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Inside Politics
DOJ Moves to Throw Out Seditious Conspiracy Convictions of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys for January 6 Insurrection; New Accuser Says Swalwell Raped Her, Swalwell Denies Allegation; Swalwell Resigns From Congress Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired April 15, 2026 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': -- United States of America, how the system is supposed to work, who convicted these 12 individuals of the crimes that you were just discussing?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Exactly. And you know, for the Trump administration to look at this as a Biden administration thing, these are, again, jurors and judges who oversaw these so it is not just that.
BASH: Yeah. So there is that. And then there is just a sort of reminder about what has happened with the people who the president has already pardoned, some of the people he has pardoned. Here's just a headline from a story from at the end of last year.
At least 33 pardoned insurrectionists face other criminal charges, but many are now going free.
PEREZ: Yeah. And obviously, the president made this move right at the beginning of the administration. Todd Blanche, by the way, was among the people who initially believed that the president should only pardon people who were not accused of crimes or of violence against cops or other violence that day. He has definitely changed his view in the intervening period.
BASH: Nia?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, listen, I mean, this was something that Trump moved to do early in his presidency. Once he was inaugurated, it was deeply important to that MAGA base. The vast majority of Americans don't think that this should have happened, pardoning and sort of wiping away what happened on that day.
But this is what Donald Trump has wanted to do for years, starting with sort of lying about what happened in 2020 and then sort of rewriting and erasing everything that happened on January 6th.
BASH: And I just want to underscore one of the things that Evan just said, which is why now? And that I'm going to --
PEREZ: Right.
BASH: -- sort of summarize what you said. Todd Blanche is auditioning for the job.
PEREZ: Right.
MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: And it is striking six years on, that this is still a thing that the president is focused on, that this is something that the man auditioning for the job feels the need to carry out. And as Evan said, this is probably not going to be the only thing he does during this interim period, Todd Blanche, as he's trying to get this job permanently, to be nominated for it.
We know one of the things that the president was frustrated with Pam Bondi about, what he posted on Truth Social, was he wanted prosecutions of the prosecutors who went after him. I think, at this point, we're all kind of expecting Todd Blanche to kind of make some of those moves and try to find some other way to pursue cases against people who at some point went after Donald Trump because it is this personal vendetta still.
BASH: Jeff?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And we'll see if this has a role in the midterm elections. I mean, it certainly plays a part. If Todd Blanche were to be confirmed, it would likely be after the midterms because I think you can serve as a temporary or the acting for two hundred and some days or so.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREZ: Ten days, right, 210 days.
ZELENY: So how many Democrats will make this an issue in the midterm elections? I'm not sure that I think there are like limitations to the raw politics of this, but this is among the reasons when you talk to even independent voters, you know, what is going on here?
BASH: Yeah.
ZELENY: This isn't what they necessarily voted for. It was costs and the economy. So I think it just adds to the mix.
BASH: Thank you all. Thank you, Evan.
PEREZ: Thanks.
BASH: And a new reckoning, that's how some are looking at former Congressman Eric Swalwell's swift downfall after several women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Up next, I'll speak with a Gen Z influencer who became an unexpected clearing house for women who said they had stories, and she was among the first to post about brewing allegations.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:37:53]
BASH: Los Angeles County launched a criminal investigation into a new sexual assault accusation against now former Congressman, Eric Swalwell. Lana Drews is among several women now to accuse Swalwell of sexual misconduct or worse. As for Drews, she said at a news conference, Swalwell raped her at a Los Angeles area hotel in 2018 and that she believes he drugged her.
Drews' attorney declined to share detailed corroboration of her claims, and CNN could not independently verify those allegations. A separate rape allegation made against Swalwell is under investigation in New York. Swalwell's attorney said in a statement last night, quote, "Swalwell categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him."
Joining me now is Cheyenne Hunt, a Democratic Gen Z influencer, who used her platform to share some of the first public reporting of the allegations against Swalwell. Thank you so much for being here.
CHEYENNE HUNT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEN-Z FOR CHANGE: Thanks for having me, Dana.
BASH: As I mentioned, you were kind of became this clearinghouse for people who wanted to either talk about it, but weren't sure understandably how, wanted to see if there were other people out there like them. How did that happen?
HUNT: Yeah, my close personal friend, who's now come forward, she was originally anonymous, Annika Albrecht, confided in me that she had had an experience of sexual harassment with the Congressman and asked me if I would be willing to use my platform to speak out about it. And I had heard these rumors before when I worked on the Hill, that he had this prolonged history of being predatory towards women. You know, the word was 'don't be alone with Swalwell, don't add him on social media.'
And so I believed her immediately. And I made the post. And I think it just blew open the door for other women who thought that they were alone. One of the things that we heard a lot from these women was that he was able to use coercive control and keep them silent because they thought they were the only ones.
And so that outpouring of DMs really floored me. I don't think anyone knew that he was fully assaulting people, but that became clear almost immediately as soon as I was having conversations with these women.
[12:40:00]
BASH: And DMs, meaning people, they saw your post and they started to contact you on Instagram or --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Yeah, on social media.
BASH: On social media. And just since everything has happened and since it became much more public and people got out there, CNN's reporting and others, are you still hearing from women?
HUNT: I'm hearing from new women every day. It's really disheartening, who are coming forward both with accusations about Eric Swalwell, with accusations about other members of Congress, and with accusations about other men in powerful positions across industries. It's become clear to me that this is like a Me Too Part II that we need to have another reckoning and the volume of women reaching out with credible claims and with receipts is truly shocking.
BASH: Yeah, and I should just say again that Eric Swalwell admits that he had lapses in judgment, but he denies the claims of assault. I want to pick up where you left off there about the reckoning because we were talking on the show yesterday about the Me Too Movement which happened almost a decade ago and that was supposed to be the reckoning.
And now, we're in a situation where it turns out it wasn't the full reckoning and perhaps that's because your generation, your Gen Z, you are 28. You were not -- you were sort of coming of age, you were 18 or so during that time. But you weren't fully in the workforce, you weren't fully in society as adults. Can you talk about that?
HUNT: Yeah, you know, I -- we've had a lot of support, first of all, from some of the original trailblazers of the Me Too Movement including Sophia Bush who has been incredibly generous with helping us find resources for these women.
That being said, yeah, it seems that that full Me Too Movement didn't make it all the way up to Capitol Hill. I think that there needs to be a specific kind of movement like the one we're seeing now that is able to adequately address that radical imbalance of power that we see between powerful Congressmen and staffers who are ambitious and hungry for opportunity.
And I also think that we need another movement because we've had a resurgence of misogyny. We have someone in the White House who is really comfortable speaking, you know, disparagingly about women, treating women differently or violently even, as some people have alleged, and I think that that has really allowed this culture of misogyny to take hold and to spread.
And so, this is the next generation putting our stake in the ground and saying that we're not going to stand for it, not in any place, not in any place of power and not in this society, this next generation of women is not going to take it. And as an attorney, I'm really honored to be able to stand with these women, that they've trusted me with their stories, and this is just the very beginning of this fight.
I know that there are other people on Capitol Hill who are sweating and there should be men in any position of power right now that are sweating because we're not going away anytime soon. BASH: Yeah and of course, the president has denied engaging in any violent behavior. The idea of sweating and also kind of where we are as we interact with one another, I mean, ten years ago, of course, social media was a thing. But the influencer culture like you, I mean you work on Gen Z issues totally separate from this in Democratic politics.
I wonder if you feel like that has helped people feel comfortable coming forward because people are seeing you talking about these issues or even other issues relating to women, and it creates a community that didn't exist even ten years ago.
HUNT: That community is definitely the only reason we were able to break this story and do it in literally 11 days. It was three girls in a group chat. It was me, another creator who goes by Mrs. Frazzled, and my close friend Annika Albrecht, working together to get these videos out there. Push them through our creator networks and make other women feel that they weren't alone. And they really were able to relate to us through those parasocial relationships that you have with creators, that you watch over time, and they trusted us immediately.
I just think about, you know, it took five years to break the Cesar Chavez story. It took reporters all that time to find sources and build trust and relationships. And from the first day that we posted a video to the day that all the reporting broke, it was 11 days.
BASH: I want to ask you about Senator Ruben Gallego, somebody who was -- he used the past tense -- was very close friends with Eric Swalwell. He had a lengthy press conference yesterday, outside of his office, and I want to listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO, (D-AZ): We all heard rumors in Washington, D.C. about Eric Swalwell for many years. And my family, again, was with him all the time, with his wife, with his kids and we saw a different side of Eric. The rumors I heard were that he was just a flirty social guy, that's it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[12:45:00]
HUNT: Well, I'm always skeptical of men who come to the defense of their friends before they believe women and this was something that we saw very clearly in this case. I would not be surprised if there are women who have more to say.
BASH: Yeah, I think in his case, he pretty much torched his friend, Eric Swalwell, pretty quickly.
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Well, he came to his defense on Twitter first. When these allegations first came out, he -- multiple tweets saying that some of these women were, you know, these were just anonymous and specifically saying, this is my close friend. Eric would never do this. This is sketchy.
And I think that now that it's become undeniable and that CNN's reporting was so airtight on these four women that came forward first, obviously, he's having to change his tune and he looks uncomfortable in that press conference.
BASH: Cheyenne Hunt, thank you so much for coming on. Really, really appreciate it.
HUNT: Thank you.
BASH: Thank you. And there is still a lot more on "Inside Politics," including a story maybe we all need right now. Yep, that is a baby elephant and I got to meet the newest resident, 440 pounds of that resident, baby elephant joy coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:50:35]
BASH: We take you behind the scenes and "Inside Politics" every day on this show, but I recently got a behind-the-scenes exclusive, unlike everything, anything I've ever experienced. I got to meet and feed the newest resident of the National Zoo, baby Asian elephant, Linh Mai. Linh Mai.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBBIE CLARK, ELEPHANT MANAGER, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZOO & CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE: Linh Mai.
BASH: There she is.
CLARK: Here, good girl.
BASH: Hi, Linh Mai.
CLARK: Good girl.
(LAUGH)
BASH: Hi. You're so cute.
BASH (voice-over): Meet two-month-old Linh Mai, the first Asian elephant born at the Smithsonian National Zoo in nearly 25 years.
CLARK: Come on, Linh Mai, let's go. She's motivated. Good girl. Come on. You're going to come through the pool? You are. Come on.
BASH: There she goes.
CLARK: Let's go.
(LAUGH)
BASH (voice-over): That's the sound of a very excited baby elephant who knows she's about to be fed. And on this special occasion, I got to prepare her bottle.
CLARK: So this is our bottle feeding station right here.
BASH (voice-over): Robbie Clark is in charge of the elephants at the zoo. He leads the team caring for baby Linh Mai.
CLARK: So the first thing we're going to do is weigh out the water. You're going to pour in approximately 275 grams of the powder. So if you could do a really good whisk of that.
BASH: OK. Just a regular day making baby elephant formula.
(LAUGH)
BASH: No big deal. How many times a day does she get this?
CLARK: Every two hours.
BASH: Every two hours?
CLARK: Every two hours.
BASH: Even through the night?
CLARK: Even through the night. So our team is here 24/7.
BASH: This is truly having a newborn.
CLARK: It is.
(LAUGH)
CLARK: Let's do it. I'm sure she's hungry. You're just going to place that bottle up over this so she can drink it.
BASH: Here you go, sweetie. Here you go.
CLARK: And lift the end of the bottle up. Fantastic. You can see how fast she consumes it.
BASH: Yeah, really fast.
CLARK: You're her best friend in the whole world right now.
BASH: I've never had a friend like you.
CLARK: There we go.
BASH: There we go.
CLARK: It's like you've done this before.
(LAUGH)
BASH: I don't have to burp her, do I?
CLARK: No, luckily you don't have to.
(LAUGH)
BASH: This is one of the coolest things I've ever done. Hello. This means that she's saying hi?
CLARK: Yeah.
BASH: With her trunk?
CLARK: So the trunk is her nose and her upper lip. It's the most important thing in an elephant's life. They use it to eat, drink, breathe, bathe, and communicate. And obviously, she uses it to pick things up.
BASH: Hi, are you playing with me? This is the cutest thing I've ever seen.
CLARK: There's more muscles and tendons in her nose than our entire body.
BASH: Really?
CLARK: And when she's an adult, she'll be able to pick up 2,000 pounds with that nose.
BASH: Oh, my. 2,000 pounds?
CLARK: Yes.
BASH: She weighs like 400 pounds right now?
CLARK: 440.
BASH: And she's going to get to be?
CLARK: As an adult, she'll be close to 8,000 pounds.
BASH: I have to ask you about what happened with her mom, and try to do it without crying.
CLARK: So her mother, Nee Lynn, is a first-time mom. And where she came from, she did not have the opportunity really to grow up with other young elephants. We kind of had the contingency that there might be a chance that she wouldn't be interested in being a mom.
BASH: Her mom rejected her?
CLARK: She did. And that's not common among elephants, but it's not unheard of. And in fact, Nee Lynn's mom rejected her at first. Over the last couple months, we've been doing our best to do what we call howdy, by giving them access to each other through a fence, and hoping that over time that relationship continues to build. We haven't actually seen the spark just yet.
BASH: The whole world fell in love with Punch the monkey. CLARK: Yep.
BASH: After Punch the monkey's mom rejected her.
CLARK: I hope that the world falls in love with her too, understanding her story. Not necessarily feeling bad for her, but recognizing that nature does have consequences to it. And one of the benefits of her being here at the National Zoo is that we have the resources and staff expertise to help her thrive.
BASH: She has a mother figure, an older member of the herd.
CLARK: Kind of like an adoptive mother.
BASH: Yeah.
CLARK: Yeah.
BASH: Who takes care of her.
CLARK: She is typically with her Aunt Swarna. They're not related, but Swarna was an elephant in our herd that has experience raising elephants from a young age.
[12:55:00]
She has delighted us by stepping up to the plate and taking on a parenting role.
BASH: She couldn't have babies.
CLARK: Correct. She's never been able to.
BASH: And yet she has that maternal instinct.
CLARK: Yes.
BASH: With Linh Mai. That's amazing.
CLARK: It is amazing. And that's just the testament of how socially and biologically complex elephants are. It's important because they are an endangered species. If we're not careful, they could be extinct within our lifetime.
BASH (voice-over): There are only an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Asian elephants left.
CLARK: Being at the National Zoo, Linh Mai and the herd of elephants are ambassadors for their wild counterparts. The connection that people get to make when they see her hopefully sparks the interest in elephants, the passion to protect them.
BASH (voice-over): Linh Mai will steal your hearts. She stole mine.
BASH: Yes, I know. I'm in love. What can I say?
CLARK: We are too. We hope the rest of the world falls in love as well.
BASH: I mean, how could they not?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(LAUGH)
BASH (on camera): Thank you, Robbie Clark and everybody at the National Zoo for that.
Thank you for joining "Inside Politics." "CNN News Central" starts after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
