It briefly looked as if Congress might do something unprecedented this week: simultaneously expel four House members currently engulfed in scandal. But on Monday, two congressmen, Democrat Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas, opted to avoid possible expulsion and announced their intentions to resign from office.

As of Tuesday morning, though, neither congressman had officially tendered his resignation, prompting a House colleague to set a firm deadline for the two to pack their bags. Anna Paulina Luna, the Republican congresswoman from Florida who has led the charge for Swalwell’s expulsion, said she will move forward with her resolutions to oust the pair if they don’t make moves by the afternoon. “If Congressman Swalwell has not resigned with the Clerk of the House by 2 PM today, I will continue my resolution regarding his expulsion. His statement about his ‘plan to resign his seat’ is not binding and is wormy. The same goes for Tony,” she wrote on X.

For Swalwell, it was the inevitable conclusion of a weekendlong public collapse that began with a report from the San Francisco Chronicle Friday detailing allegations from a former Swalwell staffer that the congressman had pursued a sexual relationship with her and sexually assaulted her twice. That same day, CNN issued its own report, highlighting the same staffer’s allegations and speaking to three more women who described a pattern of Swalwell’s connecting with them online and later escalating the conversations to sexual topics and sending unsolicited nude........

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