Astead Herndon

Part of the reason some of this has come back on you, though, is that you went out of your way to defend Swalwell just this month, writing recently on X that Eric is a fighter.

Considering now what you know, or considering that you're saying you heard him maybe having rumors of being flirty, why proactively defend him?

There has been some that have said that this is also a question of your judgment.

I wanted you to respond to that.

I mean, you've been kind of openly embracing the question of a 2028 race.

What do you say to someone who looks at this situation and causes that to question you?

I was reading some 2025 texts of yours that were leaked and in them you complained them about, quote, Democrats not allowing men to be men or women to be hot.

You lamented that Democrats, quote, are the not fun party and no longer embody things like sex, drugs and rock and roll.

I also recently read a report that you use the F word the most out of any senator by a wide margin.

If I put those two things together, is there something of like a bro-iness or something that I feel like is a connective tissue in your brand of politics?

Or why is it necessary to communicate in that way?

It's not.

Yeah, I mean, I asked the questions, but I know there's been a big talk in Democratic politics about the need for authenticity.

So, you know, it does feel as if, like, I'm not asking folks to not be who they are, not think that that's something an elected official shouldn't have space to do.

I was just wondering about if there's any reflection about what that means, particularly as the question of masculinity and its place in democratic politics has become more prominent.

You know, I too necessarily think that there aren't necessarily spaces, particularly in politics, where we talk to men directly and things like that.

But sometimes I think there's a difficulty there because the things that men can bond on can sometimes feel like they don't necessarily seem or look like democratic values, right?

Okay.

That, you know, what's bonding men could be things that are semi-misogynistic or semi-violent or semi-all of those things, even in things like sports culture or things like that.

Can Democrats create a space that encourages men to come in while retaining their values, you know what I'm saying?