Eric Swalwell's supporters and donors had to know about his alleged sexual misconduct with his subordinates, claims California Democrat Ro Khanna. 

Swalwell, 45, resigned from Congress and canceled his California gubernatorial bid this week after being accused of rape and sexual misconduct. 

At least five women have accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct, some of whom claim that the ex-Congressman raped them. Lonna Drewes has accused the Democrat of drugging and date-raping her in 2018. 

'Look, I had heard rumors about womanizing,' Khanna told the Daily Mail in a sit-down interview. 'So that's why I didn't endorse him.'

'But I had no idea about the extent of it, that he actually was having totally inappropriate relationships with subordinates, that is, against the rules, and that he was engaged in alleged date rape and rape.'

He said the revelations are 'sickening and shocking and I'm glad he's left.' Swalwell, meanwhile, has denied wrongdoing. 

Despite the sordid behavior and claims from Swalwell's friends and confidants that they knew nothing, Khanna believes those close to the ex-lawmaker had to have known. 

'Again, I don't know the particulars, but I will say that I find it hard to believe that all these years people were close to him, or endorsing him or supporting him, that no one heard about some of this.'

'I find it hard to believe that they didn't know what was happening, and they had an obligation to speak up,' he continued. 

Khanna said if he knew about the misconduct, he would've reported Swalwell. 

'I had heard about the womanizing enough for me to say, "I'm not going to endorse him," but my guess is that there may have been other people who knew that he was actually engaged in abuse of his own staff.'

Despite his knowledge of Swalwell's 'womanizing,' Khanna did not feel compelled to take action against his fellow California Democrat because he's not the 'morality police.' 

'There's a very big difference between someone's private life and someone abusing power. What Swalwell did was not engage in affairs. What Swalwell did is abuse power with his own staff and potentially rape folks,' Khanna explained. 

'So I don't believe that we have an obligation to shame people if they're having an extramarital affair. That's not my job to be a morality police, but it is my job to speak up if there's someone who's abusing their staff or engaged in sexual assault.'

Some critics have raised suspicions of Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a close friend of Swalwell's who served as chair of the California Democrat's failed 2020 presidential campaign, wondering what he knew about the allegations and when.

'I never saw him engage in any of the predatory behavior, harassment, sexual assault,' Gallego said this week. 

'Look, we all heard rumors in Washington, D.C., about Eric Swalwell for many years,' Gallego said at a press conference on the accusations against his friend. 

Both the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department have opened criminal probes into the ex-lawmaker.  

While rejecting the claims, the former lawmaker acknowledged making 'mistakes in judgment' and apologized to his wife, Brittany Watts.

Khanna noted that the Swalwell saga 'shows that the culture needs to change in Congress, that there needs to be stricter rules for reporting when staff members are abused.'

When pressed on whether he has always treated women fairly and respectfully throughout his career, Khanna shot back: 'Yes, of course.'