Monday to make the case for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential run — and that included a stop at Fox News.

Fox anchor Martha MacCallum welcomed Swalwell as her guest and had a lot of questions about President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race. Swalwell avoided direct answers about Biden as he defended the president, but took a few swings — more like jabs than haymakers — at former President Donald Trump while he was there:

MacCallum: So, it is surprising, we were told by President Biden’s doctor in a statement that he was doing well, that his vitals were all fine, that he didn’t have a fever. So why didn’t he make this statement to the American people? This is one of the most consequential decisions that a sitting president has ever made. So where is he?

Swalwell: I’ll let him dictate the terms of that, but the Joe that I know is somebody who did something that Donald Trump would never, ever do, which is to put the country first. And so we saw a selfless president in contrast with a selfish person in the way that he approached this. And so he’ll make a statement soon, I’m sure. But now I’m focused on the future.

MacCallum: Reports are that he was very angry, and that he felt pushed out. Not that this was a decision that he wanted to make.

Swalwell: Again, I’ll let him speak for himself. But I think most folks, if you just look at my phone and the 500 unread text messages, are very excited and also just eager to do the work we have to do in the next 106 days.

MacCallum: But I feel like it’s remiss to just jump by all of this because it feels like he’s already disappearing off the scene. Does that seem odd to you?

Swalwell: No. He’s still the president. He is still working as Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] comes to the Congress to see those hostages returned to their families, and he’s working on that deal. But he is, as he always has done from when he went into the Senate and chose to serve even though he lost his wife and his daughter, and he was a good father and a good senator, he is now stepping aside in a very selfless way to pave way for what’s next.

MacCallum: But none of this is is that big a surprise. I mean, we’re told that he barely ever — like nine months went by without a cabinet meeting. And that when there were cabinet meetings, they were somewhat scripted. I mean, the things that are coming out now about how we were, what we were told on the outside of, “Oh, he’s fine. He runs circles around everyone,” clearly were not what was happening behind the scenes. And now [White House Press Secretary] Karine Jean-Pierre, we thought we were going to get a press briefing today on this monumental decision that happened not even 24 hours ago… No press conference today, but she’s going to go on The View tomorrow. Just for the American people, Eric, what should they think about all of this? I mean, a lot of people go, “This is crazy. Where is he?”

Swalwell: Well, they just think that for the past 43 months, he hasn’t had any cabinet controversies.

MacCallum: Because they’re not meeting, apparently!

Swalwell: No one from Donald Trump’s cabinet went to his convention.

MacCallum: You don’t have controversies if you tell everyone what to say when they walk in the room!

Swalwell: But also just look legislatively, how consequential he has been. Our kids will drive on the roads that he built. They’ll power their phones with chips that he manufactured.

MacCallum: But don’t they deserve to hear from the president then?

Swalwell: He’s going to speak to the American people. But again, there have been, you know, his cabinet will show up at Kamala Harris’s acceptance of her nomination speech. Donald Trump wasn’t able to say that.

While making the case for Harris, Swalwell took a few more soft swipes at Trump. When MacCallum said that Harris’s sudden rise after the shocking announcement on Sunday was “a lot for the American people to absorb,” Swalwell said:

I can’t speak for them. I can speak for the Kamala I know. I’ve known her since 2005. We both got our start at the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. She’s tough. She’s real. She’s smart. And to work in that office, by the way, where Earl Warren was the district attorney, you have to put the bad guys away and show compassion and mercy for people who are worthy of it. And she did just that. And most importantly, she’s ready, and she’s shown that, and we’ll show that. And so this is going to be a race now about the past and Donald Trump or the future, and also rights or reversal — the rights she’ll protect, especially women’s right to make a decision about her body and the rights that [snaps fingers] like that Donald Trump has taken away with the Supreme Court nomination.

Watch the video above via Fox News.