MS NOW⁠95%

As Swalwell exits Congress in disgrace, Republicans concoct weird new conspiracy theory ⁠64%

By Steve Benen⁠95%

4/15/2026, 12:37:55 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Framing Effect, and Appeal to Emotion, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 78% saturation with 352 hits. Analysis detected 1,454 faulty-reasoning hits from 451 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 58.7% and a BS Rank of ⁠64% (7,906 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 63.90% of the article peer group.

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. 
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mjid3w6nlz24 
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. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 3.3%Steve Benen: 10.5%MS NOW: 7.5%Confirmation Bias3.3%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.6%MS NOW: 1.2%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 11.1%Steve Benen: 3.7%MS NOW: 3.7%Availability Heuristic11.1%This article: 8.2%Steve Benen: 0.9%MS NOW: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic8.2%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.9%MS NOW: 1.3%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 3.1%MS NOW: 2.6%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 20.4%Steve Benen: 23.0%MS NOW: 15.4%Framing Effect20.4%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.4%MS NOW: 0.7%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.8%MS NOW: 0.9%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.3%MS NOW: 2.4%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 4.2%Steve Benen: 3.1%MS NOW: 3.2%Pessimism Bias4.2%This article: 42.1%Steve Benen: 29.0%MS NOW: 19.2%Negativity Bias42.1%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 2.1%MS NOW: 2.4%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 7.8%Steve Benen: 4.7%MS NOW: 3.1%Fundamental Attribution Error7.8%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.3%MS NOW: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 3.4%MS NOW: 3.5%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 6.0%Steve Benen: 3.2%MS NOW: 2.5%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias6.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.9%MS NOW: 2.2%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 4.4%MS NOW: 1.8%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 13.5%Steve Benen: 2.9%MS NOW: 1.8%Recency Bias13.5%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.8%MS NOW: 0.6%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.2%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 6.0%Steve Benen: 7.8%MS NOW: 4.7%Ad Hominem6.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.6%MS NOW: 1.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 8.6%Steve Benen: 6.3%MS NOW: 5.4%Appeal to Authority8.6%This article: 4.2%Steve Benen: 1.6%MS NOW: 2.2%False Dilemma4.2%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.7%MS NOW: 2.2%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 10.9%Steve Benen: 8.9%MS NOW: 8.1%Hasty Generalization10.9%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.7%MS NOW: 0.7%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.2%MS NOW: 0.9%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 19.1%Steve Benen: 11.3%MS NOW: 9.8%Appeal to Emotion19.1%This article: 16.6%Steve Benen: 3.5%MS NOW: 2.4%Begging the Question16.6%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 3.3%MS NOW: 3.2%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.8%MS NOW: 0.6%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 10.9%Steve Benen: 1.4%MS NOW: 0.9%Burden of Proof10.9%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.0%MS NOW: 0.1%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 2.0%MS NOW: 2.6%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 4.9%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.2%No True Scotsman4.9%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.9%MS NOW: 1.7%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.0%MS NOW: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 2.4%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.1%Middle Ground2.4%This article: 2.4%Steve Benen: 0.5%MS NOW: 0.3%Personal Incredulity2.4%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.3%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 2.2%MS NOW: 1.3%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 16.2%Steve Benen: 3.8%MS NOW: 2.5%Unattributed Quote16.2%This article: 11.3%Steve Benen: 2.6%MS NOW: 1.5%Quote-first Misdirection11.3%This article: 78.0%Steve Benen: 22.9%MS NOW: 14.2%Biased Writer Voice78.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.4%MS NOW: 2.1%Indoctrination0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 8.6%MS NOW: 5.3%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 14.2%Steve Benen: 0.6%MS NOW: 0.6%Politically Right Leaning Bias14.2%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.4%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

451 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers18%attributed speech370writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 12 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 31 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 31 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 35 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 19 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 14 words • 100.0% coverageThe Hill • 3 words • 0.0% coverageStephen Miller • 27 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 15 words • 0.0% coverageStephen Miller • 15 words • 100.0% coverageStephen Miller • 36 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 2 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 27 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 1 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 25 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 37 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

Stephen Miller

100%flagged-word coverage
78 attributed words96% of attributed speech99% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Biased Writer Voice-95.1 ptsWriter: 95.1%Stephen Miller: 0.0%0.0%Quote-first Misdirection+65.4 ptsWriter: 0.0%Stephen Miller: 65.4%65.4%Unattributed Quote+45.5 ptsWriter: 8.4%Stephen Miller: 53.8%53.8%Politically Right Leaning -17.3 ptsWriter: 17.3%Stephen Miller: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.