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Recent criticism aimed at GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna by Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell drew comment on social media this week.
On X (formerly Twitter), user Acyn, a senior digital editor at MeidasTouch, shared a video of Swalwell speaking about Luna and her recent resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide audio recordings of the interview between President Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur.
"You have a colleague right now who's trying to put the attorney general in handcuffs with this Anna Paulina Lunacy because she can't accept that the former president was convicted," Swalwell is heard saying in the clip.
"In her own district, she has some of the highest homeownership insurance rates in the country. Her state [Florida] has a six-week abortion ban, and this is the lunacy she is focusing on? Guys, it's over. It's dead. It's rigor mortis. It's time to move on."
Swalwell's comments came during a Thursday hearing by the House Judiciary Committee after House Republicans recommended that Biden's ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over documents and other materials connected to his work on the president's memoirs.
Newsweek reached out to Luna's office via email for comment.
Earlier this month, Luna proposed a resolution in Congress to take Garland into custody over his refusal to release audio recordings of the Hur and Biden interview. Hur, appointed to investigate the president's handling of classified documents, ultimately concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against the president. Luna says she will force a vote on holding Garland in "inherent contempt" of Congress.
A February report from Hur determined that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency." But he did not recommend charges, saying that the president could be portrayed to a jury as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Since Hur's report, Republicans have repeatedly pushed for the release of the audio recordings, amid criticism of Biden's age and mental acuity.
Appearing on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures earlier this month, Luna said: "Several months ago, I introduced a resolution for something called inherent contempt of Congress. This is something that Congress has the authority to do, and it hasn't been done since the early 1900s.... I anticipated that the Department of Justice would not do their job. And so I had this teed up and ready to go. I've brought this to Speaker [Mike] Johnson's attention."
On social media, users shared the comments made by Swalwell.
"It seems everyone (including @ericswalwell) knows the top issues in Pinellas [a Florida county mostly in Luna's district] except Anna Paulina Luna. Instead, she's wasting our time with petty partisan politics," Whitney Fox wrote on X.
"Let's fight to lower costs and protect women's rights together!" said Fox, one of the Democrats seeking to win an August primary and run against Luna in November.
X user Art Candee said, "Thank you, Rep. Swalwell!"
User RazzLi wrote, "He needs to trademark 'Anna Paulina Lunacy' because he ate that. NGL."
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About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more